The Chairman of RPF Inkotanyi President Paul Kagame on Monday chaired 5th board meeting of the Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa where he highlighted the importance of the initiative.
This was on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly that is underway in New York.
"This important initiative has far reaching implications in the process of sustainable development. The Report which was discussed, makes clear that the pace of activity at the SDG Centre has picked up, since January,” he said during the meeting that was among others, attended by some African heads of state.
“I particularly appreciate Heads of State & Government, who are here with us, to re-affirm our shared commitment."
The Chairman said that the initiative continues to be an important step with far reaching implications to the African continent’s development agenda.
Highlighting the issues raised by the meeting, the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning Amb. Claver Gatete who attended said they largely focused on the progress on programmes under the initiative.
Among the major developments of the meeting was the approval of the launch of satellite centres to supplement the Kigali-based SDG Africa headquarters.
“There will be other sub-centres on the African continent in addition to the one in Kigali. One of them that was approved was the Mano River Sub-centre composed of four countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast. This is to have a bigger impact on the continent,” the minister said.
Giving insights on what transpired at the meeting, Gatete said that the meeting also agreed on an index which will be used to monitor the impact of SDGs in Africa.
“The meeting also discussed the index put together to have a bigger impact on SDGs. The SDG Index and citizen report is going to help on tracking how SDGs are being implemented,” Amb. Gatete said.
The meeting also approved the accreditation of the SDG Centre to the African Union and the United Nations.
The accreditation could see the centre’s viewpoints incorporated into the organisations (AU and UN) relations to the African continent’s development agenda and a positive shift in their support to the region’s progress.
