Government will embrace impact investment approach to achieve SDGs - Ofori-Atta

Government will embrace impact investment approach, which is expected to hit $37 billion by the end of 2019 towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Finance Minister has said on Wednesday.

Ken Ofori-Atta said the Impact Investment Survey for 2019 revealed that the impact investment in the Ghanaian economy increased from US$7.5 billion in 2014 to US$13.6 billion in 2018.

It is estimated that more than 40 per cent of impact investors were tracking the performance of their investments to the SDGs in Ghana to evaluate their effects on the social and environmental wellbeing of society.

Addressing participants at the opening of a two-day review meeting of Joint Programming Consultations on the UN Sustainable Development Partnership (UNSDP), in Accra, Mr Ofori-Atta said government was implementing a number of initiatives aimed at bolstering resource mobilisation drive and attracting partnerships and structures towards the attainment of the SDGs.

The meeting provided a platform for 80 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and 26 UN Agencies in Ghana, to agree on priorities for 2020, and foster a stronger alignment between UN action and government priorities towards achieving the SDGs.

At the end of the two-day meeting, participants were expected to agree on the final work plan that informed UN’s interventions for next year.

“We have ensured that Ghana’s Budget Statement and Economic Policy are SDG compliant as the key outputs are all linked to the SDGs targets and indicators. It also means that as a country, we do not have to expend financial resources twice to achieve our aspirations.

“We continue, on a daily basis, to shore up our domestic resources through the implementation of a number of initiatives. Critical among them is the National Digital and Property Addressing System, an accelerated National Identification Programme, the implementation of the Paperless Port System, implementation of the Excise Tax Stamp Policy and the Tax Revenue for Economic Enhancement Project,” Mr Ofori-Atta explained.

The Minister reaffirmed government’s commitment towards blocking all leakages, which allowed for the illegal outflow of resources and link downstream lessons learnt with upstream policy advocacy to speed up national development efforts.

Professor George Gyan-Baffour, the Minister of Planning who doubles as the Chairperson of the High Level Ministerial Committee for the implementation of SDGs, for his part, said the UN signed the UNSDP with the Government of Ghana in June 2018, to set out strategic priorities from 2018 to 2022 in four key result areas.

The areas comprised shared prosperous economy, social investment in people, protected and safe environment and inclusive and accountable governance.

The meeting, he said, aimed at ensuring that government institutions and the UN agencies built synergies and partnerships towards the implementation of the SDGs.

Ms Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, the acting UN Resident Coordinator, in her welcome remarks, said the UN’s relations with Ghana dated back to 1958, and currently, there were 26 UN agencies funding various programmes and projects in the country.

The UN agencies, she said, were collaborating with the Government of Ghana towards ensuring sustainable economic, social and environmental development and promoting peace, democracy and human rights.

Ms Lopez-Ekra said the meeting would enable the MDAs and the UN agencies to develop a joint work plan towards the implementation of the UNSDP.