Sustainable development requires strong institutions

Serbia will need to harmonize its policies with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (UN), according to participants of a conference on the country’s sustainable development in relation to the seventeen global goals. The government can find partners in the corporate sector, civil society and academia for the implementation and monitoring of policies for sustainable development.

The event was organized by development initiative group SeConS in cooperation with Open Society Foundation Serbia. Agenda 2030 is the framework for the conception of the new sustainable development strategy but also other policies, ones aiming more directly towards specific objectives from the document, organizers said.

Kori Udovički, deputy prime minister of Serbia and head of the interdepartmental group for the implementation of the agenda, said that reforming the institutions in the Balkan country is significant for the impact on all dimensions of sustainable development. „The European Union is not a developmental institution. It establishes its dialogue on the assumption that the country reached particular standards in development, but it doesn’t tell us how to get to the standards,“ she said. Serbia must invent its own vision for development and face the challenge of returning the dialogue between the state and the society within the institutions.

Irena Vojáčková-Sollorano, UN’s resident coordinator and United Nations Development Programme’s resident representative in Serbia, said the dialogue about the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the country has progressed, and that the conference was an excellent opportunity to assess national achievements and aspirations.

Jadranka Jelinčić, who is heading the Open Society Foundation in Serbia, stressed that without efficient institutions it isn’t possible to implement plans, procedures and standards.