ECA Report: No African country on track with 2030 SDG goals

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said no country in Africa is on the path to meeting any of the UN Sustainable Development Goals by the end of 2030.

This was revealed at a conference of the United Nations Economic for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday.

The experts had convened to review the upcoming African Women’s Report on Costing Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). According to a press release circulated by APO Group, the findings demonstrate the feasibility of estimating the costs of SDG 5 in individual countries.

In 2015, countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Goals, which recognised their 17 goals, including SDG 5. That is considered fundamental to their overall progress agenda.

According to the African Centre for Statistics, this current pace will only achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa by the end of 2094.

Sweta Saxena, the chief of staff and acting director of the Gender, Poverty, and Social Policy Division, said there is a strong commitment to SDG 5, but the question remains: how to achieve it?

“This question resonates with the meeting’s theme and the upcoming edition of the African Women’s Report on the Cost of SDG 5 in Africa.”

Saxena noted that the Economic Commission for Africa has endeavoured to demonstrate in a practical way with examples and case studies how to estimate the investments that will be needed for the interventions towards achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in Africa.

She said to produce the report, ECA should conduct an empirical analysis focusing on two criteria of SDG 5.

The first one is ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls, and the second is targeting ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.

The analysis that was made at the meeting initially involved the estimation of the cost of contraceptives and addressing unmet family planning needs in South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Cameroon, and Rwanda.

PM