Akufo-Addo urges African leaders to scale up SDG implementation
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Sunday, expressing his faith in a foreseeable prosperous Africa, urged the leaders to strengthen their commitment, and scale up momentum in their implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to meet the 2030 deadline.
He said that would be the best way to guarantee the prospects for the continent’s success, cautioning that, “posterity will be the judge of our determination and resolve”.
Addressing African leaders on the sidelines of the ongoing African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President Akufo-Addo noted that the founding fathers adopted the OAU Charter with the overarching aim to attain freedom, equality, justice, dignity, and the economic transformation of the continent to be driven by its immense natural and human resources.
However, “Today, those aspirations are embodied both in the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals and in the AU’s Agenda 2063,” he noted.
The President, therefore, expressed optimism that the global community’s collective adoption of the noble Agenda of the SDGs as a framework would tackle the myriad of challenges.
“The 17 SDGs present our generation with a great opportunity to fight inequality on all fronts, wipe out extreme poverty, tackle the issues of climate change, reverse the degradation and unsustainable use of our environmental and marine resources, transform our economies, and bring enhanced prosperity to our peoples,” he said in sum of the goals, endorsed by world leaders in September 2015.
“The strong degree of convergence between the SDGs and Agenda 2063 makes it imperative that we leverage the implementation of the SDGs to achieve the goals and objectives of our Agenda 2063,” the President, who is co-chair of the UN SDGs Advocates, said.
According to the AU, the guiding vision for its Agenda 2063 is, “ An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in international arena”.
President Akufo-Addo declared: “With the substantial progress that our continent is making on many fronts, I stand firmly with those who say that, ‘this is Africa’s moment'”.
He said it was important to fully capture the ambitions of the African peoples by taking advantage of the opportunities that the SDGs presented.
“We have to implement the SDGs with great gusto. We have the capacities, creativity, knowledge and resources to lead the world in the implementation….”
“So, let us be up and doing. The SDGs are about hope, and they are investments for our future – the future of our youth and that of generations yet unborn”.
Recalling that the goals take their inspiration from the Millennium Development Goals, which were instigated by the bold vision of one of the continent’s most illustrious sons, former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, of blessed memory, President Akufo-Addo stated that, “ having success in implementation of the SDGs is exactly what Kofi Annan would have wished”.
Source: GNA