Uganda National SDG Secretariat
In 2015, the Government of Uganda committed to deliver on the 2030 Agenda which was adopted by all UN Member States. At the time, Uganda held the Presidency of the UN General Assembly. As such, the 2030 Agenda has a special position in Uganda’s development aspirations. Speaking to the General Assembly, the President at the time– former Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon. Sam Kutesa – said that the 69th session of the General Assembly had presented countries with a “historic opportunity” to change the world for the better and was guided by the overarching principles of cooperation, compromise and solidarity. The Agenda, anchored on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is a universal call to action to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace by leaving no one behind and significantly reducing inequalities. The SDGs have 169 global targets and 232 indicators. In Uganda’s case there are only 201 applicable indicators.
This calls for putting sustainable development at the center of global, national, and local policies and hastening the shift to low-carbon, climate robust development pathways; establishing a renewed global partnership for sustainable development grounded on multi-stakeholder partnerships that can influence needed capacities and resources and achieve at scale; and hastening a data revolution to improve capacity to measure sustainable development. At the time of adoption of the 2030 Agenda, all Member States pledged to ensure “no one will be left behind” and to “endeavor to reach the furthest behind first.” This briefing note provides details on the institutional arrangements the Government has put in place to achieve this. It also outlines other milestones in Uganda’s SDGs journey.
UGANDA’S SDGs JOURNEY
Figure 1: A diagrammatic summary of Uganda’s SDG journey. Since the adoption of the SDGs;
the Government of Uganda has implemented an inclusive process to ensure that the SDG agenda is owned by the people, starting with the national coordination arrangements.