United Nations Development Programme Sustainable Development Goals Internship 2018

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in September 2015 in New York, as the successor to the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The innovative idea of goal oriented planning pioneered, by the UNDP Millennium Project during the implementation of the MDGs, gained traction in Nigeria when MDGs needs assessment and costing was used by Nigeria as a basis for a ten-year development strategy (2006-2015). Across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) too, SDGs-based planning has become a major plank in the pursuit of pro poor policy initiatives in the fight against poverty. Unlike the MDGs, the integrated focus of the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs require an integrated approach incorporating the cross-sectoral linkages of policies, trade-offs and policy-synergies. This is evidenced in the number of SSA countries, including Nigeria, Malawi, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire that are currently undertaking integrated SDG policy design as a basis for scaling up public investments in social and physical infrastructure towards achieving the Agenda 2030. While the SDGs are not legally binding, governments are expected to take ownership and establish national frameworks for the achievement of the 17 Goals.  Countries have the primary responsibility for follow-up and review of the progress made in implementing the Goals, which will require quality, accessible and timely data collection. Regional follow-up and review will be based on national-level analyses and contribute to follow-up and review at the global level. To this end, Inclusive Growth Unit is lead hire an intern to support SDGs implementation and monitoring. The intern will be supporting the State and Federal governments to design strategies for SDG implementation and data collection to ensure that SDGs is achieved by 2030 at both state and national level.