The topic of the workshop is Sustainable Development Goals – Role of the Parliament.

MP Dubravka Filipovski said that the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia is one of the first parliaments to have completed a self-assessment as per Inter-Parliamentary Union guidelines and will by the end of the year also have evaluated the achieved results. She said that the National Assembly had also set up a Focus Group for the Development of Control Mechanisms for the Process of Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and has begun including the relevant parliamentary committees into the implementation of the goals. The MPs are also to submit amendments to the Budget Law to make sure more funds are allocated for the implementation of SDG. She announced that the members of the Focus Group would be concentrating on dialogue with the citizens, especially young people, to make sure their needs are met.

In one of the panel discussions MP Dubravka Filipovski spoke about Serbia’s implementation of gender-responsive budgeting to economically empower women and develop entrepreneurship, which is SDG 5.
On the margins, the MPs met with Inter-Parliamentary Union Secretary-General Martin Chungong to discuss the next steps in advancing the application of the UN 2030 Agenda.

MP Milan Lapcevic opined that the Focus Group should be the project leader so as to make sure any bills are ready for adoption once they reach the parliament, because at that point it would be too late for any substantial change.