Updating the Development Finance Assessment (DFA) and SDGs Financing Strategy (FS)

The UN Joint Programme Integrated National Financing Framework for Accelerating Achievement of SDGs (INFF4SDGs) in Bangladesh, organized a workshop on 9th March 2021. The purpose of the workshop was to welcome on-board the consultants, who would be updating the existing Development Finance Assessment (DFA) and SDGs Financing Strategy (FS)in the context of COVID-19 and the country’s graduation from the LDCs category focusing on the government’s engagement towards meeting SDG goals. The consultants will also devise three SDG-specific financing roadmaps for Renewable Energy, WATSAN, and Climate Finance. The Partner UN Organizations (PUNOs)-UNDP, ILO, UNCDF and UN Women - explained their respective roles and shared their annual workplans with the consultants.

The UNDP team focused on their work towards reforming the agenda in the WATSAN (SDGs 06) and Climate Action (SDG 13) sectors while ILO spoke about their plans at updating the DFA and FS with Private Sector Engagement Mechanism, by mobilizing their in-house expertise. UN Women had already hired a national and an international expert, towards contributing to the DFA, whereas UNCDF would contribute in specific activities required towards devising renewable energy financing strategy. The consultants are expected to conduct sector (WATSAN, Climate, Renewable Energy, Government Engagement, Private Sector Engagement and Gender) specific tasks assigned by the PUNOs alongside updating the DFA and FS.

The consultants would be presenting their work in two parts, with Govt. Engagement and WATSAN being one category and Climate Finance the other. Their methodology would involve individual interviews and group consultations along with other sources of information. The concern of aligning PUNO action plans to the work done by the consultants was brought up and possible outcomes were discussed.