Human Rights Day: CFD, CNCRA Call for Food Security, Integration of SDGs in Ondo State
December 10, 2025
As the global community marks Human Rights Day, the Campaign for Democracy (CD) and the Conference of Nigeria Civil Rights Activists (CNCRA) have issued a comprehensive appeal urging the Ondo State Government to expand food security initiatives and intensify efforts toward implementing Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger). The groups emphasized the urgent need to merge human rights protection with sustainable development across the state’s 18 Local Government Areas.
Human Rights Day, commemorated annually on December 10 since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, focuses this year on the theme “Human Rights, Our Everyday Essentials.” The groups described the theme as reflecting the essential link between human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), noting that rights such as food, shelter, health, education, equality, safety, and environmental stability are woven directly into the SDG framework.
Despite some positive steps by the Ondo State Government, Nigeria has achieved only an estimated 15 percent of SDG targets from 2015 to 2024. Ondo State continues to confront major human rights issues, including gender-based violence, delayed enforcement of the 2021 VAPP Law, systemic prosecution barriers, and widespread food insecurity—posing direct threats to SDG 2.
The organizations highlighted IVASNS (Integrated Visions for Achieving SDGs in All North and South Countries – www.ivasns.org) as a transformative model capable of delivering solutions through its principle of “doing more with less.” They argue that maximizing outputs using minimal inputs can create systems that ensure adequate food, energy, and shelter, thereby promoting economic dignity—a key human right.
To address interconnected challenges such as poverty, gender inequality, and environmental degradation, they urged government and civil society to adopt Whole Systems Thinking. Renewable energy initiatives, like solar-powered streetlights already in place in Ondo State, were cited as examples of how clean energy can expand education, health, and security outcomes. However, they stressed the need for scaling such projects.
The groups further advocated for regenerative development—approaches that restore ecological systems and strengthen community resilience—to secure long-term human dignity.
In their joint message, CD and CNCRA called on government officials, civil society institutions, and citizens to embrace Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science as a framework for integrating human rights with sustainable development. They urged a renewed commitment that would allow every resident of Ondo State, and Nigerians at large, to thrive.
Pastor Ifianyi Odili
President, Campaign for Democracy (CD)
Supporting Document
Human Rights and SDGs – Filling Gaps
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights listed 30 fundamental freedoms and protections designed to prevent war, genocide, and the use of weapons of mass destruction. The Sustainable Development Goals now serve as the practical continuation of that mission. The SDGs provide a globally approved roadmap for translating human rights into measurable progress in health, education, safety, equality, environmental stability, and opportunity.
By linking the UDHR with the SDGs, communities and governments understand that development is not merely economic—it requires stability, justice, and sustainability. When essential services improve, societies build the foundation for lasting peace.
300-Word Explanation
The UDHR is widely regarded as the world’s moral compass. Adopted in 1948, it outlines universal rights and freedoms—including access to food, shelter, education, safety, and freedom from fear. It served as the global blueprint for dignity and security, but lacked enforcement mechanisms.
The 2015 adoption of the SDGs offered what the UDHR could not: a practical, measurable, locally adaptable roadmap. With 169 sub-goals, the SDGs are globally approved, affordable, actionable, and directly aligned with human rights.
• SDG 3 reflects the right to health.
• SDG 4 reflects the right to education.
• SDGs 6 and 11 uphold the rights to clean water and adequate housing.
• SDGs 5, 10, and 16 ensure equality and protection under the law.
• SDGs 13–15 secure the right to a safe, livable planet.
• SDG 17 emphasizes partnerships—the UDHR’s most practical insight that rights require cooperation.
By linking the UDHR to the SDGs, development becomes a human rights delivery system. Clean water in a village becomes fulfillment of a right. Literacy projects by community groups become rights-based action. Hunger reduction and improved public health make the UDHR tangible rather than aspirational.
Thus, the SDGs become the operational arm of the UDHR—bringing global ideals into everyday community life.
Yet the persistent challenge is bridging the gap between political commitments and real-world implementation across diverse local and global contexts.
http://Explore the #HumanRightsandSDGs initiative at www.ivasns.org
To close this gap, the organizations propose strengthening the OECD 2030 Pact as a Global Apex Review Platform and empowering IVASNS to serve as a Global Apex Implementation Platform. They argue this approach is necessary to harmonize UDHR and SDG intentions with lived realities.
Learn more:
Explore the #HumanRightsandSDGs initiative at www.ivasns.org
