Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and others during workshop for building capacities for taking forward Sustainable Development Goals in Nagaland on November 13 in Kohima. (Morung Photo)
Workshop for building capacities for taking forward sustainable development goals underway in Kohima
Our Correspondent
Kohima | November 13
The state government has taken a commitment to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the policy process of the state.
In this regard, the state’s Planning & Coordination Department in collaboration with United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) initiated a two day “Workshop for building capacities for taking forward Sustainable Development Goals in Nagaland” from today at Hotel Vivor for all the nodal officers.
The workshop aims to enhance understanding on the SDGs and start the process of designing strategic plans and actions for department to achieve the 17 SDGs in a holistic manner.
The state government has started the process of nominating nodal officers from each department and also plan to start identifying the SDG goal-wise indicators for schemes/programme in the state with the planning department taking a lead.
The two capacity building exercise is intended to support the state departments in the process of understanding the SDGs and integrating it in their work, understanding available data, plan for monitoring system towards SDG implementation and development strategies.
The objectives includes enhancing the understanding on SDGs, challenges to its implementation thereby making sustainable development more responsive and relevant to local needs and aspirations, undertake an exercise of mapping of the state and central schemes against the SDGs and development of integrated financing framework, identification of state level indicators and correlating the same with the indicators identified in the vision plan exercise and finalization of indicators.
The expected outcome of the workshop includes defining a clear institutional structure for implementation of SDGs in the state, enhancing understanding on SDGs and defining the role of departments in the process, define understanding on the local context of SDGs with both national and global perspective, identify partners in academia, civil society organizations, and businesses who could partner in the process, design a strategic plan and action plan framework with each department will prepare for preparing the Vision Plan of Nagaland till 2030, etc.
Formulation of vision to achieve SDGs is in initial stages in Nagaland: Rio
“This workshop will go a long way in building capacities and enabling Nagaland to take necessary action to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio while addressing the inaugural function.
Rio said that 2030 agenda for sustainable development, adopted by all UN member states in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for all people across the world.
Stating that SDGs affect everyone, he said “it is a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure an inclusive society for all people to enjoy peace and prosperity.”
With adequate support from UNDP, Rio said SDGs can be integrated into the state’s development plans and policies, thereby laying foundations towards ensuring that the state does not lag behind in the global movement for SDGs.
In order to reduce hunger and poverty, we need to not only make agriculture sustainable but also increase farm incomes, Rio said.
The CM was meanwhile also stated that peace and good governance are pre- requisites for development.
“With the ongoing peace talks and the near consensus on the Indo-Naga political issue, we expect a final solution very soon – a solution that is inclusive, honourable and acceptable to all. This will usher in an era of lasting peace that will enable focusing on growth and development,” he stated.
He was confident that the deliberations over the next two days will be useful and help devise strategies and action plans for achieving SDGs for not only Nagaland but for the entire North Eastern Region.
In Nagaland, Rio said, formulation of vision and strategy to achieve SDGs is in initial stages although state government has already published the Nagaland Vision 2030 since mapping of the SDGs with measurable indicators was not done earlier.
“Most of the programmes and projects being implemented in the state are targeted towards achieving the SDGs. Broadly speaking SDGs are aligned with the development priorities of the state,” Rio said.
He also added that the 17 goals interconnect and build on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals.
“It focuses on ending hunger, achieving full gender equality, improving health services and getting every child into school beyond primary,” he said. The SDGs are also an urgent call to shift the world onto a more sustainable path and include new areas such as climate change, addressing economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, democratic governance and peace building, among other priorities.
He stated that SDGs give attention to human development issues, gender issues, youth empowerment and skill development to build capacities of the young people to earn sustainable livelihood.
“This can be done through innovation and use of technology for increasing employment opportunities that can help promote entrepreneurship and skill development in association with the private sector.”
For a state like Nagaland where government is the biggest employer – we need to create alternate employment avenues in the private sector for sustained livelihoods, he said.
While doing so, we also need to realize that solutions that are applicable in plains and mainland will need to be suitably modified for the requirements in hill areas like Nagaland, he said.
“The environment here is fragile, we are prone to landslides and hence specialized programs are needed that suit the geography and the needs of the region,” he said. Within the state, “we need to focus on the specific strengths of various districts and regions with an objective of reducing disparities and having equitable growth. “
Various regions in the state are endowed with natural resources and biodiversity. While exploiting our resources- mineral or forests, we need to mitigate the challenges of climate change and adopt sustainable models, he said adding that this even applies to promotion of tourism as tourists also can cause ecological damage.
“We need to have responsible consumption patterns to reduce our carbon footprint. Traditionally we have lived in harmony with nature and preserved our habitat – the Pangti conservation story of Amur Falcons is a model that can be replicated and we are truly proud of our legacy and heritage. Our social capital and traditional knowledge can be leveraged to conserve natural resources and create community wealth through partnership with the communities,” Rio said.
Structures needed for Implementation
Sentiyanger Imchen, Principal Secretary and Development Commissioner, Planning & Coordination department stated that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the agenda on SDGs in 2015 and set 17 specific goals with the time frame of achieving it by 2030.
“India is committed to the goals of sustainable development and has already put in place the mechanism, to achieve. Many states in the country have moved forward and are actively working to achieve the goals laid down in the UN resolution,” he said.
He said Nagaland has come out with the Vision 2030 document in 2016, setting various goals in line with the goals contained in the United Nations.
“So far, 23 departments have been identified who would play the major role in achieving the goals,” he said.
Imchen said that to provide impetus to state’s effort in this endeavour, there is a need to develop specific strategies with timeline and measurable indicators in respect of each of the state departments to achieve the 17 goals of sustainable development. “Moreover there is the need to put in place a system where different departments can work in synergy where there is a need for convergence,” he said.
Also stressing on the necessity to put in place a structure for implementing the strategies, he said the structure must include the elected representatives of the people whose support will be crucial to achieve the goals.
Common man must necessarily be part of the structure, he said adding the village councils and VDBs can be co-opted into the structure.
The first day’s workshop covered proposed framework for Nagaland, Assam’s experience on SDGs, social, economic and environment perspective on SDGs, draft strategy and action framework with timeline for each department, developing an institutional structure for SDGs in Nagaland, etc.
Meanwhile, minister for planning & coordination Neiba Kronu will address the valedictory function on November 14 scheduled at 2:15- 4:30 PM.
