Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, has identified lack of inclusiveness in formulation and the business-as-usual approach to development as some factors that hampered the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals globally.
Orelope-Adefulire made the remark while presenting a lead paper at the ongoing 15th meetings of the Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development Planning in Kano on Tuesday.
She said: “Apart from donor dependency, narrowness in scope, a predominant focus on developing economies, as well as an ill-defined funding framework, a weak follow-up and accountability mechanism among others were some of the inherent weaknesses that hampered the attainment of the MDGs.”
Orelope-Adefulire, however, said in crafting the SDGs, citizens all over the world took cognizance of these weaknesses to evolve a broad, inclusive, and ambitious development paradigm which detailed in the 2030 Development Agenda.
She said in response to citizens’ demands for this new ambitious development agenda, experts at the United Nations decided to re-examine the Business-as-usual scenario and work with local communities through consultations, surveys and expert group meetings to chart the way forward.
She also added: “This is in line with calls for community participation and ownership of the development process through mutual, synergistic relationships as laid out in Agenda 21.
“The eventual outcome is the 2030 Development Agenda which integrates the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development in one new whole.”
Orelope-Adefulire said the 2030 Development Agenda emphasized the need for a transformational shift in the political economy and calls for a change in the governance architecture that guided the development planning process.
She also stated: “Sustainable Development is the greatest and central challenge of our times.
“Our world is under strain, poverty continues to plague communities and families, climate change threatens livelihoods, conflicts are raging, and inequalities are deepening.
“In Africa and indeed in Nigeria, the challenges and threats confronting us are much more critical.
“These include conflicts, insecurity, social and economic inequalities, organized crime, drug trade, illicit financial flows, poor management of diversities, religious extremism, ethnicism, climate risks and natural disasters.
“While we accept that these threats impede national development, the challenges can be overcome if all stakeholders work diligently together.
“Indeed, real and concrete solutions exist in the global fight against poverty, hunger and disease.”
According to Orelope-Adefulire, the 17 Goals and 169 Targets of the SDGs are therefore a response to the numerous challenges that confront the world today.
“While we assert that Nigeria recorded appreciable progress in the implementation of the MDGs, particularly in the areas of universal primary enrolment, gender parity in education, reduction in the spread of HIV/AIDS, maternal and child mortality, the critical challenges remain, which have now been rolled over to the SDGs.”
She said the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and other institutions at the state level had immense responsibility to ensure that these frameworks evolved successfully and delivered as envisioned.