Stakeholders working towards the successful attainment of the various Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) in Nigeria have identified insecurity, recession and debt burden as major challenges affecting the achievements of the goals.
There have been concerns that Nigeria among other African countries is retrogressing on the path to attaining the SDGs, while civil society organisations have repeatedly harped on the need for countries to adopt local actions to achieve the goals.
It was on that backdrop, that the stakeholders noted that attainment of the SDGs was not all about the country or continent but about working together and building synergies.
They ventilated at the Africa-wide multi-stakeholder conference on SDGs held in Abuja. The Continental Chief of Party, African Parliamentary Network, Uganda Baynenzaci, acknowledged that some African countries were performing well in the attainment of the goals but regretted that the progress varies due to challenges such as recession, insecurity and debt burden on the continent.
Baynenzaci stressed the need for African countries to build synergies to enhance the uniform attainment of the goals.The convener of the Civil Society Advance Forum on Sustainable Development (CAS2030), Caroline Oliseowe, recalled that the United Nations Secretary-General, Anthonio Guiterres, had expressed concerns over the level retrogression rather than progression in the race for SDGs goals.
The UN chief scribe, who regretted that the continent was still halfway to attaining more than 12 per cent of the goals, stressed the need to take decisive actions by taking local actions to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs in the African continent.
