[ 2016-11-29 ]

African governments asked to localise SDGs
A South African researcher, Professor Godwell
Nhamo, has stated the need for African governments
to localise and domesticate the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) to enable the average
citizen to familiarise himself with the agenda.
Prof. Nhamo, a chief researcher at the University
of South Africa, said the SDGs, which aim to
“leave no one behind”, needed to be broken
down to the level of the ordinary citizen to
ensure inclusiveness and equality.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of a
two-day conference in Accra, organised by the
United Nations University Institute for Natural
Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), to discuss new
frontiers in natural resources management.

Researchers and professors from more than 10
African countries are participating in the
conference, which is dubbed: “New frontiers in
natural resources management in Africa”.

Translate SDGs into local languages

Speaking on the topic: “Domestication and
localisation of SDGs in Africa”, Prof. Nhamo
said the 2030 development agenda could be
translated into major local languages of the
respective countries as part of the effort to
localise the SDGs, citing Rwanda as one of the
countries that had taken the lead in that regard.

He said African governments needed to learn from
their experiences in the implementation of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and ensure
that some mistakes that were made during the
implementation of the MDGs were not repeated.

“We need to avoid a repeat of the late
engagements with the SDGs as was the case with the
MDGs,” Prof. Nhamo urged.

Although Africa made progress in the MDGs, he
said, the achievements were not significant, hence
the need to strengthen structures and
institutional frameworks to make for the efficient
and successful implementation of the SDGs.

“The SDGs are not a replacement of the MDGs;
rather, they present an expanded 15-year
development agenda — 2016-2030,” he said.

Agenda 2063

Prof. Nhamo added that Africans also needed to
highlight the African Agenda 2063 and link it to
the SDGs.

Agenda 2063 is both a vision and an action plan
which calls for action to all segments of African
society to work together to build a prosperous and
united Africa based on shared values and a common
destiny.

The Director of the UNU-INRA, Dr Elias T. Ayuk,
said the conference was to create a platform for
the sharing of innovative policies and best
practices in the sustainable management of natural
resources in Africa.

Source - Graphiconline

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