The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has started conducting multi-stakeholder workshops to prepare for the next series of consultations on the national Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the next Philippine Development Plan (PDP). Together with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), NEDA conducted its second technical workshop on the SDGs indicators last May 11-12 in Pasig City. The technical workshop gathered representatives from various specialized government agencies, non-governmental organizations and academic groups to classify the 230 globally-approved indicators based on their level of methodological development and overall data availability at the national level. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Emmanuel F. Esguerra said that the insights generated from the workshop will serve as inputs to the next series of consultations not just on the SDGs but also for the crafting of the next PDP. "In responding to the SDGs challenge, the Philippines initiated parallel efforts on the development of national-level indicators. This was done through the conduct of a multi-stakeholder workshop last year, building awareness through briefings, and reviewing the functions of existing institutional mechanisms that we have utilized in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals," Esguerra said, who is also NEDA Director-General. The United Nations' 2030 Agenda involves 17 Sustainable Development Goals broken down into 169 targets and 230 globally-approved indicators. "We continue to review the list of indicators and discuss how we can mainstream them in the national planning process," he added. Participants discussed the viability of including new indicators that may be relevant to the Philippine context. Moreover, the workshop also allowed them to explore new data sources and data collection technologies, including possible partnerships with civil society, international development agencies, business groups, and the academe. The first technical workshop on SDG indicators was conducted last April 21. Besides the SDGs, the results of the long-term visioning project, called "AmBisyon Natin 2040," will also inform the formulation of the next six-year national development plan. "AmBisyon Natin 2040" is an initiative of NEDA that articulates the long-term aspirations of Filipinos, and will serve to frame future development plans. NEDA will start conducting regional and sectoral consultations for the PDP in August 2016, guided by the national long
