Many governments across Asia and the Pacific are making concerted progress in implementing the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. Countries have been adapting SDG targets to national circumstances and priorities, aligning
and incorporating the 17 Goals and 169 Targets into policies and development plans where applicable.
The SDGs, as an integrated framework, require whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches
and many countries have been moving in this direction. Countries are adapting their institutions, engaging
local governments, parliaments and other actors, while identifying follow-up and review structures.
Governments, public institutions and public administration can foster integrated approaches to the
implementation of the 2030 Agenda from national to local levels.

The Ministerial Declaration of the 2017 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), the main UN platform on
sustainable development, particularly calls for the need to take appropriate action towards localizing and
communicating the SDGs at all levels, from the national to the community and grassroots level.
Against this backdrop, the Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) of
the UNDESA, through its Project Office on Governance (UNPOG), in collaboration with the Government of
the Republic of Korea are organizing a Symposium from 5 to 8 December 2017 on “Building Effective,
Accountable and Inclusive Institutions and Public Administration for Advancing the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development”.

The ultimate aim for the Symposium is to strengthen public governance for the implementation of the 2030
Agenda and enable governments to respond to the SDGs in innovative ways, drawing from the strategies
that different countries are implementing.