Recently in New York, US

WHEN President Robert Mugabe took to the podium to address the high level Thematic Debate on achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the United Nations (UN) in New York last week, there was a stampede from delegates to get a glimpse of the great African statesman.
He was without doubt, the major highlight of the summit.
There was everything that has become synonymous with the name Robert Mugabe and his stature.
There were lamentations over the unfair treatment of supposedly ‘weaker’ nations by global powers.
There was a massive demonstration that developing nations are on the move.
And there too was the usual vibe, a stern warning that Africa is no longer going to be continually bullied by its erstwhile colonisers.
Here was President Mugabe at his usual best.
Western countries must drop the course of destructive engagement they pursue through punitive economic sanctions in favour of friendship and co-operation to help the world move towards achieving the SDGs, came the message from the iconic Zimbabwean leader.
The SDGs, officially known as the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, are an intergovernmental set of goals with 169 targets adopted by the UN General Assembly.
This was in the wake of the lapse of the Millennium Development Goals that were set for 2015.
The SDGs, which constitute the post-2015 development agenda, encompass 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues, among them ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change and protecting oceans and forests.
Addressing the High Level Thematic Debate on Achieving Sustainable Development Goals, President Mugabe once again slammed the West’s widely discredited illegal economic sanctions.
The sanctions are estimated to have cost Zimbabwe over US$42 billion in potential revenue since the turn of the millennium.
They have also severely derailed the country’s efforts to achieve the MDGs.
“Sanctions and other unilateral measures, declared and undeclared, are a major impediment to the achievement of the SDGs,” said President Mugabe.
“They are a contravention of the principles enshrined in the Charter of the UN, to which we all profess commitment and adhesion.
“If the 2030 objective of ‘leaving no one behind’ is to be achieved, these sanctions should be lifted immediately and unconditionally.
“My country continues to suffer under these unwarranted sanctions.
“We call on those who rely on these blunt instruments of mass punishment, to choose the course of friendship and co-operation, rather than that of punition and destruction.”
As a sign of the great respect the world has for President Mugabe, he was among the top-10 on the podium out of 139 speakers who addressed the plenary session.
The world leaders were urged to pause for a moment, compare notes and inspire each other to achieve the post-2015 development agenda.
Zimbabwe has already set in motion processes to attain the SDGs.
The country has, through multi-stakeholder consultations encompassing the private sector, civil society and international partners, made progress in establishing the requisite structures for the domestication of Agenda 2030 and Africa’s Agenda 2063.
The congruence between the domestic agenda, as encompassed by the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET) and the continental agenda (Agenda 2063) that advocate judicious exploitation of natural resources through beneficiation and value-addition as well as the UN agenda (Agenda 2030), has firmly put the country on the path of sustainable development.
“I am pleased to note that the objectives of all these global agendas are in consonance with our own national development blueprint, Zim-Asset,” said President Mugabe.
“This will facilitate the aligning of the global agenda with our national vision, as well as their domestication.”
President Mugabe, a staunch advocate of self-reliance and economic empowerment of the masses said domestic efforts by member-states at resource mobilisation should be complemented by external co-operating partners to create an enabling environment for the achievement of the SDGs. 
That is where the issue of sanctions comes into play as Western powers are negating the country’s efforts to develop its economy.
Besides sanctions on a local scale, the continent is currently grappling with the bane of illicit financial outflows depriving Africa of an estimated US$60 billion a year.
International co-operation in stemming this challenge is a must that those with resources must comply with, said President Mugabe.
“For us in Africa, illicit flows, estimated at US$60 billion a year, further hemorrhage the limited financial resources at our disposal,” he said.
“This area needs urgent resolution to ensure that an improvement in domestic resource mobilisation efforts contributes to national coffers and not to lining the pockets of those illegally transferring these resources from our countries.”
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) last year revealed that illicit financial flows had cost Zimbabwe over US$500 million in 2015.