October 24, 1945 marked the coming into force of the UN Charter, since then the UN Day has been celebrated annually to highlight the achievements and challeng­es of the global community established to safeguard peace from scourges of war, protect human rights, establish the frame­work for international justice and promote economic and social progress.

Ghana is marking the event this year on a localised theme “Accelerating action towards the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda: Ghana’s contributions for a peaceful, prosperous, progressive and sustainable future,” adopted by the Inter-Ministerial adhoc Committee at its preparatory meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration on Thursday.

Ghana’s theme is informed by the theme of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly:“Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Devel­opment Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and the sustainability for all.”
    

The theme underscores the need for member countries to accelerate action towards achieving the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs often referred to as “a radical plan for humanity” and “a new way of doing things” to create a better world for all with­out “leaving no one behind.”

This is because an estimated 736 million people, representing about 10 per cent of the population live under extreme poverty exacerbated by fluctuating global economic fortunes.

Adopted by member states of the UN in 2015 after broad multi-stakeholder engage­ment, the SDGs with a 15-year plan to achieve the goals, is a universal call to action “to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospect of everyone, everywhere.”

Seven years to the closure of the SDGs, even though some amount of progress have reportedly been made, the overall action to meet the targets is not yet advancing at the speed, or scale as envisaged.

The year 2020-2030 has been declared “a decade of action” for the global community to deliver the final push to meet the targets, but the SDGs are in more jeopardy than before, given the stall in progress amid the climate crisis, economic fluctuation, conflict and COVID-19 pandemic aftermath.

Ghana continues to play key role in the SDGs as a successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a brain child of the Ghanaian diplomat and former Sec­retary General of the UN, late Kofi Annan.

The SDGs seek to sustain the gains made under the MDGs.

To quicken the pace of achieving the SDGs, UN Secretary General, Antonio Guteres, appointed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo from 2017-2020, to co-Chair the SDG Advocates comprising 17 eminent persons, to advocate and mobilise action on the goals.

Former President John Dramani Mahama had earlier served in similar capacity as co- Chair of the SDG Advocate.