Ms Maliliga Sefululua Vasa, Principal Sector Planning Officer from the Ministry of Finance of Samoa attended the Fifty first Session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD51) that was held from the 9th – 13th April 2018.
Maliliga delivered the national statement for Samoa on the 11th April 2018, during the general debate of the CPD51. The statement reaffirmed the commitment of the Samoa Government to the ICPD Program of Action through national policies and programme implementation.
This commitment is evident in the work that has been carried out nationally to integrate and streamline the sustainable development goals (SDGs) into its national Strategy for the Development of Samoa 2017-2020, by Samoa being the first Pacific Small Island Developing State to report on its development progress presenting its National Voluntary Report in 2016 at UN High Level Political Forum, the launch of the Samoa Population Action Plan 2016 – 2020 which highlights key areas such as, fertility, relocation/migration from rural to urban areas, emigration and immigration, the changing age structure, changing health indicators, education, the changing characteristics of certain population groups and the impact of human settlement on the environment as well as provision of essential services and in Samoa’s Mass Registration campaign to strengthen civil registration and vital statistic.
As always the major challenge in realizing these commitments like any other SIDS is our vulnerability to climate change and the increasing frequency and intensity of the natural disasters in our region that have affected development.
These process and integrated development have strengthened a whole of government approach to ensure our commitment to delivery of services to our people to achieve the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda so that no one is left behind.