Financing to be biggest huddle in SDGs

Isaac Pinielo | Tuesday October 11, 2016 11:29

A sustainable development specialist from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Chamberwa Muyeye said the funds required are for Botswana’s intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) to achieve 15% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction by 2030.

He was speaking yesterday in Gaborone at a stakeholder consultative workshop on the SDGs indicators framework.

Muyeye indicated that there is a global financing challenge when it comes to sustainable development, noting that the total investment needs in SDG-related sectors globally is $5-7 trillion per year.

“In developing countries alone, total investment needs is $3.3 – 4.5 trillion per year,” he said. He further stated that there is an ongoing sustainable finance dialogue between stakeholders on how to get financing for the development programme.

Muyeye expressed hope that the money required for financing will be determined by the outcomes of the ongoing dialogue, adding that the success requires investments beyond government.

He noted the importance of aligning private investments with development objectives, stating that there should be policy and regulatory shifts as well as regular engagement and continuous learning.

“There should be common set of principles for sustainable financing and harnessing quick-wins and emerging opportunities such as climate funds and declining costs of sustainable technologies,” he said.

In addition, Muyeye emphasised the need for long-term thinking, stating that sustainable development should be part of the national development plan.

“We need to bring sustainable development into the ‘mainstream’ of development and to integrate and make sustainable development part of development,” he said.

He said every development activity in the plan contributes to sustainable development.

He said Botswana should adopt a ‘MAPS’ approach, which is acronyms for Mainstreaming, Acceleration, and Policy Support.

On mainstreaming he said Botswana should land the SDGs into national, sub-national and local plans for development, and shaping budget allocations, while acceleration would mean targeting resources at priority areas, paying attention to synegies and trade-offs, bottlenecks, partnerships, measurement.

“Policy support should ensure that skills and expertise of the UN development system are available in an efficient and timely way,” he said.