Ulaanbaatar, June 13, /MONTSAME/.  Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue: Gender and Sustainability, organized by the State Great Khural of Mongolia together with Stanford University, the Ban Ki-moon Foundation, and Ewha Womans University of South Korea kicked off today at the State House.

Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue (TASD) aims to stimulate cooperative action toward achieving the United Nations-adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and focuses on expediting the implementation of gender equality and women’s empowerment, the fifth of the Agenda’s underlying 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Chairman of the State Great Khural.Zandanshatar Gombojav opened the TASD, noting in his speech that the Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue has resulted from the Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue, a joint initiative of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation and Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and aimed at scaling action on the SDGs, specifically 17^th Goal on revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. 

“Mr.Ban Ki-moon, the 8^th UN Secretary-General and Chairman of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation initiated the SDGs, calling for state leaders and started the implementation in 2015. Mongolia is the only country that stated in its Constitution that the development policy should be sustainable. Sustainable development has become a global pressing issue. Its implementation has been slowed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia and Ukraine war, and the current international situation. Therefore, giving special importance to the implementation of the 17th goal of the Agenda’s SDGs has become an important goal of the world and the United Nations. That's why it is special that the conference/ forum is being held within the framework of Trans-Altai countries located in the heart of Central Asia and considered having language and culture with the same origin in many ways,” the Speaker said.

The first day of the gathering consists of multiple public sessions featuring government officials, academics, and practitioners from the United States and across Asia. Keynote speakers and panelists are discussing barriers to gender equality in education, the labor market, and government; examine issues such as gender-based violence and human rights and the connections between gender equality and sustainable development; and consider policy solutions to facilitate a more rapid shift to the empowerment of all women and girls.

Keynote speakers include Ban Ki-moon, the eighth UN Secretary-General and the chairman of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future, Kim Youngjoo, Deputy speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea and Enkh-Amgalan Luvsantseren, Minister of Education and Science of Mongolia. During the forum, a parallel session on the international trends of Altai studies is taking place and the participants are discussing the culture, history, traditions, sustainable cooperation, and partnership of Trans-Altai countries. The conference will continue till June 14.