BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 18. The 14th meeting of the National Coordination Council for Sustainable Development was held under the leadership of the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Council Ali Ahmadov, the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan told Trend.
The meeting participants discussed a project prepared in connection with the initiative to include mine action in the UN 2030 agenda as the 18th Sustainable Development Goal, put forward by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the Summit of the Contact Group of the Non-Aligned Movement in response to COVID-19, held on March 2, 2023 in Baku.
Opening the meeting with an introductory speech, Ahmadov informed about the work done over the past period to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Azerbaijan.
He added that there the SDGs and mine action have a direct link, and mine action aligns directly with 12 of the 17 UN SDG and indirectly with five other goals.
It was noted that Azerbaijan is one of the countries most contaminated by mines and other explosives, and according to preliminary studies, more than 8,235 sq. km. territories are contaminated with mines and other explosive ordnance.
Considering that more than 60 countries of the world suffer from the above problem, faced by Azerbaijan, the importance of both local and global campaigning in this direction was stressed.
During the meeting, Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action Vugar Suleymanov informed about the ongoing demining activities in the liberated territories and the upcoming goals.
He noted that in order to organize the efficiency activity in this direction more than four times increased the personnel and technological potential of the agency.
Head of the Department of Sustainable Development and Social Policy of the Ministry of Economy, Secretary of the Council Huseyn Huseynov made a presentation of the draft of the 18th SDG (mine action activities), which is planned to be included in the national SDGs.
He said that the Ministry of Economy has prepared a project consisting of five goals and 14 indicators, and the action plan to raise awareness of the SDGs for 2023 includes two activities to promote the 18th SDG at the national and global levels, including demining activities.
After discussions of the draft, relevant instructions were given to develop a methodology and calculate indicators related to the 14 indicators identified by the draft.
The previous meeting of the National Coordination Council for Sustainable Development was held on March 6 this year.
The council was set up in accordance with an order signed by President Ilham Aliyev in 2016.