The Sustainable Development Goals and Ghana describes how the

Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

are being implemented in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. The SDGs are also known as the 2030 Agenda for

Sustainable Development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

and are a set of seventeen global goals for 169 specific areas developed by the United Nations. The Sustainable Development Goals were formed in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

in 2012 at the UN Conference on

. Its aimed to produce a set of universal goals claimed to meet the urgent environmental, economic and political problems facing the world.

aims to align its development priorities in partnership with CSOs and the private sector to achieve the SDGs in Ghana together.

Background

The

SDGs The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

, also called the

Global Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

, are a universal call to action to end

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...

, protect the

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

and ensure that everyone enjoys

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and

prosperity Prosperity is the flourishing, thriving, good fortune and successful social status. Prosperity often produces profuse wealth including other factors which can be profusely wealthy in all degrees, such as happiness and health. Competing notion ...

by 2030. It was adopted by 193 countries, with

inclusive. The

came into effect in January 2016. Its objectives are to ensure

social inclusion Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...

, protect the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

and foster

economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate of ...

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

, research, academia and CSOs receive support from the UN as the

encourage

partnerships A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, business entity, businesses, interest-based organizations, schoo ...

. It ensures the right choices are adopted now to improve life for future generations in a sustainable way. The

are interconnected. According to the president

Nana Akufo-Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ( ; born 29 March 1944) is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 7 January 2017. In 2020, he was re-elected for his second term, which will end on 6 January 2025. Akufo-Addo previously ...

of Ghana, “We were the first country in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

to free ourselves from colonialism; we were the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve the goal of halving poverty, as contained in Goal 1 of the

Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenniu ...

; and we were the first country in Africa to eliminate trachoma,”

aims to align its development priorities in partnership with CSOs and the private sector to achieve the

together. The

Agenda 2030 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

is said to have five overarching themes, known as the five Ps, namely; ''People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnerships,'' which span across the 17 SDGs.

Activities

Ghana is working on all 17 goals.

Parliament Committee

The

Speaker of Parliament The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

urged the parliament to form a seven-member Ad Hoc committee to monitor the country's progress on the Implementation of the

Partnerships

The Ministry of Finance in Ghana in partnership with other organizations hosted a dialogue with some corporations in the country to drive the achievement of

. An initiative of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

called the Sustainable Development Investment Partnership partnered with the

Government of Ghana The Government of Ghana was created as a parliamentary democracy, followed by alternating military and civilian governments in Ghana. In January 1993, military government gave way to the Fourth Republic after presidential and parliamentary electi ...

and the

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

to hold the first ‘Ghana

Country Financing Roadmap Roundtable’ in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

. In November 2019, the Ministry of Finance partnered with other organizations to organize the Accra SDGs Investment Fair. The

collaborated with other non-state actors to push the 2030 Agenda for SDG at the UN in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The Government with the effort of the Ministry of Business Development in Ghana collaborated with other organizations and launched the post-COVID-19 business recovery initiative. This was in line to advance the UN

and aimed at achieving those objectives. This was launched in Accra by the President

. The Government together with the UN Office in the country launched a project towards the achievement of

. This project was claimed to raise about $2.3 million over the two-year period from the SDG Fund. It was launched in Accra on 30 October 2020 by the UN Ghana Country Rep.

Progress reports

Voluntary National Review 2019

was part of the 2019 Voluntary Review of the High-Level Political Forum on

. The reviews were on: * National Ownership * Multi-stakeholder partnerships * Awareness creation * Progress of Implementation of the Goals * Leave no one behind * Synergies across the goals * Institutional Arrangement * Data

National SDGs Reports

In 2017, a publication suggested why each of the SDGs matters to everyone and what can be done to ensure successful implementation in Ghana. In 2018, there was a report which served as a template for a series of yearly SDG-budgeting reports. Its reason was in threefolds. In 2019, there was a report on how

was developing a strategy for targeted

tracking and budgeting and also involving the SDG Impact Investment ecosystem in the financing of the

, four years into its implementation. A coalition called for the redoubling of efforts to achieve the water and sanitation targets of the

. The CEO of GIPC claimed the center would incentivize companies who would help the country achieve the

. The CEO of the Private Enterprise Federation claimed Ghana has covered 14 out of the 17 goals and lauded the government for its commitment to achieving the SDGs. The Communications Specialist at MoDB claimed the President of Ghana achieved a number of the

such as

SDG 2 Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2 or Global Goal 2) aims to achieve "zero hunger". It is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The official wording is: "End hunger, achieve food security and im ...

, SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 8,

SDG 9 Sustainable Development Goal 9 (Goal 9 or SDG 9) is about "industry, innovation and infrastructure" and is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. SDG 9 aims to build resilient infrastruc ...

and SDG 10. In January 2021, the GSS published a report called the 'Multi-dimensional Poverty-Ghana'. In this report, a decline in the incidence of poverty and also extreme poverty was found. This made Ghana the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to "achieve the

MDGs The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenni ...

target of halving extreme poverty in 2006 way ahead of the global deadline of 2015".

Challenges

COVID-19 pandemic and the SDGs

CSOs on

called for measures to protect the vulnerable and the poor to cushion them against

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

effects. The

CSOs platform on

worked closely with others to set up the CSO COVID-19 Response Committee to coordinate efforts of CSOs in the COVID-19 national emergency measures announced by the

President of Ghana The president of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current president of Ghana is Nana Akufo-Addo, who won the 2020 presidential elec ...

Society and Culture

National SDGs advocates

The Ghanaian advocate of the

in 2019/20 is President

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ( ; born 29 March 1944) is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 7 January 2017. In 2020, he was re-elected for his second term, which will end on 6 January 2025. Akufo-Addo previously ...

, Co-chair of

Advocates.

Other advocacy events

* In 2019,

hosted over 1100 people from over 25 countries for the first-ever Africa's Global

Youth Summit in

. * The

University of Education The University of Education ( ur, ) (Acronym and initialism, initials: UE), is a Public university, public Research university, research Universities in Pakistan, university located in a Residential area, residential area of Lahore, Punjab, Pa ...

in Winneba signed a MoU with the

MPA MPA or mPa may refer to: Academia Academic degrees * Master of Performing Arts * Master of Professional Accountancy * Master of Public Administration * Master of Public Affairs Schools * Mesa Preparatory Academy * Morgan Park Academy * Mou ...

to enhance the achievement of

. * On the World Tourism Day, a field trip, sightseeing, excursion, adventure, among others, which is planned, organized and hosted annually by the

UNWTO The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations specialized agency entrusted with the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain. UNWTO is the leading internat ...

is said to be hosted by a Ghanaian Private Sector Social Enterprise free of charge. This is for persons living with disabilities. It is relative to strengthening, promoting, and accelerating the achievement and maintenance of SDG 10, SDG 17, and

. * In September 2020 World

Maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

Day, the Director-General of the GMA made an address under the theme ‘Sustainable Shipping for a Sustainable Planet’ stated that it was part of the authority's plans to support UN to achieve the

such as

SDG3 Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3 or Global Goal 3), regarding " Good Health and Well-being", is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The official wording is: "To ensure healthy lives and pro ...

, SDG11, SDG13 and SDG14. He claimed, “This year’s World Maritime Day is closely tied to the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

that our world leaders pledged to support in 2015, and provides a unique opportunity to showcase the importance of the maritime sector to achieve the

.” It was undertaken to provide a platform to raise awareness of the

and to also show what the IMO and its member states do in order to achieve these targets.

References

External links

Official United Nations in Ghana website
{{Sustainable Development Goals Economy of Ghana Sustainable Development Goals