Amina Muhammed, the United Nations, deputy secretary general, has said the UN as a world community is only at 17% to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, (SDG).
Amina stated this in her remarks when she met with the minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari in his office in Abuja on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.
United Nations member states in 2015 adopted a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future at the heart of which was the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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The SDG goals include eradicating poverty and hunger, while attaining good health, quality education, gender equality among other goals by 2030.
“As a world community, we’re only 17% of the way to the SDGs. So that leaves us a lot of catch-up and many challenges to face. But it also allows us to reset and that’s what I’m hearing from the Minister when he talks about the vision and the priorities of the country,” she said.
“It’s just that the scale of what we need to do more efficiently with what we have has become convergency. We are focusing on what we think is the arrowhead of where investments need to go. And they have to work in tandem. We put at the arrowhead food security. It is this sector that matters, whether it is agriculture, it is livestock, it is other inputs to food security. But it is powered by the energy sector.”
The UN Deputy Secretary-General also stated that the current food crisis is not just a domestic situation but is a result of the inability of most African countries to recover from COVID-19.
“The United Nations will continue to support Nigeria, both from an economic and food production perspective towards boosting Nigeria’s food security. We will continue to support the strategies both from an economic perspective and also from a food production perspective,” she said.
“I know that this crisis is not just what happens domestically, also externalities, an inability to recover in most of our countries in Africa from the COVID crisis, from the food security crisis, of the war in Ukraine. So multiple crises have mounted.”
She said the UN is focused on building on the last food systems summit producing a pathway for which FAO and the other Rome-based agencies are supporting.
“And we know we’re doing transitions to green energy. What does that say for me? It focuses on not just the grid but off-grid, where we will get this to local communities where farmers are. And we try to attempt to make sure that that production base is strong,” she said.
She maintained that Nigeria as a country should not be compared with any other.
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“We have a large population. That alone is an asset, but we have to invest in it. Whether it’s the education, or it is the fact that we’re seeing it as a market, that alone can strengthen our foundations But as I said, cross-border. Sahel, ECOWAS is a region for regional integration, is important,” she said.
“The country has got to develop its policies and respond to it. This is not just an aggregate issue of the new Ministry of Livestock, but it’s also an environmental issue. And I believe that here, this is where your policy work has to be done. Let’s look at the pros and cons of it. And to make sure that what we’re doing is protecting our systems. This is incredibly important.”
In his response, Abubakar Kyari, the minister of Agriculture and Food Security, noted that UN Deputy Sec. General visits to the FMAFS-Nigeria is apt and timely to create a new paradigm shift that will further improve the agriculture sector with food systems, and the UN transformation pathway and request to establish stronger partnerships to strengthen the existing cooperation and make projects for new ties for sustainable development.
“We must rise to the occasion and invest massively in agriculture leveraging the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 2 which you could use your global influence to explore opportunities for Nigeria to create jobs, diversify the economy and reduce food imports,” he said.
