Page 6 - IB AUG 2019

We Say

The Sustainable Development Goals projected on the facade of the UN Headquarters in New York. Photo: UN

Reporting SDG progress

OUR islands of the Pacific are truly heaven on earth if the reading policies that aim to enforce gender equality, promote disability
of their recent reporting to the United Nations on progress made inclusivity, enable child online protection and mainstream gender
on advancing the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development is and women’s empowerment.
to be believed. Most, if not all of them, Not to be outdone, Fiji submitted a glowing report of its whole-
reported achieving universal access to of-government approach to ensuring that the island nation is
Independent education and health for their people. on track to achieving most of the UN’s sustainable development
observers could Palau for instance, told the UN High goals. It has been a world leader in offering free legal services
bring balance
Political Forum that its citizens enjoy to its citizens, the Fiji’s attorney general submitted at the High
universal access to water and a lot of Political Forum at the UN headquarters in New York in July. It’s
strides have also been made towards well on the way to forging an equal society, and has implemented
reducing poverty amidst a growing economy. Meanwhile Vanuatu popular policies of free education, free textbooks and subsidised
told the UN forum that it has introduced a number of national school transportation, the government says.

6 Islands Business, August 2019