Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Monday inaugurated three pilot Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) villages as part of the government’s initiative to localise the SDGs across Bangladesh.
The villages are Mitingachhari in Kaptai upazila of Rangamati, Pankhali in Dacope upazila of Khulna and Nafanagar in Bochaganj upazila of Dinajpur.
The prime minister inaugurated the pilot program through a video conference from Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, where he attended the national conference titled “Navigating Five Year Strategic Framework for Achieving SDGs: Policy, Partnership and Priorities.”
During the virtual inauguration, the prime minister connected with representatives of the three selected villages.
“We have seen that three villages are connected with us online. These three are SDG villages, meaning all the plans related to the SDGs will be implemented here,” said the prime minister.
He formally declared the inauguration of the three pilot SDG villages.
Tarique Rahman said a range of programs including Family Cards, Health Cards and Farmers’ Cards, loans for small and medium enterprises, school uniforms, madrasa-based education, renewable energy, village tourism, blue employment, “One Village, One Product”, tree plantation, canal excavation and eco-tourism will be implemented on a pilot basis in the three villages.
He said the government will monitor the impact of the programs and, based on their success, plans to expand the model to other villages across the country, Tarique said.
The prime minister expressed hope that the SDG Village initiative would become an internationally recognised development model demonstrating how the government’s election pledges could be translated into practical programmes at the grassroots level.
The General Economics Division (GED) of the Bangladesh Planning Commission and the Governance Innovation Unit (GIU) of the Prime Minister’s Office jointly organised the national conference.
Under the SDG Village Pilot Program, the government is developing the three villages as models for localising the Sustainable Development Goals and implementing SDG-related initiatives at the grassroots level.