Vodafone talks private sector relevance on SDGs at UN Forum

Players in the private sector have immense potential to accelerate the attainment of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Ghana, the External Affairs Director of Vodafone Ghana, Mr Gayheart Mensah, has said.

He said this could be done, if the private sector put their minds and efforts behind it.

Speaking at a side-event during the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) at the UN Headquarters in New York on the theme: "Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”, Mr Mensah called for a relook at how successful organisations are assessed in order to ensure that the private sector contributes more significantly to delivering on the SDGs.

“Organisations should not be assessed only by how profitable or economically sustainable they are.

The social and economic sustainability of their activities should be key components of any assessment, and not just left to conscience, morality and ethics.

This will make organisations strive for partnerships and the appropriate governance framework that will support the attainment of the 2030 Agenda,” he suggested.

Mr Mensah said that Vodafone was persuaded that there was something more valuable than just being a profitable organisation which was the impact an organisation had on people and communities.

GSS project

That, he said, explained the current partnership Vodafone has with the Government of Ghana, particularly the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

Vodafone Ghana, two years ago, entered into a partnership with the GSS to use mobile-derived customer insights to make better predictions for sustainable development and life-saving decisions.

Using aggregated and anonymised CDRs, the GSS will analyse and generate statistics that will support decision-making in public health delivery, humanitarian, agriculture and development planning.

The project, tagged : "Data for Good", receives support from Vodafone UK, Hewlett Foundation with technical support from Flowminder, a not-for-profit organisation.

“When we get to the junction where the operations of the majority of organisations contribute to empowerment and inclusiveness, and also promote gender equality, that will be a major leap towards delivering on Agenda 2030”, Mr Mensah said.

Vodafone commitment

He pledged Vodafone’s commitment to partner government to effectively track trends in health, agriculture and population movements, among others, and said “this demonstrates what Private-Public Partnership (PPP) can contribute to the attainment of the SDGs,” Mr Mensah said.

The government's delegation to the UN Forum was led by Minister for Planning, Prof. George Gyan-Baffour, and included the Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic Bank, Mr Alhassan Andani, Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng, the Paramount Chief of Bompata, and Country Director for SEND Ghana, Mr George Osei-Akoto Bimpeh.