Bangladesh for the second time prepared Bangladesh Voluntary National Review (VNR) with the support from UNDP and the Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals (PEA) project to present the report along with 46 other countries at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The VNR 2020 is titled ‘Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development’.
Because of the unprecedented health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladesh presented VNR 2020 virtually on 13 July 2020. The session started with an audio-visual clip on its SDG progress and the COVID-19 response by Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s VNR was presented by Mr. M A Mannan MP, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. And the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh gave an opening statement in VNR 2020.
Bangladesh's "Voluntary National Review (VNR) 2020: Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development" is the second formal voluntary review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation by the government of Bangladesh, and unlike the 2017 VNR where the implementation status, challenges and coping strategies covering only six SDGs were presented, the 2020 VNR encapsulates calls for reviewing of all the SDGs. The 2020 VNR report covering the years till 2019, illustrates the progress made by Bangladesh in various areas of the economic and social development field including but not limited to success in reducing extreme poverty measured by $1.90 a day / national poverty line (LPL).