Clair Adelabu-Abdulrazak, Abuja: The United Nations has described Nigeria as a leader in domesticating the sustainable development goals -SDGs.
At a “UNITAR learning conference” organized by the United Nations Institute for training—UNITAR and the ministry of budget and planning, UN Assistant secretary general Nikhil Seth, said “Nigeria has kept the momentum of the SDGs alive.
With 17 goals, 169 targets and hundreds of indicators, the sustainable development goals were thought to be the most ambitious development instrument ever.
However, at the New York meeting in September 2015, it was agreed that member countries prioritized their areas of needs achievable by 20130.
As governments start domesticating the instrument at country level, there is high demand for new processes and innovative solutions to achieve target.
This UNITAR learning conference provides a platform for practical knowledge sharing on implementation of the SDGs, for least developed countries in Africa-IDCs
The conference is at the instance of the United Nations institute for training and the federal ministry of budget and national planning.
Minister of state for budget and national planning Zainab Ahmed said the learning conference becomes critical given that implementing African countries have slimmer resources to deploy.
She said Nigeria’s development plan is closely aligned with the vision of the SDGs.
17 African countries from the least developed countries-lDCs are participating in the conference. Some of them shared their areas of greatest need.
Concerns were also raised about the future of the SDGs and the emerging era of protectionism
United Nations assistant secretary general and executive director UNITAR, outlines four critical practical steps towards realising the SDGs.
He listed integration into the national planning and budgeting process, statistics and data analysis capacity, involvement of civil societies and budget coherence. Nikhil Seth commended Nigeria as a leading model in implementing the SDGs.
Innocent Chukwuma of the Ford Foundation said there can be no substitute for mainstreaming the SDGs into national development rolling plan.
Participants are expected to share ideas in broad spectrum covering knowledge exchange board, promoting integrated decision-making and holistic approach in the context of the lDCs.
