By Prudence Arobani
New York – The Kaduna State Government says no fewer than 6.9 million people out of the state’s 8.1 million estimated population are poor.
The figure represents one per cent of the global poor.
The Deputy Governor, Barnabas Bala, stated this at a news conference on the State’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Report 2017 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Bala said: “In 2015, the World Bank estimated that there were 702 million people living below the international poverty line.
“Using the data in the report and an estimated state population of around 8.1 million, up to 6.9 million citizens – or around one per cent of the global population in poverty – resides in Kaduna State.
“Progress made in Kaduna State will make a substantial contribution towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria and globally”.
According to him, in its breadth and scope, the state SDGs plan leaves no one behind adding, localising and domesticating the goals beyond the national level is crucial to achieving sustained success.
Bala said not only must the majority of intentions needed to achieve the goals occur at the local level.
“But the political buy-in and commitment to reorient public spending and governance improvements must be replicated at all levels of the political system to prevent corruption, vested interests and political diversion from compromising progress.
“This is even more essential in federal systems such as Nigeria’s where political commitment and economic interest aligned with the SDGs must be generated effectively to coordinate with national level investments. ”
He regretted that the progress of the preceding Millennium Development Goals was limited by the failure to integrate the goals throughout the diverse activities of government.
“Once contracted out, many investments projects went uncompleted, others poorly maintained or were not coordinated and connected into the broader systems of service delivery needed to make reductions in poverty a reality.
“Just as important, tracking progress against the goals was hampered by a lack of data collection by State agencies.
“Indeed, there remains insufficient data to establish whether Kaduna State made any substantial progress against the goals between 1990 and 2015,” he said.
Meanwhile, the UN and its partners, in a statement, lauded the Kaduna State Government for being one of the sub-national governments in the world to launch the SDGs Report.
“Kaduna State, Nigeria, is one of the first sub-national governments in the world to conduct an in-depth analysis of local SDGs data and strategy development to implement all 17 Goals in the State.
“The State has already integrated the SDGs into its State Development Plan for 2016-20 and is improving livelihoods, investing in education and ensuring access to life-saving services.
“The State is at the same time boosting environmental sustainability, social cohesion and peace for its citizens,” the SDGs statement read.
According to it, Kaduna State released one of the first in-depth reports published by a state government on SDG implementation progress thus far. (NAN)