UN system needs to perform better to help countries pursue SDGs, says UNFPA regional director

The new Asia-Pacific regional director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) believes that the whole UN system will need to do “much better” to help countries pursue the “ambitious” sustainable development goals, SDGs.

“We need to raise the level of technical and intellectual capacity to really help countries to achieve their priorities,” Yoriko Yasukawa said, in an interview.

She was appointed as the regional director in August this year and now is visiting Bangladesh to attend the Partners in Population and Development (PPD) meetings.

Originally from Japan, Yasukawa, in her 30-plus years stint in the UN system has expertise in the fields of sustainable development, defence and promotion of human rights, democratic governance and conflict prevention and resolution.

She spent most of her years with the UN in South and Central America.

She said the UNFPA and the UN system as a whole would “need to do much better than we have been doing in helping countries to really advance the priorities that they define”, as the countries are transitioning from the MDGs to SDGs.

“Also as UN agencies we have to overcome the tendency to work in compartments,” she said. For example, UNFPA works only with women’s health while UNICEF works with children.

She said countries were now “demanding that we (UN) work together to take forward the big agenda (SDGs) as a whole”.

Unlike MDGs, the SDGs’ 17 goals and 169 targets have been set after extensive discussions at all levels. Countries will set their own priorities and pursue the targets from January.

The regional director said there would be no changes in the priorities of the UNFPA, which works most on sexual and reproductive health and stopping gender-based violence.

During her interactions with three journalists including from bdnews24.com, she also explained the challenges of new SDGs.

But she said the MDGs’ success showed the world that “it is possible to change things for better”.

Bangladesh itself was an example to the world, she said. Bangladesh progressed “by leaps and bounds” both in economic and social aspects in the last 15 years, she added.

“It’s a country that has reduced the deaths of children and women very significantly. Family planning practice is an example to the world on how much progress and efforts have been made”.

But she found challenges like violence against women and child marriage still prevailing.

“Child marriage is also a form of violence,” she said, as data suggested that two-thirds of the girls were being married off in their teens in Bangladesh.

“It’s a violation if you are obliged to marry at a young age and obliged to give birth,” she said.

“It (child marriage) may be a culture in a country, but when it hurts it needs to be changed”.

She said addressing “inequalities” and reaching hard-to-reach people, who were being “discriminated”, would also be challenging.

“It’s possible to do things to change. It’s important to set goals and work together relentlessly to achieve those goals,” she said.

But she pointed out that there was no “magical solution” to problems like eliminating poverty or ensuing universal health coverage.

“It’s an effort that needs many years of perseverance and sustained collective effort”.

She also stressed on the people’s participation in decision-making.

As the countries would set their own priorities under the SDGs, there must be “more integrated approach” of all, including the government and the NGOs.

“These (SDGs) are very ambitious goals. They will need lots of additional resources.

“We can do much better by working together more closely,” she said.