INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Development Goals.They stated this during a recent discussion held at the Presidential Secretariat about adding sustainable development
Program, its Resident Representative Azusa Kubota, Budget Consultant, Adviser Asif Shah, Integration Specialist Dulani Sirisena and Afraa
Mohamed, Policy, Research and Engagement Assistant, were present at the discussion.The rationale for integrating sustainable development
goals into public financial management systems was discussed at length and the main benefits of development goals and budgeting were also
discussed.Attention was also paid to providing an effective basis for budget decisions with improved data to reduce fiscal space and fiscal
gaps, assist government and donor negotiations by introducing efficient mechanisms to protect social sector spending, identify funding gaps
and under-resource priorities to support effective targeting of resources.Further, promoting policy coherence and assisting in getting more
value for money from public investments, raising public awareness of government actions by ensuring transparency in public financial
allocations to achieve sustainable development goals, benefits such as providing a proper system for resource mobilization, and identifying
priorities in the annual budget through sustainable development goals/climate/gender-based budget targets, were also discussed at length.In
addition, the practical problems arising within that process and how to prevent those problems were also extensively examined in this
discussion.Representing the Sustainable Development Council, Director General Chamindri Saparamdu and Assistant Director Nadika Amarasinghe,
Presidential Coordinating Secretary Rajitha Abeygunasekara and Director Sajana Suriyaarachchi also participated in this discussion.--PMD
