Accra, Thursday May 27, 2021 - Ghana’s Finance Minister, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta has stated that, in order for the country to realize the ambitious yet critical objectives set under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there was the need for an accelerated plan.
He stated that the Government of Ghana concurred with the UN on the necessity for rapid action to enable the us fulfill those lofty yet vital objectives that we had set for ourselves in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Mr. Ofori-Atta made this known when he launched the 2021 SDGs Budget Report in partnership with the National Development Planning Commission and the Ghana Statistical Service in Accra.
On the essence of the SDG Budget Reports, he revealed that, “In 2018 when the SDGs Baseline Report was launched, we recognized the challenges that countries were facing with accessing critical financing for the implementation of the SDGs; aligning our domestic budget to the SDGs was the first step towards optimizing our current financial resources for Agenda 2030; and how this process could place government in a better position to encourage the injection of more private capital in the implementation of the SDGs”.
According to the Minister, the Ministry of Finance created an automated system to generate reports on budget allocations and expenditure as part of the Government's expedited action on the SDG targets and goals in all Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies.
“The new tracking system was developed after new codes were implemented in the national Chart of Account and by aggregating the information at the target level, total allocations and expenditures at goal level could be tracked” Mr. Ofori-Atta explained.
According to the Minister, seeing the spending on the SDGs in such an orderly and transparent manner on an annual basis allowed the Government, Private Sector, Development Partners, and Civil Servants to collaborate more effectively on SDG finance.
He assured that the government would keep working with the Ghana Statistical Service and the National Development Planning Commission to aggregate the data needed to provide a more comprehensive picture of the SDGs
The SDGs Budgeting Information provides both Private Sector and Multilateral Development Partners the opportunity to determine which goals require more attention, or the MDAs & MMDAs that required financial or technical assistance in working towards the achievement of the Goals.
It also provides the Government the opportunity to adjust its allocations to ensure the equitable distribution of resources across MDAs & and MMDAs and again provides insight into resource distribution at the local level – such as which Assemblies are receiving the most or least in funding towards the implementation of the SDGs locally. END