Sound Policy System, Sectoral Institutions, and Community Capability Management for Sustainability

Sound Policy System, Sectoral Institutions, and Community Capability Management for Sustainability

• Among other things, sustainable development is contingent upon how government agencies deliver, how the social system organizes citizens, and how people respond to, participate in, and contribute to the development process and, thus, avail themselves of benefits to raise their quality of life, thereby achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). Research studies highlight that resources are important but can be optimally and efficiently utilized through sound policies, robust institutions, and empowered citizens. Sound policies are necessary for managing resources – both financial and natural; robust institutions can enhance the community’s trust, improve the acceptability of policies, and sustain interventions; and empowered citizens can participate in the development process, ensuring effective program implementation. Together, these instruments will provide sustainability to development.
• Specifically, the policy system should address both policymaking and implementation to provide a way forward. A good policymaking process can discern problems from the ground and, based on that, design better policies. An effective public delivery system with institutional support is needed to provide public services to citizens. It should be able to ensure basic infrastructure requirements to enable the implementation of policies at the local level. For example, for a sanitation program, the water supply infrastructure to deliver flowing water to households should be put in place. For sustainability, institutional mechanisms are needed at all levels – macro, meso, and micro. Capabilities at the individual and community levels are needed to take advantage of public services on one hand and make decisions and take actions for utilizing opportunities.
• The UN Sustainable Development Report 2024 has underscored several concerns regarding the SDGs. It highlights that only 16 percent of the SDG targets are on track to be met by 2030, with the remaining 84 percent showing limited progress or a reversal of progress. The report warns that developing countries and the most vulnerable people face bigger challenges. Against this backdrop, it calls for examining the policy system, institutional mechanisms, and role of the community in realizing the SDG targets.

To achieve the objectives of sustainability, the project aims to present how the policy system should be strengthened to design better public policies, how sectoral institutions need to be built to sustain the process of development, and how the capabilities of the community need to be scaled up for citizens’ engagement in the development process. In this light, the motivation is:

• to inform for better appreciation of public policy system, institutions, and community empowerment to realize the objective of sustainability.
• to explore innovative approaches to achieve sustainability in the development process.
• to contribute to the process of achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Format

• Webinar: PowerPoint Presentation and Q&A session

Issues for discussion

Strengthening public policy system for design of policies; role of sectoral institutions – how institutions should be strengthened; community capability management – how capabilities are to be built.

Duration of discussion: 75 minutes

Date and time: 7^th May, 10 AM (NYT)