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Government has expressed concern at the ever-diminishing financial resources globally which has adversely impacted implementation of interventions meant to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets.
There are huge financing gaps to effectively address all the 2015 promises the global leadership undertook to deliver by 2030, according to the Finance and National Planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane.
Musokotwane, however, said government was committed to ensuring that meaningful progress was made in the implementation of programmes that facilitated the attainment of SDGs.
He was speaking at a Public Lecture on Setting National Priorities for Sustainable Development: More Money or More value for money in Lusaka on Tuesday.
The Minister noted that government was integrating various approaches to optimise the available resources for sustained impact across Zambia to overcome some of the development challenges the country was faced with.
This, he explained, was a precursor to sustainable growth through job creation with investments in education and healthcare as well as environmental protection.
“Challenging as this might be, we are not worried, thus, we have continued to mobilise resources through budgetary allocations with support from cooperating partners, and participation of the private sector and other stakeholders.
“To entrench the implementation processes, Zambia undertook the second voluntary national review in 2023, which was a stocktake to benchmark Zambia’s progress in programme implementation against the sustainable development goal targets,” Musokotwane said.
He, however, added that various challenges needed to be addressed to facilitate effective implementation and attainment of targets.
These challenges include, among others, disease outbreaks as well as the effects of climate change and variability and geo-political conflicts.
At the same function, Copenhagen Consensus Center president, Bjorn Lomborg, stressed the need for governments to set right priorities if they are to achieve the SDGs.
Lomborg also emphasised the need to make policies more efficient for Zambia.
“Focusing on the right things first will allow you to do more with little money,” he said.
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