The United Nations (UN) has put together a development framework known as the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to accelerate programmes to reduce poverty, provide more access to health and education, as well improve sanitation facilities.
Development in modern times is not just about physical structures and economic growth but processes that bring about desirable changes.
In the days of yore, countries boasted about their progress based on the number of wars or conquests they had engaged in or the infrastructure they had initiated.
However, any effort at development must bring about a change in the well-being of the people. That is why development is simply about people and this kind of endeavour must help to change the status of the people and improve the lives of many in the throes of poverty.
The intention of the UN is to help African countries to raise productivity in agriculture, education, health and infrastructure in order to compete successfully on the global stage. The African Continent is lagging behind on each goal despite the overall improvement in the policy environment and strong microeconomic fundamentals.
In spite of the challenge, it is good to note that Ghana’s progress towards attaining the MDGs is on course as President John Dramani Mahama has assured world leaders meeting in New York.
He said Ghana would not be complacent in its efforts, especially since challenges such as regional and socio-economic disparities still remained.
President Mahama said Ghana had made significant achievements in reducing extreme poverty by half under the MDG One, ahead of 2015, and was on course to achieving MDG Two on Education; MDG Three on Gender Equality, and HIV and AIDS, Malaria and other diseases relating to MDG Six.
We are happy with the good news from our President that we are on course to achieving the objectives of the MDGs although we know that access to quality education and health is still a mirage to many of our people, especially the rural poor.
More than a decade into the new millennium, we also know that some of our women still die because of lack of maternal care and child mortality is on the ascendancy due to the inadequate health facilities.
All is not lost though, but we need to work harder to attain the MDGs by the deadline of 2015.
The Daily Graphic thinks we can pat ourselves on the back since we are ahead of achieving the objective of halving poverty by the 2015 deadline. However, education and health facilities ought to be improved to enable us to bring these facilities on the doorstep of majority of our people.
Our government launched the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) in the 1990s to make education accessible to children but almost two decades on, the country has a long way to go to make everybody literate in our society.
A quick glance at our communities reveals the poor state of sanitation in all parts of the country. This poor state of the environment can be attributed to the indiscriminate disposal of refuse into all open drains and spaces, exposing residents to all kinds of health hazards.
The Daily Graphic does not doubt our ability to achieve the MDGs before the 2015 deadline or make significant progress towards such an objective.
We urge all Ghanaians to support the government in its efforts to attain the MDGs so that we can translate our development objectives into desirable change to ensure better living standards for our people.
Daily Graphic/graphic.com.gh/Ghana
