The Secretary General for the Ministry of General Affairs, Mr. H. Plantijn, recently became the first recipient of a hard copy of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) report.
Within short the hard copies of the report will be distributed to all stakeholders, among which are non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) who have played a key role in contributing to the report.
Others scheduled to receive copies of the report are Secretaries General of the various government ministries, department heads, cabinet ministers, members of parliament as well as the MDG work group members and the Millennium Acceleration Framework experts group.
The digital version of the MDG report is to be found on the St. Maarten government official website, http://www.sintmaartengov.org. It is found under the policies and reports section of the Ministry of General Affairs. To access the report, one simply goes to http://www.sintmaartengov.org/Policy%20and%20Reports/MDG%20Saint%20Maarten-4.25.2016%20(1).pdf
The report was the result of much hard work by the MDG work group, dedicated teams of professionals from within and outside of government, providing their expertise, insight, data and information in various areas.
While the report had been completed some time ago, it could not be officially launched before this time, due to a number of unexpected situations arising. The MDG report is the basis of the upcoming National Development Plan, once this is finalized.
It should be noted that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted in September 2015 by the UN-General Assembly and were succeeded by the so-called Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.
The ongoing agenda among UN Member States is, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030).
That agenda establishes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by all countries and stakeholders by 2030.
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In addition, the Millennium Acceleration Framework Report for St. Maarten was compiled. For the two SDG goals which were lagging on Sint Maarten, Environmental Sustainability and Poverty Alleviation, an exercise was conducted by the MAF Experts group resulting in an action plan. This Action Plan aims to help Sint Maarten accelerate the achievements of the two Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 1 (poverty eradication) and MDG 7 (environmental sustainability) by focusing on sustainable community development. The Action Plan not only addresses accelerating progress on those two SDGs. It also touches upon eight of the seventeen proposed Sustainable Development Goals for the MDG post-2015 agenda.
At the start of 2016, the SDGs went into effect. Many countries are now engaged in their full implementation. With SDGs being aligned to St. Maarten’s National Development Planning, government has already begun working towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2030 agenda acknowledges that solutions emerge when results are challenged, when the right policies are adopted and when institutions are transformed. The SDGs recognize that all countries have problems to solve and contributions to make, subject to their abilities.
St. Maarten’s government is of the opinion that the key to success in achieving the SDGs is a willingness to form partnerships, starting at national level while at the same time embracing them on regional and international level.
Important to realize is that the MDG report reflects the country’s premise for a National Development Plan, wherein Sustainable Development Goals (Sustainable Development Goals) are also incorporated as the way forward to develop the country of St. Maarten.
Both reports will strengthen the ‘Recovery Plan’ of Sint Maarten, while the country remains focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals as basis for its National Development.
For more information, interested persons may contact Ms. L. Morales at the department of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK) via tel. +1 721 520 0194.