ParlAmericas and the National Assembly of Panama organize a parliamentary meeting to support the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the National Assembly of Panama
On Tuesday, January 19, ParlAmericas and the International Relations Unit of the National Assembly of Panama held the parliamentary meeting “Accelerating implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the Assembly of Panama,” aimed at supporting the Assembly’s efforts to establish new mechanisms or practices to promote and monitor the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The meeting provided a space in which the Members of Panama’s National Assembly were able to learn about the experiences of other parliaments in the region to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
The meeting was opened by the Honourable Member of the National Assembly Fernando Arce (Panama), President of the Foreign Relations Committee and ParlAmericas Board Member. Member of the National Assembly Arce stressed that “it is the right time to increase our action; the world calls upon us to rebuild better following the pandemic, and we have the opportunity to ensure that our efforts are linked to a sustainable and equitable future. In the Assembly of Panama, we have made progress and we have worked on different elements of the 2030 Agenda, but there are many opportunities to expand and strengthen these efforts to better integrate our parliamentary activities with the goals of the Agenda.”
The meeting was moderated by the Honourable Member of the National Assembly Ana Giselle Rosas (Panama), who noted that “today’s dialogue will allow us to address the efforts and the obstacles we face in our countries with a view to advancing the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, in the spirit of a collective search for solutions in the understanding that complex challenges demand innovative responses.” There was also a presentation by Member of the National Assembly Pabel Muñoz (Ecuador), Coordinator of the Parliamentary Group for the Eradication of Poverty and SDG Compliance of the National Assembly of Ecuador, who shared the experiences of Ecuador’s National Assembly in terms of its progress, achievements and challenges in the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs.
The gathering counted on the participation of the Association of Alternate parliamentarians of the National Assembly who are becoming increasingly involved in the efforts for the development of the 2030 Agenda. Furthermore, the Honourable Member of the National Assembly Melchor Herrera (Panama) stressed the importance of the parliamentary role in addressing the Agenda and the challenges they face as a result of COVID-19 and the global debate that has been generated around the effects of the pandemic.
Following the presentation, a space for dialogue was opened among the participants. The meeting concluded with the reflections of the Honourable Member of the National Assembly Edison Broce (Panama) and Maria Gabriela Graell, Director of International Relations of the National Assembly of Panama. In Member of the National Assembly Broce’s closing remarks, he stated: “I urge you to continue working as a team, because only as a team can we successfully complete several of these projects, which are not isolated, and perhaps they will not change everything from one day to the next, but taking them all together and thinking towards collective action can help us get closer to achieving the SDGs.
Finally, the Director of the International Relations Unit highlighted the participants’ willingness to make space in their day to address the issues of the Sustainable Development Goals, and invited them to continue making alliances to achieve progress in the 2030 Agenda.
For further information on the work carried out by ParlAmericas, visit www.parlamericas.org and follow @ParlAmericas on social media.
