‘Some category of Ghanaians have not benefited from progress of SDGs’

Although Ghana has made significant progress in the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an expert at the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has indicated that some category of Ghanaians have not benefited from the progress.

The SDGs have 17 goals to be attained by 2030 and aims to “leave no one behind” in ending poverty in all its forms and in extending access to justice for all.

The Coordinator for the SDGs, Dr Felix Addo-Yobo, speaking to journalists at the United Nation’s Information Centre in Accra last Thursday after an online media interaction on the upcoming High-level Political Forum on sustainable development, said in the course of preparing Ghana’s Voluntary National Review (VNR) Report “we saw the risk of some people being left behind.”

The High-Level Political Forum is scheduled for July 9 to July 18, this year in New York to discuss the status of the SDGs, four years into their implementation by governments across the world and look at the need for accelerated implementation.

This year’s forum will focus on empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality with 47 countries, including Ghana, volunteering to present their national voluntary reviews at the forum.

Left behind

Dr Addo-Yobo, who declined to give details about Ghana’s VNR, said the category of people being left behind included children, the aged, prisoners, persons living with disabilities and the unemployed.

“They do not have decent access to basic services such as health, education and banking, among others. If you compare them to others, you will realise that they are below the national average,” he said.

To ensure that no one was left behind, he urged Ghana’s development partners, civil society organisations and the private sector to work together to identify those being left behind and work towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.

On the challenges encountered during the preparation of Ghana’s VNR, Dr Addo-Yobo said data availability was a major problem.

“The report was very participatory. We took the views of people at the grass roots and the participation of civil society organisations, youth groups, market women, schoolchildren, fisherfolk, farmers and drivers even though we could not cover all the 216 districts in Ghana,” he said.

“We brought on board people who usually do not have a voice while at the same time we created awareness of the SDGs. Many of the people had not heard about the SDGs and I was not surprised,” he added.

He commended the efforts of CSOs working at the district levels and demanded accountability from actors.