Ghana marks 72nd UN Day with flag-raising ceremony

Ghana on Tuesday commemorated the United Nations (UN) Day with a flag-raising ceremony at which the Foreign and Regional Integration Minister, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, reiterated the country’s continued support and preparedness to collaborate with the UN in finding solutions to the challenges facing humanity.

Ms Botchwey and the UN Resident Coordinator, Ms Christine Evans-Klock, raised the flags of Ghana and the UN, respectively.

The local celebration was on the theme: “Achieving the SDGs: Innovating, mobilising and partnering for the implementation of the SDGs in Ghana”.

UN Day is marked on every October 24 to commemorate the anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Charter in 1945.

With the ratification of the charter by majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the UN officially came into being.

The commemoration is also used to reflect on the achievements and the challenges of the global body and map out ways to boost its operations and mandate.

In 1948, the UN General Assembly declared October 24, the anniversary of the Charter of the UN, as a day to be devoted to making known to the people of the world the aims and achievements of the UN and gain their support for its work.

UN and human existence

In her remarks at the event in Accra, Ms Botchwey described the UN as having become an organic part of human existence.

“We must do everything to preserve, strengthen and make more effective this precious tool for advancing the frontiers of human progress and civilisation,” she urged.

She touted the achievements of the UN in the past 72 years and described the efforts of the global organisation as inestimable, citing peace-keeping, humanitarian services, infrastructural development and capacity building as some of its achievements.

On the implementation of the SDGs, she said Ghana would continue to collaborate with the UN in the delivery of the SDGs as part of resolving the numerous challenges humanity was saddled with.

“The achievement of the SDGs holds a prominent place on the government’s development agenda. It is for this reason that the goals have been incorporated into Ghana’s 40-year development plan and development policies such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, one-district, one-factory and the free SHS,” she said.

She assured the UN and other international organisations operating in Ghana that the government would continue to collaborate with them to build the resilient economy envisaged.

UN Secretary-General

In a remark read on his behalf by Ms Christine Evans-Klock, the UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Gutteres, said the world was saddled with many challenges such as conflicts, inequalities, climate change, security threats, among others.

He said the problems transcended borders, noting, however, that the world had the tools and wealth to overcome them.

 “We have the tools and wealth to overcome these challenges. All we need is the will,” he pointed out.

He said if the UN was able to achieve human rights and dignity for all people, the people would, in turn, help build a peaceful, sustainable and just world.

“On UN Day, let us, we as the people, make this vision a reality,” he charged.

UN Resident Coordinator

For her part, Ms Evans-Klock said achieving Agenda 2030 (SDGs) was a shared responsibility because the agenda was for a peaceful, sustainable and just world in the interest of all.

She described the development agenda as a unified agenda for social, economic and environmental development, premised on the principles to reach the farthest first, realise gender equality and ensure access to justice for all.

She noted that many non-governmental actors in Ghana were getting active, organising themselves, advocating the SDGs and committing their own work to help achieve the goals.

“On this celebration of UN Day, we should ask ourselves if we can have a Ghana, an Africa, a world where nobody lives in extreme poverty, where no child has his or her childhood stolen from him or her by forced labour or lack of health care, where no one goes to bed hungry, among other ways of living in dignity,” she said.

She expressed gratitude to the more than 800 Ghanaians and international staff serving in 20 UN agencies in Ghana.

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