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iGA holds workshop UN Sustainable Development Goals

SDGs Bahrain News
iGA holds workshop UN Sustainable Development Goals
20/11/2019

Manama, Nov.20 (BNA): In line with the efforts of the Kingdom of Bahrain locally & regionally in achieving its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) held a workshop on human settlement measurement and methodologies, which is an integral part of the United Nation’s SDG Goal 11, aimed at making cities and communities safe, sustainable, and resilient for all.The workshop was held in cooperation with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the participation of statisticians from iGA’s SDGs unit and its Geographic Information System (GIS) specialists. Also in attendance were representatives from the Ministry of Housing; the Ministry of Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning; the Survey and Land Registration Bureau (SLRB); the Urban Planning and Development Authority; and the Supreme Council for Environment.

The workshop is in line with the framework of a United Nations-led global project which aims to improve the development of statistical capabilities, and reinforce the abilities of national statistical offices and local observatories to collect, analyze, and prepare reports on SDG Goal 11 (Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable) and its indicators. It will also enhance their ability to use spatial data and GIS platforms.The UNDP and ESCWA advisors stressed the value of providing in-depth data on the indicators, discussing them with government decision-makers, and using them to create solutions. They noted the importance of government support in adopting urban and housing planning policies which are built on trusted data. They also emphasized the importance of cooperation between data producers and users at various government entities, and the efforts of statistical departments in producing data up to international standards for research and planning purposes.iGA praised the cooperation it has received from international organizations in tracking the progress of the UN SDGs in Bahrain and the Kingdom’s efforts to provide the indicators to decision-makers and relevant international agencies. These efforts have contributed to achieving these goals and raising Bahrain’s profile as a country with a unique international footprint in this area.During the four-day workshop, the participants took part in indicators-related training such as measurements on the percentage of the population living in decent housing conditions in which they are connected to basic services, and the percentage of civil society’s participation in the implementation and evaluation of urban policies. Participants also created a roadmap towards collecting types of indicators that require measurements based on interspaces and open areas in different time periods, and which are used to calculate urban development and land consumption. The aim is to pass this information onto international organizations so that they can be published in global databases and to highlight Bahrain’s successes in local and international reports.