Government launches Roadmap for Implementation of 2030 Agenda

On the 22^nd of May 2017, during the Global Conference on the 2030 Agenda held in Dili, the Government launched Timor-Leste’s Roadmap for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. The work to produce this document reflects the Government’s commitment to implementing the new United Nations Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs].

Prime Minister H.E. Dr. Rui Maria de Araújo said that Timor-Leste’s national Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030 [SDP] “is the backbone of the roadmap” and that from now on “every year the planning and budget process should take it into consideration.” He explained that it had been developed “taking into account the national context” and said it “created a clear path aligned to the national development plan.”

The explainer of the Roadmap says “immediately after adopting the 2030 Agenda, the Government of Timor-Leste established an SDGs Working Group to work on the localization of the SDGs in the national development efforts and strategies of the SDP.” The group found that all 17 SDGs could be aligned with the national development plan and set to work sequencing the priorities that would be given to different Goals over the three phases already established within the SDP. This sequence is represented clearly in the infographic that is available with the explainer on the conference website.

The roadmap culminates with the achievement of SDG 1, the eradication of poverty by 2030, the end date of both the United Nations Agenda and Timor-Leste’s Strategic Development Plan. SDG 5 ‘Gender Equality’, SDG 16 ‘Effective Institutions’ and SDG 17 ‘Partnerships’ are set as crosscutting goals throughout the entire period to 2030. Even the ‘5 P’s’ of the 2030 Agenda have been aligned to the SDP with ‘People’ in the centre of the initial phase, ‘Prosperity’ in the second phase and ‘Planet’ central to the third. ‘Peace’ is recognized as the basis of national development with ‘Partnerships’ identified as a strong and positive dimension of Timor-Leste’s engagement with the rest of the world.

Spokesperson, Minister of State Agio Pereira, noted “The SDGs are at the core of a better development paradigm where all seek to ensure that ‘no one is left behind’. This new roadmap effectively aligns the SDGs with our own Strategic Development Plan to show our pathway toward sustainable development. The work done in this regards will assist Timor-Leste to implement and achieve the SDGs and also provides an example for other countries as they consider how to align the UN goals to their own national development plans.”ENDS