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Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
THE Government is working on aligning the country’s economic blueprint, the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), with Vision 2030 and Agenda 2063 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Zimbabwe joined other United Nations members in adopting SDGs in 2015 and made a commitment thereafter to implement the goals through national development plans, according to Permanent Secretary for Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Mr Simon Masanga.
He said there are no stand-alone programmes put in place specifically for SDGs in the country and the SDGs will be attained as he country implements the national development plans, signifying mainstreaming of SDGs into the national development plan.
Government is also implementing the NDS1 (2021-2025), which has 14 thematic areas, while there are 17 SDGs.
A workshop being attended by officials from various Government ministries and departments, development partners such as the United Nations, non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations opened in Victoria Falls yesterday to integrate NDS1 and the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.
Participants called for a mindset change to implement NDS1 which is a pathway towards an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
They said NDS1 is as good as localising SDGs, hence the need for planning which encompasses both, especially in budgetary allocations.
Every stakeholder should start viewing NDS1 and SDGs as two sides of the same coin towards Agenda 2030, with NDS1 being a localised plan and answer to achieving SDGs, as the continent has entered the last Decade of Action.
The Decade of Action was announced by the UN Secretary-General in 2020.
Mr Masanga said it’s important to interrogate how Government and other key stakeholders function and influence policy and engagement, including continuously improving scarce resource allocation and utilisation in a manner that increases economic productivity, and general standards of living towards achieving an empowered upper middle-income status by 2030.
There is a need to streamline implementation and link both development plans through appropriate budgeting so that the country hits two birds with one stone, he said.
Mr Masanga said both NDS1 and SDGs are about improving livelihoods of people, improving he economy, protecting the environment, economic development, social issues, education, housing health, gender equality and economic issues, as well as how to exploit local resources to benefit people and grow the economy.
“The reason why we are here is to talk about SDGs because they touch on every aspect of life and it is only sensible that we mainstream them in our planning processes and sector programmes. We have realised that we have developed a national planning blueprint called NDS1, which has 14 thematic areas which are to do mainly with the same issues that are under SDGs,” said Mr Masanga.
He challenged every citizen to reflect on their contribution towards implementation of both NDS1 and SDGs, especially in eradication of poverty and hunger at household level.
Online Reporter