BAGUIO CITY – The Regional Development Council (RDC) Regional Committee on Sustainable Development Goals (RC-SDG) held its second semester meeting on September 3, 2024 at the RDC Hall, NEDA-CAR Compound, Botanical Garden, Baguio City. This event was attended by members from regional line agencies (RLAs), Local government units (LGUs), and private sector representatives (PSRs) to advance the region’s commitment to the SDGs.
An update on the region’s SDGs progress, as of September 2, 2024, that was generated through the region’s SDG tracker was reported by the Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR). Accordingly, 21 indicators are on track, 22 need acceleration, and 15 are regressing. PSA-CAR further explained the reasons for varying baselines and highlighted the Cordillera region for its timely release of census results and leadership in localizing SDG indicators.
The CAR Sustainable Development Goals Catch-Up Plan is a product of collaborative efforts among the committee members and participating RLAs and LGUs through two workshops and a write shop. It outlines the region’s progress on the SDGs and focuses on addressing the gaps and challenges associated with the indicators that need acceleration and are regressing to ensure that the region meets the SDG development targets by 2030. These challenges were categorized by sector: Land Use, Physical Integration, Disaster Risk Reduction, Health and Social, and Production and Value Chain. Additionally, the regressing indicators fall under the goals of No Poverty, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Gender Equality, and Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. One key agreement highlighted was the inclusion of interventions under Goal 4 (Quality Education) to enhance the utilization of real property tax for increasing the Special Education Fund. RDC Co-Chair and PSR Edna Tabanda also emphasized the importance of strengthening capacity-building initiatives for LGUs. RC-SDG Chairperson and NEDA-CAR Regional Director Susan Sumbeling requested the monitoring of the plan’s implementation and a report from the various agencies on their progress in implementing the catch-up plan on succeeding meetings.
Another key agenda item was the localization of the Stakeholders’ Chamber on the SDGs which was translated into a resolution entitled, “Approving and Adopting the Stakeholders’ Chamber on the Sustainable Development Goals in the Cordillera Administrative Region”.
The committee endorsed the draft resolutions on CAR’s SDG Catch-Up Plan and the Stakeholders’ Chamber for RDC’s approval and adoption. This meeting marked a significant step in pushing the region’s commitment to achieve the SDGs. By Lorie Jean D. Benwasen
