In June 2022, the Government of Uganda in partnership with the United Nations and other development partners convened the first ever National SDG conference. The conference drew participation of three arms of Government (Executive, Legislature and Judiciary), private sector, development partners, academia, CSOs, Cultural and religious leaders, youth and women organizations, and media. The Conference was preceded by regional SDG forums where there was engagement and participation of Local Government leaders and views were collected.
This first SDG conference was significant milestone in which the Government was able to cohesively reflect on the implementation of SDGs but also on the role of state ( i. e  the three arms of Government) and non-state actors must play to accelerate SDG achievement.
The conference outcome report informed the key messages shared at the High Level Political (HLPF) in July 2022 in New York and later on the statement read by HE: the President of the  Republic of Uganda on the progress of SDGs during the UN General Assembly in September 2022. In addition, the conference generated several recommendations including the need to understand who is left behind guided by the LNOB principle and the need to have Agenda 2063 integrated in national coordination monitoring and reporting as it is for the SDGs.
As a result, a cabinet memo was prepared and presented to Cabinet by the Office of the Prime Minister in October 2022. In turn, the Cabinet passed several resolutions and recommenda￾tions for action by different MDAs. Key recommended cabinet actions were among others; OPM to

  • conduct a national assessment of LNOB to understand who is left behind;

  • Integration/inclusion of Agenda 2063 into the national SDG coordination framework since both Agenda have similar aspirations and therefore interlinked; Organizing the SDG conference as an annual event in order to create platform where all stakeholders will continuously reflect on SDG progress, identify and showcase catalytic innovations as well as make policy recommendations for accelerating SDG implementation and achievement; and

  • Implementation of the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) among others. Considering the above cabinet actions, the OPM with financial support from UN and under technical leadership of UN Women and UNDP commissioned an LNOB national assessment, whose findings will inform the second conference deliberations. In addition, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development with financial and technical support from the World Bank and UNDP developed and launched a Public Investment Financing Strategy (PIFS) under the INFF in March 2021. During the first conference, it was observed that it is important to have this event as an annual platform in which stakeholders will continuously reflect on SDG progress, identify and showcase catalytic innovations but also make resolutions of accelerating SDG implementation and achievement—this was further approved by Cabinet.
    Therefore, to re-affirm these actions towards Sustainable Development.