Welcome to the United Nations
1. Introduction
This report provides information on progress and status of implementation of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)in Nigeria. It highlights key policy, institutional and
regulatory measures put in place to create necessary enabling environment for
mainstreaming of SDGs in national policies, plans and programmes, and its coherent
coordination.
The report is the outcome of wide and in-depth consultations organized by the Office of the
Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs (OSSAP-SDGs) with a wide array of
stakeholders drawn from line ministries, civil society organizations, organized private sector,
academia, development partners, youth groups, women organizations, persons with
disability and media organizations.
2. Key Successes to Celebrate
i. Establishment of multi.layer and multi-cluster institutional frameworks for
enhanced coordination and SDGs mainstreaming process
a, The President has appointed a Senior Special Assistant to the President (SSAP) on
SDGs whose office is responsible for ensuring horizontal and vertical coherence
between development policies, plans and strategies. Similarly, an Inter-Ministerial
Committee on the SDGs has been established and operational guidelines for the same
developed to guide the coordinated engagement with Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs). Similar structures being established at the sub-national (State) level.
b, To fully harness the resources and ideas of, and effectively engage other stakeholders,
a Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) and a Donors' Forum on the SDGs have
recently been inaugurated. The CSOs Group on SDGs are already working towards
some SDGs targets, with giant stride on inclusive education, in collaboration with the
Joint Association of Persons with Disability (JONAPWD) and Women 2030 in Nigeria.
C, To enhance the legislative and oversight roles of Parliamentarians on SDGs
implementation process, two select committees on SDGs have been established in the
Senate and House of Representatives.
d, As part of the national SDGs advocacy and campaign programme, the OSSAP-SDGs
has entered into partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to train
graduating youths to become SDGs champions in their local communities and areas of
national service they are deployed upon graduation.
ii. Existence of good policy and planning framework: The recently-launched Economic
Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), on which the current medium- and short- terms
budgeting frameworks are based is, to a large extent, aligned to the SDGs. Similarly, many
of the current State Development Plans (SDPs), including the Benue, Taraba, Yobe,
Kaduna, Ebonyi, Kano, Jigawa, Anambra, Delta, to mention but a few, are aligned to the
SDGs. The alignment aid planning, monitoring and evaluation of SDG implementation, an
SDGs data mapping exercise has been concluded and a data supply responsibility
framework agreed upon.
iii. Upscaling the Conditional Grants Scheme (CGS): The CGS, a counterpart
contributory mechanism which incentivizes subnational governments to mobilize resources
to accelerate progress in SDGs core areas and is acclaimed as a best practice in
implementing the global development agenda is currently being up scaled.
iv. Identifying and targeting the poor and vulnerable people: This has been achieved
through establishment of a "National Social Register" for poor and vulnerable households.
There is a monthly conditional cash transfer of five thousand naira (N5,000) to such
households as part of a national social safety net programme.
3. Key Lessons Learnt
i. Technology-based, open and transparent progress tracking and reporting systems for
nationally agreed targets against set benchmarks is critical for the success of the SDGs
implementation.
ii. It is necessary to devise innovative and adaptive practices and programme delivery
mechanisms to overcome bureaucratic bottlenecks often associated with the
implementation of national policies and programmes.
III. Without necessarily downplaying the role of official development assistance and debt
financing through debt relief gains, domestic resource mobilization and new sources of
financing, are critical to successful resourcing of SDGs implementation in the country.
Effective global and national partnerships are therefore, vital for the SDGs
implementation process.
4. Main Challenges
i. Reliance on oil and gas sector; dwindling agricultural production and productivity;
and limited value addition in the agricultural sector to grow the economy, create jobs,
address poverty and ensure food security remain critical challenges. Dwindling in
agricultural productivity is mainly due to climate change; desertification; natural and manmade
disasters; unresponsive land tenure and a general low utilization of mechanized
farming.
ii. Infrastructural deficit and technological gaps: A major challenge to SDGs attainment
is infrastructural deficit and technology gaps, which hinder service provision and application
of science, technology and innovation in many spheres of life.
iii. The economic recession and humanitarian crises: Economic recession in the country
due to fluctuating oil price in the international market and the humanitarian crisis in the
North East of the country present unique challenges to achieving the SDGs.
5. Major Areas the Country Needs Support
i. Given the current economic recession, the country will need support in mobilizing
adequate financial and other resources, including from domestic sources, and through
traditional (North - South, South - South and triangular cooperation) partnerships.
However, the country has advanced on curbing illicit financial flow and asset recovery which
will enhance effort on resource mobilization for implementation of the SDGs.
ii. Technology transfer and capacity building on inter alia, data, information and performance
management will be needed to support SDGs implementation.