For all that COVID-19 has tested the world in unprecedented ways, it established beyond all doubt that—as with the looming climate crisis—none of us is safe until we are all safe. This accords with the promise at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: our shared commitment to leave no one behind. The UN continues to work with the Government of Indonesia on policy frameworks that advance the SDGs and ensure no one is left behind.

On Goal Five, for example, the UN began a collaboration with the Ministry of National Development Planning to develop a national strategy on gender mainstreaming using a gender responsive budget. Upon completion in 2022, the strategy will contain executive directions on the use of gender-responsive indicators for national and sub-national government budget plans.

On Goal Two, the UN is supporting the Government of Indonesia to develop e-Agriculture strategies that bolster food security through its Decade of Family Farming Global Action Plan. Under the action plan, the UN provided technical assistance to Indonesia’s national statistics agency through 2021 to plan, budget for, and incorporate farm-based SDG indicators in a nationwide agriculture census expected to be carried out in 2023. The UN also conducted a needs assessment for the operation of an affiliated ICT-based “agriculture war room.” Meanwhile, the UN-supported the expansion of a Ministry of Agricultureled apprenticeship scheme for agriculture-based occupations, as well as the creation of a new financial product co-developed with banks, which targets young people without financial experience and has considerable potential for national upscaling.

On Goal Six, the UN assisted the government in finding innovative solutions to water quality and supply challenges, in line with the consultative roadmap on delivering safely managed water services nationwide by 2030. Meanwhile, thematic studies and policy recommendations derived from two agriculture-focused loan projects—IPDMIP and READSI— contributed to new national regulations on irrigation that have increased farmers’ yields and incomes.

On Goal Three, the UN provided technical assistance to the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture and the Ministry of Heath to strengthen the multisectoral response to HIV and to develop a new multisectoral National Strategic Plan, which includes not just a health-based approach but participation from non-health partners, ministries, civil society, the private sector, and academia. Technical assistance was also provided to the Ministry of Health and Association of Provincial Health Offices for HIV treatment cascade monitoring. 27 priority cities/ districts, which are also under ASEAN Cities Getting to Zero participated and presented their cascade in regular coordination meetings with the national treatment acceleration working group, a practice that will improve understanding and transparency of HIV testing and treatment data.

Achieving the SDGs is critical to children’s welfare and the welfare of generations to come. In partnership with the Centre on Child Protection and Well-Being at the University of Indonesia, the UN supported the Government in conducting a situation analysis on children and young people in cities, which provides a foundation for future evidence-based policies for child and adolescent-sensitive urban development. The analysis forms the basis of one of the official policy papers for the “Urban 20” discussions under Indonesia’s G20 presidency. In parallel, the UN provided technical support to the Ministry of Villages in drafting national guidelines for child-responsive village planning and budgeting, including mainstreaming the participation of children and adolescents in planning processes. Another analysis explores young people’s civic engagement in Aceh, East Java, and Papua provinces. These studies contributed to Indonesia’s first-ever national budget analysis for children, which examines national allocations in health, education, child protection and social protection that most benefit children. Indonesia’s government also committed to using the UN’s Early Childhood Development Index to monitor the implementation of SDG targets related to children’s welfare.

To advance the implementation of the SDGs at a subnational level, 5,709 government officials and members of civil society groups received training under the SDG Leadership Program and the SDG Mobile Learning Program. Of those 5,709 participants—57% of them women, and 27% youth—some 98% reported being satisfied with the programme. Meanwhile, under the UN’s global “Generation Connect” initiative, three youth representatives from Indonesia were among a group of 26 young people selected to represent youth from the Asia Pacific region and discuss how young people can better support the SDGs at events leading up to the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Rwanda in June 2022.