NaijaAgroNet:
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @ITRealms
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
The Resident Representative of
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Nigeria, Mr. Opia
Kumah has advised Nigeria to take advantage of lessons learnt from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to tackle implementation of the recently promulgated
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reports NaijaAgroNet.
Addressing the State-level workshop on ‘Data Mapping for the
Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria” at the weekend in Kaduna, Mr. Kumah
who was represented by the Economic Advisor in the state, Ojijo Odhiambo, described
workshop as timely given its coming two months after the highly successful
national-level meeting on the same subject held in Abuja and hardly two weeks
after the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDGs Indicators Meeting in Bangkok,
Thailand.
“As you are well aware, the Inter-agency and Expert Group on
SDG Indicators which brings together member states of the United Nations,
Nigeria included, and regional and international agencies, was created by the
United Nations Statistical Commission in March this year with the mandate of
proposing a global indicator framework,” he said.
The results of this global initiative, he said, will be
considered by the Statistical Commission at its 47th session in March 2016. He
stressed that the work of the group has nonetheless become an important
reference point and input into national level activities related to data for
monitoring and reporting on the SDGs.
While the Inter-agency and expert group is yet to complete its work, he pointed out that it is now clear that the international community favours a limited number of indicators for monitoring progress towards the SDGs.
While the Inter-agency and expert group is yet to complete its work, he pointed out that it is now clear that the international community favours a limited number of indicators for monitoring progress towards the SDGs.
“In the area of poverty, for instance, the group has just
adopted the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as an indicator for measuring
progress towards the SDGs,” he said.
Emphasising that this is a clear testimony of the desire of
the international community to capture and measure progress towards the SDGs in
more qualitative and comprehensive terms.
“As we deliberate on the indicators for measuring progress
in Nigeria over the next two days, we should therefore keep in mind the need to
evolve and adopt those indicators which are broad, qualitative and contextually
relevant to our unique national situation,” he charged.
According to Kumah, regarding data for the SDGs implementation, monitoring and reporting, the critical challenge facing Nigeria is not the lack of knowledge of what needs to be done but rather how to apply the available knowledge and lessons learnt from the MDGs implementation over the past fifteen years.
“The country has learnt invaluable lessons from
the MDGs implementation process. We fully appreciate the challenges that the
country faces with respect to data. We know what works and what does not. We
know where the gaps are. We know where the bottlenecks are. We know which
indicators are particularly problematic to measure. We ought to use this rich
knowledge base to evolve the most plausible implementation strategies for
tracking, capturing and processing the SDGs indicators in a comprehensive, coordinated
and efficient manner,” Kumah said.According to Kumah, regarding data for the SDGs implementation, monitoring and reporting, the critical challenge facing Nigeria is not the lack of knowledge of what needs to be done but rather how to apply the available knowledge and lessons learnt from the MDGs implementation over the past fifteen years.
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @ITRealms
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology