As Nigeria continues regional consultations on the 2025 Voluntary National Review (VNR), the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs (SSAP-SDGs), Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, has emphasised the need for stakeholders to intensify efforts towards the achievement of the SDGs by 2030.
She stated this in her keynote address, delivered on her behalf by Dr Bala Yunusa, Senior Technical Adviser, at the North-East Regional Consultation in Gombe State, as part of Nigeria’s VNR preparation for the High-Level Political Forum in New York in July 2025.
The SSAP-SDGs noted that world leaders established the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development through the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as a follow-up and review mechanism for the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
The VNRs serve as the cornerstone of the review process. Nigeria is currently undertaking its third VNR, engaging stakeholders across the six geopolitical zones to assess implementation progress, challenges and prospects.
In a statement by Orelope-Adefulire’s Special Assistant on Media and Strategic Communication, Desmond Utomwen, the SSAP-SDGs stressed the need to reverse the trend and fast-track progress on all the SDGs.
She noted that global progress on the SDGs was mixed, with Nigeria not exempted. Citing the 2024 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report, she stated that “Lack of progress towards the SDGs is universal, but developing countries and the world’s poorest people bear the brunt.
“That currently only 17 per cent of SDG targets are on track, nearly half show minimal or moderate progress, while over a third have stalled or regressed.”
At the national level, dwindling financial resources, the COVID-19 pandemic, and persistent insecurity have combined to slow-down Nigeria’s progress towards achieving the SDGs.
Princess Orelope-Adefulire emphasised that the SDGs cannot be achieved through isolated programmes but must be carefully integrated into national and sub-national policies and development plans.
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