World Parliaments sharpen ways on achieving sustainable development goals

Tanzania delegation at the 132nd Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly which is taking place from 28 March to 1st April, 2015, in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

By Owen Mwandumbya

Hanoi, Viet Nam

Parliamentarians from across the world are calling upon all Parliaments and MPs to use their individual and collective power to make sustainable development a key for developments among IPU members states and have a concrete ways on which parliaments can implement the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) when they are adopted later this year.  

The call was made by Parliamentarians who are attending the 132nd Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Hanoi, Viet Nam which kicks off on 28 March and expected to end on 1st April, 2015 with the adoption of a declaration on the implementation of the new sustainable development goals (SDGs).

More than 600 MPs from 113 countries among them whom are Speakers, Presidents, and leader of delegation from Parliament and National Assemblies across the world are among the participants.

The members to the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) -Tanzania branch who are Hon. Hamad Rashid Mohamed, Hon. Suzan Lyimo, Hon. Dr Pudensiana Kikwembe and Hon. Faustine Ndgulile who is the IPU Advisory Group Deputy Chair on HIV/AIDS and Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, are representing Parliament of Tanzania. 

The Assembly focuses much to underscore the enormous potential for change that MPs hold as legislators, representatives and overseers of government.

During a charged five-day gathering, IPU Members will also make commitments on parliamentary action to shape a new system of water governance;  on international law on national sovereignty and the non-intervention in the internal affairs of State and human rights, and on addressing the threat of cyber warfare to global peace and security.

With terrorism very much on the global agenda, there have been two proposals made so far for an emergency debate and resolution.  Australia and Morocco have respectively proposed taking a stand on parliament’s role in combatting the threat of terrorism by organizations such as Boko Haram and on ensuring enhanced protection for humanity’s cultural heritage from terrorist groups in the Middle East and North Africa on which delegates from Tanzania supports the move.

The Hanoi Assembly also marks the 30th anniversary of the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians, which for most of its history has been a unique global gathering providing a valuable space for women MPs as well as a mechanism to provide input into the formal outcomes of the IPU Assembly.

The Meeting includes a discussion on what needs to be done to fulfil the commitments made in the Beijing Platform for Action on gender equality and women’s empowerment 20 years ago.

The 132 Assembly is taking place in Hanoi, Vietnam in a countdown to the adoption of a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a UN Summit in September 2015 by which MPs and parliaments have a role to play through their ability to turn the voluntary commitment to the SDGs into enforceable laws, to hold their governments to account on development policy choices and strategies, and the adoption of national budgets.