Buhari’s aide seeks implementation of SDGs to drive economic recovery

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, has canvassed using its goals to drive the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (NERGP).

She made the suggestion at the weekend during the sensitisation and capacity building workshop for directors of PRS, state SDGs’ focal persons and desk officers.

The title of the workshop was: “Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) Performance Indicators, Tracking and Reporting of SDGs Implementation in Nigeria.”

It was organised by the OSSAP-SDGs, in collaboration with PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC), a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) on SDGs.

Orelope-Adefulire stressed that benchmarking the achievements in the NERGP with those of the SDG would form the basic building blocks for national growth.

She disclosed that the Ministry of Budget and National Planning was developing the implementation plan for the recently launched NERGP.

According to her, the core areas of the SDGs had been mainstreamed into the NERGP.

She said: “The robust integration of the SDGs into the NERGP provided a common plan with which different stakeholders could address many challenges, including poverty eradication.”

She explained that a number of activities had been created to provide strategic direction in the commitment to the SDGs.

The senior special assistant listed such activities to include the development of action plan to guide the SDGs implementation; rollout of SDGs needs assessment, and costing exercise in partnership with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.

Others include, the MDAs and the UNDP, as well as data mapping and determination of 126 baseline SDGs indicators, to benchmark progress through partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics.

The activities also involve partnership agreement with the United Nations Development Programme to mainstream the SDGs at both the federal and sub-national levels.