From boardrooms to the development battlefront

This week at the United Nations Headquarters, Nigeria joins 43 other nations in presenting her 2017 National Voluntary Review (NVR) of the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In presenting her report, Nigeria has restated her unequivocal commitment to the letter and spirit of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. […]

This week at the United Nations Headquarters, Nigeria joins 43 other nations in presenting her 2017 National Voluntary Review (NVR) of the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In presenting her report, Nigeria has restated her unequivocal commitment to the letter and spirit of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. She has opened up to ‘peer-review’ and ‘peer-learning’ from both the global south and the global north.

It may be recalled that the NVR is purely voluntary. It was embedded in the 2030 Agenda in order to encourage UN member states, through the annual High Level Political Forum (HLPF), to "conduct regular and inclusive reviews of progress at the national and sub-national levels, which are country-led and country-driven."

The ultimate aim is to facilitate sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, with a view to accelerating implementation.

Nigeria kick-started implementation of the SDGs in early 2016 at a time when the country faced the duality of an economic recession and a humanitarian crisis occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East and the unfortunate tide of militancy in the Niger Delta region.

The recession was itself triggered by the global oil crisis coupled with the failure to diversify revenue sources and foreign exchange earnings. As is evident from the 2017 NVR, these combination of factors, coupled with the reality of the non-inclusive economic progress registered earlier, negatively impacted the collective aspiration to implement SDG-related programmes. 

As a consequence, an estimated 62.6% of Nigerians still toil under the burden of poverty while an estimated 27.9% are multi-dimensionally poor. Unemployment currently stands at 14.2%; income inequality, measured by the Gini Coefficient, stands at 43% while the country loses 89 children under five for every 1,000 live births and some 10 million children lucky to live past their fifth birthday are currently out of school. 

The unfavourable factors notwithstanding, the country has made necessary investments in the productive and social sectors, all within the context of the 2016 Strategic Implementation Plan, and the recently-launched Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (NERGP, 2017 -2020). 

With specific reference to the poor and vulnerable while reaching those furthest behind first, the report highlights the ambitious National Social Investment Project built around a Cash Transfer Programme; a home-grown School Feeding Programme; a Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programmes as well as a Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Scheme.

There is also, the N-Power Programme for skills development, especially for the youth as well as the continued implementation of the flagship Conditional Grants Scheme through which the Federal Government incentivizes State and Local Governments to set aside and utilize 50% and 20% of the cost of select SDGs-related projects in their annual budgets, respectively. These, according to the report, are some of the success stories that merit national celebration.

On one hand, it is manifestly clear that the country has laid a firm foundation for SDGs implementation through a raft of policy, legislative, institutional and administrative reform measures. 

At the federal level, these include, (though not limited to), the establishment of the soon-to-be inaugurated, Presidential Council on the SDGs as an apex body to provide high-level political and policy guidance, direction as well as the requisite political pressure.

Others are the creation of a special high office on the SDGs, headed by a Senior Special Assistant to the President on the SDGs to ensure inter-governmental and multilayer coordination, planning, multi-stakeholders’ partnership, resource mobilization, as well as a seamless and robust strategic communications and advocacy around the SDGs agenda across the three tiers of Government.

There is also an inter-Ministerial Committee on the SDGs aimed at promoting effective engagement with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (the  MDAs). It is instructive that similar structures have been established in all the 36 States and in some cases, at Local Government Area level (LGA).

Moreover, all Federal and State MDAs as well as some LGAs have appointed SDGs focal points. And to enhance the legislative and oversight roles of Parliamentarians, two select committees on SDGs have been established in the both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Government has also recognized the undoubtedly important role of various stakeholders and established a Private Sector Advisory Group on the SDGs; a Development Partners’ Forum on the SDGs; as well as a Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Advisory Group on the SDGs.

The report however, notes that the country still faces challenges that could impede the nation’s grand march towards the promise of prosperity, peace and a dignified life for all by 2030. 

At the macro level, in not having sufficiently managed to diversify the revenue base and foreign exchange sources, the economy remains vulnerable to external shocks particularly the current depressed global oil prices.

Secondly, Nigeria’s economy remains dangerously dependant on oil and gas. The huge infrastructural and technological deficit, coupled with weak institutional capacities, especially in the public sector, are cited as factors which continue to hamstring the nation’s progress towards the SDGs.

Foremost among these challenges is the lack of disaggregated comprehensive and up-to-date data always needed to purposively aid in the planning of various SDGs interventions while also enabling the tracking of performance. 

The aforementioned militancy and humanitarian crisis also presents challenges which will need to be addressed. 

Nigeria’s challenges are, however, not insurmountable and the future holds great promise for the people of Nigeria, especially the poor and vulnerable, but only if remedial steps are taken and public and private investments are targeted at geographic areas and segments of society that are most deprived.

The SDGs have brought decades old debate on the concept of sustainable development to the centre-stage of national and sub-national policy formulation, planning and budget execution processes.

Indeed, most country delegations to this year’s HLPF are headed by Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Planning. This is a major shift from previous political review processes that followed the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro and the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002 which were headed by Ministers of the Environment.

Present-day development challenges are, without a doubt, complex but the SDGs seem to be providing an overarching framework for addressing such complex realities of our time; for instance, provision of quality health and education and the possibility of transforming the apparent youth bulge into a demographic dividend through creation of descent jobs for the youth as opposed to a demographic disaster. 

It also provides a framework for enhancing agricultural production and productivity and addressing hunger and malnutrition; and promoting sustainable land use and sound environmental management, amongst others.

A window of opportunity is fast opening the mainstreaming of SDGs into national and sub-national policies, plans and budgets. Nigeria must be at the forefront in ensuring that this becomes a reality and that there is not only a seamless horizontal and vertical coordination across the three tiers of Government, but also, that there is greater integration in the implementation processes.    

Reading through Nigeria’s 2017 NVR and also listening to discussions in the many formal meetings and side events during the 2017 HLPF, it is abundantly clear to me that it is time to shift the SDGs debate from the comfort zones of air-conditioned boardrooms in New York, Abuja and the 36 State capitals, right to the ‘development battlefronts’ within local communities and precisely, to  the deprived and the vulnerable households and individuals: the  women, children, jobless youth, people living with disabilities, minority groups, amongst many others.

*Ojijo Odhiambo is UNDP’s Economic Advisor for Nigeria and ECOWAS