By Jude Njoku

The Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy, CASLE and the Commonwealth Association of Planners, CAP have called on the Commonwealth Heads of Government, CHOGM 2015 to take the world lead in implementing in partnership with civil society, the historic new Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in September, entitled, Transforming our World -the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Leaders of the two groups told the commonwealth leaders who rounded off their meeting in Malta last week, to urgently put in place implementation strategies to address the new sustainable development agenda.

The President of CASLE, Mr. Joseph Olusegun Ajanlekoko who disclosed this to Vanguard Homes & Property, explained that “the new agenda for sustainable development and related SDGs provide Commonwealth leaders an unprecedented opportunity to shift the world unto a path of inclusive, sustainable and resilient development”.

“It is an agenda of action for people, the planet and prosperity -it recognises that eradicating poverty in all its forms including extreme poverty is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development,”a statement signed by the Secretary of CAP, Clive Harridge and CASLE’s Brian Waldy said.

The SDGs build on the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs which were adopted in 2000. The new Agenda is people-oriented, universal, transformative and integrated. It calls for actions by all countries for all people over the next 15 years. The Agenda recognises that ending poverty must go hand in hand with the plan that builds economic growth and addresses a range of social needs while tackling climate change. These are critical issues for all Commonwealth countries. The SDGs are part of an important shift in thinking about development -more ambitious but more realistic,” the groups declared.

Continuing, the leaders of the two professional groups tasked the Commonwealth Heads to “urgently prepare integrated strategies, policies and programmes, informed by long term strategic vision, participatory processes and local context, for the implementation of the SDGs. They should establish nationally specific and binding measures for monitoring the achievement of the SDGs and engage with local government and civil society in this process.”

They also charged the governments to undertake legislative and regulatory reform to build a solid framework to help deliver a sustainable urban future.