Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday said, “Odisha has emerged as a leader in bringing 8 million people above poverty line with a reduction of 24 percentage point in poverty levels in a decade.”
Patnaik told this to the delegates of various UN agencies who met him at the State Secretariat to discuss several models of partnership for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The delegation included Head UN Staff College Bonn Patrick Van Weerelt and Simona Sow, Deputy Head UN Women Nistha Satyam and Head of UNFPA Odisha Deepa Prasad.Patnaik said, “Odisha is also a leading State in the country in providing housing to the poor; and the State Government has created institutional a framework for achieving the SDGs.”
The State Government has also mapped the schemes aligning with the SDGs and prepared State-specific indicators to monitor the progress, the Chief Minister said.
Patnaik proposed to strengthen institutionalisation of the monitoring framework for the SDGs in collaboration with UN agencies.
The Chief Minister also spoke about the success of the State Government in significantly reducing infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality rate (MMR) and bringing the rates down to a better level than the national average. The conditional cash transfer mechanism under the Mamata scheme for pregnant women has benefited more than 3.1 million women, he said and highlighted the empowerment of 5 million women through five lakh SHGs.
He asserted that a better collaboration with the UN can bring a further empowerment of women in the State.
Appreciating the efforts and achievements of the State Government, the delegates of the UN agencies said the UN is ready to cooperate with the State Government on the SDGs where the State can be a model and thought leader in the process to achieve the SDGs.