SGDs: Africa's Need For Cooperation With the International Communities
"We seek enhanced international cooperation with African nations to achieve the 2030 agenda and Sustainable Development Goals" - President Bola Ahmed Tinubu says
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,Bola Ahmed Tinubu while giving his address at the 78th United Nations General Assembly currently ongoing in New York explained that the cooperation of Africa and the international world will help in achieving the SDG.
In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals also known as the global goals for the purpose of combating poverty and ensuring a peaceful world by 2030. There are a total of 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The president in his address stated, "We welcome partnerships with those who do not mind seeing Nigeria and Africa assume larger roles in the global community.The fourth important aspect of global trust and solidarity is to secure the continent’s mineral rich areas from pilfering and conflict. Many such areas have become catacombs of misery and exploitation. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has suffered this for decades, despite the strong UN presence there. The world economy owes the DRC much but gives her very little”
He further said “climate change severely impacts Nigeria and Africa, Northern Nigeria is hounded by desert encroachment on once arable land. Our south is pounded by the rising tide of coastal flooding and erosion. In the middle, the rainy season brings floods that kill and displace multitudes.
Continental efforts regarding climate change will register important victories if established economies were more forthcoming with public and private sector investment for Africa’s preferred initiatives."
Adam Elhiraika, director of the macroeconomic policy division at the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) stated some months back that Africa is not making so much progress with the Sustainable Development Goals compared to other regions of the world. The lack of commitment to the implementation of the policy is one of the reasons for the slow progress. Most countries have their resources channeled into other things such as combating terrorism and insecurity, elections and so on. Also, finance and poor planning poses a problem.
Africa faces quite a number of challenges ranging from poverty to diseases, environmental degradation to mention but a few. Some regions in Africa are highly invested in fossil fuel and disposable plastics. These materials contribute negatively to the ecosystem thereby making it almost impossible to achieve the SDG of climate action. Nonetheless, there has been success in the areas of education, access to clean water and economic growth. This results in Africa's success with the SDGs a mixed one.
One of the major challenges facing Africa in the implementation of the SDGs is economic constraints. Most African economies are dependent upon the export of their primary resources and commodities making them vulnerable to fluctuations.
In July, the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Csaba Kõrösi and the UNs Deputy Secretary General, Muhammad Amina during a dialogue with representatives from diverse NGOs, academic institutions and the private sectors explained that the United Nations remains committed to the development of Africa.
Speaking at the conference,Csaba Kõrösi stated that unshakable solidarity with Africa is needed both within the continent and the international community in order to achieve a fully resilient Africa. Amina Mohammed also stated that although commitments have been made with Africa financially, it has met with limitations which are both internal and external,productivity is however possible if there is the digitalization of domestic resource mobilization systems, increased efforts to build a reliable policy framework, and the international financial architecture being restructured to provide African countries with an avenue to grow.
