National parliaments have role to play to achieve SDGs: PM Sheikh Hasina

Practical steps need to be taken to advance the integration of the SDGs at the national level and monitor their progress, she said while speaking at the closing ceremony of South Asian Speaker's Summit on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at hotel Sonargaon here on Sunday afternoon.

Sheikh Hasina pledged to build political will in South-Asian Parliaments in order to implement the SDGs through partnership, dialogue and cooperation with key stakeholders, civil society, community, religious leaders, and young people.

She said SDG Agenda-2030 is a collective journey. Therefore, the international community has to deliver on the means of implementation, she said adding we need scaled-up resources from all sources- public and private, domestic and international. She urged the Speakers and parliamentarians for allocating budget that will enable our countries to implement fully the SDGs.

President of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and Chair of the session Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Deputy Speaker of Srilankan Parliament Thilanga Sumathipala, Speaker of the House of the People (Wolesi Jirga) of Afghanistan Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, Speaker of the National Assembly (Tshogdu) of Bhutan Jigme Zangpo, Speaker of the Majlis of the Maldives Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed, Speaker of Parliament (Jatiya Sangsad) of Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Speaker of the House of the People (Lok Sabha) of India Sumitra Mahajan delivered speech in the session.

The prime minister congratulated the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) for organizing the Summit in Bangladesh. She also thanked Jatiya Sangsad for hosting the Summit and launching a 'Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' and providing technical support and cooperation.

She appreciated 'Dhaka Declaration of South Asian Speaker's Summit on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals' which was adopted highlighting the importance of regional collaboration, partnership, governance, inclusion, participation, rights and security for the achievement of sustainable development goals in South Asian countries.

Pointing out Bangladesh's tremendous successes in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), she said it has halved the extreme poverty and improved access to basic education, health services, and water and sanitation facilities in both urban and rural areas.

"As we have surprised the world with our MDG achievements, we are now encouraged and committed to taking a lead role by setting examples again in case of SDG's," she said.

Last year, Bangladesh graduated to the World Bank's lower-middle income status. We are now on the course to become a Middle Income Country by 2021, she said.

Sheikh Hasina appreciated the organizers for linking the anti-tobacco campaign with the Summit recognizing the interdependence between health and development.

"I firmly believe that parliaments in our regions and beyond must increase their efforts in both quantitative and qualitative terms to ensure healthy lives as propounded in SDG-3, by tackling the growing burden of tobacco related diseases in particular and non-communicable diseases in general, seemingly pervasive in our countries," the prime minister said.

Highlighting the anti-tobacco steps taken by Bangladesh the prime minister said Bangladesh has strengthened implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

"FCTC implementation is mostly imperative for two specific reasons. Firstly, without FCTC reaching the third goal of SDG 'Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages' is impossible, and secondly, tobacco is a hindrance to reach the other SDGs, the prime minister said.

Sheikh Hasina said tobacco is now an epidemic. An estimated 384 million people in South Asia use tobacco, which accounts for over a third (34.8%) of the total tobacco users in the world (about 1.1 billion).

The economic and health costs of tobacco use in all of these countries are stunning. In India and Bangladesh alone, tobacco kills over 1.1 million people annually based on conservative estimates, she said.

Sheikh Hasina said her government firmly believes that public health is at the top. Considering this, her government has amended the smoking and tobacco product usage (control) act and passed associated rules.

Now we are focusing on law implementation to reaping benefits of the law, she said adding following the act and rules, Bangladesh has taken steps for introducing pictorial health warning on tobacco packs.

Bangladesh also introduced 1% health development surcharge on tobacco since the financial year 2014-15 for the first time to protect public health and promote tobacco control activities, the prime minister said.

As part of national preparation, the Planning Commission has recently adopted the 7th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) aligning with the new global Agenda where tobacco related burden has been addressed.

Besides, the prime minister said, drafting of two important policies are being prepared. One is for controlling tobacco cultivation and other for reducing demand and supply of tobacco.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has set a vision to emerge as a Middle Income, knowledge-driven digital economy by 2021. And by 2041, she hoped that Bangladesh would be developed one.

Photo: Saiful Islam Kallol