Minister in Economic Affairs and Investment, Senator Chad Blackman, is calling for a major buy-in of the Sustainable Development Goals, as he floated the idea of a national campaign targeting the man on the street.
He made this appeal yesterday during the opening ceremony of the National Consultation on the Identification of Priority Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Indicators for Barbados, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St. Michael.
The event is being hosted by the Ministry’s Economic and Investment Division and the United Nations Population Fund.
Senator Blackman reasoned that a campaign was needed, especially for those people who gather in shops and live in rural and urban Barbados, so that they could take ownership of the process of the road to 2030.
“This allows them to re-imagine what the SDGs are and to break it down with significant public education in their own spheres. If everyone in the country can become proponents of SDGs attainment and the 2030 agenda, it would not just be government and the stakeholders in this room advancing it, but it would be a country-wide pursuit of that goal of ensuring that our quality of life is attained and achieved,” the Minister told the gathering.
Senator Blackman also cautioned against ticking off a box [of achievements], and stressed that the focus should be to ensure that people have access to health, education and other social and economic improvements that enhance their quality of life.
“While for many, the SDGs, like many other international agencies, are abstracts, we have an obligation to ensure that they become tangible and real to the ordinary man on the street.
“That task, of course, is not an easy one because you are now talking about moving it from global policy to national policy into realities on the ground. Therefore, it requires us now to become champions of the SDGs as they were, where people can really buy into it and run with it in their own reality,” he proffered.
The Minister used the forum to give an update of government’s efforts at improving data collection to support decision-making, the development of effective and efficient policies and programmes, as well as facilitate the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of various policies, inclusive of the SDGs.
Senator Blackman alluded to Government’s plan to create a National Statistics and Data Analytics Authority, to facilitate the adoption of the widely accepted fundamental principles of official statistics by the National Statistical Service; formalise the operations of the national statistical system to improve the coordination, collection, compilation and dissemination of national statistics inclusive of the SDG indicators; and enhance the national capacity to collect, analyse, and interpret data.
He expressed optimism that at the end of the two-day consultation the country would be in a better position to monitor the progress of the implementation of SDGs; prioritise the SDGs Indicators for which resources will be allocated by the government; and discuss current initiatives being undertaken to advance the implementation of the SDGs.
There were also presentations from Senior Statistician at the Barbados Statistical Service, Janelle Scantlebury-Mounsey; Joint SDG Fund Coordinator, Michele Dunn; and SDG Project Coordinator, SDG Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office, Krystal Yearwood.