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Mozambique Ministry of Economy and Finance and the United Nations Development Program, in June 2019, held a Reflection Seminar on the challenges for national development in the context of Agenda 2030.
The event focused on the various dimensions of poverty and inequality, as well as other challenges and opportunities associated with Mozambique’s development. The main objective of the Seminar was to create space for dialogue and interaction between different actors of national development and identify critical elements to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs in Mozambique, taking into account the different Government’s policy instruments.
The Ceremony was ,pened by His Excellency the Permanente Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Mr. Domingos Lambo, and his Excellency the Resident Representative a.i. of UNDP, Mr. Alfredo Teixeira. The Seminar also counted with members of the Government of Mozambique, Cooperation and Development Partners, the Sustainable Development Goals National Reference Group, Private Sector, Civil Society Organizations, Academia, among others.
In his opening remarks, the UNDP Resident Representative a.i. mentioned that the main feature of the Agenda 2030 is its integrated nature, which calls for synergies in Government and in the entire society. Success in its implementation depends on its alignment with other continental, regional and national agendas. He also noted that the Government of Mozambique has important public policy tools, such as the Government’s Five-Year Plan and the State Budget, to implement Agenda 2030 and achieve significant social, economic and environmental changes.
During the Seminar, participants identified several challenges, including poverty and regional asymmetries; institutional fragilities; poor quality of social services; and unequal participation opportunities. As opportunities, participants mention the abundance of natural resources and their potential to foster economic and social development; the existence of multidisciplinary national platforms; and the willingness of different actors of society to participate in the project to accelerate Agenda 2030.
These challenges and opportunities are illustrative of the complexity of the Agenda the country faces, but also the opportunities ahead. Participants agreed that integrated policy solutions will be needed, requiring cross-cutting approaches and synergies between sectors, as well as, the mobilization of public and private resources. Partnerships between the Government and non-governmental actors, Cooperation Partners, and Private Sector will play a key role in the search for sustainable and inclusive solutions for the achievement of the SDGs.
In this context, a series of next steps for the implementation of Agenda 2030 in the country have been identified, of which we can highlight: 1) elaboration of the first National Voluntary Review to be presented in the High Level Political Forum by the Government in 2020; 2) final identification of SDGs drivers and accelerators; 3) socialization of the National SDGs Indicators Framework to promote SDGs monitoring and evaluation; 4) training and awareness-raising of all actors in the society for the implementation of SDGs; and 5) consideration of an integrated and coordinated approach to development in the (re) organization of sectors in the next Government.
It is expected that the inputs that resulted from this seminar, together with the ongoing discussions on SDGs accelerators, will contribute to the design of the next Five-Year Government Plan and State Budget in order to raise the level of human development to all Mozambicans.
