ZIMBABWE POSITION PAPER ON
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs)
PRESENTED BY
DR. D.M. SIBANDA
PERMANENT SECRETARY FOR MACRO-ECONOMIC
PLANNING AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION
11th May 2016
Introduction
The Zimbabwe position on the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) is meant to inform Policy Makers,
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Government (national and sub-national structures);
Private Sector; Community-Based Organisations;
Development Partners;
Youth Organisations;
Women’s Organisations,
Local Authorities,
Faith Based Organisations, and
Various organisations representing all groups within our
society and the general populace
on the prioritisation and implementation of the SDGs
 In coming up with the position paper, Government
undertook a wide consultation process
which
entailed Multi-stakeholder Workshops and several
follow up meetings. The stakeholders included
Government, Private Sector, Civil Society, Academia,
UN Agencies and other Development Partners
 The First Workshop we organised was meant to raise
awareness on the SDG agenda; align the SDGs to the
existing ZimAsset Clusters and enabling-Clusters; and
allow stakeholders to prioritise the SDGs in terms of
implementation.
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As part of the consultation, the ZimAsset Clusters and
enabling clusters namely:
Food Security and Nutrition;
Value Addition and Beneficiation;
Social Services and Poverty Reduction;
Infrastructure and Utilities;
Fiscal Reform Measures;
Aid Coordination and Public Administration, Governance
and Performance Management,
were tasked with drawing the parallels between the SDGs
and their respective areas of work to ensure that the SDGs
are truly mainstreamed into the implementation of the
national development plan
Background to the Post-2015
Development Agenda
 Zimbabwe was signatory to the Millenium
Development Goals(MDGs). Globally the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) 2000-2015 transformed
the development space by rallying global efforts to
common development challenges.
 The MDG era came to an end in December 2015. The
global community is looking back at performance and
using lessons learnt to effectively implement the SDGs
2016 to 2030.
Key Areas of Progress
 Out of the eight SDGs progress in Zimbabwe was
registered mainly in three MDGs namely; MDG 2:
Universal Primary Education; MDG3 Promoting
Gender Equality and Empowering Women; MDG
6.Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.
MDG2 – Achieve Universal primary education
 Key achievements are as follows:
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The net enrolment ratio (NER) remaining high at 97.7 percent
in 2009, before gradually declining to 92.2 percent in 2014,
with gender parity.
Literacy rates for those aged 15-24 years remained universal
around 99 percent during the MDG period, with gender
parity.
The Pupil to Text Book Ratio reached 1:1 for the 4 core primary
school subjects (English, Mathematics, Shona/ Ndebele, and
Science).
MDG 3 – Promote Gender equality
and Empower Women
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The country achieved gender parity in primary school
enrolments and completion.
The share of women in University enrolment increased from
30.1 percent in 2000 to 44.1 percent in 2012, against an MDG
target of 50 percent by 2015, which represented progress.
The share of women in Technical Colleges and ITCs enrolment
increased from 17.6 percent in 2000 to 41.4 percent in 2012,
against an MDG target of 50 percent by 2015, progress was
registered.
Women’s share in National Parliament (Lower and Upper
Houses combined) was 35 percent in 2013, up from 9 percent
in 2000.
MDG 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
 The HIV prevalence among adults aged 15-49 years declined
from a peak of 29.6 percent in 1998 to 14 percent in 2014
whilst the HIV incidence rate within the same age group
declined from 2.6 percent in 2000 to 0.9 percent in 2014.
 Adult Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) coverage improved
from 69 percent in 2011 to 77 percent in 2013, whilst
Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT)
coverage increased from 56 percent to 82 percent within the
same period.
 Resultantly, total AIDS related deaths have declined from
122 282 in 2000 to 38 616 in 2014, which is a 68 percent
reduction. Similarly, AIDS orphans declined from 796 990
in 2006 to 567 480 in 2014, which is a 29 percent reduction.
Unfinished Business
• It is however clear that as we move to the SDGs there is in Zimbabwe like
in most developing countries need to look back at the unfinished
business relating to the SDGS.
• Examples include the need for inclusive economic growth and rural
development to reduce poverty.
• Support to agriculture must be vigorously pursued to improve
productivity in terms of ZIMASSET and the Ten Point Plan.
• The need to continue efforts to further reduce maternal mortality and
HIV incidence and prevalence.
• Effective Social Protection in assisting the vulnerable sections of our
society.
• Continuously improve the quality of the educational delivery system.
• The need to continue efforts in women economic empowerment.
Key Lessons Learnt from the MDG
Implementation for SDGs
• Political Will at the highest level is critical and total
inclusivity in the implementation of the SDGs.
• With some sanctions on Zimbabwe, it is important to focus
on Domestic Resource Mobilisation including new initiatives
to achieve the SDGs. A case in point of such initiatives is the
Aids Levy which was introduced during the MDG
implementation era to fight HIV/AIDS. This was a shining
example in Africa in terms of domestic resource mobilisation
• Sustained and inclusive economic growth which creates
decent jobs is essential. Formalising the informal sector and
achieving the ZIMASSET growth rate of average 7.2%
Key Lessons Learnt from the MDG Implementation for
SDGs Cont’d
•There is need to strengthen partnerships with Development Partners
as Government resources may not be sufficient to implement the
Agenda. UNDP family has played an important role in assisting us to
achieve some of the MDGs. This must continue.
• There is need to include all stakeholders in the implementation of
SDGs including the private sector, legislators, local authorities and
rural communities.
•Arresting and then reversing the informalisation of the economy and
adoption of science and technology for industrialisation will be key to
the transformation of the economy envisaged under the Agendapromote commodity based industrialisation
 Availability of Statistics and adoption of a uniform baseline
will
be key in monitoring and evaluation of the performance. We need to
strengthen ZIMSTAT to provide up to-date and reliable statistics on the
MDGs
Key Lessons Learnt from the MDG
Implementation for SDGs Cont’d
• There is need to continue engaging the international
community with a view to unlocking access to
international finance. Zimbabwe is need of
international capital and we need to create a conducive
investment environment to attract capital grow the
economy and achieve the MDGs.
• Zimbabwe
should capitalize on its demographic
dividend of a youthful population and women who
remain largely unemployed and underemployed.
Post-2015 Development Agenda and Vision
 Zimbabwe’s vision, as articulated in ZimAsset, which is the
country’s economic blueprint is centred on inclusive
growth that leads to empowerment of its citizens to reduce
the levels of poverty.
 Accordingly, Zimbabwe desires to see an empowered
society in a rapidly growing economy that is delicately
balanced with equity.
 This Vision will guide the country’s strategies along the
path to achieving the Post- 2015 Development Agenda. The
Ten point Plan enunciated by His Excellency the President
will reinforce the achievement of the vision
Assignment of SDGs into ZimAsset Clusters and Sub-Clusters
 The multi-stakeholders assigned the SDGs to the existing
Zim
Asset clusters and enabling clusters as follows:
1. Value Addition and Beneficiation
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved
nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women
and girls.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable
economic growth, full and productive employment.
Assignment of SDGs into ZimAsset Clusters and SubClusters cont’d
Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and
sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production
patterns
2. Food Security and Nutrition
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved
nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
Assignment of SDGs into ZimAsset Clusters and SubClusters cont’d
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women
and girls.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable
economic growth, full and productive employment.
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its
impacts
Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine
resources for sustainable development
Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial
ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification,
and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Assignment of SDGs into ZimAsset Clusters and SubClusters cont’d
3. Infrastructure and Utilities
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women
and girls.
Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and
sanitation for all.
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern
energy for all.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic
growth, full and productive employment.
Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and
sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient
and sustainable
Assignment of SDGs into ZimAsset Clusters and SubClusters cont’d
4. Social Services and Poverty Reduction
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at
all ages.
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and
promote life-long learning opportunities for all.
Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of
water and sanitation for all.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
Assignment of SDGs into ZimAsset Clusters and SubClusters cont’d
5. Fiscal Reform measures
8,10 and 17
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and
sustainable economic growth, full and productive
employment.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among
countries
Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation
and revitalize the global partnership for
sustainable development
Assignment of SDGs into ZimAsset Clusters and SubClusters cont’d
6. Public Administration and Governance
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women
and girls.
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and
modern energy for all.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable
economic growth, full and productive employment.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
Assignment of SDGs into ZimAsset Clusters and SubClusters cont’d
 Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements
inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for
sustainable development, provide access to
justice for all and build effective,
accountable and inclusive institutions at all
levels
Priority Areas for the Post-2015 Agenda:
SDGs
 When the MDGs were launched by the United Nations in
the year 2000, Government decided that it would implement
all the eight MDGs as they were a package.
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goals 1, 3 and 6 were prioritised as key for
implementation, the rationale being that these goals
represented the biggest challenges facing the country at the
time and also that their implementation would trigger
success in the other MDGs.
 The same approach and methodology has been adopted in
the prioritisation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The prioritisation exercise was guided by the country’s
vision, the need to focus on enabling Goals, resource
availability and our unfinished business in the MDG’s.
Priority Areas for the Post-2015
Agenda Cont;d
 Government decided that it will implement all the 17
Sustainable Development Goals as they were deemed
to be important to the country.
 However, in terms of focus and prioritisation, taking
into account the above guidelines, Government has
decided that it will focus and prioritise the following
ten SDGs:-
Priority Areas for the Post-2015
Agenda Cont;d
 Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable
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economic growth, full and productive employment;
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable,
and modern energy for all;
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved
nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture;
Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive
and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation;
Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of
water and sanitation for all;
Priority Areas for the Post-2015
Agenda
 Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and
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its impacts;
Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and
revitalize the global partnership for sustainable
development;
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
at all ages;
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education
and promote life-long learning opportunities for all; and
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women
and girls.
Rationale for Prioritisation of the SDGs
 Goal 8:
Economic Growth : Sustained and inclusive
economic growth is necessary if we are to create wealth
which can be channelled to the social sectors, create
economic opportunities for citizens to go into business or
to become gainfully employed
 Goal 7:
Energy: Energy is critical for all sectors of the
economy to be fully functional and productive.
 Goal 2:
Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition:
Sustainable Agriculture is the bedrock of our Economy
(agro-based economy) and the bulk of our population
derive their livelihood from this sector. (Also important
are the attendant food security and nutrition aspects).
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy as emphasised
in Zim Asset and the ten point plan.
 Goal 9:
Infrastructure: Resilient infrastructure,
Industrialisation and Innovation are again key in
promoting sustainable economic growth. Zim Asset
and the Ten Point Plan also emphasise on the
importance of infrastructure development.
 Goal 6: Water and Sanitation: Availability and
sustainable management of Water and Sanitation are
key in supporting all sectors of the economy. No sector
can function without water, these are key enablers in
the Zim Asset and the Ten point plan.
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Rationale for Prioritisation of the SDGs
 Financing : Means of implementation and Revitalised Global
Partnerships are key in the implementation of the Agenda since there is
outright acknowledgement that domestically mobilised resources will
not be enough to finance the SDG Agenda. Financing will require much
more players than Government alone. The country needs both foreign
and domestic investment for it to grow. Private sector participation is
critical in the Ten Point Plan.
 Goal 3 : (Health ) For the economy to grow it will require healthy
people. The relationship between a healthy nation and economic
growth is pivotal. Health is key in improving labour productivity and
hence economic growth.
 Goal 4 (Education ): Quality education is key in imparting the
necessary skills required in all sectors of the economy and enhancing
labour productivity.
Rationale for Prioritisation of the SDGs
 Goal 13
Combating Climate Change: The economy (including
the anchor sector of Agriculture) depends on the Environment. There is
therefore urgent need to combat climate change and its negative impact
on the Environment.
 Goal 5:
Gender and Women Empowerment: The achievement
of full human potential and sustainable development is not possible if
one half of humanity continues to be denied its full potential of
sustainable development. Economic Empowerment of women and girls is
therefore imperative for them to participate in all sectors of the Economy.
 Focus on the above mentioned Goals will trigger activity in the
remaining seven, leading to the ultimate Goal of Eliminating Poverty
in all its forms everywhere. It should be appreciated however that
implementation of policies, projects, and programmes on all the SDGs is
currently under way in the country with Government working in
collaboration with development partners and the private sector
Financing of the SDGs
 Domestic resource mobilization anchored on sustained
economic growth, and supported by an enabling
macroeconomic environment is the key means of financing
the Sustainable Development Goals.
 This is one of the key messages coming from the Post-2015
Development Agenda and the Addis Ababa 2015
Development Finance Conference.
 In this regard, Government will prioritise strengthening
mobilization and targeted effective utilisation of domestic
resources. A number of reforms are already being
implemented under the ZimAsset sub-cluster on Fiscal
Reforms which targets domestic resource mobilisation.
Financing of the SDGs Cont’d
 Furthermore, Government will also promote the growth of private
business activity, widen the tax base, eliminate any illicit outflow of
funds, promote domestic and foreign direct investment, create the
sovereign wealth fund, mobilise private international capital flows on
joint venture basis and Development Partners.
 Growing the economy will be key in the achievement of the SDGs.
 Diaspora remittances have grown to become an important source of
funds that can be leveraged for national development benefitting from
the large population living in the diaspora.
 Efforts will be made to ensure that diaspora remittances be channeled
to the productive sectors of the economy through a diaspora policy.
Implementation Modalities
 The Post-2015 Development Agenda will be implemented
within our National Development Plan, ZimAsset, and its
architecture which consists of 4 core Clusters and 3
enabling Sub-clusters.
 All the SDGs have been integrated into these clusters for
ease of implementation and ensuring synergies between
the SDGs and the country’s economic blue print the
ZimAsset.
 The Clusters will finalise the task of incorporating the
SDGs, the targets and the M&E modalities into their workplans and budgets, with a particular focus on the activities
outlined in ZimAsset and subsequent economic blueprints.
 For Statistical purposes, Ease of data collection and Consistency in
Reporting, 2015 will beModalities
adopted as the base year in the implementation
Implementation
of the SDGs.
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Key stakeholders in the implementation of SDG include, but not
limited to, these stakeholders include:
Government (national and sub-national structures);
Private Sector (both Domestic and Foreign);
Community-Based Organisations;
Development Partners;
Youth Organisations;
Women’s Organisations,
Organisations representing PLWD
Local Authorities,
Faith Based Organisations
The Elderly and
The general citizenry.
Communication
and Advocacy
 Communication and advocacy
will be key in
the
implementation of the SDGs to ensure that all relevant
stakeholders play their part.
 Unlike under the MDGs where there was very little
communication to the stakeholders, the SDGs present
an opportunity for Government to widely disseminate
and update the citizenry on this development Agenda
before and during its implementation.
 An elaborate communication and advocacy strategy
will be formulated to ensure that the SDGs are known
by as many stakeholders as possible at national,
provincial and district levels.
Communication and Advocacy Cont’d
 Communication and advocacy will be further boosted
by the establishment of regional planning economists
within my ministry who will be working with
provincial development planning committees (PDCs)
in all the provinces as well as extensive use of the
media in disseminating information on the SDG
Agenda
Conclusion
 Country and continental experiences have pointed to the fact that
some of the MDG targets were not achieved hence the need to embrace
the
Post-2015
Global
Development
Agenda.
Financing,
Implementation and efficient Monitoring and Evaluation mechanisms
remain key in achieving the SDGs
 It is imperative to ensure that the Post-2015 Development Agenda is
aligned to our national development priorities and aspirations and also
that we build and sustain the momentum achieved in those areas
where the country registered progress.
 The SDG Agenda emphasises national ownership underpinned by
robust domestic resource mobilisation and their effective utilisation. Iit
will be important for the Country to focus on enabling Goals so that
they deliver on sustainable and inclusive economic growth which is at
the centre of successful implementation of the whole Agenda.
 Providing a sound resource envelope for these goals is key
to ending poverty, transforming the economy, ensuring
environmental sustainability and peace.
 All stakeholders, including Development Partners, Civil
Society, Members of Parliament, the private sector and all
vulnerable groups will be mobilised to work together to
achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and ensure
that no one will be left behind.
 Let me finally conclude by calling upon honourable
members of parliament to form strong oversight
committees to supervise the implementation of the SDGs,
debate these in Parliament and periodically call on the
executive to table SDG implementation reports in
Parliament.
 I THANK FOR YOUR ATTENTION