Press Address on Influencing Government to Implement SDGs

TEXT OF A PRESS ADDRESS PRESENTED BY DAVID TOLA WINJOBI (PhD), CONVENER CAMPAIGN2015+ INTERNATIONAL, ON ENGAGEMENT OF NIGERIAN POLITICAL LEADERS AND STAKEHOLDERS TOWARDS ACCELERATED IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs) IN NIGERIA ON FRIDAY 31ST JULY 2015 AT NUJ PRESS CENTRE, IBADAN Gentlemen and ladies of the media, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to this epoch making press address on raising the consciousness of Nigerian leaders and stakeholders towards accelerated implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are the successor goals to MDGs to be adopted by heads of governments and states in September 2015 in New York.

Fifteen years on from the original adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the 2000 Millennium Summit, and less than eight weeks left to September 2015 it seems all the efforts by stakeholders towards achieving MDGs are not drastic enough. According to the UN Secretary-General, though there is some remarkable progress made in some countries, collectively countries are falling short in the achievement of MDGs globally. The consequence of these shortfalls further aggravated by the combined effects of the global food, climate, energy and economic crises, is that improvements in the lives of the poorest are happening at an unacceptably slow pace while in some countries hard fought gains are being eroded. At the current pace, several of the eight MDGs and associated targets are likely to be missed in many countries including Nigeria.

Nigeria, for example, is failing in meeting Goals 1, 4 and 5 as more than 112 million (67%) Nigerians are still living below poverty line both relative and absolute (World Bank, 2013) while 53% of this is in rural communities. According to the Nigeria Demography and Health Survey (2013), the Nigeria infant mortality rate for the total population was 69/1,000 (at 60 for urban and 86 for rural areas) while the maternal mortality rate in Nigeria was 576/10000 the same year. Unfortunately too, a mere 28 percent Nigerians have access to improved sanitation facility (Population Reference Bureau, 2015).

The need for all to look beyond 2015 MDGs is paramount and is emphasized in the 2010 Annual report of the Secretary-General titled, “Accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals: options for sustained and inclusive growth and issues for advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015”. This led to recommendations for further steps to advance the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015, charting a new course and better alternative to succeed the MDGs. The United Nations (UN) kick-started the programme to foster a broad based, open and inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders, including civil society actors, on the post-2015 agenda.

A key part of this was the global conversation on post-2015 that captured the voices of citizens.

As indicated in the UN Secretary General’s report to the General Assembly in September 2011, the UN Millennium Campaign acted as one of the outreach mechanisms to civil society to gather inputs and feedback on the post-2015 agenda and facilitate dialogue with the UN system. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) were mandated by the Secretary-General to lead the work on the post-2015 framework.

A Task Team of senior technical experts from UNDP and DESA, and supported by the full UN system, was set up in January 2012 to define a system-wide vision for the post-2015 agenda.

From August 2012 to July 31 2015, there were all-inclusive deliberations across the globe followed by Open Working Group sessions and finally by intergovernmental negotiation processes which ended today. It must be underscored that many organizations including Campaign2015+ International (Nigerian-based), Beyond 2015 International, the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), the International Forum of National NGO Platforms (IFP) etc played active role in convening national, regional, and community civil society deliberations in 40 countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

All these efforts led to crafting a set of successor goals to MDGs called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is much hope that the post-2015 development framework is

likely to have the best development impact as it emerges from an inclusive, open and transparent process with multi-stakeholder participation. Here lies the strength of SDGs as opposed to the weakness of MDGs whose ratification and implementation excluded the major stakeholders.

Campaign2015+/Beyond 2015 strongly welcomes the final draft of the Post-2015 outcome document as it brings a robust level of ambition and a clear commitment towards universality and integration, as well as positive steps towards inclusion and participation. The document balances different perspectives shared by Member States and stakeholders during the intergovernmental negotiations, and we call upon Nigerian government to commit to this Agenda and its implementation in September and beyond.

The draft outcome document tries to ensure the integrated, indivisible and interlinked nature of the Sustainable Development Goals. We applaud the commitment to a people-centred agenda while we also commend the revised document for seeking to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of all, and the recognition of gender equality as a cross-cutting issue. We also welcome explicit mention of participation and the call for all people, including the most marginalized, to be engaged in implementation, follow-up and review.

We strongly call for the need for Nigerian governments to start implementing the SDGs as they hit the ground running by September 2015 so that SDGs would not suffer the same fate that MDGs suffered by starting late in 2005. In this regard, we seek the cooperation of the media in the implementation process of SDGs especially their efforts in popularizing SDGs by creating awareness on people and CSOs’ inclusive participation in implementation of SDGs from the earliest stage as possible.

We intensely push for the creation or the development of cross ministerial commissions so as to bring to live the inter-linkage between the SDGs vis a vis departments and agencies of government. This cross departmental committees, should consist of, at least, the National Bureau of Statistics, Ministries of environment, finance, foreign affairs and planning, in order to work on the implementation and monitoring of the Post-2015 agenda. Though we commend the courage of President Muhammadu Buhari in pruning down the Ministries to a manageable size, we nevertheless underscore the need for the creation of a commission on SDGs so as to demonstrate commitment and undiluted political support to development for the benefit of common people who suffer more the pang of poverty. Building on the experience of MDG Senate/House Committees, government should support the creation of SDG Multi-party Parliamentary Committees, which will reinforce and support the executive power efforts on the implementation of SDGs in which CSOs and local level institutions can participate actively.

Our governments should ensure that the SDGs are translated into national development plans, and, leaving no one behind, facilitate enhanced voice for civil society and the media in supporting SDGs implementation process using all resources available to them. A nationalized successor SDGs must make explicit provisions for social protection and service provision, to provide an opportunity for all to live in dignity. It should be a framework that does not look to define poverty based on narrow measures of income. Rather, it should seek to measure human development in a way that is holistic, taking into account equality, the environment, and wellbeing, which should include social protection and access to services. Governments should therefore ensure that national and local resources are allocated to the implementation of the SDGs while, if necessary, there should be legislation backing this up.

Drawing from the strength of the outcome document, our Governments have the primary responsibility for follow-up and reviews of progress at least every four years at the national, state, and local levels, in relation to the progress made in implementing SDGs and targets over the coming fifteen years. They should provide for systematic, participatory and inclusive followup and review at the various levels of accountability, with meaningful participation of civil society and other stakeholders, including as set out in SDGs Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (July 2015) in which the Vice President actively participated. Quality, accessible, timely and reliable disaggregated data across all dimensions of sustainable development will be needed to help with the measurement of progress for all social and economic groups and to ensure that no one is left behind. Such data is key to decision-making. Data and information from existing reporting mechanisms should be used where possible as should data from nonofficial sources such as civil society including the media to help fill gaps in official reporting Governments must prioritize development investment, especially in pro-poor infrastructure and utilities, which starts with the needs of the poorest and most marginalized people, ensuring that program success indicators are linked directly with positive impacts. In this regard, power supply must be made to work, road networks should be improved upon, energy especially petrol pandemonic scarcity need be looked into while security of lives and property should be meaningfully addressed. Corruption that has become a cankerworm eating deep our fabric should be tackled headlong while government should prosecute sleaze and seal the leakages into private pockets throwing people into further poverty.

Corruption is anathema to development whereas good governance, transparency and accountability, underpin sustainable development. Governance accountability framework should be set up by government. Without clear delineations of responsibilities as well as rights, and without a mechanism for holding actors to account for commitments, progress will not be made.

We call on the media to speak up about any deviation from governments’ commitment to all the SDGs. The commitment with the principles of universality, leave no one behind, and people and planetcentered agenda agreed by the countries in the intergovernmental negotiations must be stressed to Nigerian authorities as they agreed to them. Media should also help to build a positive image of the Post-2015 agenda in Nigeria by collaborating with civil society’s securing press coverage in TV, newspapers, radio and social media.

Thank you for your attention.

D. Tola Winjobi (PhD) Convener, Campaign2015+ International tolawinjobi58@yahoo.com 08030618326

ABOUT BEYOND2015 INTERNATIONAL Campaign2015+ International is the Lead Agency for Beyond 2015 International which is a global civil society coalition comprising more than 1300 CSOs from more than 140 countries working to advance the

adoption of a strengthened, inclusive and legitimate post-2015 framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Beyond 2015 has two main goals: • A global overarching cross-thematic framework for development after 2015.

• A participatory and responsive process for developing the framework, so that it includes the point of view of those directly affected by poverty and injustice. In order to accomplish these goals, Beyond 2015 has promoted debate on the Post-2015 agenda in almost 40 countries, has built a campaign-wide understanding of the foundations of the Post-2015 agenda (Vision, Purpose, Values and Criteria), and has taken several advocacy actions based on a ‘pincer movement’ built around a constant highlighting of the same messages to political leaders at the national, regional and global levels. For more information contact the Country Lead Person Dr Tola Winjobi on +2348030618326 and tolawinjobi58@yahoo.com