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UN commends Ghana for being first to achieve MDG 1 in sub-Saharan Africa

UN commends Ghana for being first to achieve MDG 1 in sub-Saharan Africa

The United Nations has commended Ghana for being the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) One, which aimed at reducing extreme poverty by half, ahead of the 2015 target date.

“We have been proud to celebrate Ghana’s success in having met the MDG to cut extreme poverty in half, that it did so significantly ahead of the 2015 target date, and that it had been the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to meet this goal,” the UN Resident Coordinator, Dr Christine Evans-Klock, said.

She was speaking at the opening session of the School of Social Science International Conference at the University of Ghana, Legon yesterday.

The two-day conference, with the theme, “Social science, good governance and the Sustainable Development Goals”, is supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSSR) of the University of Ghana. 

Substantial advancement

Dr Evans-Klock said Ghana also made substantial advancement in reducing HIV prevalence, increasing access to primary education for girls and boys equally and reducing hunger.

“The country has not only demonstrated results and shared its success stories, but has acted on good principles of transparency, acknowledging where progress, while significant, has fallen short of aspirations on decent work, improving women’s involvement in governance, increasing nutrition and decreasing maternal mortality,” she said.

She said one of the clearest findings from Ghana’s 2015 MDG report was that even where national trends showed that the MDGs were met, or where impressive progress had been made, the success was not spread evenly across the country.  

Sustainable Agenda 2030

Touching on the SDGs’ Sustainable Agenda 2030, she said among others that “The domestication and implementation process that is going on now at national levels, is not about prioritising among the 17 goals.  They are inseparable,” she stressed.

The Resident Representative of KAS, Mr Burkhardt Hellemann, urged the conference to ensure that research findings addressed the current needs of society. 

Additional goals

The Provost of the College of Humanities, Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah, who chaired the session, said he was glad with the additions in the SDGs to include goals Three and 10.

The SDG Goal Three calls for healthy lives and promotes well-being for all at all ages, while Goal 10 focuses on reducing inequalities.

 

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