As part of its follow-up and review mechanisms of the 2030 Agenda, the Lagos State Government has initiated a plan towards the commencement of the Second Voluntary Local Review (VLR) on SDGs to accelerate the localisation of the SDGs process and foster horizontal and vertical policy coherence.
Speaking at the ongoing 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing held to commemorate six years of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals, Dr. Oreoluwa Finnih explained that the state will continue to prioritise a broad-based participation and collaboration towards advancing the implementation of the global agenda through strategic planning, systemic monitoring and coordinated evaluation of the initiative.
She revealed that the office’s impactful and evidence-based interventions have been propelled by the transparent assessment of SDG progress in the State, as captured in the first validated Lagos Voluntary Local Review (VLR), which set a benchmark for sub-national reporting. The State’s VLR provides a credible and data-driven overview of our achievements and gaps and serves as a strategic tool for resource mobilisation and informed decision-making.
According to her, the government is scaling up initiatives to transform livelihoods, advance shared prosperity, and bridge the gap for underserved populations. At the heart of this renewed vigour is the Lighthouse Project, a multifaceted flagship initiative designed to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs in communities by addressing pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges through targeted, data-driven and inclusive interventions.
Dr. Oreoluwa pointed out that, to ensure interventions resonate directly with the needs of the people, the government adopted a targeted approach, beginning with comprehensive needs assessments in priority communities where critical deficits in areas such as healthcare, education, access to clean water, and employment opportunities, which then informed the design and implementation of tailored solutions aimed at addressing those specific gaps and improving overall quality of life.
“We believe each community is unique. Our approach is to design tailored solutions responsive to the specific realities of these areas. Through this, we have reached over 800,000 vulnerable Lagosians with services that directly uplift their daily lives. Having taken cognisance of the reality that sustainable development must be people-centred, our interventions are not just about statistics, they are about real lives, real communities, and real progress,” she declared.
The Special Adviser noted that, in a remarkable step toward further strengthening grassroots engagement, the Office has established SDGs Centres across the 20 Local Government Areas, serving as hubs for public awareness, capacity building, and the localised delivery of development programmes.
She said, one of the transformative initiatives driven through this grassroots-focused strategy is the Advocacy for Women’s Financial Inclusion in Hard-to-Reach Communities, a campaign that has empowered over 1,200 women across 12 underserved areas by providing financial literacy, economic opportunities, and access to essential services.
Dr. Oreoluwa explained that the intervention, implemented in partnership with Africa HCD+, Opay, and Cowrywise, has equipped women with critical financial literacy, personal finance management skills, and improved access to identity and health services through strategic collaborations with NIMC, LASRRA, and LASHMA.
We are not just improving individual livelihoods; we are strengthening entire families and communities. Through the NG-CARES Labour Intensive Public Workforce, we provided temporary employment to 3,432 individuals from vulnerable households across all 57 LGAs and LCDAs with monthly stipends.
