In this piece, ABDULLAHI M. GULLOMA wonders if Nigeria is capable of attaining the provisions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 amidst current global challenges.
The biggest African economy and the most populous black nation in the world has been keen on improving the lifestyles of people despite the raging global challenges. The United Nations directive for poverty alleviation and enhancement of social welfare is being articulated in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s quest to get 100 million citizens out of poverty.
To this end, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, has, since assumption of office in 2016, been making efforts to achieving measurable milestones to attain the SDGs in the country.
In partnership with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the SSA on SDGs has embarked on a massive execution of projects in the health sector, provision of quality and inclusive education and life-long learning for all across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). With this, Nigeria is the first country to successfully conduct a country-led Independent SDGs Policy evaluation, using the key findings for policy formulation.
Challenges
Global cooperation and commitment to the ideals of the SDGs are needed more than ever to respond to the current challenges including security issues, pandemics and climate change. Despite these challenges, Nigeria’s robust approach to the implementation of the SDGs remains critical for the attainment of the goals by 2030 and beyond.
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is no longer making progress on the SDGs. The average SDGs Index score slightly declined in 2021, partly due to slow or non-existent recovery in poor and vulnerable countries.
In developing countries, multiple and overlapping health and security crises have led to a reversal in SDGs progress.
The SSA to the President on SDGs said the federal government has driven the establishment of SDGs Innovation Hubs in the six geo-political zones in collaboration with the UNDP. To this end, she said, consultations and technical assessments of the State SDGs Office across the zones have been completed.
Initiatives, achievements
According to her, the six state-of-the-art Innovation Hubs will help accelerate the implementation of the SDGs at the sub-national level to support the decentralisation of SDGs coordination, through knowledge and experience sharing among the states.
She said the SDGs coordinating office has successfully implemented strategic interventions and programmes across the country including the conditional grant schemes to states and the FCT.
The initiative, she said, was introduced in 2007 as an incentive to states to invest more of their resources in the areas of national development priorities and the MDGs/SDGs. The CGS is premised on conditional matching grants with 50% from the federal government and 50% from participating states.
In the past seven years, grants were targeted at education, health, water and sanitation sectors aimed at executing pro-poor projects in a consultative manner with the beneficiaries.
Accordingly, 23 states of the federation and the FCT have benefitted from the N24.450 billion disbursed to execute the following projects: 732 water and sanitation facilities; 494 health facilities; 616 education facilities – construction, renovation/rehabilitation of block of classrooms; 1,150 women and men empowerment/training in vocational skills such as sewing, knitting, detergent and pomade making, etc.
The SDGs boss said in the education sector, 8,008 classrooms were constructed while 305 renovated and furnished to strengthen basic education across the country.
She said a total of 4,845 desktop and laptop computers have also been supplied to schools across the country for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training.
According to her, 195 health centres, comprising Primary Health Care Centres (PHC) and Mother and Child Centres (MCCs) were constructed with the supply of 199 intensive care and rural ambulances, 257 incubators and 7,464 regular and automated hospital beds were supplied in some health facilities across the country.
She said the OSSAP-SDGs has constructed 66 vocational and skills acquisition centres; supplied 1,294 transformers; provided 19,266 solar-powered streetlights; constructed 300 housing units for internally displaced persons in Borno state; and 925 Solar Boreholes in some states, among others.
In partnership with UNDP, she said, the OSSAP-SDGs is providing technical and financial support to states on the development of SDGs-based medium and long-term plans.
She said 16 states have received technical and financial support on a demand-driven basis. The states are Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Gombe, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kwara, Kogi, Ondo, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Yobe, Niger and Zamfara.
On reducing poverty and sharing prosperity, she said the federal government has maintained steady investment in health, education and other social services because investments in the sectors are essential and central to addressing poverty.
Impacts
She said with the successful realignment of the National Statistical System (NSS), the SDGs office has been able to track and report trends on the goals on an annual basis – every December – through the National Bureau of Statistics.
The Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire-led SDGs Office has guided the federal government to demonstrate strong commitment towards the 2030 agenda with the establishment of institutional frameworks at the national and sub-national levels to support effective implementation of the goals.
A robust monitoring and tracking systems have been introduced to ensure effective tracking of interventions using computer-assisted software and biannual Voluntary National Reviews for presentation to the United Nations High Level Political Forum (HLPF), among other things.
Indeed, Nigeria is leading in the institutionalisation of the SDGs, but will the country attain the sustainable development goals by 2030 in view of the perennial security challenges, widening inequality and massive corruption?
