Public Service Officials should collaborate with CSOs to implement SDGs: BBI advocates as OSSAP SDGs hosts CSOs
Brain Builders International has successfully participated in the 2-Day Retreat for the Civil Society Organisations in Nigeriaorganised by theOffice of the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs). The retreat, held at Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 January 2020, had over 100 civil society organisations in attendance. It was aimed at “sharing knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources to support the implementation of the SDGs at all levels of the society, as well as to facilitate a formal inauguration of the Civil Society Organizations Strategy Group on the SDGs (CSOSG-SDGs) and emergence of leadership of the Group”, the office noted.
Speaking at the retreat, the Technical Adviser to the SSAP SDGs, Dr Bala Usman Yunusa noted that the government has developed strategic frameworks to ensure that the SDGs is implemented successfully in Nigeria. He raised that Nigeria requires $85billion annually to fund the SDG implementation in the country. Therefore, it is important that all CSOs work together in partnership towards achieving the goals.
The Director of the Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr ZakariLawal, mni, mentioned that the Federal Government has developed a strategic monitoring and Evaluation framework towards the implementation of SDGs, and Civil Society Organisations are critical components of the framework. He, however, lamented on the limited engagement of CSOs with the government ministries.
In her keynote remarks, the SSAP SDGs also emphasised the need to have strong collaboration among CSOs and the government, as the success of the decade of action lies on the effort of the CSOs. In a twist, the United Nations Country Representative, His Excellency, Mr Edwards Kallon noted the challenge before Nigeria as she ranks 159 out of 162 countries implementing the SDGs in 2019.
Brain Builders International, represented by one of its executive board members, Mr Abdulhakeem Abdulkareem, advocated for the need to create awareness and training for public service officials to support the work of CSOs in the implementation of SDGs. It noted that despite having a robust implementation framework, low attention to requests and poor administrative will from MDAs have affected the work of CSOs in monitoring and supporting advocacy for SDGs Project.
BBI also participated in a keen group discussion on how civil society organisations will be engaged in the Voluntary National Review of the SDGs. The group charted out recommendations that would assist Nigeria develop a VNR report that adequately curates the true level of the implementation of SDGs in Nigeria.
BBI hopes that the retreat would help CSOs create better modus operandi in implementing the SDGs and also create a unified front in advocating for the support for SDGs fromthe government at all levels in the country.
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