Development Planning Minister Mokoto Hloaele
Limpho Sello
THE Ministry of Development Planning has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to engage relevant stakeholders in developing a roadmap for the domestication of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The SDGs — also known as the Global Goals — are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
The 17 SDGs aim at building on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while including new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among other priorities.
Ministry of Development Planning Principal Secretary Tlohelang Aumane this week told the Lesotho Times the SDGs cover all areas the government is focusing on to facilitate development hence the need to localise them by engaging all stakeholders.
“It is very important to engage all stakeholders, especially civil society organisations (CSOs) for them to strategise and plan projects in line with the SDGs,” Mr Aumane said, adding it would be easier for CSOs to implement the SDGs when they fully understood them.
He expressed optimism the country would achieve greater success in implementing SDGs than it had with the MDGs. The MDGs are eight international development goals established following the 2000 United Nations (UN) Millennium Summit held in New York, which each member country was supposed to have achieved by 2015.
The goals, which included eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality; reducing child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria among others were derived from the UN Millennium Declaration, which proclaimed every individual has the right to freedom, equality and a basic standard of living.
“The MDGs were a mixed bag as we performed well on some indicators and not very well on others. As for the SDGs, I believe we are going to meet the set targets because they came at the right time when the government is launching the second National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP),” said Mr Aumane.
“We understand why we never performed well in the MDGs so we are going to work harder this time on the SDGs. We will also be learning from other African countries and the United Nations.”
Addressing an SDG foresight workshop this week, Development Planning Minister Mokoto Hloaele stressed the need for preparation and crafting of innovative ways that would assist in the pursuit of the country’s development goals and their alignment with the global agenda.
“As we plan and prepare to implement the SDGs, we need to critically look for innovative ways to pursue our development priorities and align them with global, continental and regional agendas,” Mr Hloaele said.
“We live in a dynamic world and it is important to devise innovative ways of implementing our programmes. The government needs practical tools to learn and adopt in order to deal with challenges of implementing the SDGs.”
