Nagaland making ‘consistent progress’ in SDG index: NITI Aayog Adviser

Kohima: Nagaland is making “consistent progress” in the SDG index, NITI Aayog advisor (SDGs) Sanyukta Samadar said during the launch of the Nagaland Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) vision 2030 ‘Leaving No One Behind,’ at the Capital Convention Centre in Kohima on Tuesday. 

She informed that in the SDG performance, Nagaland is currently ranked 19 in the country with a score of 61, as compared to 57 in 2019. In the North East, she said that Nagaland is in the 5th position behind the states of Sikkim, Mizoram, Tripura and Manipur. Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Assam are below Nagaland.

The official said that Nagaland has done remarkably well in clean water and sanitation, poverty eradication, clean energy, sustainable consumption and production, peace justice and strong institutions. She added that there is improvement in zero poverty in the state as well.

However, she informed that the state has seen a decline in quality education (SDG 4); gender equality (SDG 5); decent work and economic growth (SDG 8); industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9); reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and urban habitat (SDG 11).

As per the SDG performance of districts in Nagaland, Kohima is the top-performing district and Kiphire district is the least performer. For the percentage of districts in the performance category, none of the districts made it to the achiever category (100%) as per SDG-wise distribution. 100% of the districts are in the red category (aspirant category, a score of less than 50) for SDG 1—No poverty.

As for SDG 3 (Good health and well being), 63.64% are in the red category and 36.63% are in the yellow category; in Goal 4 (quality education) – 9 % in red, 63% in yellow and 27% are in the green category. On gender equality (SDG 5), 54.55% are in the yellow category and 45.45% in the blue category.

She told the gathering that India can achieve the SDG only if the States steer the entire process of SDG and become leaders in taking it down to the districts, blocks and village levels, and added that the North East Region plays a crucial and strategic role in this. In this regard, she lauded the State Government for coming up with two documents—one of the vision goals and the other of district SDG localization and Integration manual.

Samadar expressed hope that with the Steering Committee and coordination among departments headed by Planning Department, the State’s position will improve in the coming years.

She also revealed that regarding the fund mobilization and financing, the DoNER ministry and NITI Aayog have come up with a collaborative project in developing SDG index for 120 districts in eight the NE States, which will be launched on August 25. She said that this index will be used by the Ministry of DoNER as a tool for fund allocation, focusing on critical areas.

The Adviser also requested the State Government to make use of the new multidimensional poverty index by NITI Aayog, which she said will help with policy planning and targeted intervention.

Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio launched the Nagaland SDG vision 2030 ‘Leaving No One Behind’—a document based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. Minister, Planning & Coordination, Land Revenue and Parliamentary Affairs, Neiba Kronu launched the ‘District SDG Localisation & Integration Manual’.

Launching the Nagaland SDG Vision 2030, the CM said the document provides State-specific short, medium and long term targets with measurable indicators and strategies that the State should focus on to meet the aspirations of the people for sustainable livelihoods and living standards.

With the North Eastern States, especially the hill states lagging in economic growth and Nagaland, being a resource-constrained state, Rio stated that there is hardly any elbow room for the State Government to meet the large investments needed for capital and infrastructure development in the State.

Rio also said that the rigid implantation norms of most of the development interventions of centrally sponsored/central schemes coupled with the shorter working seasons due to the monsoons, the land ownership system of the State and the comparatively higher cost of transportation, and so on, poses big challenges for the State in fulfilling the aspirations of the people.

Rio urged the Central Government to recognise the required flexibility in the funding and implementation of schemes for the North East hilly states, and take note of the strategies and the challenges highlighted in the document and suitably customize the programmes of the centrally sponsored and central schemes to cater to the special needs of the State.

Minister, Neiba Kronu urged the need to sensitise the goals to the various districts, share the structure on how to work towards the goals with the District Administration and district level departments. He also added that the manual contains the necessary information that is locally relevant in achieving the goals.

The launch was attended by Minister of Agriculture and Cooperation G Kaito Aye, Advisor to the Department of IT&C, Science & Technology and NRE, Mmhonlumo Kikon, Advisor to the Department of Horticulture and Border Affairs, MhathungYanthan, Chief Secretary J Alam along with state officials.