PETALING JAYA (Dec 2): While Malaysia is on track in realising the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Urbanice Malaysia deputy chief executive officer Dr Azmizam Abdul Rashid opined that localising the SDGs is crucial in achieving the targets within the eight-year time frame.

Speaking in a virtual presentation session entitled “KL SDGs Roadmap: Global Agenda to Local Actions” in the City Expo Malaysia 2021 on Thursday (Dec 2), Azmizam said that localising the SDGs at subnational levels by replicating the national multi-stakeholder governance structure at the state level is key.  

“For the first phase (since 2015 until now), we have been doing well. The state governments, stakeholders and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) are all putting their efforts in achieving the 2030 Agenda for the SDGs in the next eight years. It is very important that the state governments continue to adopt and adapt the SDGs into the local agenda, as well as achieve the targets at the local level first before we can hit the global targets,” Azmizam shared.

To embrace and implement the SDGs in a systematic and measurable manner, Malaysia has put in place an enabling environment through some initiatives, such as formulating a National SDG Roadmap, implementing the SDGs under the framework of the 11th Malaysia Plan and strengthening data readiness and filling data gaps.

Some of the achievements of Malaysia in selected SDGs so far include absolute poverty being reduced from 49.3% (1970) to 0.6% (2014) with no reported cases of hunger, carbon intensity reduced by 33% since 2009 and with renewable energy capacity increased, as well as over 95% coverage for water and sanitation as well as electricity supply at the national level.  

“An evaluation of the city’s SDGs based on detailed stakeholder inputs indicates the following. The stakeholders generally agree that Kuala Lumpur is doing good at ensuring growth and development for all,” Azmizam noted.  

In 2015, Malaysia together with 192 world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for SDGs to commit to a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive development. Under the agenda, it has 17 SDGs, 169 targets and more than 200 indicators that cover five dimensions, namely the people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnerships.