New Pacific roadmap to help end poverty [1]
Thursday, July 7, 2016 - 16:28. Updated on Sunday, July 17, 2016 - 20:31.
Pacific Island countries will soon have a regional roadmap to guide efforts towards implementing and monitoring the 17 goals outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty.
The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat said in a statement that a draft ‘Pacific SDGs Roadmap’ is in the making and will identify key components to implement SDGs in the Pacific.
It will also provide assistance to member countries that require support to implement, monitor, evaluate and report on the SDGs and the SAMOA Pathway, a framework specifically for Small Island States (SIDS) to gain support from the international community to help meet sustainable development needs that they would otherwise not meet on their own due to size and vulnerabilities.
In addition, the roadmap will identify the role of the National Sustainable Development Strategies Partnership Group (NSDSPG) and development partners in assisting with the follow-up and review process of the SDGs, SAMOA Pathway and the Framework for Pacific Regionalism.
Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Ms. Cristelle Pratt said “The Roadmap will be concise, clear, visual and accessible to all. It has to be clear and appropriately communicated at the political level and to the broader Pacific audience.”
“The Roadmap could guide assistance by development partners to member countries to build their capacities and readiness to implement and report on their national development priorities as reflected in the SDGs,” she said.
The United Nations SDGs follow on from the eight anti-poverty goals under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were adopted in 2000 aimed at slashing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and access to water and sanitation by 2015.
Over the next 15 years, the SDGs is set to influence policy and funding in a bid to end all forms of poverty worldwide, permanently.
The draft Pacific SDGs Roadmap is being developed by a Pacific SDGs Taskforce, which includes representatives from Forum Member Countries, CROP Agencies, Multilateral Agencies, Bilateral partners, Non-State Actors and regional research/academic institutions, and will be considered by Pacific Islands Forum Leaders at their meeting in Pohnpei in September 2016.
The final roadmap will be completed prior to the Pacific Regional SDGs Multi-stakeholder Consultation and Dialogue in February 2017.