MINISTER of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson Smith has hailed as a success the recently held conference ‘Caribbean Action 2030’, which sought to advance the 17 universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Eighteen countries participated in the regional conference, which was hosted from June 28 to 30 by The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus.

The over 200 delegates, including ministers of government and technical experts, advanced regional action on the way forward for eradicating extreme poverty and reducing inequality, with discussions centred on, among other things, civil society participation, resources moblisation, and policy and capacity building.

“We had a fantastic three days of sharing between policymakers, academia, young people, civil society. It’s been an excellent framework for the types of partnerships that are necessary for the attainment of the sustainable development goals,” Johnson Smith told the Jamaica Observer.

“What we have been trying to do is come together as a region to figure out how we are going to be able to implement, because it’s a lot of indicators, a lot of things to be done. And we have a lot of the same challenges — finances, capacity building — and we actually fine-tuned that over the three days,” she said.

She noted that the participants explored areas such as opportunities for creative financing, and the financing of insurance schemes for recurrent weather events.

Johnson Smith said ministers of the various governments also discussed how the outlined actions taken can be adjusted for each country’s particular circumstances

The conference received addresses from Prime Minister Andrew Holness; UWI Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles; and United Nations Development Programme Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Jessica Faieta, while more than 30 local, regional, and international academics and experts presented papers highlighting research, national experiences, and opportunities in SDG action in the region.

At a youth forum held on the second day of the conference, young people shared their perspectives for accelerated SDG action, including ideas for organising and networking youth for 2030 Agenda advocacy, following the conference.

The foreign affairs minister also endorsed the partnership framework agreement that outlines key outcomes of the deliberations, which is to be signed by participating ministers.

Last September at the 2016 International Conference on Sustainable Development in New York, Holness reaffirmed Jamaica’s commitment to achieving the SDGs, pointing out that the country’s focus is on economic growth and job creation, which will be used to achieve the SDGs related to health, education and poverty eradication.

The SDGs emerged out of a 2012 United Nations Conference on sustainable development held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, as a set of universal goals that meet the urgent environmental, economic, and political challenges facing the world.

In 2015 the SDGs replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which, in 2000, started a global initiative to tackle poverty by establishing measurable, universally agreed objectives. MDGs was the driver for progress in critical areas such as poverty reduction, access to water and sanitation, and reduction in child mortality, as well as improvements in maternal health. The MDGs made significant strides in fighting HIV/AIDS and other treatable diseases.

— Alphea Saunders