Regional Seminar on parliamentary cooperation for sustainable development: investing in climate change and water cooperation opportunities

In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will inform their development agendas and policies over the next 15 years. Parliaments have a crucial role to play in advancing the integration of the SDGs and monitoring national progress, while both holding governments accountable for the goals they have subscribed to and also making sure that enabling laws are passed and budgets adopted.

It is within this framework that the Hungarian National Assembly and the Inter-Parliamentary Union are jointly organizing a Regional Seminar on Sustainable Development Goals for the Parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. The Seminar will take place in Budapest on 23 and 24 February 2017 and will be part of a series of IPU regional seminars to advance the work and contribution of parliaments to the SDGs.

The seminar will discuss how parliaments can effectively engage in policymaking to facilitate the national implementation of the SDGs and to identify concrete parliamentary actions, most notably with regard to environmental risks and climate change issues. Through the prism of climate change challenges facing the region, the seminar will focus on the key role of water as an enabler of sustainable development as well as on the need of effective cooperation among parliaments in this regard.

The seminar will follow up on the conclusions of the 2015 and 2016 SDG Regional Seminars held in Romania. It will allow participants to share experiences, assess progress and identify further strategies, actions and recommendations to foster parliamentary engagement with respect to the SDGs.

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