Department of Environment to boost reporting on environmental aspects of SDGs
─ hosts capacity strengthening workshop
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, February 7, 2019
To strengthen reporting on the environmental aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Guyana, the Department of Environment (DoE) hosted a workshop in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme and the Ministry of Finance, who provided technical support.
UN Environment-funded project entitled “Towards coherent implementation of the environmental dimensions of the SDGs” is a global initiative being implemented not only in Guyana, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, and Colombia.
According to Head of the Department of Environment, Ndibi Schwiers, the goal is to enhance the capacity of the relevant agencies to collect sectoral data, produce statistics and monitor and report on progress made on the environmental targets and indicators of the 2030 SDGs and the multilateral environmental agreements that were signed onto by Guyana.
“Guyana gave a global commitment to the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and we are also a signatory to a number of Rio Convention Treaties… This requires the country via the relevant agencies to monitor routinely and report on the achievement of all the SDGs and MEA targets. Of the 17 SDGs, eight of those are linked to the environment,” Schwiers told the participants of the workshop.
She said the main challenges in the implementation of the green state strategies include the need for relevant agencies to collectively plan and work together to accomplish national targets and indicators for the development of the objectives of the SDGs.
Moving forward, the Head of the DoE said the objectives of this workshop will help alleviate challenges faced by the department by enhancing the capacity of the relevant agencies to work together as a collective to achieve those objectives.
Meanwhile, Director of Office of Budget of the Ministry of Finance, Sonya Roopnauth expressed the hope that the results emanating from the workshop would be incorporated into the national planning process.
The Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) is the framework that will guide Guyana’s economic and socio-cultural development over the next fifteen years. The framework outlines a roadmap achieving the sustainable development goals and related targets, and outlines a long-term vision for a prosperous and equitable future.
The objective of the strategy is to reorient and diversify Guyana’s economy, reducing reliance on traditional sectors and opening up new sustainable income and investment opportunities in higher value adding and higher growth sectors.
Neola Damon.
Images: Tejpaul Bridgemohan.