Brac International Executive Director Shameran Abed called upon governments and the international community to invest in evidence-based approaches at scale to get the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track, at the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) in Doha.
Abed, who was a lead discussant at the first High-level thematic roundtable of the conference titled “Investing in people in least developed countries to leave no one behind,” spoke on the urgency and opportunity to renew commitment to the SDGs and the promise of leaving no one behind, reads a press release issued Thursday.
The thematic roundtable was co-chaired by Malawi President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
CourtesyAbed said interlocking crises like Covid-19, climate change and conflict may make the eradication of poverty seem more challenging than ever before. There are evidence-based programs that can pull people out of extreme poverty successfully, he said.
He spoke about Brac's Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) approach, which combines big push investment in the poorest households with targeted wraparound services, as one such initiative, noting the extensive research demonstrating the program's effectiveness in addressing both social and economic vulnerabilities.
“What we need to do is stop tinkering around the edges,” he stated, calling for greater global political will, action and investment to massively scale evidence-based initiatives to deliver on the promise made at the start of the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Those living in the harshest forms of poverty demand nothing less of us,” he stressed.
His comments followed a keynote address by Tarja Kaarina Halonen, former president of Finland, and remarks from panellists including Achim Steiner, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Victoria Kwakwa, vice president for Eastern and Southern Africa at the World Bank.
Heads of governments, ministers and senior officials from 19 countries participated in the open debate at the roundtable.
The conference concluded on Thursday.
