Federal Government has commenced the process of mainstreaming and domesticating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into national and sub-national development plans according to Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire.
Orelope-Adefulire who spoke at a two-day workshop on Validation Workshop of the Baseline Indicators for Monitoring the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria, which opened in Abuja on Monday “we are working with the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning to integrate the SDGs into the recently launched Economic Recovery and Development Olan (ERPG) of government.
“We are also in the process of developing an agreement with ministries, departments and agencines (MDAs), which will ensure their adherence to implementation plans of SDGs.”
She explained that her office was also reviewing implementation manual at sub-national levels with the view to ensuring that SDGs implementation are fast-tracked at the states and local government levels.
In his remarks, Statistician General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale explained that Nigeria was the first country in Africa to produce data for the monitoring of SDGs.
He said the early development of measuring data for SDGs marked a clear departure from the MDGs experience where monitoring of the goals and production of indicators did not commence until midway through its implementation.
This he noted, made it extremely difficult to accurately track progress adding “I have no doubt in my mind that with the early commencement of the monitoring process of the SDGs, we stand a better chance of achieving the set goals and meeting our targets.”
SDGs according to Mrs Patricia Eweama, Head of Demographic and Social Statistics department of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in her welcome address comprise 17 goals, 169 targets and 230 indicators launched by 193 Heads of Government including Nigeria at the 70th session of UN General Assembly in September 2015.
It is the successor to the Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015) and seeks to foster inclusive development, while addressing the economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainable development.
She added that SDGs were approved by Nigeria in 2016 as part of development framework.
Participants at the workshop include representatives of international development organisations, governments and civil society organisations.
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