UN Entities Support Ethiopia’s Quest for Policy Coherence for SDGs

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Addis Ababa January 18/2019 Three UN entities continue implementing a capacity development project to support Ethiopia’s coherence policy formulation for sustainable development goals in four areas.

The United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) yesterday hosted a day-long workshop in Addis Ababa.

The workshop aimed at enhancing Ethiopia’s policy coherence for the sustainable development goals through integrated climate, land, energy and water (CLEWS) assessments and institutional strengthening.

ECA’s Officer in Charge for the Climate Change, Environment and Natural Resources Management Division, Oliver Chinganya said the project will build capacities for integrated assessment methodologies to address inter-linkages and tradeoffs among policies, goals, economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

“Indeed, all the SDGs are interlinked, but the nexus between land, energy and water is particularly strong, especially against a background of changing climate,” he added.

He pointed out that building sustainable and resilient economies in support of Africa’s transformation does require climate-informed and integrated strategies and approaches with a focus on the climate, land, energy and water sectors nexus.

Water, Irrigation and Electricity Minister, Seleshi Bekele, said Ethiopia’s overall development goals were ambitious and the country was determined to make it.

Achieving development objective depends much on how investments on land, energy and water resources which are very sensitive to climate change, he added.

Coupling between climate, land, energy and water is a crucial in providing unique opportunity for substantive efficiency and optimal investment planning in support of the SDGs, he stated

Adviser in UNDESA’s Economic Analysis and Policy Division, Thomas Alfstad said on his part shared the CLEWs framework, a framework which helps explore technology and policy alternatives to realize co-benefits, with participants. 

CLEWs will provide policy relevant insights and identify robust relationships, key risks, explore technology and policy alternatives to mitigate unwanted outcomes and maximize synergies, he added

CLEWs is a methodology for integrated assessment of resource systems that provides a means to analyze and assess the inter-linkages that exist among energy, water and agricultural systems as well as their impacts on and vulnerability to climate change.

Ethiopian News Agency
2023