UNA Tanzania collaborated with Policy Forumfor the  Breakfast Debate in August focusing on the theme, “Towards Sustainable Development: Reflecting on the 2023 Tanzania Voluntary National Review (VNR) Report. The debate was conducted at the British Council Auditorium in Dar es Salaam with the aim of sharing feedback to stakeholders on what transpired during the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July, deep diving into what Tanzania as a country reported on the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Civil Society Organization’s engagement in the process ensuring no one is left behind.

Mr. Joseph Malekia from The National Planning Commission commenced by opening the debate with a presentation describing the entire VNR process to finally summarizing what was reported during the HLPF. He said that, “We are midway to 2030 and only 12% of the goals have been accomplished globally, this shows how much efforts is still required to achieve what we had set in 2015. For Tanzania it was confirmed during the forum that, there has been good progress in goals 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, and 16 and relatively moderate progress in goals 1, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17”.

Mr. Joseph Malekia from the National Planning Commission in The Ministry of Planning and Investments under the Prsident’s Office

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion composed of Reynad Maeda; The Co-Convener of The Tanzania Sustainable Development Platform (TSDP) and Executive Director at UNA Tanzania, Stephen Chacha, Co-Convener of  The Tanzania Sustainable Development Platform, Nesia Mahenge, Country Director at CBM International in Tanzania as well as Mr. Joseph Malekia. The panelists shared their experience and lesson learnt from the High-Level Political Forum. During the forum UNA Tanzania together with other members of the TSDP conducted a side event which deliberated on leveraging partnerships to promote meaningful participation in advancing Agenda 2030 by those most at risk. Apart from that UNA Tanzania’s Executive Director was a speaker in several side events including; a side event organized by the governments of Finland and Tanzania with the theme , “Localizing the SDGs: Transformative partnerships to accelerate achievement of the Global Goals at local level”, a side event conducted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development to examine What happens after a community completes a Voluntary Local Review to measure local achievement of the SDGs. On top of that the Director spoke at a VNR Lab conducted by the German Council for Sustainable Development to  share from a stakeholders perspective, how Tanzania VNR process embraced the Whole of Government,  Whole of Society approach.

Panelists from left; Joseph Malekia, Nesia Mahenge, Stephen Chacha and Reynald Maeda

After the panel discussion, the attendees had a chance to explore the subject in a couple of groups before being given the opportunity to share their opinions. Key take aways from the debate include;

• Translating the SDGs into local contexts & local languages is key for the localization of the goals and ensuring the local community is fully on board.
• Realization of the SDGs in Tanzania should not only rely on charitable source of finance. We should focus on unlocking new innovative sources of finance for the SDGssuch as climate finance
• Media involvement in the SDGs is of the essence, to capacitate them to relate reported news with SDGsis crucial in stimulating its implementation.
• Young people have the power to act and mobilize others hence meaningful youth engagement in the implementation of the SDGs is