Knowledge exchange, accountable public institutions, national and local ownership, multi-stakeholder partnerships and innovation essential to the achievement of SDGs

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Her Excellency Dr. Amina J. Mohamed, has outlined five key areas that will enable leaders to drive the discussions towards delivering on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during her opening remarks at the ‘SDGs in Action’ session leading up to the seventh World Government Summit (WGS 2019).

Dr. Mohamed told her audience: “Our world has become an increasingly complex place but SDGs remain a beacon of hope and progress for the planet helping to promote peace and partnership. However it remains imperative for government leaders to take the tough decisions required to ensure sustainability is at the heart of government policy.

“We must ensure that 2019 is a milestone year and must be a year of accelerated action for SDGs and see continued government leadership, sustainable development and concrete results.”

In outlining the five key areas, Dr. Mohamed first highlighted the need to step up the commitment to share experiences, tools and reports on progress to help identify gaps and accelerate actions that support transformational change.  She further stated that leaders must make the most of available global platforms to exchange knowledge and learnings in a timely manner, including the upcoming high-level political forum in September 2019 in New York.

She also stressed that the second area was to create effective, inclusive and accountable public institutions that are driven by strong and transformational leadership at the local, national and global levels. According to Dr Mohamed, this goes beyond public service delivery to ensure that people are enabled to fully realize their basic rights to education, health, water and much more.

The third key area that Dr Mohamed highlighted was the need to strengthen the commitment to national and local level ownership by coordinating across government sectors and institutes at all levels, driven by effective leadership that supports economic, social and environmental transformation.

Her fourth key area outlined the need to boost support for multi-stakeholder partnerships by engaging society and the private sector and creating an environment that supports the integration of SDGs in communities, education and businesses.

Finally, Dr. Mohamed reiterated the fundamental importance of harnessing the potential of innovation and new technologies to find solutions to the pressing challenges at hand.

The three-day World Government Summit 2019 runs until 12 February at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai. The landmark event has gathered more than 4,000 participants from 140 countries, including heads of state and governments, as well as top-tier representatives of 30 international organizations.