Johnson Smith Affirms Jamaica’s SDG Drive After Hurricane Melissa

Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, has again underlined that Jamaica is staying the course on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), even after Hurricane Melissa. She delivered the island’s third Voluntary National Review (VNR) on July 10 at United Nations Headquarters in New York, during the seventh sitting of the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Dr. Wayne Henry, joined her in presenting the report. Senator Johnson Smith spoke to gains made on the Goals and stressed the value of multilateral cooperation, while Dr. Henry focused on Jamaica’s structural vulnerabilities.

The Minister conceded that Melissa’s damage has been without precedent, yet insisted the country has not stepped back from its SDG targets.

“We’ve worked hard at making progress but are today confronted with the reality that one half of the country has been destroyed by the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in Jamaica,” she said.

“We are, however, resilient people so that even as we work on recovery and reconstruction with our partners and stakeholders, we have evaluated progress on the SDGs and continue to embark on a transformative pathway to accelerating sustainable development,” she added.

She also noted that the pressures on Jamaica mirror those facing other Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

“The commitment to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees is faltering and small island states continue to bear the additional social and economic costs of recovering and rebuilding while striving to achieve resilient and sustainable development,” Senator Johnson Smith said.

Sustained backing from abroad, she argued, will be essential if Jamaica is to keep advancing.

“Our development journey, undoubtedly, will go beyond 2030, and robust international partnerships will remain critical to its success,” she said.

“Jamaica’s commitment to achieving the SDGs, nonetheless, is reflected in our 98 per cent alignment with Vision 2030, Jamaica’s National Development Plan, embedding the SDG targets and indicators in our national monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and strengthening of our results-based management and budgeting systems to support implementation,” the Minister noted.

Driving SDG delivery at home are the Ministry, the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).