Sustainable Development Goals attainable despite some challenges, UN

Dar es Salaam. The United Nations Resident Coordinator, Mr Zlatan Milisic, yesterday said that despite the unfriendly circumstances that have derailed some of the progress in achieving the 17 pillars of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the goals are still attainable.

“SDGs are attainable. We know the progress is not as fast due to various reasons, such as global crises, but the targets are realistic, and we should all be working towards them. Even though we don’t achieve all of them by 2030, we need to keep moving,” he said.

Mr Milisic shared his views during a breakfast engagement with the Tanzania Editors Forum (TEF) in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Shedding light on where Tanzania stands in its SDG timeline, Mr Milisic said so far, goals 1-3 are on track, and the government, together with key stakeholders such as the UN, is working on fast-tracking the rest.

“Apart from the annual SDGs progress report issued by the UN, there’s a national voluntary review (NVR) that includes governments presenting their results at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Tanzania is a part of that process with the support of the UN for all 17 SDGs,” Mr Milisic said.

However, in 2019, Tanzania presented its report to the NVR conference, whereby it was identified that the country was not doing well in areas of climate change and poverty alleviation. The country then asked for more time to improve. In response, speaking at a high-level multi-stakeholders coordination for NVR in November 2022, the United Nations Association of Tanzania executive director, Mr Reynald Maeda, said the 2023 theme was to see how the country was rebuilding itself from the effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have been directed by the government to coordinate CSOs. Through the process of review that we have started today, we will begin to evaluate how, as a country, we have managed to correct what we were told in 2019,” he said.

In facilitating the attainment and implementation of the SDGs in Tanzania, the UN said it believes that the media also have a role to play.

Mr Milisic said the strategic communication of the SDGs will create important dialogues and debates, as well as push for more accountability in the implementation of the goals.

“Through the five-year sustainable development cooperation framework, UN agencies are willing to be key partners with the media and be used as sources of your content,” he said. The UN representative also urged the Tanzanian media houses to consider joining the SDG Media Compact initiative by the UN, which was established for the sole purpose of advancing awareness of the goals.

According to the UN, the SDG Media Compact seeks to inspire news and entertainment organizations to leverage their resources and talent to amplify and accelerate progress towards achieving the goals.

Chairman of the Tanzania Editors Forum (TEF), Mr Deodatus Balile, said media personnel in the country are ready to cooperate with UN agencies, but there is still a need to boost understanding by increasing capacity building.