The Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies have been entreated to position themselves to ensure the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve its set targets.
Alhaji Mohammed Kwaku Doku, the immediate past president of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the end of the Authority’s 19th biennial national delegates’ conference on Thursday in Sunyani.
The conference was on the theme; “Localising the Post-2015 Agenda: The Role of MMDAs in the Effective Delivery of the SDGs in Ghana”.
Alhaji Doku who is the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Asunafo North in the Brong-Ahafo Region, implied the MMDAs must build their capacities in the areas of research, training, effective resources mobilisation and allocation, monitoring and evaluation.
He said building the capacities of the Assemblies also meant “we should adopt innovative ways of resource mobilisation, particularly scaling up our internally- generated funds (IGFs), instead of over-reliance on the central government subvention to survive”.
Alhaji Doku said this was because as agents of development, residents within the jurisdiction of the MMDAs were looking up to the MMDAs and not the central government or any other person for their socio-economic security and survival.
He said the MMDAs responsibilities to ensure the achievement of the SDGs required of the assemblies the need to embark on effective dissemination of information about the SDGs through community sensitisation and education for the populace to own the programme to see to its successful implementation.
The SDGs are a new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next 15 years.
They are a follow-up and expansion on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were agreed by governments in 2001 and were due to expire at the end of 2015.
Among the goals are; Ending poverty in all its forms everywhere, ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture, as well as ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages.
Others also are; To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all and ensuring access to affordable, reliable and modern energy for all.
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