Children are major actors in achieving the SDGs

General News on Thursday, May 30, 2019

Source: Ghananewsagency.org

2019-05-30

Israel Akroborto, Regional Director of the Volta Children's Department, said that much remained to be done in child protection to achieve the registered child-related goals. in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He noted that almost all the Sustainable Development Goals were child-related, but that child protection was inadequate and called for concerted efforts to promote the well-being of children.

Mr. Akroborto made the remarks at a forum held in Ho to validate the report of the Ghana National Voluntary Study (VNR) on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

"We need to engage children to achieve the goals of sustainable development … Children are major players and can not be left behind," he said.

Mr. Akroborto said that children are struggling with poverty and that stakeholders should take into account national child protection policies in their efforts to achieve the SDGs.

Mr Nelson Akorli, Director General of the Municipality of Ho, said that the work of the leaders should respond to the aspirations of the people, adding that it would contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The mechanism was convened by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) with the help of the National Commission on Civic Education to gather comments on the report before it was presented to the President.

Ghana joined the NRV this year. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to present the report to the United Nations General Assembly on July 17.

Ms Winifred Asare, Senior Program Manager at ARPM, said the lack of political structures and the lack of coordination of activities affected the country's ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). .

She added that the MDGs were also not integrated into development policies and that the government was committed to ensuring that the SDGs do not suffer the same fate.

Ms. Asare said that the Coordinating Committee for the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would build on ARPM's existing core infrastructure and that the NCCE would improve the NRV by accessing the progress of the different objectives.

She said the Validation Forum would help determine how the country was setting goals in order to make progress at the national level.

The majority of forum participants noted that poverty was increasing and called for an improvement in the functioning of the national health insurance scheme and the need for a skills-based education.