Webinar on Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on SDG 17 in Nepal

On 26 August 2020, the Insititute of Foreign Affairs (IFA), Nepal with the collaboration of Mid-Western University organized the international expert workshop through a webinar to assess the impacts of COVID-19 on Sustainable Development Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). 

During the workshop, 45 experts, scientists and technicians, researchers, professors, policymakers, diplomats and practitioners from multiple disciplines offered their analysis and ideas based on their expertise and experience.

Welcoming the participants, Mr Rajesh Shrestha, executive director of IFA gave a brief introduction of the workshop. Briefing the history and activities of IFA, he said that Nepal aims to graduate from Least Development Countries (LDC) to middle-income countries by 2030 and the achievements of targets of SDG would facilitate such a graduation process. Academic Head of MICD Mid-Western University Prof. Dinesh R. Bhuju summarized the outcome as well as thanked all the participants for their active presence. Dr Rupak Sapkota, deputy executive director of IFA, moderated the webinar. 

This kind of discussion among experts from the national and international levels would come up with the policy suggestions in order to mitigate the impacts of a pandemic on SDG-17 which would ultimately contribute towards the LDC graduation process, a national dream of Nepal, he emphasized.  

This expert workshop has also been reflected in a research study led by a voluntary research group, compromise with 40 scholars affiliated with various academic institutions around the globe, on the impact of COVID-19 on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).