Stakeholders receive training to locate SDGs and implement them successfully

General News on Thursday, April 25, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-04-25

A train-the-trainer workshop is under way in Accra to strengthen the capacity of local government experts to translate Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into local realities so that indigenous people can participate effectively in achieving these goals.

The three-day workshop, nicknamed; The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Affairs and Administration (GIMPA) is organizing the program in collaboration with the National Association of Local Government Authorities of Ghana (NALAG).

The Academy of African Local Governments (ALGA), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Africa, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) and the Municipal Institute of Learning (MILE) of Ethekwini Municipality of Durban, South Africa.

It will be necessary to train a third cohort of trainers from Ghana and the West Africa region to localize the SDGs and territorial planning, which in turn will train other actors in the region. dissemination of the SDGs in the rest of Africa.

The 52 participants come from Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Togo, Cameroon, Benin and Sierra Leone.

Recall that on 17 January 2016, the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at a historic United Nations summit, officially entered into force.

The 17 SDGs and its 169 targets serve as a roadmap for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.

Local and regional governments have played a key role in this regard, especially with regard to SDG 11 on; "Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable".

Mr. Felix Mensah Nii Anang-La, General Manager of Metropolitan Tema, said the 2030 Agenda represents the final step in the sustainable development process.

He added that this plan, based on the report of the World Commission on Sustainable Development (WCSD), has been doubled; "Our future for all," said that environmental protection, social development and economic growth should be concomitant.

Mr Anang-La said that he identified global environmental problems as a major cause of North-South poverty and inequality and proposed various measures to be implemented by both developed and developing countries. .

"The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals marked a turning point in the CMDS implementation model, which shifted to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which differentiate responsibilities from developed to developing countries. implementation, "he said.

He said that with the Sustainable Development Goals, the targets and indicators were universal and could be localized; adding that the 2030 Agenda was based on the three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental.

He said that Ghana had added a fourth dimension; institution building; stating that these were crucial to achieving all goals.

Mr Anang-La said that it was because ultimately the SDGs were for the people and would only be achieved if the population, public institutions and businesses worked together.

"It is for this reason that all stakeholders must be at the service of the implementation of this global goal for the benefit and well-being of our people," he said.

"But to succeed, we need to break the goals of our locals in order to identify them with global goals – that's what we all call localizing the 2030 Agenda."

He said that in order to locate SDGs, their aspirations needed to be realized for communities, households and individuals, especially for those who might be falling behind.

He said local governments were key to turning the 2030 Agenda of a global vision into a local reality since they were dealing directly with them at the grbadroots level.

"For example, I stated in the House (Tema Metropolitan Assembly) that even though Tema, for example, is the industrial city of Ghana where there is an agglomeration of industries, the city also knows some characteristics of slum cities and pockets of poverty "This problem must be resolved quickly if we have to reconcile equality and prevent these people from falling into a state of vulnerability," he said.

He noted that over the years, with the support of public bodies such as the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), district bademblies had been helped to integrate sustainable development goals into their constituencies. district development plans; to ensure adequate budget support for projects and development programs at metropolitan, municipal and district badembly meetings (MMDAs) that have been implemented to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Professor Philip Duku Osei, Deputy Rector of GIMPA, said the three-day train-the-trainer program would provide participants with the knowledge, skills and tools needed to localization of the SDGs.

"Basically, the purpose of this workshop is not only to learn new skills on how to extend goals to different local authorities." I will focus on how to raise awareness. the different levels of the community. "

"And we have the experience of implementing the implementation of the MDGs where communities have come to understand their roles and responsibilities. And the same goes for the SDGs. "

He said that once the SDGs break down into different components, it would be obvious that it is individuals and families who could help achieve the goals; such as cleanliness of the environment, water and sanitation problems and the elimination of hunger.

He said that Ghana has fundamentally integrated the SDGs as well as the African Union's Agenda 2063 into its integrated development agenda.

Ms. Genevieve Hartley, Manager of the Municipal Technical Assistance Program, MILE, South Africa, facilitator of the workshop, told the Ghana News Agency that governments had need the political will necessary to implement the Sustainable Development Goals.