Papua New Guinea remains committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and accelerating national efforts to address the ongoing challenges.
This requires multi-stakeholder partnerships with Government leading the way.
The 2022 United Nations High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on the theme “Building back better from COVID-19, while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, with special focus on SDGs;
- 4 on quality education
- 5 on gender equality
- 14 on oceans and seas (Life below sea)
- 15 on life on land, and
- 17 on partnerships for the Goals.
The Forum was held last month in New York, USA.
The Secretary for Department of National Planning and Monitoring, Koney Samuel led the Government delegation comprising senior officials from the Departments of National Planning and Monitoring, and Foreign Affairs and International Trade assisted by PNG’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
The annual Forum brings together world leaders at Ministerial-level and multistakeholder representatives to share their perspective on the status of their progress on the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals.
Papua New Guinea political leaders were unable to attend the HLPF due to the country’s National General Election.
The Forum adopted an Outcome Document in the form of a Ministerial Declaration, which PNG joined in consensus.
This Declaration feeds into the UN General Assembly’s annual “SDG Moment” High-Level Meeting in September, 2022 at the margins of the UN General Assembly, where world leaders will take stock of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as they work towards the 2023 SDGs Summit.
The participants agreed that efforts for the SDGs implementation at country level worldwide seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and further compounded by the Russia-Ukraine War.
Papua New Guinea including many Small Island Developing States are still reeling from its aftermath. Consequently, the world was off-track in achieving the 2030 Agenda and the need for urgency to address it holistically, at speed and scale was highlighted.
The international community, through the Ministerial Declaration, renewed its commitment to work together and explore avenues to accelerate the SDGs Implementation.
Securing adequate financing, stronger and practical partnerships, capacity building, and investment in the 17 Goals are critical to progress the SDGs.
Secretary Samuel addressed the High-Level Ministerial Roundtable on the topic of “Accelerating achievement of the SDGs by 2030: addressing ongoing crises and overcoming challenges.”
Some of the key points he highlighted include:
• PNG’s socio-economic development has been seriously impeded by COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War. These affected the supply-chain across all sectors including service delivery, transportation, tourism, jobs, mobility and raised costs of living, impacting in particular ordinary people’s lives and livelihoods. In mitigating, the Government has taken necessary measures to sustain the economy and protect the country’s welfare;
• Partnerships with bilateral and multilateral development partners, NGOs, churches, and private sector have helped cushion these crises. However, much more support will be needed to overcome their impact; and,
• PNG’s commitment to achieving the SDGs remains undiminished, the Goals have been localized and aligned with our Medium-Term Development Plans. However, national integration and coordination remains a challenge.
“Our participation in this global Forum has provided us with a broader insight of important development issues that will help our efforts in achieving the SDGs. The new government will need to be informed of the importance of the SDGs in achieving our medium to long term development goals consistent with PNG Vision 2050,” said Secretary Samuel.
He also emphasized the need for structural and institutional reforms to facilitate processes to coordinate the implementation of the SDGs in our country.
The roadmap for this will be presented at the GoPNG-Development Partner High Level Forum on Development Effectiveness to be held later this year.