As part of a wider strategic objective to connect parliaments with UN processes, the IPU invests in support for parliamentary implementation of the SDGs. Through our annual survey, we encourage parliaments to contribute to the preparation of voluntary national reviews, the UN process through which countries present their progress on the SDGs.
While the IPU surveys show uneven parliamentary engagement in the process, Uzbekistan stands out as a good example of a parliament that has taken IPU recommendations to heart. It has gone further than many countries by institutionalizing the connection between parliament and the SDGs.
Momentum for Uzbekistan’s parliamentary focus on the SDGs accelerated when the Parliament’s SDG Commission was set up in February 2020. Composed of members from both houses of the bicameral Oliy Majlis, the Commission mainstreams the SDGs throughout core governmental functions and holds the government to account on implementation.
In 2020, during preparations for Uzbekistan’s voluntary national review, the SDG Commission was actively involved. It shared its conclusions with the Oliy Majlis and government, suggesting changes to legislation, policies and programmes.
In 2022, the country went even further by initiating a UN General Assembly resolution on the critical role of national parliaments in bringing the SDGs to life, a historic first. Thanks to intense lobbying by Uzbekistan, some 80 Member States sponsored the resolution Enhancing the role of parliaments in accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which also mentions the IPU five times.
In 2023, in a webinar organized as a follow-up to the resolution, in collaboration with the UN’s Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and its Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Chairwoman of the Uzbek Senate delivered the keynote speech to further raise awareness of the issue.
That same year, Uzbekistan also presented its initiatives at the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the central UN platform for follow-up and review of the SDGs.
And later, at a subsequent conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan – the Second Global Forum on Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals – the IPU Secretary General re-emphasized the importance of strengthening collaboration between parliaments on delivery of the SDGs.
In a country that faces numerous challenges, particularly due to climate change, Uzbekistan’s development strategy for 2022-2026 has reoriented the country’s public and private financial priorities in line with the SDGs, thanks partly to support from the IPU.
The Uzbekistan case study is a good example of mutual accountability between the IPU and a Member Parliament as articulated in the current IPU Strategy.
