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Ghana on track to
achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving
poverty. – UNDP
Accra, June 20, Ghanadot/GNA – Dr.
Daouda Toure, UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana, on
Friday noted that Ghana would be among the very first
African countries that have achieved the Millennium
Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty.
He, however, pointed out that there were other goals such as
high infant mortality, high maternal mortality, among
others, which were still high in the country and there was
the need to take steps to achieve those targets by 2015. The
MDGs were signed by 189 countries in September 2000.
The Millennium Development Goals are a set of objectives set
by the United Nations to help all peoples in the world to
live with minimum dignity.
Dr. Toure was speaking at the launch of the Global
Monitoring Report, 2008 on the theme: “MDGs and the
Environment – Agenda for Inclusive and Sustainable
Development,” organized by the Christian Council of Ghana in
collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, The
United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank,
Ghana Office.
The programme brought together policy makers, civil society
groups and individuals to dialogue about development and its
relation to the environment.
Dr. Toure said there was the need for policy makers and
advocacy groups to relate the MDGs to the needs and
priorities of the local communities, adding, “localize the
goals” to suit the needs of the people.
He also noted that Ghana was one of the 10 pilot countries
that the World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank (AfDB),
the European Union and the UN used to test government
structure and to look at areas where there was the need to
seal loopholes.
Responding to questions that the level of awareness about
the MDGs among the populace was low, Dr Toure said the MDGs
was not supposed to be a slogan that people would recite but
how they related to them.
He stressed that the MDGs were only a minimal package that
the world owed to humanity.
Ms. Punam Chuhan-Pole, Economist at the World Bank, who
launched the report, said Ghana was on track to achieve the
goals of gender equality and access to water and there was
the need for a good investment climate.
She said the world was on track to achieve the poverty
reduction and gender parity goals but there were also
serious shortfalls in the areas of nutrition, education,
health and sanitation goals.
“Africa lags behind on all the MDGs; South Asia on most
human development goals,” she said, and expressed hope that
most MDGs were still achievable in most countries.
Ms Chuhan-Pole noted that, it was critical that developing
countries managed their natural resources well since most of
them depended such resources.
She suggested an increase in agricultural production in
Africa as a way to achieve growth.
She further pointed out that one-third of the developing
world’s population representing about 1.6 billion people did
not have access to electricity and noted that even though
aid to Africa had risen, it was mostly in the form of debt
relief.
“The time to act is now,” she said, and reminded the people
that it was only a few years to 2015.
Mrs Bernice Sam, National Programmes Coordinator for Women
in Law and Development in Africa, a non-governmental
organization of women lawyers, said achieving the MDGs was
everybody’s business and called on individuals as well as
government officials to make efforts to help achieve the
goals by 2015.
Mr Arnold McIntyre, IMF Resident Representative, noted that
it was important for countries to understand what
international cooperation meant for them.
Professor Kwaku Appiah-Adu, Head of Policy Coordination,
Monitoring and Evaluation and the Director of Governance
Project at the Office of the President, said government was
doing all it could to ensure that Ghana achieved the MDGs.
He mentioned energy, water and roads as the current
government priority areas and urged developed partners to
combine their poverty reduction programmes in Africa with
growth-related activities where the country’s human resource
base would grow.
Prof. Appiah-Adu called on stakeholders to join in the
campaign to achieve the MDGs and said civil society groups
could challenge the government of strategies to help
facilitate the achievement of MDGs.
GNA
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