Ghana commended for smooth migration to SDGs
The United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator, Ms Christine Evans-Klock, has lauded Ghana for taking the necessary steps to ensure a smooth migration from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
She commended Ghana for being the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve the targets of eradicating poverty, ensuring universal education and access to justice.
Advertisement
At a media forum in Accra recently, Ms Evans-Klock said Ghana had shown commitment in contributing information on the progress of the MDGs at inter-government levels.
The forum was to sensitise the media to how the SDGs would be implemented in the country.
What is SDG?
The SDGs are designed to improve people's lives and protect the planet for future generations.
Ms Evans-Klock said although Ghana had achieved some targets under the MDGs, it was crucial for the country to ensure improvement in the implementation of the SDGs to ensure that the 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDGs were achieved.
She said the SDGs were global in nature and universally applicable unlike the MDGs which applied to only developing countries.
The resident coordinator said the UN system in Ghana was ready to support the government of Ghana in the implementation strategies to ensure the realisation of the SDGs.
She said the new agenda had been developed with consultations across 109 countries, including civil societies and the private sector.
Development framework
An SDG Ambassador in Ghana, Professor Kwame Karikari, said a critical element to ensure a successful implementation of the SDGs was the integration of the goals into the national development frameworks.
He explained that current discussions among policy actors highlighted two main approaches to integrate the SDGs, which were the development of a national sustainable development plan (NSDP) and the incorporation of key SDGs into existing national developments frameworks.
Another priority issue, he also mentioned, was the localisation of the SDGs, which he said would promote citizens ownership and facilitate successful implementation.
Prof. Karikari said policy actors considered it important that the SDG indicators being developed were adjusted to the national context to make the goals and targets relevant to Ghana.
To ensure successful localisation, he said, sufficient public education was deemed important in order to generate mass support for the SDGs and for policy actions.
National inclusion
In a presentation, the National Focal Person for SDGs, Ms Christine Asare, said the SDGs were well crafted and sought to achieve the global development agenda to the highest extent possible by 2030.
She noted that there was a problem with the MDGs because it was designed for developing countries, and added that there was the need for a national inclusion to adopt the SDGs to ensure it was a universal agenda.
She said the SDGs were developed to finish the unfinished business of the MDGs and added that some unfinished business that would be prioritised in the SDGs was on health.