UN has advised the Federal Government to prioritise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) instead of carrying along the whole 17 goals at the same time.
The Senior Special Adviser to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York.
Orelope-Adefulire explained that Nigeria would also not implement the 17 goals as a stand-alone goal.
Rather, the presidential aide said the Federal Government was already domesticating the global goals into the national development.
NAN reports that the SDGs is a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
The implementation of the successor programme to the Millennium Development Goals, started on Jan. 1, 2016 and would end on Dec. 31, 2030.
Orelope-Adefulire said: “The Sustainable Development Goals have 15 years lifespan for us to achieve the global goals; we all know that the goals are very ambitious.
“But in our own way and the based on the advice of the United Nations, they are to be prioritized and to be domesticated into national development.
“This is to make it easier for us to understand and to implement. So we have domesticated into the national planning.
“The baseline survey has been completed, the mapping has been completed, we have also put the institutional framework in place.
“We have also launched and mobilized the private sector group for implementation of SDGs to effectively implement the SDGs fund.
“The donor partnership forum has been launched also in Nigeria this year. We also have the Corps Champion Groups has been launched in all the Local Governments in Nigeria.
“We have also engaged the civil society organizations; we have engaged the academia, engaged the women and children groups and youth organizations, among others”.
The presidential aide explained that she had on July 20 in New York presented Nigeria’s SDGs National Voluntary Review to the UN High-level Political Forum.
She noted that President Muhammadu Buhari joined the rest of the world to sign into the declaration of SDGs in Sept. 25, 2015.
“What that implies is that the Nigerian Government joined the rest of the world to be a member state to implement the SDGs and to make lives more meaningful for the Nigerian people.”
According to him, the concept of sustainable development comes in three dimensions to make it easy to understand.
“It comes into Social Development, which is Goals one to six; Goals seven to 12 talk about Economic Empowerment and Goal 13 to 17 talk about our Environment and Climate Change.
“And of course to say that the unfinished business of MDGs was conceptualized into Social Development of Goals one to six.
“So I believe that we are able to make some significant improvements and achievements during the MDGs era, though we joined the rest of the world late.
“We were able to make some significant improvements in gender parity, school enrolment, reduction of maternal and infant mortality and our global partnership was strengthened,” she said.
Officially known as the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, SDGs is a set of 17 global goals with 169 targets. (NAN)