We’re scaling up efforts at achieving SDGs— Presidential Advisor

The country is scaling up efforts towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through impact investment and more foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, the Special Advisor to the President on the SDGs, Dr Eugene Owusu, has said.

He said the key to attaining success in the implementation of the SDGs lay in the quality of partnerships established with the private sector and the extent to which countries smartly leveraged innovative financing to achieve growth.

Dr Owusu was speaking in a webinar organised by the SDGs Advisory Unit in the Office of the President on the country financing road map (CFR) for SDGs.

Special dialogue

The webinar followed a special dialogue on Ghana and the launch of the CFR to attain the SDGs by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, which was participated in by a global audience, including captains of business, young entrepreneurs and innovators, the UN, members of academia and media practitioners, in June this year.

It was on the theme: “Achieving the SDGs through impact investing — The critical role of FDI”.

The participants shared ideas on the CFR report and explored best practices in attracting FDI.

Commitment

Dr Owusu underscored the government’s commitment to achieve the SDGs, as evident in ongoing actions, including “SDGs-based national budgeting, the localisation of the SDGs at the sub-national level and the strong partnership established with the private sector”.

He called on the private sector to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the SDGs and support the government’s accelerated post-COVID-19 recovery programmes.

The CFR report estimates the financing gap of the SDGs at some $430 billion for the next 10 years, and closing the gap will mean the right structures must be in place.

Urgency

A former Managing Director of JP Morgan, Mr Yaw Asamoah, said effort towards achieving the SDGs must be driven with a sense of urgency by crowding in private financing at scale.

“There is in excess of $40 trillion under assets management across the globe,” he said.

Mr Asamoah also stressed the need for a strong and robust capital market in the country that had the ability to attract large global investment.