By Cross Udo, Abuja
The issue of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in states and local government areas took the front burner at the just-concluded 79th edition of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States.
However, the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) assured it was on course to hit the target, especially in education, health, and infrastructure.
Speaking to journalists after a high-level meeting between the NGF and development partners on the sidelines of the UNGA 79, Mr Eghosa Omoigui, an Assistant Director and Head of Stakeholder Relationships at the Climate Change/SDGs/Trade and Investment said that the relevant stakeholders are making efforts on how Nigeria can cross the last line as 2030 approaches.
He explained that about seven governors were at the UNGA in 2019 to discuss tracking the SDGs at the subnational level, which was previously only designed to be implemented at the national level.
He said the meeting was to review the progress in implementing the plan five years after the first meeting.
“And we have made significant progress in health and education. But then there’s a need to see how we can monitor these goals because they are targets. They are indicators within the SDGs,” he said.
Asked how the implementation of the SDGs could be monitored effectively, he said, “And that’s what this discussion was all about. We had presentations from development partners, Bloomberg, the Climate Fund, the Deputy Secretary General’s office, and special envoys from the United Nations speaking at our meeting and showing support to see how we can cross that last line as we approach 2030, which is five years from now.
“We’re going to look back and see what progress has been made, and this time through a more accountable lens of monitoring and evaluation.”
He enthused that some progress had been made at the NGF Secretariat. “We have an SDG desk; at that desk, we monitor the SDGs across the 36 states. And we’ve made progress in health, education, and infrastructure.
“The theme of this meeting was about sustainability using technology and partnerships as accelerators to the SDGs. And you know, if you look at those two accelerators, you can still find the whole 17 goals within that. So, education, health, infrastructure. We had very good promises from the Green Climate Fund, so we should see significant progress in the years coming.”
The Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, said that addressing poverty, healthcare, education, and financing issues were discussed.
Lawal said, “There is an absolute commitment from different partners who are ready to partner with us at the subnational level so that we can begin to address some of the challenges we face as a nation.”
In the areas Zamfara State expects international partners to assist, he said, “We’re looking at how to solve the issue of poverty in Nigeria, how to solve the problem of food sufficiency in Nigeria, and how to support education. These are critical.
The feedback from the partners is positive, and they are ready and committed to helping Nigeria and its subnationals.”
For his part, Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State said the discussion was mainly centred on poverty alleviation and improving the people’s lives.
He said, “As an agrarian state, we have bought several tractors to increase and improve our farms in the agriculture sector. That is the primary thing.
“We can give all the farm inputs to our people to get back to the farms; we help along the lines to cut off a number of the post-harvest waste usually experienced. It’s one of the significant problems we’re experiencing.
“We have slashed down a number of the poverty indices we experienced. Where we need to go forward next would be processing industrialization. We need the collaboration. We need the partnership for all the efforts we are putting in.”
The Niger State governor, Mohammed Bago, said, “This outing has been very successful for the sub-nationals for the country because we’ve been able to unlock opportunities as it affects SDGs. We know the challenges of food insecurity, nutrition, what has to do with health, and so on.”
