Media Foundation, UNDP train journalists on SDGs
The UN Resident Co-ordinator for Ghana, Ms Christine Evans-Klock, has stated the need for the media to help build expectations on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Ghanaians and what change they could bring about.
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“They are not UN goals because they do not belong to the UN; some 200 governments came together to agree to the development goals. The UN is a help mate and only facilitated, so it is really not UN goals but world goals for sustainable development,” she stressed.
Ms Evans-Klock was addressing the opening session of a two-day training programme for selected journalists on the SDGs to enable the participants to effectively report on the goals.
The training programme, which was on the theme “Mainstreaming SDGs in Development Reporting in Ghana”, was facilitated by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN organisation with oversight responsibility for the SDGs, UNESCO and the UN Communication Group in Ghana (UNCG).
Ms Evans-Klock said the media had the responsibility to, among other things, ensure accountability in the implementation of the SDGs and in making sure that the goals were localised.
“Ghana’s media is world class in terms of freedom, in terms of diversity, in terms of radio and television and print media combined and I think you have an incredible opportunity to make sure that the SDGs are well known at the local level and to build local accountability for local duty bearers,” Ms Evans-Klock charged.
Expectations
She praised Ghana’s performance in the MDGs and said the expectation was that Ghana would continue to be a leader in achieving the SDGs.”
Ghana’s role right now, is to align its medium plans with the SDGs because “Achieving the SDGs would create the enabling environment for achieving the medium term plans,” she said.
Training programme
Outlining the purpose of the training, the Executive Director of MFWA, Mr Sulemana Braimah, said the training was the beginning of an agenda to help the media to make known the roles of the various actors in ensuring the SDGs were met.
The facilitator of the training programme, Professor Kwame Karikari, said the SDGs should serve as the benchmark for national development policies, as well as the checkpoint for political parties.
He encouraged the journalists to also become advocates of the goals.
A Communication Analyst of the UNDP-Ghana, Mr Bossman Owusu, said the SDGs were focused on three key issues which he labelled as social, economic and environmental (SEE), while the five ‘P’s that underlined the goals were people, planet, partnership, peace and prosperity.
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