John Baaki Terzungwe

Programme Manager, Women Environmental Programme

“We have no funds to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”This was the popular response we got from most offices of the Senior Special Assistants to the Governors on SDGs (SSAs on  SDGs) in the course of our baseline gender assessment against selected SDGs and targets in 10 states of Nigeria.

Following the adoption of the SDGs in September, 2015, to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), my organization, Women Environmental Programme (WEP) in collaboration with four other global and regional women’s organizations signed a 5-year framework agreement with the European Commission to monitor the implementation of the SDGs in 52 countries, under the project titled: “Women CSOs Networking to Realize the SDGs, also known as Women2030.” It was in the course of establishing baseline against selected goals and targets that would guide our engagement with different stakeholders on this project that we came to understand how the SDGs were viewed among government Ministries, Units, Departments and Agencies (MUDAs).

The most important thing to realize the SDGs is not necessarily about getting more and more funding, but more about making judicious use of the available funds, channeling it where it is needed and avoiding unnecessary expenditures that will not contribute to realizing SDGs. This is where the offices of the SSAs on SDGs need to play a guiding role. The offices of the SSAs on SDGs need to get the relevant ministries, departments and agencies of government to understand the goals and targets that are relevant to their work and develop plans that are relevant to achieving the targets with timelines towards 2030. There should be a clear plan on how the state wants to achieve each target of its priority SDGs.

Full article link: https://womenenvironmentalprogramme.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/nigeria-where-will-the-money-to-implement-the-sdgs-come-from/