The Government of Somalia launched the SDGs at an event on 6^th January 2016, organized by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Somalia office. Government leaders highlighted the SDGs’ relevance to Somalia’s National Development Plan, and discussed key actions to implement, monitor and achieve the goals.Bearing to mind the significance of awareness, creation and sensitization of SDG, the Directorate of National Statistics (DNS) of Ministry of Planning with support from UNFPA organized training workshop that brought together more than 35 persons mainly from Planning Department/Unit from Federal Government ministries and Institutions. The main purpose of this training workshop was aimed at building partnership and cooperation as well as enhancing the collaboration amongst government institutions to tackle SDG issues in Somalia.

During the training workshop the DNS and Directorate of Planning technical team conveyed to the participants through significant presentations thereby enabling the participants to grasp the concept of SDG in terms of Goals, Targets and Indicators and most importantly focus on statistical data sourcing for measuring sustainable development goals. In addition to that the participants understood the link between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and National Development Plan (NDP). It was fully agreed to all participants the noteworthy of measuring the SDG/NDP is through the availability of credible Statistical data therefore the necessity of data collection to commence. Hence, all participants from different government institutions highlighted the need of strengthening National Statistical System in which the participants took interest in commitment and collaboration with DNS so as to strengthen the National Statistical System. During the training workshop there were presentations by the DNS technical staff as well as group discussions based on the questions provided and plenary discussions. Through our presentations (DNS staff) we laid out the importance of collaboration among government institutions by providing explanation to the participants on what their roles are in terms of significant successful implementation of SDG/NDP in Somalia.

The establishment of Statistical Technical Committee was seen of importance among all the participants present at the training workshop, so as to enable strengthening the partnership and collaboration between government institutions and beyond. This technical team will also have dedicated focal point from government institution, Term of Reference and work plan. During the two days of the training, each day, one hour was set aside for group discussion through questions which were prepared based on the presentations of the day and later presentations of the group discussion were discussed. The questions consisted of the importance of SDG/NDP in Somalia, the role of Government institutions and the shortcomings of implementing of SDG/NDP in Somalia.