Inter-Ministerial Hight Level Meeting on Cambodia Voluntary National Review 2019

My respects to your Excellency Chhay Than, Senior Minister, Ministry of Planning

Your Excellencies, Secretaries of State, Under Secretaries of State, Distinguish Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen

I am honoured to represent the UN in Cambodia in this Inter-Ministerial High Level workshop on the Cambodia’s Voluntary National Review on the progress of SDG implementation.

I begin by conveying my deepest appreciation to the Royal Government of Cambodia, in particular, the Ministry of Planning for the commitment and leadership in facilitating the Cambodia VNR process.

I understand that, since we had the VNR inception workshop on 31 January, tremendous work has been carried out to collect inputs and prepare the report. I would like to thank the line ministries, partners from civil society and UN colleagues for the active engagement in various consultations held so far, including the technical reviews provided to the draft VNR. This is truly encouraging progress.

The draft VNR presented to you today is a product of your collective efforts over the past months.

As in many similar processes, there is a little more that needs to be done prior to the High Level Political Forum in July, including the high-level review of the Economic and Financial Policy Committee.  So your inputs today remain critical.

But even with the urgency of deadlines, it may be useful to recall why Cambodia decided to submit a voluntary national review (VNRs) in the first place?  I think we all know that the VNR is more than just a report.

The voluntary national review of progress towards the achievement of SDGs, is first and foremost a learning process.  The VNR, as it was designed, facilitates sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, with a view to accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. By deciding to take stock of what has been done, reflect on the successes and analyse the challenges, Cambodia commits to improve how it delivers sustainable development.

On the global stage, the VNR is a great opportunity to present the nation’s achievements and development story to the wider world – both to peer countries and development partners. Cambodia is well-positioned in this respect, with solid developmental achievements particularly on the socioeconomic agenda, and a strong record of progress of fast economic growth.

I particularly appreciate the Royal Government’s commitment to review all the 18 Cambodia SDGs, with special attention given to the selected 6 SDGs, set by High Level Political Forum for contributing to the theme of "Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality.”

So if the VNR is a learning process, what have we learned so far?

While the VNR is still a work in progress, we have already learnt a lot from the review.  I would like to share in particular, four of them:

 First, inclusion of global SDG indicators/targets:  In the consultations with line ministries, we have learned that some of the global SDG indicators that Cambodia has, or potentially have the data for, and the story to tell, are not included in the Cambodia SDG framework.

For example,

• Indicators related to SDG 2.1 on end hunger and ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food
• On SDG target 8.7 (Immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour and the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour and end child labour in all its forms)
• On indicators on SDG target 8.10 (strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all)
• On some indicators on SDG 11 on Sustainable Cities; and more importantly
• On SDGs target 16.1 (for the reduction of all forms of violence) and SDG target 16.2 (to end all forms of violence against children).

For these global indicators, and others where Cambodia has both the achievements to showcase and more importantly, the willingness to deliver, the UN in Cambodia is fully committed and ready to support the Royal Government to establish a robust system to measure progress against targets, on a regular basis.  Concretely, the UN in Cambodia can, and in many cases, already supporting systems to measure progress on violence against children targets; on food security; on decent work; on accountable institutions. 

Moreover, some of this could be done by including relevant indicators in the next CDHS.

I have also personally learned, that there is a need to involve more Government partners in SDG 16 – Ministry of Justice, Anti-Corruption Unit, Ministry of Land, and the Ministry of Interior, in particular.  In speaking to these ministries just in the last couple of days, I understand that some Government partners were not fully aware of SDG 16.  The UN can perhaps also contribute to deepen the understanding of SDG 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, and support greater coordination on this particular goal.

These are just some of the examples of SDG indicators and targets that are important for Cambodia, and where potential data sources are available.

I understand that at this time, it may not be feasible to include the key global indicators in this VNR.  But moving forward, how could we incorporate them and update the CSDG framework?

Second, follow up. It is really encouraging that each SDG, in the VNR, lays out the priorities and policy interventions that will accelerate progress. There is therefore a sense of motion, of momentum, and action that must be taken once the reporting is done.  It would be useful to start thinking about follow up to the VNR.

The third lesson is not a surprise, data – Coming into the review, we already were fully aware of the gaps in data that will allow us to measure and monitor progress in a meaningful manner. Without credible, reliable, accessible data, we might not be able to understand where is progress being made? What policies are effective, and which are less so? And more importantly, who are those being left behind?

Fourth, integration into NSDP.  The successful implementation of the Cambodia SDG framework is premised on the strategic integration of the CSDG indicators and targets into the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), and concurrently, in how it is strongly linked with the Budget Strategic Plan.  If it is not feasible to integrate the full CSDG framework, it will be important to prioritize and phase in the targets.  The UN stands ready to support and provide options.

In closing, I refer to the annual dialogue of the UN with the Samdech Prime Minister, which took place on Monday.  The dialogue highlighted the importance of multi-sectoral coordination for SDG implementation.  So this may be the fifth lesson: the VNR can do more in providing stronger interlinkages of economic, environmental and social dimension in achieving inclusive and sustainable development.  We are therefore encouraged that Samdech Prime Minister recommended the engagement of existing inter-ministerial mechanisms particularly two: the Economic and Financial Policy Committee and the Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC), as useful ways to promote strong cross-sector coordination for the CSDGs.  Samdech Prime Minister also gave the green light for the consideration to increase budget allocation for enhancing data and statistical systems to measure progress on development priorities.

With this highest level of commitment from the Royal Government, I am certain that Cambodia will be in a strong position not only to report on your progress at the High Level Political Forum in July.  Rather, Cambodia is well positioned to accelerate efforts to implement inclusive and sustainable development.

Thank you.