Asia Africa Archipelagic Countries Discuss Implementation of MDGs
AACC2015, JAKARTA – The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Indroyono Soesilo gathered a number of ministerial-level officials and delegates from small island development states and Indian Ocean states in order to agree on the concept of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Post-2015.
"We want to urge those archipelagic countries to agree on the SDGs Post-2015. We focus especially on goal number 14, which discusses maritime and marine resources. We invite ministerial-level officials and delegations, because head of states/countries have not arrived yet. They will arrive on the 22nd of April, while this forum is on the 21st of April 2015,” he said at the 60th Commemoration of the Asian African Conference in Jakarta on Tuesday (21 /4).
The Millennium Development Goals focus on developing a global partnership for development by supporting the needs of underdeveloped countries, remote countries and small island countries.
MDGs, which came into effect in September 2000, is a Millennium Declaration agreed upon by all heads of state/government and delegations from 189 countries in the United Nations. It describes eight indicators that are to be achieved by 2015 with the target to achieve people's welfare and community development in 2015.
Indroyono explained that the agreement between archipelagic countries on goal number 14 must be realised. This reiteration comes because some countries intended to eliminate certain goals. “If we as the largest archipelagic country do not speak out, goal number 14 risks being eliminated as some are proposing that SDGs be narrowed to reflect MDG, which only has a few goals/indicators. We do not want that to happen,” he said.