“A multi-agency collaboration is required for the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan said on Monday at the opening of a workshop on achieving SDGs performance targets, at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre.

Addressing permanent secretaries and various high-level ministry and agency officials, Minister Jordan said that, as Guyana prepares to undertake a Voluntary National Review (VNR) later this year, government has set out to ensure all sectors are well prepared. Guyana will present the results of its efforts to attain 17 SDGs, at a United Nations’ (UN) forum on sustainable development, scheduled for July.

The minister noted the interconnectedness of the goals within any development framework, with the aforementioned multi-agency collaboration, to achieve SDGs. He said, “While we invest in the inputs of schools – dormitories, blackboards, white boards, books and trained teachers – we must ensure, equally, that our children are receiving the nutrition and health care they need to thrive; that the infrastructure to ensure they can access both schools and health facilities is available; that economic activities do not threaten sustainable communities and family structures; and that necessary laws are in place and enforced to ensure their safety and security. In short, a holistic approach is mandatory, if we are to achieve our national and international commitments.”

According to the minister, the government has adopted programme budgeting techniques, which have strengthened its ability to measure performance of the sectors. He recalled, “Over the course of my over four decades of working life, most of which have been in government, I have observed that the approaches adopted to achieve the national development priorities of our country have, in many instances, suffered from several gaps of evidence-based decision-making.”

He explained that proposals are often-times made for capital investments without thought about cost of maintenance, “projects are proposed for implementation without the benefit of feasibility studies and people are trained for job readiness, funds requested to train more without understanding if those trained previously were actually in jobs.”

“Should we undertake reforms without diagnosing what is causing the problems? I should think not!! But, to diagnose, we must gather data and analyse what information is presented. And the analysis that is required must be based on facts and evidence, not mere conjecture, opinions, feelings and beliefs”, the minister informed.

In 2018, the Finance Ministry, the minister further noted, advanced the process through the conduct of a mapping exercise to help agencies identify which specific targets, within each SDG, could be their responsibility, to accelerate the SDGs’ localisation.

The workshop, Minister Jordan added, was needed after requests for Budget Agencies to submit, by the end of January 2019, the indicators that they are utilising to measure their progress towards meeting the SDG target, “did not happen in a timely manner and, in some cases, not at all.”

He pointed out that the workshop follows several outreach sessions the previous week to support agencies in the completion of this task. He described the submissions thus far as varied in quality. He added that “through the working sessions, today, on selected goals, we hope to advance the data collection process further, to put us in a better position to undertake our Voluntary National Review, for which the final draft has to be completed by the end of May 2019”.

In closing, the finance minister anticipated that the proceedings would deliver the outputs enabling the accelerated preparation of Guyana’s VNR, but, more importantly, the strengthening of data systems. This he further explained would ensure national performance commitments, including the SDGs, are measured and sectors are accountable for delivering the services they were charged to so do.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals include: to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, reduce inequality within and among countries, take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts and promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.

The theme for the July 2019 High Level UN Political Forum on Sustainable Development and this round of VNRs is “Empowering People and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality.”