Six parties to integrate SDGs into manifestos
Six political parties have pledged to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their manifestos because they provide a framework that could propel Ghana towards achieving its economic development targets.
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They are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Progressive People's Party (PPP), the Convention’s People's Party (CPP), the People's National Convention (PNC) and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP).
The pledge was made separately at a forum on SDGs organised by Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) in Accra last Wednesday.
The SDGs are an inter-governmentally agreed set of targets relating to international development.
They follow from the Millennium Development Goals and build on the sustainable development agenda that was finalised by United Nations member states during the Rio+20 Summit.
The SDGs contain 17 goals, with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues.
These include ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change and protecting oceans and forests.
NDC determined
The Research Director of the NDC, Dr William Ahadzi, said the party was not only willing but also prepared to ensure that its manifesto focused on all the SDGs.
He said since the NDC took over, efforts had been made to ensure that problems that hindered the development of Ghana were properly addressed.
NPP on poverty
A Member of the Communication Team of NPP, Mr Kojo Afari, said one of the major goals of the party was to implement policies that would address poverty and improve the well-being of the citizens.
He mentioned the imposition of taxes on businesses as a major challenge that had affected businesses, causing many people to stay in poverty.
PPP on job creation
A Member of the Communication Team of PPP, Ms Bridget Boafo, said the party's manifesto had in it policies and programmes the PPP-led government would implement in relation to job creation.
Already, she said, the PPP had initiated moves to address “problems that hamper the growth of the education sector”.
GCPP on agriculture
The General Secretary of the GCPP, Mr Ato Dadzie, said the party’s strong policy on domestication remained the prime focus of the GCPP's manifesto.
"Ghana's economic problem is as a result of the government’s limited support for the agriculture sector," he said.
CPP concerned
Touching on agriculture, a policy analyst of the CPP, Mr Yaw Adu Larbi, said the leadership of the party believed that one of the ways of transforming the economy of Ghana was to build a strong economic environment that thrived more on agriculture.
"The country hasn't done much for farmers because our leaders do not perceive their contributions as efficient," he said.
PNC on SDGs
The General Secretary of the PNC, Mr Bernard Mornah, said the party would focus on all the goals and targets in the SDGs.
"We will localise them by integrating all the goals into the National Development agenda of Ghana," he said.
Use SDGs to amass votes
The SDGs Ambassador for Ghana, Professor Kwame Karikari, urged the political parties to write their manifestos around the SDGs because each of them constituted useful slogans which could be used to amass votes.
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