The Kaduna State Planning and Budget Comission (PBC), has begun a four-day maiden Voluntary Local Review (VLR) workshop to secure stakeholders committment and output on the delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The VLR workshop, was supported by the United Nations Development Partners (UNDP) and UNICEF.

The stakeholders included officials from the state and federal MDAs, paramilitary organisations, among others.

The VLR is a process through which sub national governments assess and document progress made in achieving the global goals.

It is an analysis of the SDGs at sub national level for a specific local context.

During the opening of the workshop on Monday in Kaduna, Commissioner of the Kaduna PBC, Hajia Umma Aboki, said the workshop was to explore the benefits of multi stakeholder engagements to domesticate the Voluntary National Review (VNR) in the state.

Aboki, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the PBC, Mr. Bashir Muhammad, explained that the key objective of the VNR was to critically review the implementation of the SDGs in Nigeria, with specific reference to some priority SDGs.

She said it was to identify areas of progress and the challenges that could affect the achievement of SDGs that had been domesticated through the Nation’s Multiyear Plan (National Development Plan).

Aboki further said that to effectively track the implementation process of the SDGs in Kaduna, government fully integrated it into the recently elapsed Kaduna State Development Plan (SDP) 2016 to 2020.

“We also integrated the current SDP (2021-2025) tagged: “Transforming Kaduna State into Knowledge-based Economy”, which is geared towards achieving inclusive economic growth and socio-economic transformation.

“Kaduna is the first sub-national, in September 2017, to present in-depth analysis of its SDGs data and strategy for implementation (Kaduna State 2017 SDGs Report) at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly in New York, in July 2017,” she said.

According to the commissioner, the VLR had proven useful for cities and regions in fostering the localisation of SDGs and demonstrating their capacity and commitments towards the 2030 agenda.

She said the State SDGs Project Support Unit (SDGs-PSU), in conjunction with the State’s Bureau of Statistics (KDBS), was conducting the VLR to report on the progress of SDGs across the state while adhering to the integration and mainstreaming it into the state’s policies and multiyear plans.

She noted that the workshop was convened to educate and review questionnaire prepared, and distributed to stakeholders to speed up the VLR process.

“It will also negotiate response for onward collation for further action towards the production of the VLR and to further create more collaborations to aid the process,” she said.

Also, Mr. Bala Yunusa, the Senior Technical Adviser in the Office of the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on SDGs, recalled that world leaders adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the 17 SDGs in September 2015.

He said since its adoption, President Muhammadu Buhari acted immediately to operationalise it.

He explained that establishment of the Office of the SSA to the President on SDGs, was evident to the keen interest to achieving the SDGs by providing horizontal and vertical intergovernmental planning and coordination.

Yunusa said the SSA’s office worked closely with all the states to ensure SDGs were integrated into their medium and long term development policies.

“As part of deepening sub-national engagement, we are ensuring that states do similar reviews which is the VLR.

“We want to ensure that the VLR is inclusive in all the states, through a whole of society approach and evidence base,” he said.

Yunusa lauded Kaduna State for being SDGs compliant and the first to do progress report in 2017 as well as starting the VLR.

Also, Mr. Amarakoon Bandara, the Senior Economic Advisor UNDP Nigeria, said it was essential to monitor the progress of VLR to project the future and the opportunities therein.

He noted that achieving SDGs was a big challenge not only for Nigeria but the entire world.

“Achieving the SGDs is a very complex process, but despite that, globally there are different arrangements for finance which is one major factor of achieving it,” Bandara said

Some of the SDGs are zero hunger, no poverty, good health and well-being, quality education, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, among others.