Madagascar seeks to integrate SDGs in its development strategy

Madagascar is holding a second consultative forum to prioritize and integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its development strategies and policies, a source from the country's economy and planing ministry said Tuesday.

"The outcome of this second national consultative forum will ensure SGDs are incorporated in the development strategies and policies," the ministry source said.

The current consultative meeting on SDGs that began on June 6 to 8, brought together members of government, senior officials in ministerial departments, private sector representatives, civil society, youth and women representatives as well as representatives of diplomatic corps and Madagascar's technical and financial partners.

The outcome will be integrated in a national report on SDGs in Madagascar which will be presented by the government in New York in July.

Ministerial sources revealed that in 2015, economic stability in Madagascar was fragile even though progress was noted on the democratic front, and the economic growth rate in 2014 stood at 3 percent, a level which was lower than the expected 5 to 7 percent under the National Development Plan.

In the United Nations 2015 Human Development Index, Madagascar was placed at position 154 out of 188 countries. The country's economic situation was characterized by massive poverty, where 91 percent of the population live on less than two U.S. dollars per day.

"This situation poses a major risk for economic, social and regional cohesion, and compromises prospects for the country's development," the economy and planing ministry said in the report of the first SDGs consultative forum that was organized in August 2015.

"Madagascar has not achieved the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, despite its real development potential

source : xinhua