Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues,
I thank the Economic Commission for Africa for organizing this regional preparatory workshop for African voluntary national reviews and voluntary local reviews.
I congratulate countries who volunteered to conduct a review at the high-level forum on sustainable development (HLPF) next July.
Overall, 40 countries and the European Union will conduct a voluntary review.
VNRs from the Africa region consistently highlight efforts to integrate the SDGs in development plans and policies. They report of efforts to coordinate among ministries, strengthen institutions for good governance, and integrate the SDGs into local planning.
The VNRs show many examples of solutions implemented in critical sectors like education, health care, energy, food security or trade. And, in the face of the pandemic, we have seen technological advances used to support the delivery of public services.
Multi-level stakeholder committees and platforms are aiding implementation.
Some VNRs are now incorporating local reviews of progress. We support this approach. It allows for more responsive national policymaking, and better ensures that no one is left behind.
The insights that your VNRs provide are important, not only for national policy making, but for peer learning.
With just seven years to the deadline set for achieving the SDGs, there is still much progress to be made. We need to reflect on both our successes and our failures, so we know what to scale up and what to avoid, if we are going to secure a sustainable future.
The SDG Summit in September this year will give world leaders an opportunity to share their vision for realizing the SDGs and set benchmarks for making the transformative changes we need.
I encourage you to use your VNR to help elaborate this vision.
The decisions we make now will affect the world for years to come.
UN DESA stands ready to support you.
Thank you.