EY Nigeria and the University of Edinburgh last week engaged stakeholders on the Sustainable Development Goals data analytics, with participants drawn from the public and private sectors as well as developmental institutions, civil societies and NGOS.
The three-day workshop with the theme ‘SDGS Data Management for enhanced Corporate Sustainability Performance’, had a specific objective to understand the current efforts to implement the SDGS in Nigeria, set a goal and agreed on a collaborative implementation roadmap for SDGS data management required for sustainable socio-economic development.
Kenneth Amaeshi, chair, Business and Sustainable Development and director, Scaling Business in Africa (SBIA), University of Edinburgh Business School, United Kingdom, led most of the discussions at the workshops, while Samuel Agbevem, Partner, EY, West Africa, opened the Day 1 and 2 workshops with a welcome address respectively.
At the end of the interactive and insightful events spanning three days, participants generally called for the creation of a multi-stakeholder initiative for mainstreaming SDGS data gathering, impact measurement, tracking and reporting in Nigeria. In his opening remarks on the first day of the workshop, Anthony Oputa, EY regional managing partner for West Africa, stated that the key purpose of the workshop was identifying gaps and rallying both the public and private sector stakeholders for unified SDGS data metrics.
According Oputa, the workshop aimed, among others, at harnessing the power of data analytics for the attainment of the SDGS as well as to build an expert working group on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Christina Boswell, a professor at Edinburgh University, on the other hand, while explaining the rationale behind the workshop, noted that the workshop was in line with the strategic goals of the University of Edinburgh, which, according to her, is big on harnessing and tapping data for social goals.
She also informed that the University is currently collaborating with organisations like UNICEF, MEDELIN in Colombia to build a wide range of database to address urban planning.
Read Also: RETTI launches digital platform for solar education
“The University of Edinburgh is partnering with organisations like UNICEF and MEDELIN in Colombia to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), while aiming to use data analytics/big data in partnerships with public and private sectors to develop products, services and to develop data literacy in an inclusive and socially progressive way”, Professor Boswell said.
All the participants, who took turns to make presentations during the events, commended EY and the University of Edinburgh for the initiative, noting that the Workshop could not have come at a more favourable and better time.
For Omobolanle VictorLaniyan, head of sustainability, Access Bank, while making a case presentation on sustainability and SDGS implementation at Access Bank, provided the Bank’s practices, measurement and reporting as obtains within the bank.
Ndidi Nnoli-edozien, a private sector advisory group on SDGS, Nigeria, who co-led the discussion session, called for increased collaboration amongst stakeholders to ensure inter-connectedness in SDGS data gathering, measurement and reporting.
According to her, the workshop has set the tone for an important dialogue around SDGS implementation that would make a difference in improving the wellbeing of Nigerian society.
Soromiday George, director of corporate affairs and sustainable business, Unilever (Ghana/nigeria), gave a case presentation on Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) and the alignment between USLP and the SDGS.
Leading the discussion from the public sector’s perspective, David Adeosun, director, department of macroeconomic analysis, Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, spoke directly to the mapping of the SDGS with Nigeria’s National Development Plan, while giving his support for a critical stakeholder-group that would ensure that the action plans of the workshop were implemented.
On his part, Simon Harry, director, corporate planning, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), while presenting a paper on the role of the Bureau in ensuring efficient management of data for the SDGS, said the Bureau would ensure strict compliance of context and localization of data while working towards data monitoring and tracking.
He catalogued some challenges to include, among others; lack of political will, apathy towards statistical implementation, a poor culture of good record keeping as well as the slow pace of ICT development.
