SDGs very important to us – Gov’t to UN

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has reiterated the government’s commitment to achieving the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing aimed at ending poverty and other deprivations around the world.

Ghana has played an influential role in the implementation of the goals following the announcement of President Nana Akufo-Addo by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in April 2017 as co-chair of the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Advocates.

However, after more than three years of serving as co-chair of the SDGs, Ghana’s foreign minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has indicated to a high-powered delegation of all heads of United Nation agencies in Ghana led by UN resident coordinator Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, who paid a courtesy call on her at the ministry on Wednesday, 12 March 2020 that the president is continuously developing new measures that will aid in the realisation of the development goals, most of which are in sync with government policies.

“For us also, we are looking at the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s so important to us to the point where as Charles (Owiredu) said the president has directed that it be streamlined into all our areas of development” she said.

The minister further explained that there was a direct link between the government’s agenda of Ghana Beyond Aid and the SDGs, hence, the determination of the President to work towards the realisation of the goals.

“Because if we are able to fulfill all the 17 goals or the majority of it, we are well on our way to attaining a Ghana that is self-sufficient, a Ghana that has a very developed human resource who can contribute to the development of this nation” Ms Botchwey added.

Also present at the meeting were officials of the ministry of foreign affairs, a deputy minister of foreign affairs Charles Owiredu and other representative of UNICEF, UNESCO,UNFPA,UNDP,FAO among others.