Ethiopia and most African countries are not on track of attaining any of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says head of Africa Center for Statistics at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
“Ethiopia is not on track on any of the goals, however a good progress was experienced on 5 goals: Goal 6 – Clean water and sanitation, Goal 7 – Affordable and clean energy, Goal 8 – Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure and Goal 12 – Responsible consumption and production,” according to Oliver Chinganya, Director of Africa Center for Statistics, who online briefed journalists this morning on a topic of ‘modernizing national statistics system’.
He stated that the major challenges are related to inequalities (Goal 10) where the country has regressed.
“Low progress/stagnation was recorded Goal 2 – Zero hunger, Goal 13 – Climate action and Goal 16 – Peace, justice and strong institutions. The country needs to improve its data availability mainly on Goal 5, 13 and 16.”
Indicating that Ethiopia has recorded progress on many of the SDGs since 2000; Mr. Oliver said: “however, the current pace of progress has been insufficient to achieve all the goals by 2030”.
When it comes to continental level, out of the 17 SDGs, Africa is only making progress towards attaining SDGs in goals 3,4, and 15 goals (good health, education and life on land), according to the presentation of Oliver Chinganya.
He noted that with the current pace African countries will not achieve the SDGs by 2030. He stated that as a sub-continent West Africa, and the landlocked African countries are not doing well in any of the 17 goals. In fact, West Africa is doing very bad in 5 goals, and stagnant or slow in the remaining 12 SDGs. While East Africa, Southern Africa, and North Africa are doing well in only doing well in two of the 17 goals.
The Africa Center for Statistics has been engaged in assisting many African countries in improving their data collection and analysis using technologies, according to Mr. Oliver Chinganya.