UN: Morocco Calls for Creating Fund to Support SDGs Implementation in Africa

United Nations (New York) – Head of government, Saad Dine El Otmani, called, on Friday, for setting up a fund to support the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa, while stressing Morocco’s resolve to “continue to keep its commitments so as to strengthen international development within the framework of our partnerships which place Africa at the heart of concerns.”

“We would like to give all the necessary attention to Africa in order to strengthen its immunity to crisis and we reiterate Morocco’s call on the United Nations to set up a special fund to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa,” Head of Government highlighted at a high level event on SDGs (SDG Moment) held online within the framework of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

Morocco is one of six African countries that have been invited to speak at the first ever “SDG Moment”, an event which will be convened at the opening of each session of the General Assembly until 2030.

According to Mr. El Otmani, this event “comes at the right time to allow us to assess the progress made in the implementation of these objectives and to explore ways and means to create new momentum for their implementation.”

“This is a necessity imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic which has caused an unprecedented health and socio-economic crisis and made millions of human beings even more vulnerable,” he said.

The head of government also reaffirmed that Morocco has made the implementation of the SDGs a national priority, recalling the recent presentation by the Kingdom of its second Voluntary National Review (VNR) before to the United Nations High Level Political Forum.

“In this review, we presented the tangible progress made by Morocco in the following areas: access to basic services, fight against poverty, reduction of social inequalities, empowerment of women and investment in human capital as well as in renewable energy,” he recalled, highlighting the different measures adopted by the Kingdom to fight against the repercussions of the pandemic.