Ahead of challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic, parliaments around the world should play an active role in ensuring efficient responses against the pandemic and speeding up the realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs).

A session of the National Assembly. Photo: quochoi.vn

Member of Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA) Standing committee on Foreign Affairs Pham Phu Binh stressed the view in the first Global Parliamentary Conference on Achieving the SDGs jointly held today [September 28] by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the House of Representatives of Indonesia, with the theme “Turning challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic into opportunities for parliaments to achieve the SDGs”.

According to Binh, Vietnam is on track to fulfill five out of 17 SDGs, while the other 10 may be achieved with more difficulties, and the remaining two are hard to realize by 2030.

“Vietnam’s NA has been adopting the self-assessment tools for parliaments in realizing the SGDs,” added Binh, noting the NA Standing Committee is responsible for monitoring the progress of SDGs realization at the national and provincial levels.

Chairman of the House of Representatives of Indonesia Puan Maharani said the SDGs are offering a roadmap for the world towards sustainable development.

Maharani added parliaments around the world have been contributing to the realization of SDGs, including cooperation mechanisms via IPU.

However, the pandemic has affected this progress, or even reverted progresses gained in the past years.

According to Maharani, the key task in fighting the pandemic is to accelerate the vaccination program, for which parliaments should boost efforts in vaccine sharing and transferring technologies of vaccine production.

Delegates at the event also discussed the role of parliaments towards the realization of SDGs in the pandemic, the commitment of “not leaving anyone behind”, and the priority to protecting public health.

The pandemic has exposed shortcomings and social imbalances, including poverty or social inequality.

As a legislative body and representative of the people, parliaments should play an active role in pushing for SDGs during the pandemic, along with effective utilization of internal resources and cooperation with other countries in this regard.