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The Federal Government and the United Nations have called for stronger partnerships, innovative financing and accelerated implementation of development programmes to fast-track the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals before the 2030 deadline.
The call was made on Monday during the Joint United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2023–2027 Steering Committee Meeting held at the UN House in Abuja.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, said with only a few years left to attain the SDGs, governments and development partners must move beyond planning to implementation while mobilising private capital to bridge the financing gap.
“2030 is around the corner and I mean for the United Nations as well as for many countries there is urgency, there is the need to do more in the very short time that remains for the sustainable development goals to be realised or to be as much as possible achieved,” Bagudu said.
He noted that Nigeria’s ongoing macroeconomic reforms had released resources for development but stressed that public funding alone would not be sufficient to achieve the SDGs.
“The macroeconomic reforms have helped release resources that can be used to achieve some of the sustainable development goals but equally more important is the realisation that to achieve the sustainable development goals require more resources than are available to government,” he said.
Bagudu added that the government was working to attract private investment to complement public spending.
“We believe that our ambition of the $1 trillion economy that lifts everyone out of poverty by the year 2030 is a unified team for everyone here,” he said.
United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Fall, warned that progress towards the SDGs remained far too slow globally, with only four years left to meet the targets.
“What is clear is that we are not in good shape. Only four years remaining” he said.
According to him, many SDG indicators were either progressing too slowly, off track, or had deteriorated compared to 2015.
“We all know that in many aspects, Nigeria is following this global trend. We have many goals, maybe probably more than half of the goal, for which we are not on track,” Fall said.
He urged members of the steering committee to focus on practical solutions rather than rhetoric.
“Make sure that we walk the talk, but not talk the talk,” he said.
Stressing that Nigeria required both speed and scale to achieve meaningful results.
Fall also said declining international aid should serve as a wake-up call for governments and development partners to adopt new financing models.
“We should not look at this as a challenge. We should look at it also as a wake-up call to look for domestic resource mobilisation, to look for innovative finances, to bring in private sector, to mobilise civil society,” he said.
He further challenged the UN system to embrace digital technology and artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and maximise impact.
Despite Nigeria’s challenges, Fall said the country possessed enormous potential for innovation and private sector-led growth.
“We are not here just for the challenges. We are here to transform the potential and the opportunity in something that can change the life of the people of this country,” he said.
On his part, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to poverty reduction and social protection under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda
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