The New Development Bank (NDB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) co-hosted the Second Workshop on Development Impact and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on 9-10 December at FAO’s Headquarters in Rome.

The workshop promoted technical discussions on how development partners can work together to identify, prepare and implement investments in water-related sectors (irrigation, WASH and integrated water resource management) to support countries to achieve SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation, and SDG 2 on ending hunger.

The workshop brought together government representatives from each of the BRICS nations and other developing countries, specialized UN Agencies and international organizations (FAO, IWMI, OECD, UNICEF, UN-Water), development finance institutions (AIIB, AFDB, BNDES, EBRD, GCF, IFAD, IFC, IIB, NDB) and civil society (Cities Alliance, Strelka KB).

The workshop built on the first engagement in this series of technical knowledge-exchanges among development partners which began with the first Workshop on Development Impact and SDGs held at NDB’s Headquarters in Shanghai in February 2019.

Dr. Sarquis J.B Sarquis, Vice President for Economic Research, Strategy, Partnerships and Chief Risk Officer of NDB, presided over the workshop and delivered a presentation on the economic rationale for the Bank’s strategic focus on water-related sectors as key areas of operations. At the conclusion of the two-day workshop, he shared that “the spirit of this workshop is born out of a mutual understanding and focus among countries, DFIs and international organizations on the importance of partnership to achieve the 2030 Agenda. The principle of SDG 17 has been reflected strongly in both the workshops held by NDB and FAO, which have created an organic platform for exchanging lessons and methods to address the challenges of SDG 6 and SDG 2 by working together.”

Dr. Daniel J. Gustafson, Deputy Director-General of FAO, shared that the workshop demonstrated an important trend of convergence towards a common application of the 2030 Agenda across the development community. He stated that “this workshop has brought together actors representing different spheres of global development efforts, speaking the same language, driven by the same targets and united in support of countries to achieve the SDGs. This is an invaluable benefit of the 2030 Agenda, which has been playing out clearly in these discussions.”

It was agreed by the participants of the workshop that they will continue to consolidate their engagements as a community of practice, focused on alignment with SDGs across water-related sectors. The group will be sharing the outcomes of the discussions with additional partners over the coming weeks and exploring practical next steps for future engagements, including the assessment of concrete opportunities of water investment projects to achieve selected targets of SDG 2, 6 and 17 at country level, and continued exchange of expertise and opportunities for operational partnerships.