1. Charles Chauvel, Resident Representative (ad interim)
Parliamentary engagement with the SDGs: the importance of integrating civil society perspectives
Charles Chauvel, Resident Representative (ad interim)
United Nations Development Programme Multi-Country Office for Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau

2. The SDGs

3. The SDGs and Parliaments
“We acknowledge the essential role of national parliaments through their enactment of legislation and adoption of budgets and their role in ensuring accountability for the effective implementation of our commitments”
Declaration of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development
“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”
Goal 16

4. The SDGs, parliaments, and the United Nations
UN system built on 3 foundations: peace and security, human rights, and sustainable human development
SDGs recognise that without sustainable human development, there can be no peace, and no human rights
Without good governance, there can be no sustainable human development
Without accountability, there can be no good governance
Without an effective parliament, there can be no accountability

5. UNDP’s role
UNDP is the UN’s development arm, currently operating in some 170 countries and territories
Good governance – underpinning structural transformations – is one of UNDP’s “signature services” and its single largest area of global activity
UNDP partners with 80 parliaments, worldwide, including 15 in the Pacific, to strengthen their processes and capacities
A fundamental driver of the partnership is to help parliaments be effective monitors of the SDG implementation

6. What roles should parliaments play in national SDG implementation?
Oversight
Legislation
Representation
Budget
Scrutiny

7. What are the challenges to effective parliamentary SDG oversight?
Insufficient involvement in national planning around the SDGs
Parliaments’ SDG oversight effectiveness is frequently hampered by
Insufficient resources & lack of political will
Poor systematic civic engagement & lack of gender balance
Failure to update structures and processes to reflect national SDG planning

8. How can parliaments overcome these challenges?
Empower parliament to self-asess (apply the UNDP/IPU toolkit)
Assess fitness for purpose to monitor national SDG achievement; take action to achieve it
Empower parliament to implement outocmes of self-assessment (apply UNDP/GOPAC/IDB toolkit)
Include Officials, MPs, secretariat, CSOs (apply the CSO/UNDP toolkit)
Produce and implement roadmap for SDG fitness for purpose

9. Recommendations
Parliament and parliamentarians need to be regularly and formally consulted and informed about national development planning, including about how it incorporates and reflects the SDGs
The parliamentary committee system’s structure, procedures, and resourcing should optimise national development goal monitoring. This includes systematic integration of civil society perspectives in its work
The parliamentary plenary’s procedures should provide regular opportunities for debate on national development goal achievement
Parliament itself needs to be SDG16 fit for purpose: it must function as an effective, accountable, and inclusive institution
A self-assessment of SDG fitness for purpose, leading to the creation and implementation of a roadmap to achieve fitness for purpose, is a vital exercise