The Sterling One Foundation has urged the public and private sectors in Africa to forge a stronger strategic alliance with civil societies and government to make significant progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The head of Sterling One Foundation Olapeju Ibekwe during a summit titled: Africa social impact summit in Abuja stressed the need for broad-based partnerships in achieving the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations.
Ibekwe said the challenge confronting African countries are multi-dimensional and cannot be tackled by working in silos:
“We must build partnership and cooperation if the SDGs must be attained before the 2030 deadline,” Ibekwe stated.
She stressed the commitment of the Sterling One Foundation in pushing for integration of ideas from civil society, governments and private sectors to address intractable challenges of education, health, climate change, youth participation, infrastructure and gender mainstreaming in the African continent.
Matthias Schmale, the United Nations Resident Humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, maintained every segment of the society must be included in development action plan.
“Leaving no one behind means including people living with disability. we cannot create social impact without the people who are affected,” Schmale demanded an all inclusive plan for all segment of the society.
“our healthcare development intervention should be complete, continual and collaborative to remain impactful and sustainable,”Janet Byaruhanga, Senior Programme Officer, Public Health, NEPAD said.
The need to double up efforts and responses in critical areas such as education and health especially to rural dwellers and the poorest of the poor formed the central focus of the summit.
The head of Sterling One Foundation challenged development organisations not to approach their work as competitors but as partners and collaborators, while calling on private sectors to channels funding on social impacts in the critical areas of education and health.