24-27 January 2017 Two-day national workshop held on SDG 16 on 25-26 January, Kathmandu, Nepal
The civil society organizations in Nepal organized two-day national workshop on SDG goal number 16 in Kathmandu. The workshop was organized in partnership with NGO Federation of Nepal (NFN), Nepal SDGs Forum, ADA, ADN and TAP Network. Many prominent civil society organizations of Nepal attended this crucial workshop to deliberate the issues related State of Nepal's democracy in South Asia.
Almost key civil society experts from Nepal participated in the important deliberation. During the workshop, some key civil society experts from Nepal put their remarks on five major agendas (Peace and human security, Children and Legal Identity, Democratic Governance, Corruption Control and Transparency, and Right to Information and Fundamental Freedom) included in SDG 16 targets. Inaugurating the session, President of NGO Federation of Nepal (NFN) Mr. Gopal Lamsal shed light on the objectives of workshop and the role of Nepalese CSOs to ensure enabling environment for effective implementation


Later, Anselmo Lee , Co Convener, Asia Development Alliance (ADA) and Secretary General of Asia Democratic Network (ADN), deliberated on various aspects of sustainable development goals and their origin from the outcome document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) (June 2012) (Rio+20) and continued progression from Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and the roadmap leading to Agenda 2030.The SDG’s are formed out of 5 P’s, namely, People, Prosperity, Peace, Partnership and Planet. In the nutshell the SDG’s cater to socio (People)- economic (Prosperity)-environmental (Planet) development through Peace, Human rights and democracy (PHD) using global Partnership. Further, he also highlighted the 2nd year of implementation from standard-setting (2015) to implementation stage (2016-2030) that developed into the Planning stage at the national and sub-national level (2016-2017)
¥ Institution-building
¥ National action planning
¥ Monitoring mechanism
Lastly, a need was stressed on follow up and review mechanism of the SDGs at National, Regional and global levels. At the National level, the role of parliament, with participation from civil society and private sector were identified along with continued State-initiated regular and inclusive review. At the Asia and the Pacific level the idea of peer learning and good practices based on national review were highlighted in partnership with UNESCAP and APFSD. At the global level, High level Political Forum was identified having a central role with reference from Annual report of UN SG on SDG implementation in unity and integration with UN development system.


Mr. Dharma Swarnakar, from UNDP, also shared the activities of task force unit of UNDP playing a leading and emphasized that SDGs are more flexible than MDGS. Dr. Deepak Prakash Bhatta said that the indicators of SDGs are hard to follow and difficult to implement in terms of inclusion of its various fields. Prominent human rights activist and Advisor of NFN Mr. Charan Prasain emphasizing on democratic governance, access to justice and non-discriminatory policies expresses worries on weak infrastructure in implementation of fundamental rights of the people. He remarked that there are so many laws, but are contradicted with its proper implementing process which could be a big challenge for democracy.
Mr. Basudev Neupane, Advisor of NFN delivered his speech on corruption control and transparency. He highlighted effective public institution and people centered development indicators.  He also urged that developed counties should focus their development Aid to the welfare of people rather than investing in arms. Mr. Taranath Dahal, prominent civil society leader and former president of Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) shed lights on Right to Information as a key indicator for access to justice, he also urged to the Government and political parties for open parliament, Open Court and open budget. He also said that the indicators on Right to information are still under process of design.  So, transparency should be the key indicator for all the perspectives of development.  He also emphasized on Goal 16 and said that if Goal 16 gets fail, all the goals will be failed because Goal 16 is cross cutting agenda.
Former commissioner of National Human Rights Commission and advisor of NFN Mr. Gauri Pradhan focused his speech on Child rights and legal identity, He has dogged out some key issues related to children of how they are facing the problems in the developing countries. He also indicated the needs of Child Commission in Nepal. He has minutely analyzed the role of CSOs as a partner and pressure group that is the universal acceptance, he said. He has also given some figures of child labor as well as child marriage.  Mr. Pradhan concluded his speech focusing the SDG progress in the future from the all sides. He emphasized effective implementation of new constitutions to achieve SDGs.
The workshop was concluded with proposing indicators of Goal 16 and formulated national advocacy plan. It also formed a SDG 16 working group under the umbrella of Nepal SDGs Forum.