In Accra, the government convened a consultation meeting with youth and children's groups as part of its attempts to create a full and comprehensive report on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The purpose of the engagement was to gather feedback for the final 2022 Voluntary National Review (VNR) report on the SDGs, which will be presented in July 2022.
The SDGs were adopted by world leaders in 2015 to address the Millennium Development Goals' unfinished business.
Member states are urged to conduct voluntary, frequent, and inclusive evaluations of progress at the national and subnational levels as part of the SDGs' follow-up and review process to exchange experiences, including achievements, problems, and lessons learned.
Mr. Pius Enam Hadzide, Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority (NYA), said the VNR was critical to achieving the SDGs and was a valuable tool for countries to track their progress.
"Most importantly, they give views into how other nations are handling the key impediments to achieving these goals," he added.
With youth and children accounting for over 70% of Ghana's population, Mr. Hadzide believes it is critical that they be involved in achieving the SDGs.
He said the SDG framework demanded increased investments to ensure access to quality education, proper nutrition, health and well-being, gender equality, and good jobs, among other goals, to harness the potential of Ghana's youthful population.
"Several government hallmark programs, like the Free SHS policy and the Agenda for Jobs, which includes projects like the YouSTART initiative, the One District One Factory project, and Planting for Food and Jobs," he continued.
Ghana is one of 45 nations slated to propose its VNR at the United Nations Economic and Social Council's High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in July 2022.
It will be the country's second VNR on the SDGs since the implementation began in 2016, following the first presentation in 2019.
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and partners convened the conference with the goal of examining the draft report and reaching an agreement on new approaches to achieve the SDGs.
"This action, especially in light of the forced hiatus imposed by the pandemic since our maiden report in 2019, not only demonstrates the resilience of our institutional mechanism for implementing and tracking SDG progress, but it also signifies the assurance that Ghana's post-Covid development will be carried out within the framework of the SDGs," Mr Hadzide said.
According to him, the consultation would guarantee that the VNR for 2022 appropriately represented the position of Ghanaian children and young in terms of the SDGs.
In a speech read on her behalf by Mrs Florence Ayisi Quartey, Acting Director, Department of Children, Dr Afisah Zakariah, Chief Director, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said that despite the country's progress in improving the status of Ghanaian children, there were challenges that needed to be overcome to accelerate the pace of achieving the SDGs in the time allotted.
She urged patriotism and devotion to the realization of children's rights since they were the nation's future.