National and Ministry Leadership Tackle Important issues at UN/BDB Partnership Forum
The Bahamas Partnership Forum, organized by the United Nations and the Bahamas Development Bank, and their partners will serve as a platform to strengthen engagement and relationships across all relevant stakeholders and sectors. Building on the 2022 UN/BDB SDG Partnership Forum, this year’s event is intended to be action and future-oriented . This year’s Partnership Forum will coincide with the second SDG Summit and the mid-way point of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Like the upcoming 2023 Summit which will be held under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly in September, this year’s forum will focus on accelerating meaningful action on implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals by multiple stakeholders.
This year will consist of engagements focused on leaving no one behind, enhancing national implementation, mobilization of financing, and youth engagement. As with the first Forum, this one will also be undergirded by the four outcome areas in the Multi-Country Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (MSDCF) 2022-2026 as well as influenced by activities identified in the Country Implementation Plan. In line with the repeated calls for rethinking and deepening partnerships, the theme of 2023 Annual SDG Partnership Forum will be ““From Words to Action: Fashioning a Sustainable Future”” and examine the ways in which non-traditional partners could co-create solutions in a range of focus areas – such as climate action, gender equality, data and laws for inclusion, macro-economic transformation, energy, agriculture, health and well-being – among policymakers, private sector representatives, civil society, the media, academic communities, and other actors.
(L-R) Aneesah Abdullah – UN Country Coordination Officer for The Bahamas, Jerusa Ali- Director General, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Dai Qingli – Ambassador of The People’s Republic of China to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas
The 2023 Partnership Forum, which is co-organized by the UN Resident Coordinator’s satellite office in The Bahamas and the Bahamas Development Bank, will engage relevant UN system entities and other actors. The event will be partially supported with the generous funding contribution from a corporate sponsor. To encourage and support the development of structured partnerships to contribute to national achievement of the SDGs. The Forum will undertake to facilitate thematic dialogues under the overall theme of “Words to Action: Mapping a Sustainable Future” with the following objectives:
- To proactively build on the outcome of the previous Forum by developing structured partnerships to contribution to national achievement of the SDGs.
- To create new partnerships among attendees
- To showcase the contributions of youth to realizing the SDGs
- To develop a menu and roadmap (inclusive of partners) of actionable solutions to be implemented in the period between the end of this Forum and the next 2024 Forum – which will coincide with the United Nations’ Summit of the Future.
Format
The format would be an opening of an international success story of partnership. The purpose of this is to allow participants to become inspired and to see and imagine new possibilities. This would be followed by a Bahamian highlight by four persons who have been working in these fields. The highlights would be 3-4 minutes long and shine a spotlight on issues that could encourage conversations. Attendees will be placed in four groups to develop micro-initiatives/solutions based on their respective sectoral experience. These groups would be asked to engage around a catalytic topic. At the event, participants will be asked if there are other critical questions that they want to use as a catalytic topic and invite others to work with them on solving that question. Once all groups have reported the answers, the moderator will encourage reactions from the full group to build synergy. All of the findings will be emailed to the team to be placed in the final report along with a list of attendees and group participants will be made publicly available and posted on website.