The government has delivered an outline of how well the country is implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. Prime Minister James Marape’s speech to the UN High-level political forum was delivered by National Planning Minister Sam Basil. It showcased the achievements and challenges of PNG. The conference was conducted at the APEC Haus early this morning via the United Nation’s website.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals range from Good Health and Well Being to Eliminating Poverty, Hunger and Climate Action.
Being a member of the United Nations, PNG adopted “Agenda 2030’ in the 70th session of the General Assembly in 2015.
This means PNG has agreed to measure its performances on development against the global benchmarks using indicators of the 17 SDGs.
In the first five SDGs, where it focuses on Ending Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well Being, Quality Education and Gender Equality, Prime Minister Marape says the population living below the extreme poverty line as per the last national survey has improved from 53 percent of the total population in 1996 to 39 percent in 2010.
The Prime Minister has noted improvement in health statistics that shows an increase in life expectancy rates but made mention that more focus needs to be given to health issues like TB and Malaria.
The other 12 SDGs include decent work and economic growth to responsible consumption and production.
In these different goals, the Prime Minister noted that the local economy has grown from an average of 6 percent between 2010 and 2014, highlighting a peak in 2013 at 13 percent before declining in 2015 to a 9.5 percent.
