President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has challenged rich nations, cautioning that it is impossible for them and the entire universe to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) if the poorest nations operating under the LDCs banner are sidelined.
Addressing a High-Level Thematic Roundtable Discussion on Sunday, the Malawi leader said it is important that no one is left behind, halfway through a journey towards achieving SDGs, as well as the agenda 2030.
President Chakwera co-chaired the roundtable discussion (under the theme “Investing in People in the Least Developed Countries to Leave No-one Behind”) alongside Andrzej Duda who is Poland President.
“LDCs represent unprecedented opportunity to address fundamental challenges facing the world. LDCs represent an opportunity for themselves as well as for the world at large…it is impossible to achieve agenda 2030 and SDGs without LDCs,” said Chakwera.
Narrowing down to Malawi, Chakwera took advantage of the platform to inform the conference that his government has managed to craft a second long-term national development plan, Malawi Vision 2063, which he said has been aligned to many international blueprints such as the Agenda 2030.
At this juncture, Chakwera reiterated the need for developed countries to elevate their support towards the poorest nations, while helping the LDCs reduce their level of vulnerabilities to multiple external shocks.
President Duda expressed hope that the implementation of the Doha Programme of Action (2022-2030), which was adopted last year in New York, will be crucial to bringing equality between rich and poor nations, going forward.