Ghana, UN Launch UN Sustainable Dev Partnership Framework

By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu

GOVERNMENT of Ghana and the United Nations (UN) jointly launched the five year UN Sustainable Development Partnership (UNSDP) framework, on Monday in Accra.

The partnership, which was signed in June this year, outlines the UN's support for national development efforts and sets out a collective support of the 24 UN agencies working Ghana.

The UNSDP, which begins from 2018 to 2022, also defines the UN's partnership for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through four strategic results, which are shared prosperous economy, social investment in people , protected and safe environment and inclusive accountable governance.

The initiative will cost $441.5 million with funding expected from the UN agency's own resources, technical cooperation programmes, supported by development partners and resources mobilised through global or regional funds.

Launching the framework, the Minister for Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, said the UNSDP reflected the shared commitment to achieving the SDGs in Ghana as well as the role of the UN as a partner rather than as a provider of aid.

He said the partnership framework was designed to align with the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies (CPESDP) 2017-2014, which sets out a vision for agricultural mordinisation, industrial diversification, youth employment, and articulates a self-reliant pathway to economic transformation and inclusive growth.

Prof Gyan-Baffour explained that the framework has been integrated into the vision for national development, to ensure that the work for the UN country team supports national development strategies.

"The importance of equity, of inclusive growth, is clear in our national development agenda, and reflects the central principle of the 2030 agenda to live no one behind," he said.

According to Prof Gyan-Baffour, the responsibility of overseeing the work that the UN plans with government was being carried out through the high level ministerial committee for SDG implementation set up the President of Ghana in September 2017.

He was of the view that embedding governance of the UN programme within the inter ministerial committee emphasised the overriding purpose of the UN partnership, to support national coordinated strategies for domesticating and achieving the SDGs in Ghana.

Prof Gyan-Baffour urged Ghanaians to help facilitate the implementation of the CPESDP, the SDG and the United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP) to ensure that "we realise our superordinate goal of not leaving anyone behind."

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