The President’s vision for the Sustainable Era initiative for Sri Lanka 2030 was launched at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday.
The vision which outlined key areas that needed to be accounted for when undertaking development in Sri Lanka, seeks to develop Sri Lanka’s own Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in line with the 17 SDGs adopted by the UN in September 2015.
“Sri Lanka as a member country signed up to the SDGs but it will be implemented in a way that it is suitable to our own country. We take the global vision and make a programme that is in line with our national policies,” President Maithripala Sirisena said as he outlined his vision at the launch.
The plan for Sri Lanka’s SDGs however would be designed by an expert committee who will be working together with government agencies and other stakeholders draft goals Sri Lanka needs to prioritise and meet.
Prof. Mohan Munasinghe, founding chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for Development and senior advisor to the government was appointed as the first member of the expert committee.
“We will ensure that the committee will be well represented by all ethnicities, experts from different subjects and would be gender equal,” Prof. Munasinghe told the Daily News.
The SDGs have 17 aspirational goals with 169 targets and include ending poverty, hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change and protecting oceans and forests. The President said in addition to making 2017 the year to ‘alleviate poverty’, Sri Lanka would also focus on food security, development and mechanisation of local industries and the introduction of modern technology to agriculture while protecting traditional practices as part of its own plan.
“We will also incorporate this vision to our five and 10 year development plans and all government agencies and ministries will have this vision in their own development targets,” President Sirisena said.