The Director of Budget at the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Isaac Fraikue, has expressed strong optimism that Ghana will meet its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets by 2030, insisting that SDG tracking has now become an integral part of government’s budgeting and implementation processes.
Mr.Fraikue said the annual SDG Budget and Expenditure Report had become a powerful accountability tool that ensured timely corrective measures across sectors, enabling the country to stay on course.
“We will definitely meet the targets by the time they are due because we are working so hard as a country,” he said, during the launch of the 2023 SDG Budget and Expenditure Report.
According to him, the developmentof the report was more than just tagging and tracking budgetary applications and expenditures and that it tells the story of Ghana’s development journey and reflects herresolve to ensure that no one had been left behind.
He added that government’s next priority was to localise SDG budget reporting, deepen stakeholder engagement and strengthen transparency to improve how data is used for financial decision-making.
UNICEF, which partnered government in producing the report, commended Ghana’s commitment, describing the country as a global frontrunner in transparent SDG investment tracking.
At the event, the Chief of Social Policy and Inclusion at UNICEF Ghana, Ms. Paulina Sarvilahti, praised the Ministry of Finance for adopting an accountability system used by only a handful of countries worldwide.
“There are very few countries that have been brave enough to take this step. It’s laudable that the Ministry of Finance is a frontrunner in this,” she said.
The 2023 budget execution analysis showed Ghana increasing its SDG-related spending from GHS 83 billion in 2022 to GHS 180 billion in 2023, signalling a strengthened commitment to targets in health, education, social protection and human capital development.
Although the global Sustainable Development Report currently ranks Ghana 120th out of 193 UN Member States, Ms.Sarvilahti said the country’s data-driven approach provided a firm basis to speed up progress.
“Overall, it’s great that we have this strong commitment from government and that there is really a strong push towards that,” she noted.
She stressed that global challenges such as climate change, economic pressures and post-pandemic disruptions had made SDG attainment more difficult everywhere.
However, Ghana’s focus on monitoring whether resources reached the intended beneficiaries, she said, was a catalyst for improved results.
The UNICEF official further highlighted Ghana’s gains in education, gender-related investments and poverty-reduction interventions, and welcomed the inclusion of child-specific indicators in the report for the first time.
She urged more integrated planning, efficient resource allocation and stronger collaboration between government and development partners.
“We cannot stop. This is the time we need to put in more effort, be more decisive and more targeted,” she said.
UNICEF Country Representative, Mr. Osama MakiawiKhogali, also praised Ghana’s longstanding commitment to children’s welfare, recalling that Ghana was the first country to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.
However, he cautioned that more effort was needed to tackle child poverty, revealing that 73 per cent of Ghanaian children were affected by multidimensional poverty, while 28 per cent faced monetary poverty.
He said targeted SDG investments remained essential, especially as Ghana marked World Children’s Day, which coincided with the report launch.
UNICEF reaffirmed its partnership with government, noting that Ghana’s transparent SDG budget tracking positioned it as a leader in accountability and a model for other countries.
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