Fiji vows commitment to SDG despite Covid-19
IN reaffirming Fiji’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has outlined Fiji’s economic recovery plans and actions taken to protect the safety and wellbeing of the Fijian families and building resilient societies.
Prime Minister Bainimarama delivered a powerful statement at the historic 75th General Assembly of the United Nations last week.
“Fiji has worked closely with the UN and our partners in Canada, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Rwanda through high-level engagement on financing for development to explore how we all recover faster. Recover better. Recover bluer. Recover greener. And recover together.”
“In the face of crushing financial pressure, Fiji has kept its sights set on the SDGs in every way we can afford. When our borders first shut, we immediately re-prioritized finances through a COVID-19 Response Budget. Since then, we have launched another national budget which puts all resources we can muster behind as balanced, sustainable and inclusive a recovery as possible.”
Prime Minister Bainimarama highlighted how Fiji has allocated tens of millions of dollars in direct assistance to those left unemployed or who are working on reduced hours as a result of this pandemic while ensuring education remains free for every primary and secondary student in Fiji.
“Healthcare in Government facilities
has remained free for every Fijian; and we have maintained our social protection for over 100,000 of our most vulnerable citizens, including the elderly, persons living with disabilities, rural pregnant mothers, and children from single-parent or destitute homes in need of care and protection,” he added.
Prime Minister Bainimarama said the creation of jobs through the construction of cyclone-resilient infrastructure, extending roads and essential services to the most remote pockets of the islands continues to be a focus for his Government.
“And where climate impacts have left trails of devastation, we are building back stronger.”
“There is so much more we can do that we must do to break the costly cycle of rebuilding from climate-driven
devastation and maintain the pace of our march towards a modern economy. To fund our full recovery, developing countries have asked for a mere 10 per cent of the historic stimulus packages the richest nations have deployed for themselves.”
“If we do not bridge this gap; the economic wounds of this pandemic will fester and cracks of inequity will deepen, undermining hard-earned development gains and bringing economic catastrophe crashing down on the most vulnerable nations. All countries will be forced to reckon with the historic cost of that collapse.”
“2020 was meant to be the year we took back our planet; a super-year for nature, for the oceans, for the climate, for biodiversity, for food security, for the survival of all life on Earth.”