LUSAKA - A senior United Nations (UN) official said on Monday that the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will only be a success if countries take ownership of them and take serious initiative to mobilize domestic finances.

The SDGs are a proposed set of targets relating to future international development and are expected to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) once they expire at the end of 2015. They will be adopted in September this year by UN member states.

Rekha Shrestha, UN Communication Specialists in Zambia told reporters that governments will need to do more to ensure that the goals become a reality and should not take them as mere UN goals.

"Governments should be the ones driving them. They need to do more; both developed and developing countries; both governments from the north and south. At the same time the new SDGs open an opportunity for private sector to come on board," she said.(Xinhua)