African Parliamentarians To Meet Over MDGs

African parliamentarians are to meet in Abuja tomorrow to prepare a roadmap to accelerate urgent action toward effective development of strategies for the realisation of the MDGs.

Rep. Saudatu Sani, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on MDGs, told newsmen in Abuja on Friday that a Network of African Parliamentarians on MDGs would also be inaugurated.

Sani said that after the inauguration, the conference would also proactively engage other lawmakers in reviewing all the gaols to be met before the end of this year.

Other issues to be discussed at the conference, according to her, include the inter-connections between achieving the MDGs, ensuring food security, tackling climate change and addressing the global financial and economic crisis.

“The conference will afford participants opportunity to share ideas that will influence institutionalisation of MDGs committees in African parliaments to facilitate effective partnership with the executive arm of governments.

“The effective achievement of the MDGs is certainly not the concern of only governments and parliaments. It is a collective responsibility, which in my estimation, the media has a larger stake,’’she said.

She said that a strategic meeting of some selected African countries including Nigeria was held in Nairobi in December 2009 where progress made by African governments in achieving the MDGs were reviewed.

Sani noted that Nigerian parliament was the first African parliament to constitute a standing committee on the MDGs with remarkable efforts in popularising and developing collaborative mechanisms. She said that the National Assembly had always ensured that appropriate funds were earmarked for projects without any reduction. The conference which would be inaugurated by Speaker Dimeji Bankole and would be attended by Parliamentarians from Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi. Others are Mozambique, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Liberia, ECOWAS, AU, civil society organsations and officials of the UN millennium campaign.

In a remark, Mrs Amina Az-Zubair, Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, said that there was a gap in allocation of resources to the MDGs project in the country.

She stressed the need for states and local governments to scale up their contributions to the project to enhance its sustainability.