Ghana focuses on 5 key SDGs to fast-track devt
President John Dramani Mahama has announced Ghana’s strategic focus on five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that have strong cross-cutting impacts on the entire 2030 Agenda.
The selected goals -- decent work, quality education, sanitation and hygiene, sustainable energy and strong institutions -- were identified for their potential to accelerate progress across all 17 SDGs.
President Mahama unveiled the priority areas at the Jubilee House yesterday during the launch of Ghana’s Voluntary National Review (VNR) Report, a key assessment of the country’s SDG implementation efforts.
"These five goals are not standalone targets; they are catalysts that drive progress in health, poverty reduction, gender equality and more," the President stated, adding: "When we improve education and sanitation in a community, we unlock multiple development benefits at once."
SDGs
The VNR process allows Ghana to track achievements, address challenges, and strengthen partnerships for achieving the SDGs by 2030.
The VNRs also seek to strengthen policies and institutions of governments and to mobilise multi-stakeholder support and partnerships for the implementation of the goals.
“When a girl in Savannah gets access to clean water, school and nutritious meals, she helps advance the five SDGs simultaneously.
“This intelligent prioritisation reflects our alignment with the SDG transitions, the African Union Agenda 2063 and our medium-term national development framework,” President Mahama stated.
President Mahama said the government was implementing an integrated national financing framework to align private external financing and tap into climate finance opportunities to expand the fiscal space to confront illicit financial flows that deprive the country of vital resources.
Youth involvement
To the youth, President Mahama said they were not just recipients of the SDGs, but they were authors and drivers.
“Whether you are innovating in agri-tech, coding new apps, leading climate action or organising your communities, you are the heartbeat of this SDG vision,” he said.
Responding to aspects of the report that say Ghana records 300 maternal deaths in every 100,000 births, President Mahama said that figure was unpleasant.
“We must make every single health facility aim for zero maternal mortality.
It is a statistic until it is your sister, wife or relative.
“It is my hope that the next time we compile our VNR, we’ll beat the 300 barrier and go down, but the best figure is zero,” President Mahama said.
He added that the VNR was a significant indicator of the progress that had been made so far in the attainment of the SDGs.
