The International Labour Organization (ILO), in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), conducted a Tripartite Consultation on the 2019 Voluntary National Review ((VNR) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at Bayleaf Intramuros, Manila on 10 April 2019.
As an introduction, the Philippines, together with 192 other United Nations (UN) member states, committed in September 2015 to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169 targets by 2030. Since the adoption of the SDGs, the Philippine government has carried out several activities related to setting up the policy and enable the environment to implement the SDGs.
From 2015-2017, the Philippine government, through the PSA, conducted several technical, multi-sectoral workshops with concerned data producers and compilers regarding the SDG indicators.
During the consultation, Mr. Phu Huynh, ILO Employment Specialist for East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, presented ILO’s decent work agenda in the contest of the SDGs . On the other hand, Dr. Aubrey D. Tabuga, PIDS Research Fellow, presented the 2019 Voluntary National Review (VNR).
Inputs and suggestions were then made by the stakeholders present to further improve and develop the program.
As a means to move forward, the ILO suggested that reducing income inequality through strong wage and social protection policies and enhancing data and monitoring should be the priority of the country. The PIDS on the other hand, stated that there is a rising need to continuously provide more data granularity and frequency to be able to meet the demands on the attainment of the SDG’s in leaving no one behind.
