By Janet A. Sesay

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development has organised a one day training workshop that focuses on seven key priorities of the National Voluntary Review Reports (NVR) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) to be accomplished by 2030.

The theme for this review is, “Reinforcing the 2030 agenda and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crises and effective delivery with sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions”.

This workshop review process took place on Monday, 10th June, 2024, at the Family Kingdom in Freetown.

The workshop involved workers from different ministries, civil society organisations and United Nations representatives.

The seven key priorities include: Goal 1, which is No Poverty; Goal 2, Zero Hunger; Goal 5, Gender Equality; Goal 10, Reduce Inequalities; Goal 13, Climate Action; Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and; Goal 17, Partnership for the Goals.

In her keynote address, Madam Kenyeh Barlay, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said the Voluntary National Review (VNR) is a process by which countries take stock and assess progress and challenges in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda.

She said as part of its follow-up and review mechanisms, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encourages member states to conduct regular and inclusive reviews of the progress at the national and sub-national levels.

Minister Barlay furthered that the VNR process itself aims to facilitate sharing experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

VNRs she said also serve to improve evidence and data on the SDGs, strengthen policies and institutions of government to monitor progress on sustainable development and mobilise multi-stakeholder support and partnerships for the implementation of the SDGs.

She furthered that Sierra Leone as a country has undertaken three NRs in 2016, 2019, 2021; making this year 2024 the fourth (4th) attempt to be reviewed.

She continued that this year’s report will be presented at the July 2024 UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York and will be the first HLPF post the September 2023 SDGs summit, where Sierra Leone and many UN member states submitted their SDGs acceleration roadmap.

She went on that this SDGS acceleration roadmap contained national commitments for delivery of the SDGs targets.

The minister continued that Sierra Leone will however be reporting on additional SDGs which are: Goal 5, which is Gender Equality and Goal 10, Reducing Inequality.

She said MOPED has made tremendous efforts in ensuring that they do extensive consultations across the country and key stakeholder including Parliament, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Persons with Disabilities and other vulnerable groups, MDAs, etc.

The ministry, she said, facilitated CSO-led community mobilisation and local-level data collection efforts.

She concluded that everybody agrees that effective follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda is essential for improving action and accelerating progress in achieving the ambitious and interlinked SDGs in these challenging times.

CSO representative Musa Ansumana Soko said CSOs are at the frontlines of SDG implementation in Sierra Leone at local level where they gather perspective from the people on decision making, the impact of climate change and reducing inequality.

He said CSOs will continue to raise their voices to ensure that communities are not left behind in this report.

He added that the VNR report is just one of the pieces among the SDGs to be able to ensure that the feedback received from citizens to shape and further inform planning processes as well as delivery of services are implemented.

Soko furthered that the VNR process since 2019 has threatened state-society interaction therefore very key to building the trust of citizens in their state / society.

Christo Dovlides, Head of IOM and Member of the United Nations Country Team, stated that Sierra Leone is among the forty-two (42) countries that have agreed to undertake the implementation of the VNR process which is why they as a team are more focused on it.

He added that their experts will have to receive the validation report and the United Nations Country Team is finalising its UN cooperation framework with the government of Sierra Leone aligned to the Medium Term National Development Plan.

He said with the SDGs acceleration plan they are poised to support both the VNR report process and the SDGs.