SRINAGAR: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, J&K under the guidance of the Planning Development and Monitoring Department (PD&MD) conducted a day-long regional workshop on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the finalization of the District Indicator Framework.
A team of experts from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and NITI Aayog, Government of India, also participated in the workshop and provided requisite guidance and inputs regarding the preparation and finalization of the District Indicator Framework.
Pertinently, a UT-level workshop was previously held in December 2022 at Jammu wherein the SDG Progress Report 2022 along with the UT Indicator Framework (UTIF) of J&K and District Indicator Framework (DIF) were shared with the Chief Planning Officers for their suggestions for improving the SDG District Indicator Framework. It included 17 Goals and 169 global targets, which cut across social, economic, and environmental dimensions.
The Regional Workshop on SDG at Srinagar was attended by the designated District Officers from all the districts of Kashmir division including concerned Chief Planning Officers and District Statistics and Evaluation Officers. The participants helped in freezing the District Indicator Framework for the year 2023. After freezing the DIF, a Dashboard shall be developed on these Indicators to monitor and rank the districts on a periodical basis.
Secretary, Planning, Development and Monitoring Department, Dr. Raghav Langer, who was the chief guest on the occasion, delivered a keynote address on the importance of finalization of the District Indicator Framework for the construction of J&K SGD district Index and its future usage/linkage with budget earmarking.
He emphasized that Chief Planning Officers and District Statistics & Evaluation officers have a pivotal role to play in framing a better district indicator framework. He said that consultation with all the stakeholders has been done so that they get to know about the indicators we are fixing and the source of the data collection.
Director General, PD&MD, J&K, Shahzada Bilal, informed the participants about the importance of the workshop on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the commitment of GoI towards its achievement, and the role of UT of J&K in this regard.
The Policy Specialist, UNDP India, Jaimon Uthup, deliberated on the introduction to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the SDG Project Implementation Plan in the UT of J&K and among other valuable information also shared the localization of district indicators and development of the SDG Dashboard.
The workshop was also attended by the Regional Director General (E&S), Athar Hussain Qadri, Joint Director (Evaluation), DES, Reyaz Ahmad Ramshoo, and other officers of the Directorate of Economics & Statistics.
