SDGs must change development landscape

Last year, at the United Nations General Assembly, the world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs were the eight international development goals that were adopted at the Millennium Summit of the UN in 2000.

At that meeting, all the 189 UN-member states at the time (there are 193 currently) and at least 23 international organisations committed themselves to help achieve goals such as the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, and reduce child mortality.

 Even as the MDGs have been replaced by the SDGS, progress towards the attainment of the MDGs was uneven and slow.

The SDGs, on the other hand, have 17 goals and strategies to achieve what the MDGs failed to do.

The SDGs are quite ambitious, with the first goal mandating all member states of  the UN to end all forms of poverty  everywhere, end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture, ensure healthy lives and promote well–being for all at all ages, ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, promote lifelong learning opportunities for all and achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

It appears the development challenges that confronted the world over the last two decades informed the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The globe is not only grappling with how to provide the very basic needs of society but also facilities that will provide the needed investment for growth, jobs, wealth and prosperity.

Gradually, mankind is inching towards the situation when it has become difficult for many communities to access potable and cheap water and reliable energy to power domestic and commercial endeavours.

Ghana just came out of almost four years of power management that brought the country’s economy to its knees. The new development goals are steps in the right direction, except that our governments are quick to sign protocols and conventions without checking whether they have the resources to implement them.

It is no secret that all the goals captured under the MDGs, now SDGs, present themselves as the bottlenecks to our progress and efforts at providing the needs of all.

Looking around all the countries of the world, especially the developing world, one is greeted with extreme poverty in the midst of plenty.

The attempt by our governments to exploit the resources of the land has not been managed well, allowing all characters to plunder the land in the name of investment.

In Ghana, our water bodies and vegetation have been degraded by miners and illegal chainsaw operators while those who have been put in authority to regulate those activities look on helplessly.

The Daily Graphic believes that it is not for fun that the UN system decided to charge all governments to promote the development process in a sustainable manner.

For us in Ghana, we are encouraged by the appointment of President John Dramani Mahama as co-chair of the advocates to help in the implementation of the SDGs.

And since charity, they say, begins at home, it is our expectation that henceforth our development processes will be carried out in such a manner that caters for today’s needs, not forgetting those yet to be born. That is the essence of sustainable development.