President Receives Kumasi SDGs Declaration

By Rex Mainoo Yeboah

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has received the Kumasi Declaration on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It outlines the need for government to partner with traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations, the youth, and the private sector, to attain the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

A representative of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, Nana Effah Apenteng, and Bompata Manhene made the presentation on his behalf to the President, a Co-Chair of the Eminent Group of Advocates for the SDGs at the Jubilee House in Accra on Monday.

"His Majesty wants me to emphasize that the Kumasi Declaration represents our modest contribution to ongoing international discussions on how best to facilitate the attainment of the 17 goals (SDG's) within the prescribed time frame of 50 years," said the Bompata Manhene.

Nana Apenteng said the Declaration was the end product of deliberations of a ROYAL Dialogue held on November 12 last year on the SDGs at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi under the patronage of the Asantehene, who engaged business leaders and select eminent personalities to brainstorm on key imperatives for achieving the 2030 Agenda.

It is, also, to honour the late Ghanaian statesman and former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Busumuru Kofi Annan for his central role in shaping the SDGs and other developmental agenda, including, the Millennium Development Goals and the United Nations Global Compact with Business.

President Akufo-Addo expressed his appreciation to the Asantehene for the "excellent initiative", which would strengthen his resolve to ensure that Ghana attains the SDGs.

"I am happy about the outcome of the Kumasi declaration. It strengthens my hand, particularly my role as Co-chair of the Secretary General's Eminent Group of Advocates that I can bring to the table, something which is uniquely Ghanaian in terms of the mixture of the various elements that have gone into it.

"I believe that if we are able to sustain these kinds of initiatives within our own modest resources we can find a strong weapon and mechanism for advancing the goals of these SDGs," said the President.

He indicated that though the SDGs represented a global agenda, its universal nature ultimately translated itself to specific individual and national contributions.

"So, Ghana can use this (Kumasi Declaration) as a back up to its work on the SDGs... it means that we can get a serious hand on how to move forward in this regard," the President noted.

The declaration urges the Government to enhance mechanism for mobilising domestic resources to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as create innovative and blended financing structures that can integrate public investment with traditional corporate financing.

To tackle gender inequality, the declaration affirmed support for women entrepreneurship as a part of a broader programme on the empowerment of women and increased investment in education and training particularly girls.

On education, it urged the government to develop 2030 Agenda for SDG awareness and engagement learning module for delivery at the Senior High Schools through trained teachers as well as programmes that unleash the potential of the youth to make direct contributions to the SDG.

The Asantehene's delegation, which included, Charles Larbi Odam, CEO of Deloitte, Maataa Opare, Group Head, Legal and Company Secretary, Fidelity Bank, and Alhassan Andani, CEO, Stanbic Bank Ghana also presented a commemorative plaque to the President.

Read Full Story