adminMabasa Sasa at the United Nations
Zimbabwe and the other 192 member states of the United Nations on Friday unanimously adopted 17 new development targets that will guide the trajectory of global socio-economic transformation through to 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in New York in the United States, where President Mugabe is leading the Zimbabwe delegation to the Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly.
President Mugabe is accompanied by First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe, and ministers Simbarashe Mumbengewi (Foreign Affairs) and Dr David Parirenyatwa (Health and Child Care) as well as several other senior Government officials.
More than 150 Heads of State and Government were present at the Summit, which was opened by UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon and featured an address by leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis.
The SDGs are the successor programme to the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015). Mr Ban said: “The new agenda is a promise by leaders to all people everywhere. It is a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world.
“It is an agenda for people, to end poverty in all its forms. It is an agenda for shared prosperity, peace and partnership (that) conveys the urgency of climate action (and) is rooted in gender equality and respect for the rights of all. Above all, it pledges to leave no one behind.”
He added, “The true test of commitment to Agenda 2030 will be implementation. We need action from everyone, everywhere. Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are our guide. They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success.”
General Assembly president Mr Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark described the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development “ambitious” in its bid to confront the injustices of poverty, marginalisation and discrimination.
“We recognise the need to reduce inequalities and to protect our common home by changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production.
“And, we identify the overwhelming need to address the politics of division, corruption and irresponsibility that fuel conflict and hold back development.”
The SDGs seek to build on the successes of the MDGs, while also attempting to address the failures noted in that development agenda.
The declaration adopted by world leaders on Friday reads in part: “We are setting out together on the path towards sustainable development, devoting ourselves collectively to the pursuit of global development and of ‘win-win’ cooperation which can bring huge gains to all countries and all parts of the world.”
Online Reporter