Uganda races against time to meet SDG targets

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has stressed the need for availing innovative financing mechanisms to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ahead of the 2030 deadline.
“With only six years left for the SDG agenda 2030, it is imperative that we intensify our efforts and adopt innovative approaches to address the challenges that we face today,” she said.

“The midterm review of our progress reveals a mixed picture, with notable achievements in some areas and significant challenges persisting in others. The strategies for accelerating SDGs implementation is reflecting innovative financing mechanisms” Ms Nabbanja added during a high-level policy dialogue held at Makerere University yesterday.

The dialogue held under the theme ‘Accelerating Sustainable Development Goals through Leveraging Innovative Financing, Parish Development Model and Science and Technology,’ was organised by the Office of the Prime Minister in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Makerere University, among others.
The 2021 Uganda Sustainable Development Goal Progress Report indicates that progress has remained uneven and that the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down the gains made on some of the SDGs.

The report, however, states that with coordinated efforts, there is still hope that Uganda will make positive strides in achieving the SDGs by 2030. The SDGs focus on education, health, environment, gender equality, peace, and security, among others.

The Prime Minister revealed that although Uganda had adopted public investment financing and domestic resource mobilisation strategies, a large financing gap still exists.
She, however, noted that the integrated national financing frameworks would enable Uganda to mobilise and allocate available funds efficiently and ensure that investments are directed towards areas that have a direct impact on SDGs.

Ms Nabbanja said the Parish Development Model is yet another strategy that the government was undertaking to contribute to the attainment of SDGs. The UNDP Country Representative in Uganda, Ms Nwanneakolam Vwede-Obahor, tasked Uganda and other UN member states to explore affordable and flexible funding mechanisms to accelerate the implementation of SDGs in the next six years.
“Uganda and other countries must accelerate SGD implementation as it will not be business as usual. Acceleration of the SDGs requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders,” Ms Nwanneakolame said.

She revealed that Uganda’s financing gap stands at about $ 8.8b.
Quoting the 2021 Uganda Sustainable Development Goal Progress Report, Ms Nwanneakolam said so far, Uganda has been able to achieve 17 percent of the SDGs targets, 26 percent of targets are on track, and 54 percent have limited progress while 20 percent have been reversed.
Mr Raphael Magyezi, the minister of Local Government, said so far, 1 million households of the targeted 3.5 households living in substance had received the PDM funds.

“We are not yet there. We haven’t hit the target of 3.5 households that are still living in subsistence. They produce what is enough to feed the family but have no surplus to sell,” he said.
According to the minister, about Shs1 trillion has been disbursed. Mr Magyezi said the seven pillars of the PDM were being worked on and that last year, each district was allocated Shs1 billion in addition to what they were receiving for infrastructural development.

Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, the vice chancellor of Makerere University, asked the government to consider using university students to train beneficiaries of the PDM funds to ensure efficiency.
“Use the large army of our students to train these people. The Chief Justice said recently that he asked people in his village whether they knew what the PDM money is meant to do and majority of the intended beneficiaries said they didn’t know how to use the funds,” Prof Nawangwe said.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Sustainable Development Goals Network, asked Uganda and other developing countries to seek partnerships with countries such as China and India that have developed rapidly in the last 40 years.
He said many financiers are burdening developing countries with unfriendly loan terms, which condemns them to perpetual debt.
“Africans must study the economic models of China and India and other countries across the globe instead of looking up to America, Europe, and the UK,” he said.

Prof Sachs said it is only through unity that the continent will achieve the development it desires.
“I implore the African countries to unite under the African Union. You have what it takes to develop because if you are united and have infrastructure and electricity in place, investors will come and invest here,” he said.