SDGs and what they mean for Rwanda

This article is a sequel to the one published in the June 8 edition of The New Times on the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs), which focused more on the lessons that have been learnt from the processes leading up to the introduction of the MDGs in September 2000 and their implementation through to today. With the imminent launching of the SDGs at the next UN General Assembly in September 2015, such lesson learning is essential as it could contribute significantly to enhancing the chances of greater ownership by all the stakeholders of the Post-2015 agenda and thus much better implementation of the SDGs and higher chances for the realisation of the underlying objectives for their introduction compared to the MDGs. We have noted in the article that indeed this time around, there has been demonstrated political will to learn those lessons and put them to good effect in the formulation of the SDGs, starting with mass sensitisation of people across the world over the past two and a half years to the incoming global development agenda and affording them the opportunity to actually contribute to shaping it.The UN Secretary-General deftly utilized the latest available social media methods for carrying out such a mass sensitization campaign, starting from December 2012. It would be recalled that surveys, utilising a powerful social network platform called My World Survey, were carried out among people from all works of life, including in Rwanda, to solicit their views about what should constitute the key elements of the Post-2015 development agenda. We have also noted in that article that the formulation process of the Post-MDG agenda is on the last stretch now. In this regard, we would again recall that the fifth session of the negotiations, which took place in New York between 18 -22 May 2015, was the last “thematic” session. The remaining negotiations that are taking place from now through end-July, 2015, will be devoted to discussing the outcome document, that will be presented to the September 2015 General Assembly, during which the new global development compact is expected to be adopted for implementation from 2016 to 2030. The incoming global development goals have pretty much assumed the name of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This has its origins in the debates on the post-MDG global development agenda, which started in earnest at the Rio+20 Summit on sustainable development in Rio, Brazil, in 2012. At that Summit, there was an agreement that a set of new global development goals should focus on the triple major dimensions of sustainable development at least through to 2030: economic, social and environmental. On the basis of the views expressed by people across the world about the global development agenda that they believe should succeed the MDGs and following the intensive intergovernmental and open working group negotiations that have been taking place over the past two and a half years on the specific contents of that agenda, 17 goals (SDGs), 69 targets and over 300 indicators have so far been retained, as opposed to 8 MDGs, 16 targets and 48 indicators that were introduced in September 2000 through the Millennium Declaration. For purposes of sensitisation, these goals are reproduced below: 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere. 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all. 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation; 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries. 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development. From the above, it is evident that the post-2015 global development agenda is much more ambitious than the MDGs. The UN Task Team on the this new global development agenda very well summarises it as “an integrated policy and programmatic approach to ensure inclusive transformational economic development, inclusive social development, peace and security and environmental sustainability within a development agenda that responds to the aspirations of all people for a world free of want and fear”. More specifically, four major distinguishing features differentiate the SDGs from the MDGs: the first is that they constitute a much wider and deeper agenda, going far beyond only social development and halving of poverty to ending the latter in all its forms and everywhere by 2030; secondly, the SDGs are much more ambitious, embracing economic and social transformation and aiming to tackle head on the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation; thirdly, they are a universal agenda, applying to all countries and all people in both the south and north; and they place particular explicit emphasis on good governance, stability and adherence to basic human rights as important pre-conditions for sustainable development. Importantly also, the implementation of SDGs will require enormous financial resources, running into several billions of dollars annually, but there is emphasis this time on recourse to funding avenues other than external aid, including more activist approach to domestic resource mobilization, trade promotion and private sector financing. The forthcoming Financing for Development, that will take place in Addis Ababa in a couple of weeks, will discuss in great detail these financing options for the SDGs. What do the SDGs mean for Rwanda? First of all, SDGs constitute another important global compact that is expected or intended to galvanise the international community to collectively tackle the development challenges it is currently facing: which include the need to end poverty in all its forms, reduce debasing inequalities, accelerate transformation, render growth and development processes more sustainable and ensure durable stability and conflict prevent across the world. As in the case of the MDGs, Rwanda could be both an active agent and beneficiary of the implementation of this global compact. Most of the things that H.E. President Paul Kagame has consistently advocated for over the past few years as key requirements for pushing Rwanda and Africa to where they should be are also contained in the SDGs, notably inclusive and people-centered development, economic transformation, self-reliance, stability and dignity for all Rwandans and Africans. The President has also rightly pointed out that MDGs should not be seen as the “ceiling”, because, as important as they are, they do fall short of the transformational and ambitious aspirations of Rwandans and Africans in general. From the foregoing analysis of the SDGs, it is clear that they are consistent with President Kagame’s visions, of transformational approaches to development, underscored by principles of equal opportunities for all the citizens, self-reliance, social cohesion and stability. Rwanda has clearly demonstrated its integrity as far as adherence to, and implementation of, international conventions it has appended its signature to. This includes the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs agenda. Apart from being a Global Advocate for MDGs, President Kagame ensured that his Government integrated the MDGs and their targets and indicators in the various national development strategies that were launched following the September 2000 Millennium Declaration, and the results of all this speak for themselves. There is by now broad appreciation for the remarkable progress Rwanda has made towards attaining virtually all the MDGs, being among only a handful of African countries that are likely to do so. The international community expects President Kagame and his Government to play a similar activist and lead role in the adoption and implementation of SDGs. As I noted in my above-cited article, through its envoys in New York and other key locations, Rwanda has already contributed significantly and directly to the discussions and negotiations on the new global development goals and the Ministries for Finance and Economic Planning, and Local Government as well as the Rwanda Governance Board have made important contributions to the formulation of SDG indicators in the areas of capacity development, governance and the rule of law. It is also encouraging that the Parliamentarians are already taking an activist stance towards the domestication of SDGs, given the important oversight role they will play in the implementation by the Government of the new goals. Going forward, Rwanda’s Development Partners, including the One UN Rwanda Team, are gearing up for supporting the country to first integrate the SDGs in the country’s medium and long-term development strategies and then their effective implementation. Hopefully, such an engagement will start with broad consultations of all the country’s stakeholders on the SDGs under the leadership of the President’s Office and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. The writer is the UN Resident Coordinator

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SDGs and what they mean for Rwanda