Ghana adopting sustainable development goals

After more than two-years of negotiation and deliberation, the post-2015 UN agenda -- covering 17 sustainable development goals and 169 individual indicators -- will be adopted at this week’s UN General Assembly in New York by world leaders to end poverty, achieve gender equality, and ensure food security in every corner of the globe by 2030. Ekow Essabra-Mensah looks at Ghana’s preparations toward its adoption.

After 15 years of nations pursuing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established by the United Nations, representatives of the member-states -- along with experts and private citizens -- have defined Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help set the course for the next 15 years.

On August 2^nd the United Nations concluded its negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, and member-states agreed a framework for 17 universal sustainable development goals which are yet to be adopted by Heads of State at a summit being held today, the 25^th September, 2015.

Delegates are gathered at the UN Headquarters aiming to finalise and adopt the post-2015 development agenda “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

The Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.

All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan from January 2016.

All 17 SDGs and 169 targets demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what those did not achieve.

They also seek to realise the human rights of all, and achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible, and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.

The MDGs faced criticism for not sufficiently covering the environmental dimension of sustainable development, and for not addressing inter-linkages between its three dimensions.

“This is a top priority now as we have successfully agreed on a sustainable development agenda with a set of 17 sustainable development goals. This is hugely ambitious and encouraging news.

“On all these matters, we really count on strong support. This is the people’s agenda, a plan of action for ending poverty in all its dimensions irreversibly, everywhere, and leaving no one behind,” said Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, after the targets were agreed.

President John Dramani Mahama has confirmed that the country will be signing up with the SDGs document: “We need to make economic growth more inclusive; that is why we will be signing up to the SDGs this year.  The country needs to broaden its participation.  We need to broaden participation and make good use of technology”.

This will pave the way for the country to join forces with other countries to adopt the new UN sustainable development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

If fully implemented, a new set of U.N. development goals could end the social exclusion and poverty of marginalised groups in the country. At the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the mantra “leave no one behind”.

Preparation toward adoption of the 2015 agenda

As one of the first of 50 countries selected by the UN for national consultations on the post-2015 development agenda, two rounds of national consultations were organised in the country.

Led by the UN Country Team in partnership with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the first round of consultations were launched in November 2012 at Tamale.

Two key objectives of the consultations were to: stimulate broad-based debate on the priorities that should constitute the post-2015 development agenda; and provide opportunities for marginalised sections of society to participate in the global debate and policy processes connected with the post-2015 development agenda.

Head, United Nations Systems Unit, Gladys Ghartey-Ministry of Finance, confirming to B&FT Ghana’s preparedness toward implementation of these SDGs -- which starts from January 2016 -- explained that “Ghana is fully prepared, as the country is an integral part of the global body”.

She said Ghana’s team has been in New York looking to finalise the SDGs document “So we are fully involved and fully prepared for its adoption”, adding that most of the items in the SDGs are already being implemented.

She praised Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), especially SEND-GHANA, for their contributions to discussions on Financing for Development as the major means of the implementation aspect of SDGs, describing the organisation as “wonderful.”

Mrs. Ghartey said: “Some of the specific wordings CSOs have suggested have found their way into the Financing for Development document. I would therefore entreat that we encourage such collaborations”.

Mr. George Osei-Bimpeh, SEND-Ghana’s Country Director speaking with the B&FT in Accra, urged government to find innovative and domestic-driven ways of financing SDGs within the framework of the post-2015 development agenda.

According to him, sustainable development financing is the only panacea for consolidating gains made through implementation of the MDGs.

Speaking at a recent media interaction organised by SEND-GHANA on the Open Budget Tracker Survey and Post-2015 Development Agenda, Osei-Bimpeh opined that increasing inequality and the fact that about seven million Ghanaians live on just a dollar a day makes a case for social protection programmes, which implementation requires guaranteed financing.

This comes with the hindsight of lessons gleaned from formulation and implementation of the MDGs.

Among other things, there was little discussion and no concrete agreement and/or strategies to finance implementation of the MDGs; issues of governance were not prioritised, for which reason fiscal or budget transparency and accountability were completely out of the picture.

He drew government’s attention to these lessons to serve as a guide as the country is preparing to join the inter-governmental negotiation on the SDGs, and as government explores financing mechanisms for implementation of the post-2015 Agenda.

“Budget transparency and accountability should be the core priority of government in the context of SDGs/Post-2015,” he advised.

Incorporating SDGs with NDPC’s 40-year Development Plan

Government officials have agreed to boldly take the strategic step to incorporate the post-2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations General Assembly into the country’s 40-year Development Plan.

The 40-year National Development Plan being spearheaded by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has received a favourable endorsement from various business Associations, stakeholders and eminent personalities in the country.

Planning has indeed been the country’s weakest point. The country has often discarded previous development plans simply because they did not fit a particular political party’s vision or manifesto, and has come to the realisation that as a nation such developments are often lopsided and haphazard.

To borrow a phrase from a notable Ghanaian -- His Eminence, Cardinal Peter Turkson said: “Some politicians are shortsighted by nature; that is why we need a national vision to direct this shortsightedness. The 40-year National Development Plan is a step in the right direction for carving a national vision.

At least the crafters of that elaborate document envision where they expect Ghana to be in forty years -- all things being equal, as economists like to say! It is a broad framework in-coming political administrations will have to work with to build the sort of future that sees us moving from our current level of a lower middle-income economy to full-blown middle-level status and beyond.

The above development indicates the country’s readiness to incorporate its developmental agenda to the SDGs goals.

Government officials have confirmed that the country will strategically incorporate the newly proclaimed national development plan.

One of such government official, Ms. Hanna Tetteh-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, announcing this at a press briefing on Ghana’s participation in the UN General Assembly’s 70th Session, said like the SDGs Ghana will ensure it is collectively developed to engender universal ownership and acceptability.

She said government will also promote its wider dissemination, application and implementation at the national, regional and community levels, and establish internal mechanisms to monitor performance and reporting.

Ms Tetteh said the SDGs, though global in perspective, are also adaptable to the conditions of member-states and are of universal application with flexibility for different national realities, capacities, priorities and levels of development.

“For African countries and peoples, the agenda expresses our aspirations and hope for building viable and sustainable economies that can transform our societies, and we have been very active in the process of deliberations on these new goals through the development of a common African position before the debate started -- which helped us to influence the final outcome.”

Ms Tetteh said the UN could not have chosen a more appropriate theme in the current international environment plagued by threats to peace “but which have implications for all of us, no matter where we are or where we live.”

She therefore thanked the technocrats, civil society organisations and all who worked tirelessly on Ghana’s contributions to crafting the post-2015 Development Agenda, and assured Ghanaians of government’s commitment to the UN’s ideals.

Ms. Christine Evans-Klock, United Nations Resident Coordinator, called on the media to play its advocacy role once the SDGs are launched, to enhance their adoption in the country so as to better living conditions for all citizens.

Tasking the media to monitor SDGs

The media has been asked to monitor the progress and implementation of the SDGs when they take effect from next year.

The media will need to be steadfast in its watchdog role to ensure speedy implementation of goals by government and other stakeholders.

“See yourselves as partners in implementation of the SDGs, by going beyond reporting on development and implementation of the goals to investigating challenges confronted in the implementation process,” said Ms. Evans-Klock.

Going forward, Professor Kwame Karikari -- a Board Member of Media Foundation for West Africa and SDG Ambassador in Ghana -- called on political parties to incorporate the SDGs into their manifestoes to make implementation easier.

With firm media monitoring, the goals of the SDGs will be implemented by various government agencies including ministries, the National Development Planning Commission, and local government authorities without leaving any citizen behind.

Media involvement will ensure transparency, and without participation of the media there will be insufficient accountability.

This article therefore advises that opportunities should be created for public participation; and also there should be full transparency on government revenues and government spending on each of the goals, as part of major means for monitoring successful implementation of the SDGs.

Beyond media monitoring, campaigners have hoped that the SDGs will encourage governments and donors to focus on the most vulnerable, hard-to-reach groups -- such as poor women in rural areas. 

But a lack of official data on these groups is a major stumbling block, even as experts welcome the SDGs’ commitment to review progress based on data broken down by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and other factors.

In theory, disaggregated data should help governments design tailored policies to help the poorest of the poor.