Minister in Economic Affairs and Investment, Senator Chad Blackman, is calling for an “out of the box approach” that utilises the creativity of all Barbadians in order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
He made the appeal today as he addressed the Validation Workshop for the Baseline Study on the Priority Sustainable Development Goals Indicators for Barbados. The session was hosted by the Economic Affairs and Investment Division of the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Senator Blackman told the gathering that while government was fully committed to achieving the 2030 agenda and was cognisant of the improvements made in a number of areas, “substantial action must be taken in order to reach the targets”.
“We are virtually at the end of 2024, which now leaves us just six years to that magic number of 2030, … and whilst there are a lot of goals that Barbados has achieved, the world, including Barbados, has still not met a number of them in the way that we should. And, therefore, we have six years to really redouble, or some might argue, re-triple our efforts, so as to be able to tangibly achieve these objectives. But, we can’t do it alone.
“The government can’t do it on its own; the private sector can’t do it on its own; civil society can’t do it on its own; it has to be government, private sector, civil society, the man on the street…. So that the entire society moves forward in a cohesive way…to meet these targets. Therefore, it calls for an out of box approach so as to ensure that we can meet these targets. Therefore, we have to use all our creativity…. We have to use nonconventional ways of trying to help us to achieve these targets,” Senator Blackman underlined.
The Minister cited the 2023 report entitled “Halfway to 2030 Latin America and the Caribbean” prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, which estimated that for the region, only 25 per cent of the SDGs, based on information available, appeared to be on track for 2030.
Senator Blackman described it as “a staggering figure” while pointing out that it could no longer be business as usual, as he urged participants to see themselves as part of the behavioural change that needs to take place on the road to 2030.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, who has responsibility for the SDG Unit, Senator Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight, also stressed the importance of a whole of government approach to achieving the goals.
“Unless we make that recognition that picking up and delivering on this development agenda for our people is something that we must intrinsically make sure that we take full ownership of, then unfortunately, I believe that we will be doing a disservice to our populations, and essentially to the government’s development agenda….
“Government has consistently said that the SDGs does not stand outside of our development agenda, it is part of it. So that delivering on the SDGs is delivering on government’s own broader long term agenda for resilience and also as well, for ensuring that we attend to, in many real respects, at least the basic needs of our population,” she stated.
UNFPA’s Deputy Director Sub-regional Office of the Caribbean, Barbados, OECS, Jenny Karlsen, in her address, commended Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley for her leadership on the SDGs.