President Muhammadu Buhari has urged world leaders to create an enabling environment and form global partnerships so as to ensure the success of the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
While addressing the United Nations Plenary Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda yesterday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, he explained that his administration has taken steps to streamline internal generation of revenue and combat corruption so as to boost Nigeria’s economy.
Buhari applauded the decision to adopt the 2030 Development Agenda. He said “Declaration that we have adopted today testifies to the urgency and the necessity for action by all of us. It is not for want of commitment that previous initiatives have failed or could not be fully realized. What seemed to be lacking in the past were political will and the required global partnership to pursue and implement the programmes to which we committed ourselves.
”This Declaration enjoys global consensus. We have agreed to deliver as one and to leave no one behind. This is a promise worth keeping. We have agreed to create viable partnerships and to adopt the means of implementation for the goals and targets of the global sustainable development agenda in all its three dimensions; namely economic, social and environmental.
“The Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) together with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda that we adopted in July 2015, offer us a unique opportunity to address the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“They also provide the basis for a new set of global development priorities to usher in a peaceful and prosperous world, where no one is left behind, and where the freedom from fear and want, and for everyone to live in dignity, is enthroned.
“The bottom billion that has neither safety nets nor social protection, need to be rescued from their perpetual state of hopelessness, fear and indignity. This is a task that should have been accomplished decades ago. Now that it has fallen on our shoulders to discharge this responsibility, we should do so with the enthusiasm and commitment that is worthy of the cause.
“We must adopt targeted interventions at both policy and practical levels, to address extreme poverty and combat illiteracy, hunger and diseases. We must create viable partnerships that bring together national, regional and global actors with shared objectives to carry this forward.
“We must also create the enabling environments for executing this global agenda, by developing the relevant frameworks for working with different types of partners and constituencies that recognize the contributions of civil society, religious and cultural bodies, private sector, academia and most importantly, governments.
“Just as the relative success of the MDGs was underpinned by national ownership, the Post-2015 and the SDGs frameworks must also be guided by national priorities and ownership. Domestic resource mobilization supplemented by improved terms of trade between industrial and developing economies should drive the implementation processes in both streams. The facilitation of remittances by migrant and overseas workers, as well as efficient tax collection are needed as complimentary sources of financing for development.”
The Sustainable Development Goals includes: end poverty in all its forms everywhere, end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all age.
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation, reduce inequality within and among countries, make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss, promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels, strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.