The Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale South Harruna Iddrisu has called for the establishment of a Seven-Member Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee to monitor the Ghana’s progress on the the implementation of The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Minority Leader in a statement read on The Floor of Parliament submitted that, “l accordingly propose that Parliament establish a Seven-Member Portiomentory Ad Hoc Committee (or any number and howsoever, described, acceptable to Mr. Speaker and the House) tasked with the responsibility to monitor Ghana’s progress on the implementation of the SDGs, consider progress reports from implementing MDAs and advise Parliament on budgetary allocations and other appropriate interventions to ensure that we are on track in the implementation of the Goals”.
He said, The Committee will work closely with the Minister for Planning, National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the UNDP, Civil Society and other relevant MDAs and stakeholders in pursuit of it mandate.
Haruna Iddrisu stressed the point that, the above proposal is in accordance with the practice in other jurisdictions where a Special Committee or Body has been established for the said purpose.
Mr. Iddrisu noted that, the SDGs are people centred and they are the representatives of the people with the emphasize that…”We cannot therefore, afford to stand on the offence; we must play a lead role in ensuring that Government delivers on the SDGs for the benefit of our citizens and humanity in general”.
I therefore, urge this Honourable House to heed this call and establish a Committee on the SDGs, he added.
The SDGs are the successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS), which Ghana implemented between 2001 and 2015.
According to the Ghana Millennium Development Goals 2015 Report, Ghana’s progress on the MDGs had been mixed.
Whiles, some of the targets such as halving extreme poverty, halvng the proportion of peeple without access to safe drinking water, universal primary education and gender parity in primary school have been attained, we missed targets such as full and productive employment, equal share of women in non-ogriculture wage employment, women’s involvement in governance, reducing under 5 and child mortality, reducing maternal mortality, reversing environmental resource loss and improving sanitation.
In the year 2015, all the 93 Members of the United Nations (UN) unanimously adopted 17 goals towards attaining sustainable development in the World.
The SDGs is the UN’s agenda to tackle global challenges such as poverty, climate change, environmental degradation, inequality, prosperity, peace and justice.
The 17 Goals, represents a call to action by all countries, poor, rich and middle-income to promote prosperity and protect the environment by 2030.
As noted by the then Secretory-Generol of the UN. Mr. Ben Ki-Moon, “ _The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world’s leaders and the people…They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success.”
Former President John Dramani Mahama was appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN as co-chair of the Group of Eminent Advocates for the 2030 Agenda and was succeeded in September 2017 by the current President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuto-Addo.
Story filed by Edzorna Francis Mensah
