KOTA KINABALU: Sabah should shift its focus to districts in order to achieve state-wide equality.
United Nation Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam resident coordinator Karima El Korri said that the rural areas had the most vulnerable populations and major development deficits.
"When it comes to inequality, the rural-urban divide is more pronounced. For energy related in terms of household access to electricity, Sabah matches almost the universal level at 100 per cent of, but (for example in) Ranau, we are looking at 53 per cent.
"When we look at the disparity within the geographic regions, it becomes problematic and this gives us pointer action and investment needs to happen," she said when delivering a speech for the Sabah SDG Summit at Sabah International Convention Centre here yesterday.
El Korri also said despite Malaysia being on track, 95 per cent of its population were using safely managed drinking water services but citing it that the statistics hid disparity in some states.
She added that in Sabah, 80.5 per cent of the population had access to clean water facilities, but in the rural area it dropped to 61 per cent.
Noting that Sabah's poverty rate was 19.6 per cent, which is triple than the national average, El Korri also pointed out the higher incidence of malnutrition among children and anaemia among women of reproductive age in the state.
"(In Sabah), we have a higher maternal mortality rate according to 2022 data, which is 29.8 over 100,000 births in Sabah, while it is 26 at the national level.
"Communicable diseases prevalence are also much higher in Sabah, with double tuberculosis, threefold Hepatitis B and fourfold malaria (as compared to the national level)."
El Korri also said there was a stark difference in unemployment rates between Sabah and the country, which is 7.5 per cent and 3.5per cent respectively.
"There are five strategic thrusts on transforming human capital, this is a key pathway to address unemployment and skilling young people, and other aspirations under prosperity (SDG element).
"This requires investing in learning and training, capitalising high value industries such as manufacturing where Sabah is lagging but the potential is enormous.
"We need to raise the floor in Sabah, for the state, it is an unexceptional challenge but also has potential in resources for progress."