The member of the Parliamentary Delegation, Irine Pruidze, in her speech at PACE Spring Session in Strasbourg, spoke about the activities by Georgian Parliament for sustainable development goals.

“Both reports revealed importance of the role of the Parliament. However, we also see that the Parliaments of only several CoE member states recognized this necessity and even fewer started to undertake respective measures. It is noteworthy that Georgian Parliament recognized the role of the Parliament in SDG and in last year held the self-assessment and started development of the long-term strategy and 2-year action plan for promotion and monitoring SDG”. 

The strategy and action plan are to ensure institutionalization of this process in the Parliament. Our task is to facilitate to the goals as follows:

• Legislative and policy-making of Georgian Parliament facilitates to SDG implementation in Georgia;
• Budget process reflects need of SDG implementation;
• Parliament ensures effective oversight of SDG implementation by Government;
• Parliamentary oversight on SDG implementation is open and accessible for citizens.

She noted that other than certain steps: Committees were assigned to introduce the section to the action plan conditioning compliance of their activities with SDGs, which indicates to close link between the national policy and global agenda. It facilitates to awareness of the parties concerned.

The Committees assumed the commitment to estimate the reports by the respective Ministries.

“We shall remember that the Parliaments need to develop effective internal coordination mechanisms. It is also important to ensure awareness of MPs on SDGs and to leave no one behind the process. It requires maximal openness, transparency and accountability”. Success of this process requires unification of forces, cooperation and exchange of experience. “International cooperation is crucial for final success of this process. So, we shall maintain it in PACE agenda”.