Ghana has no data on MDGs' indicators - Report

Akosombo (E/R), April 30, GNA - Ghana has no data on 10 indicators of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) from 1990 to 2015, the 2010 MDG National Report has revealed. Mr Kordzo Sedegah, Economics Specialist at the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), speaking at a workshop highlighted in the report titled: 932008 Ghana Millennium Development Goals Report" released in 2010. The three-day workshop at Akosombo in the Eastern Region was organized and funded by UNDP in collaboration with Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF), TV3 Network, Africa 2000 Network, Masem Foundation and Shear Power Ventures.

It was to build the capacity of the MDG Youth Ambassadors on the MDGs and develop advocacy strategies for Ghana's accelerated achievement of the targets.

The aim of the MDGs is to encourage development by improving social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries. The goals were derived from earlier international development targets, and were officially established following the Millennium Summit in 2000. The indicators, on the other hand, are a measure of progress of MDG's that looks at issues related to achieving a proportion of working-age population that is less employed and the proportion of employed people living below one dollar among others.

Mr Sedegah said the report indicated there was no national target set to be achieved in 2015 for indicator one and four of MDG three, which is proportion of seat held by women in national parliament and employees in non-agriculture wage employment who are women.

He noted that the indicators were critical in the nation's efforts to attain the set goals, adding 93we need to have these data to enables us to know our performance, what has been done so far and what needs to be done.

"Once we don't have data on these indicators we cannot plan adequately to know the magnitude of progress of these MDGs. For instance as a nation we need figure on the total number of people employed and unemployed and factor it in our developmental agenda", he said.

On the nation's assessment of the nation's progress on the MDG's, Mr Sedegah said, Ghana had done generally well, but needed to work hard towards reducing child mortality, improve maternal health and ensuring environmental sustainability, which are goal four, five and seven since the trend of improvement was not encouraging. Mr Seth Oteng, Executive Director of YBF, said as one of the leading youth groups in the country, the youth had a role to play in ensuring that the MDGs were achieved.

He said the YBF established the partnership with TV3 to manage the finalists of the Ghana Most Beautiful (GMB) beyond the reality show for purposes of female youth empowerment and taking advantage of youth celebrity for community and national development. Mr Oteng commended the UN and the UNDP and the management of TV3 for embracing the MDGs Youth Ambassadorial initiative and supporting it.

Giving the background of the initiative, Mr Oteng said, the MDGs Youth Ambassadors were drawn from TV3's Ghana Most Beautiful Reality Show in Partnership with YBF.

Under the endorsement of the UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative Miss Ruby Sandhu-Rajon, YBF conferred on the young ladies MDGs Youth Ambassador 30 April 11