While the average global progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 stands at 19 percent, Bangladesh is not even aware of its progress so far due to misinformation, a lack of surveys, and dependence on government data, said speakers at an event yesterday. 

They also said data on only 155 out of 231 indicators of the SDG goals were available, and such absence of data remains a major concern.

The event, titled "Citizen's Participation in the National VNRs Preparation Process', was organised by Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh at Aloki Convention Hall in the capital.

Speakers said the country is set to submit its third Voluntary National Review (VNR) to the United Nations in June, but preparations are falling behind schedule.

Bangladesh submitted its previous VNRs in 2017 and 2019.

VNR is a process through which countries analyse their progress and challenges in implementing the SDG 2030.

They urged the government to involve all sorts of non-state actors (NSAs) like different non-government organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), and civil society organisations (CSOs) in the process.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, convener of the organising platform, said, "The VNR should not be a government document only. Rather, it should be a national survey allowing the participation of all sorts of non-state organisations."

New opportunities have arisen following the mass uprising to fill the gaps and distortions of previous data and to evaluate the country's relations with different parties, said Debapriya, also a distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

Mentioning that the government-provided data doesn't reflect the real picture of the country, he said the government didn't allocate money to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics for conducting surveys.

"They need to depend either on foreign funds or a new project," he added.

In the keynote paper, Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow of CPD, said NGOs can help the interim government to undertake an objective assessment of the country's "state of development" and to highlight the achievements, challenges, and the next course of action.

Priority needs to be given to the collective roles of non-state actors, he said.

Bangladesh committed to submitting its third report incorporating five goals review -- health, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, life below water, and partnership for all the other goals, he said.

Speaking as chief guest, Lamiya Morshed, principal coordinator (SDGs Affairs) of the Chief Adviser's Office, regretted that the country's institutions, data ecosystem, and statistical capacity have been significantly weakened in recent years and do not capture the ground realities.

"The interim government is committed to starting a fresh path to fixing and strengthening institutions and building statistical capacity and integrity. The focus will be on creating methods to collect data from more real-time innovative sources," she said.

"For reducing poverty and inequality, social protection measures and financial inclusion are important, alongside raising income levels and access to basic services," she added.

CPD Executive Director Prof Mustafizur Rahman said the role of international partners should be evaluated in the upcoming event.

"They were supposed to assist Bangladesh to achieve its goals, but they didn't do it, neither in business, investment, nor finance," he said.

Gwyn Lewis, UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, said, "It's true that the globe is not making as much progress as they would like to be."

But it's time for Bangladesh to prioritise different aspects by using data from both the government and NGOs on marginal communities, indigenous communities, gender, environment, youths, and so on, she said.

Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education Rasheda K Choudhury, Adviser of BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health Ahmed Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, Executive Director of Manusher Jonno Foundation Shaheen Anam, Global Vice President and Country Director of Hunger Project Badiul Alam Majumdar, and Executive Director of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association Salma Ali also spoke, among others.