The Year 2015 As the Deadline for the Achievement of the MNG’s & Its Impact For National Development


Since the UN General Assembly began to set priorities to deal with setbacks to development, the millennium development goals have been regarded as benchmarks for ensuring development. They are the most broadly supported, comprehensive, and specific poverty reduction targets the world has ever established. 

For the international political system, the millennium development goals are sustainable pivots on which development policies are based. For the billion-plus people living in extreme poverty, they represent the means to a productive life. 

The goals point to medium to long term targets of public investment, water, sanitation, slum upgrading, education, health, environmental issues among others. 2015 which is the target year for the achievement of these goals is now here. Ghana’s performance in the millennium development goals have over time been documented in series of reports. 

The reports have shown some significant success in the goals of halving poverty, ensuring universal basic education and gender parity at the primary school level, among others. 

Ahead of the 2015 deadline, the UN Secretary General facilitated inclusive national consultation processes in selected countries including Ghana to stimulate the debate on the post-2015 development agenda. 

This initiative was based on the conviction that the post 2015 development framework will have the greatest development impact if it emerges from an open inclusive transparent process.

From a development perspective, having a post-2015 framework provides a positive signal that the international community is coming together as one to solve some of the global challenges in a sustainable manner.

This could lead to a real partnership of nations and a new vision of the future of international cooperation. There is an emerging consensus that poverty, education, health, energy, water and food will make it into the global development agenda. 

It is hoped that this universal agenda will tackle some of the challenging issues, including growing inequalities and management of natural resources in a long term sustainable manner.

For us in Ghana, the post 2015 development agenda serves as reference point for consensus building towards a long term sustainable outlook to national development. 

Indeed for us as a nation the major challenge that has historically faced the development of this country is not the inability to formulate good and credible policies and strategies but rather the capacity to implement these policies and strategies effectively and sustainably in the long term. In recent times many Ghanaians have indicated the urgent need to mobilize and rally the nation behind a sustainable nationally owned and shared vision of national development. 

Also during the course of discussion on the draft policy matrix on the successor medium term national development agenda, concerns were raised whether a succession of medium term development policy frameworks and interventions are enough to put the nation on a sustainable basis of improved livelihoods over the long term. 

In response to this, the National Development Planning Commission has initiated a process to undertake national stakeholder consultations to agree on a national vision for a long term national development plan, which will form the basis for policies of future governments as well as successive medium term national development plans. This is to ensure policy stability and protect successive plans from changes in government, as well as ensuring the effective implementation of policies on a long term basis.

Indeed if there is any period when such a strategic approach for national development planning is priceless, it is now when Ghana has become an oil-exporting state with an experience of a strong growth warranting the need for a fair and objective approach towards harnessing these potentials. 

As a nation even as strategies are being put in place for effective localization of the Post 2015 Development agenda, political parties from generation to generation would do the nation a great service by paying high premium on sustainable long term visions for national development, as a prudent way of ensuring synergy in national development agenda for year 2015 and beyond.

By: DAVID OWUSU-AMOAH,NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING COMMISSION