President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday said Kenya has made commendable progress towards the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The Head of State reiterated Kenya’s commitment to SDGs saying that the country will not lose momentum on the subject.
"I want today to reaffirm Kenya's commitment to the SDGs and to ensuring that we maintain the implementation momentum that we started with," Uhuru said.
He spoke in a recorded video address to a side meeting on SDGs convened by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The President said Kenya has made good progress in education, gender and climate change among other SDG sectors, despite the socio-economic challenges occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He noted that Kenya has prioritised SDG sectors with the highest socio-economic impact as outlined in the country's Big 4 development blueprint.
"My administration has sharpened the economic policy by prioritising action in sectors with the greatest multiplier effect on the economy, namely affordable housing; manufacturing; universal health coverage; and food security and nutrition," he said.
Uhuru said two voluntary reporting assessments undertaken by Kenya had returned positive results.
He added that Kenya's push towards attaining food and nutrition security was being held by climate change among other salient factors and the country has embarked on an aggressive afforestation programme, and development of renewable energy resources as part of its broad climate change mitigation strategy.
The Head of State said Kenya has taken steps to promote sustainable cities and human settlements by implementing affordable housing programmes to end the expansion of informal settlements.
Uhuru called for greater international solidarity in post-Covid-19 recovery and support to developing countries to regain the momentum on achieving SDGs.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said challenges facing the world such as climate change, conflicts and Covid-19 had slowed down global efforts towards the attainment of SDGs.
He called on governments and non-state actors to collaborate more in Covid-19 recovery efforts by investing more in vaccination and socioeconomic systems that support revival of education, social protection, health care and employment creation.
“I call on the world to mobilize behind a global vaccination plan that doubles vaccine production, to reach 70 percent of the world’s population by the middle of next year," Guterres said.
