George Sanzila
Speaker of the National Assembly professor Peter Katjavivi has appealed for United Nations’ support in setting up a unit dedicated to the monitoring, evaluation and implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He made the appeal earlier this week when he met the president of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Dennis Francis.
Francis is visiting Namibia as part of his outreach activities to various UN member countries, focusing on the need to accelerate the implementation of SDGs. His visit also comes ahead of the recent appointment of Namibia and Germany as co-hosts of the Summit of the Future (SOTF) at the UN in September this year.
The summit, which will coincide with the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, aims to accelerate meeting international commitments and address emerging challenges through the pact for the future. Katjavivi noted that even though Namibia has made strides in the implementation of SDGs, a lack of capacity in policy implementation has been stifling progress.
“In the case of the National Assembly, we are in need of a senior officer to head the policy monitoring and evaluation unit under the office of the Secretary. We, therefore, request that the UN Alliance on SDGs through the German-Namibian partnership on SDGs, helps the National Assembly to specifically create, recruit and capacitate this unit on policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation,” appealed Katjavivi.
The Speaker highlighted some of the progress made by Parliament in the implementation of SDGs, including training by Members of Parliament in governance and sustainable development, oversight activities, and approval of budgetary allocations aimed at ending hunger and poverty.
He further noted that Parliament has reached a milestone in gender representation, with the number of women in the National Assembly having surpassed those of their male counterparts at over 51%.
Francis, who heaped praise on Namibia for its efforts in addressing the housing crisis, reiterated the UN’s commitment to ensure that SDGs are implemented by the year 2030. He also welcomed appeals for collaboration, adding that urgent solutions were imperative to address specific sustainable development goals such as ending hunger and poverty, particularly in the global South.
*George Sanzila works at the National Assembly in the Division: Research, Information, Publications and Editorial Services.