Creole version of SDG Agenda 2030 booklet launched |22 June 2017

The UNDP Sustainable Development Goal’s Agenda 2030 English version booklet has been translated into Creole, giving it access to a wider audience.

The Creole version booklet ‘Lobzektif pour Devlopmen Dirab’, containing the United Nation’s 17 SDGs,  was launched together with a parliamentary handbook ‘Parliamentary Role in Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals’, by UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative for Mauritius Simon Springett in a small ceremony yesterday at the Seychelles Trading Company’s (STC) conference room, Latanier Road.

The objective of having the UNDP SDG Agenda 2030 in Creole was for it to reach a wider audience in all corners of the society as it is in the mother tongue and will be easier to be understood and to be implemented.

With the aim of ensuring that no one is left behind in the world’s development, the United Nation’s 17 SDGs which was launched in New York in September 2015 after having ended the UN millennium Goals, covers different pertinent subjects such as poverty, environment, education and health among others, all of which have to be addressed and tackled by all countries, including Seychelles, by the year 2030.  

Mr Springett presented a copy of the UN SDG Creole version booklet to Secretary of State in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Barry Faure, and a copy of the parliamentary handbook to a representative of the National Assembly Honourable Paul Ernesta, in the presence of principal secretaries, chief executives and other distinguished guests.  

In his speech for the occassion, Mr Springett said that ensuring that no one is left behind is at the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is a fundamental guiding principle for its implementation. With all countries having to bear the responsibility of implementing the SDGs and to agree on the principle, “we need national adaptation of the SDGs to the country and island context by integrating relevant goals and targets into existing structures and frameworks - and ensuring equal access to information about the agenda for everyone. Indeed this must go hand in hand with participatory community planning, prioritisation and decision-making, as this is the foundation for long-lasting ownership”.

“It is in this context that we are here together today to launch Sustainable Development Goals Booklet in Seychellois Creole, to make the concepts accessible to all,” he added, thanking the Creole Institute for the translation of the booklet.

On the parliamentary handbook, Mr Springett said it is designed to inform parliamentarians around the world about the Agenda 2030 and their role in monitoring and implementing the SDGs.

“It provides parliaments and parliamentarians with a practical tool they can use to reflect on their current capacity for engaging in the achievement of the SDGs as well as examples and inspiration on how they might enhance their role in implementing the SDGs,” he said.

Ambassador Faure said that the booklet translated in Creole is a very important document for all Seychellois to read so as to understand in their own language the objective of the 17 SDGs.

“Let us make it our duty to make all Seychellois know and understand those 17 goals that we have to accomplish by 2030. This booklet should be read in schools, in work places, when we are drafting policies, at home and everywhere. Let’s do our part so that Seychelles accomplishes the agenda 2030,” he said and thanked the UN resident’s office for taking the initiative to publish the booklet in Creole. Giving an example of sustainable environment achievement in Seychelles, Ambassador Faure commanded the victory of the citizens over the Grand Police Bay tourism project which the SDG stipulates that we should conserve and restore the use of terrestrial ecosystem. 

The booklet will be distributed to ministries and institutions.