Achieving SDGs is dependent on tackling corruption - Akufo-Addo

“Achieving the SDGs will require all the resources we can muster. We must therefore be efficient and effective, not only in mobilizing resources but also in eliminating pervasive revenue leakages and addressing misallocation and misuse of public funds,” President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.

Addressing a room packed with representatives from the United Nations, Diplomatic corps, public and private sector and the media, the President did not mince words in highlighting the need for African countries to deal with financial malfeasance and corruption at the various levels in order to achieve the set Sustainable Development Goals.

“Crucially, if we are to succeed in increasing domestic financing of the SDGs, we must address the unacceptable leakage of resources in the form of wanton corruption,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the commemoration of his appointment as Co-Chair of Eminent Advocates for the SDGs by the UN Secretary General, Mr Antonio Guterres which was held at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Launched on 21st January, 2016 on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Sustainable Development Goals Advocates consist of 17 eminent persons assisting the UN Secretary-General in the campaign to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that world leaders unanimously adopted in September 2015.

With a mandate to support the Secretary-General in his efforts to generate momentum and commitment to achieve the SDGs by 2030, the SDG Advcoates have been working to promote the universal sustainable development agenda, to raise awareness of the integrated nature of the SDGs, and to foster the engagement of the new stakeholders in the implementation of the goals.

President Akufo-Addo also inaugurated a 15-member Inter-Ministerial Committee to manage the implementation of the United Nation’s SDGs.

The Committee is chaired by Professor George Gyan Baffour, the Minister of Planning.

The members are Mr Alan Kojo Kyeremanten, the Minister of Trade and Industry; Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration; Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance; Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture; Madam Gloria Akuffo, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation; and Dr Akoto Osei, Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation.

The others are the ministers of Education; Health; Sanitation and Water Resources; Local Government and Rural Development; Gender, Children and Social Protection; Employment and Labour Relations; and Fisheries.

He further stressed that achieving the SDGs required innovativeness and the minimal reliance on the benevolence of other continents to finance the implementation of the SDGs.



“Ghana and, indeed, Africa, has the means to finance the implementation of the SDGs. We cannot achieve the SDGs with an aid-dependent mentality. This is the inspiration and the passion behind my vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid,” he added.