It is one year since every country in the world signed up to the Sustainable Development Goals. They form a blueprint for addressing the most significant challenges facing our planet and its people. Challenges like climate change. This is likely to be the hottest year on record and here in Asia, climate change is a cause of the natural disasters that have claimed half a million lives in the last decade. Challenges like inequality, which has been growing for four-fifths of Asia-Pacific’s population over the last 20 years. Challenges brought on by the accelerating process of ageing, which will make it harder for many Asian states to provide basic services to their people. The 17 SDGs will address these challenges and other interlinked issues, including education, hunger and security. But governments cannot implement this blueprint on their own. Nor can the UN and other development organizations.

The Knowledge Exchange is part of a week-long Regional SDG Forum hosted by UNDP in Bangkok from 21 to 27 October. The Forum features also a conference on youth engagement in SDG implementation and a meeting on finance for development focused on how countries can mobilize the required financing for the envisioned transformation to sustainability.

10 October 2016, Thimphu The Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) and the United Nations joined forces today to support the development of the Himalayan Kingdom’s 12th Five Year Plan, set to commence in 2018. The new project set to guide the collaboration was signed today by Secretary Thinley Namgay of the Gross...

Engaging youth to eradicate poverty and ensure sustainable consumption and production More than 73 million young people around the world are affected by unemployment. According to the World Youth Report, lack of decent jobs can impose long-term negativity on a young person’s ability to engage. The 2016 Human...

To further enhance sustainable use of genetic resources in the country, UNDP Bhutan handed over equipment to Menjong Sorig Pharmaceuticals (MSP) under the Department of Traditional Medicine Services (DTMS), earlier today. The support is part of the Nagoya Protocol implementation’s Access Benefit Sharing...

“A great contribution in the history of Bhutan’s parliament”, is what the National Assembly Secretary Sangay Duba described the workshop on public hearing as. The Secretary General’s statement resulted from the mock public hearing sessions whereby the parliamentarians got to experience—hands on—on what and...

To engage members of parliament and parliamentary staff on conducting public hearings, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) started a two day workshop for the National Assembly and the National Council today. The two-day programme will provide insights into forms of public consultation, constitutional...

With months of testing and refining, the Department of Renewable Energy (DRE) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) now have the answer to Bhutan’s high—1.3 tonnes per capita, per year--fuelwood consumption—Bhutan Ecostoves.   “I designed the stoves contextualizing Bhutan’s tropology and the...

UNDP and relevant institutions working towards a holistic justice system in Bhutan 25 July, Thimphu: To map and integrate a justice sector plan for 12th Five Year Plan (FYP), the Office of Attorney General (OAG), Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law, the Supreme Court and the United Nations Development...

18 July 2016, Thimphu: With a two-day workshop commencing Monday 18 July in Thimphu, Bhutan begins a three-year journey to determine how best to finance the nation’s rich biodiversity conservation and climate action. Bhutan joins 29 other nations in this effort as a member of the United Nations Development...

With the second stakeholder consultation underway, UNDP, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Royal Government of Bhutan are another step closer to enhance sustainability, climate resilience and community livelihoods in 37 gewogs across 12 dzongkhags in Bhutan. A total funding of 13.9 million (planned...

On June 8, Their Majesties King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden will commence a three-day State visit to Bhutan at the invitation of His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. On this first State visit to Bhutan since establishing diplomatic relations in 1985, their Majesties will visit two United...