‘Ghana translating SDGs into national development plans’
The National Development Planning Commission has since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) made efforts to incorporate the goals and specific targets into the country’s overall national development plans.
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The ministries, departments and agencies have also started translating these SDGs into their programme and policy planning processes.
The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, made these statements during a discussion on steps being taken by the government to implement the broad SDG agenda, at a session which discussed the topic, ‘10 Things you need to know about the SDGs’, at the Women Deliver 2016 conference at Copenhagen, Denmark.
According to her, there has been coordination among ministries and agencies of the Ghana government towards the implementation of the SDGs using a social protection framework which was an effective tool in implementing the MDGs.
Role of Gender Ministry
The role of the Gender Ministry, she stressed, is to ensure that gender is mainstreamed into the policy and planning processes.
According to her, the social protection interventions to implement the SDGs include registration of vulnerable onto the National Health Insurance scheme.
This, she said, was being done with the collaboration of the Ministry of Health, adding that: “together, we are working together to create a sustainable social protection system that is inclusive for the empowerment of all vulnerable persons in our society”.
Furthermore, she said the government, together with the Ministry of Education, was implementing an effective social protection programme that aimed to increase food production, school enrolment, attendance and retention, reduce short-term hunger and malnutrition among kindergarten and primary schoolchildren.
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The long-term goals of this programme will contribute to poverty reduction and improve food security, she added.
Other interventions are the Labour Intensive Public Works which have the objective to increase access to employment and income-generating opportunities to the rural poor.
With regard to SDG5, which refers to gender equality, the government has taken bold steps to implement to reach this target in eliminating all forms of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls.
Challenges
Nana Oye said the major challenge the government was facing as it responded to that bold new 2030 Agenda was access to funding for the development and effective implementation of policies and direct intervention programmes in a sustainable manner.
“Developing countries that attain middle-income status, such as Ghana, stand the risk of losing donor funding which is essential to attaining the 2030 Agenda,” Nana Oye noted.
UN agencies, the minister said, could respond to the 2030 development agenda by providing governments and civil society with technical expertise to develop capacities of institutions sustainably.
She further noted that civil society could also play a key role in ensuring governments were accountable in developing plans that directly reflected the SDGs, increase advocacy and education on the importance of the SDGs and also complement the programming of the government through innovative direct interventions.
In a brief presentation, a United Nations Special Adviser on 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, David Nabarro, explained that the SDGs were universal unlike the SDGs.
He said women and girls were affected by all the 17 proposed goals, hence they were key to achieving each of these goals.
Other discussants of the topic were Rachel Snow, Chief, Population and Development Branch, UNFPA and Geoff Adide, Director, Advocacy and Communications, Global Partnership for Education.