Commonwealth hails Hasina’s SDG-tracker as ‘best practice’ for realising Agenda 2030

The Commonwealth secretary general has praised Sheikh Hasina’s development innovation- 'the SDG-Tracker' - and said they view this as a “best practice” for realising the Agenda 2030.

Patricia Scotland told Bangladesh High Commissioner in London Saida Muna Tasneem about their appreciation and said they got the idea under its ‘innovation hub’ initiative.

The Commonwealth Innovation Hub is a digital platform designed to tap and unleash the ideas and innovation potential of the grouping towards achieving the SDGs.

It is a new facility provided by the Secretariat to share, collaborate, and create a common future.

“'Commonwealth under its Innovation Hub has placed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's social innovation initiative of designing and creating ‘the SDG-Tracker’ for as a best practice for realising Agenda 2030'', the secretary-general said.

The new Bangladesh high commissioner met her on Saturday at her office.

The envoy is also a member of the Governing Board of the Commonwealth.

Saida Muna briefed the Scotland about the social innovation initiatives of by Hasina over the last ten years that have placed Bangladesh in the top brackets of social indicators in South Asia.

She also told the secretary general about the prime minister's recent zero-tolerance political declaration on corruption and terrorism in order to promote good governance and rule of law.

The top Commonwealth official lauded Hasina for her “sustained championing of gender equality and creating equal opportunity for all”.

The high commissioner also affirmed Bangladesh's commitment to celebrate the contribution of Queen Elizabeth II as the Head of the Commonwealth on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Commonwealth.

She proposed that “in addition to the 'Shalban forest' proposed by the prime minister during the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Bangladesh would like to include another pristine forest 'Lauachhora forest' in Sylhet under the Queen's Canopy.”

The high commissioner commended the secretary-general for a few of her new initiatives and reaffirmed Bangladesh’s commitment to work closely with the action groups under blue charter, peace at the crease, commonwealth innovation hub and faith initiative.

The envoy also expressed Bangladesh's keen interest to work closely with the Commonwealth in a number of areas including climate change, enhancing intra-Commonwealth trade, ICT, inter-faith harmony, industry 4.0 and good governance.