Mesyuarat Majlis SDG Negara 2024

The National SDG Council “Council” (Majlis SDG Negara) held its annual meeting on 18 December 2024. Chaired by the Prime Minister, this year’s meeting was also attended by both Deputy Prime Ministers, various ministers, deputy ministers and chief ministers.

This year, the Prime Minister emphasised the importance of sustainable development and is looking to implement the SDGs with more intensity, echoing his statements from the Malaysia SDG Summit held at the KL Convention Centre on 17 and 18 September 2024.

The Council was appraised of Malaysia’s progress in the pursuit of the SDGs by Asfaazam Kasbani, Director of the National SDG Centre (Pusat SDG Negara) and Karima El Korri, UN Resident Coordinator for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.

Regarding ESG, the Prime Minister highlighted that local capacity should be developed instead of being overly reliant on consultants, and that SMEs should be appropriately supported in their sustainability journey. Reflecting on this, Jia Yaw urged the Council to increase its emphasis on the importance of ESG, strengthening the capacity of members in areas such as human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD).

He also observed that for this meeting, the ministers and ministry representatives made prepared interventions, especially on SDG indicators that were not making enough progress. For instance, Minister of Health, Dr. Zulkefly Ahmad shared about national strategies to address stunting in children; a representative from the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) spoke briefly about efforts on gender equality. It appears the Prime Minister had requested for the ministers to go through the SDG progress reports beforehand and give their responses at the Council meeting. Hence, the quality of the Council’s meeting has improved in this regard.

Moving forward, Jia Yaw also proposed for the Council to map all its Committees’ work according to the SDGs – children’s rights, gender equality, access to justice, etc. With the SDGs being the framework for anchoring our 5-year Malaysia Plans (Rancangan Malaysia) and many national laws and policies, both the private sector and the third sector should utilise the SDG language to align their strategies and actions. This ensures that all initiatives contribute to the achievement of the global goals while fostering sustainable development, social equity, and environmental stewardship in Malaysia.