By Mabinty M. Kamara
Caritas Sierra Leone, in partnership with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and the Bartlet Development Planning Unit, has launched a report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 on the theme: ‘Bringing Agenda 2030 to Life’.
The report titled: ‘Sierra Leone Sustainable Development’ was launched at the Family Kingdom hall in Freetown on the Wednesday. It focuses on four principles of the 17 SDGs. Principle one deals with leave no one behind, Principle two focuses on tackling inequalities, the third principle touches on integrating the environment and development, while principle four deals with participation and dialogue.
In his opening statement at the launching ceremony, Reverend Henry Aruna, President of Caritas Sierra Leone, explained that the report is the result of a participatory research his organization conducted on the SDGs in partnership with Caritas Africa, CAFOD, the University College London, and the National Commission for Justice, Peace and Caritas Liberia (NCJPC), Caritas Kenya and Caritas Zambia. He said these principles the report focused on underpin the transformative aspirations of the 2030 SDGs.
“The report aims to provide ideas to policy makers on how to do development differently through the SDGs and also use the transformational principles of the SDGs backed by the Pope’s ‘Encyclical Laudato Si’ to incentivize policies that will lead to transformative change,” he explained.
Rev. Aruna noted that there would be challenges in the implementation of these principles, but said that the Church and other faith-based organizations had a critical role in the attainment of the SDGs by 2030 in Sierra Leone.
Ejuma Amen-Thomson, representative of CAFOD, noted that the report in Sierra Leone was just one of several reports published across the continent which highlighted new and innovative ways to incorporate SDGs in to policy making and development agendas.
“In this report from Caritas Sierra Leone, we see a way forward in the development of inclusive policy making and new innovative ways of thinking about development of the communities and people across Sierra Leone,” she said.
In his statement, Yusuf Mackey, Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on SDGs, said that Parliamentarians had an opportunity and constitutional responsibility to play a significant role in supporting and monitoring the implementation of the SDGs.
“Members of Parliament are uniquely positioned to act as an interface body between the people, state institutions and other developmental organizations, and to promote and adopt people-centered policies and legislations to ensure that no one is left behind,” he said.
In his keynote address, the Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Robert Chakanda, noted that the four principles analyzed in the report were key principles in the country’s Medium Term National Development Plan (2019-2023).
“Our last year’s reporting to the United Nations on the SDGs covered all strategic areas in this report, as to how well Sierra Leone had progressed in advancing these principles through the implementation of our national Development Plan,” he said.
He added: “We are therefore very optimistic that implementation of the 11 key findings and recommendations of the caritas report – bringing SDGs to Life - will certainly increase our national and global performance in the SDGs,” he noted.
The report launch was climaxed by presentation of case studies on the four principles with testimonies from people from different projects in line with the principles.
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