On 30 June 2021 the United Nations Development Programme (hereinafter-UNDP) jointly with the Secretariat of the SDG Coordination Council - «Economic Research Institute» JSC organized an online workshop on "SDG and gender-oriented budgeting approaches in Kazakhstan" supported by the experts from the UNDP Regional Hub in Istanbul.

The workshop was organized within the frames of the Joint Programme on aligning policy and financing with SDGs towards an Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) in Kazakhstan and aimed to build capacity of the representatives of line ministries and other interested stakeholders in the approaches to the SDG budgeting.

The key objective of the workshop was to discuss UNDP Guidance on Aligning domestic budgets with SDGs focusing on five key questions – “Why? Who? What? When? and How?” Answers to these important questions can assist in informing the Government on the best approaches that would be relevant to the country’s context and allow to outline further milestones for the SDG budgeting.

The participants of the training were originally practitioners from the government bodies engaged in budget and strategic planning, such as Agency for Strategic planning and Reforms, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Health, Ministry for Labor and Social Protection and other key ministries.

The workshop consisted of two key sessions. During the first session key focus was made on the UNDP Guidance on aligning domestic budgets with SDGs and SDG budgeting approach implemented in Mexico. Such approach automatically links government spending to the SDGs targets and sub targets.

The second session was aimed at discussion and engagement of key central government agencies into modeling of the most optimal approach for the SDGs budgeting in Kazakhstan which should contribute to the development of an appropriate roadmap for its implementation.

UNDP experts and representatives of the line ministries agreed that integrating SDGs into budgeting process including adaptation of Mexico's approach would still require additional consultations and continuous methodological support to obtain deeper insight on feasibility options of SDG budgeting in Kazakhstan.