Ghana will not be complacent on MDGs – President Mahama
President John Mahama has said that Ghana is working to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are attained.
He said the nation would not be complacent in its efforts, especially as challenges such as regional and socio-economic disparities still remained.
President Mahama said this on Tuesday when speaking to world leaders at a United Nations Development Programme/World Bank organised side event on MDGs in New York.
The event was under the theme: “Tackling the unfinished business and accelerating progress”.
Other Heads of State and governments at the event were from Tanzania, Bangladesh, Costa Rica and the Kingdom of Tonga.
President Mahama said Ghana has made significant achievements in reducing extreme poverty by half, ahead of 2015 under the MDG 1, while it is on course to achieve MDGs 2 on education, MDG 3 on gender equality, and HIV & AIDS, malaria and other diseases relating to MDG 6.
He said Ghana is lagging behind on MDG 4 on child mortality, MDG 5 on maternal health as well as the sanitation aspect of MDG 7.
“We have developed programmes such as the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority to help bridge the developmental gap between the north and the south”, he said.
President Mahama said government is confronting the challenges and is implementing an MDG Acceleration Framework to support the rapid achievement of the 2015 deadline.
He said Ghana’s success in the fight against extreme poverty and school enrolment, was due to government’s commitment to maintaining stable growth and translating growth into desirable outcomes.
“Despite the progress in the MDG for education, more work needs to be done in terms of enhancing the quality of education and gender parity especially beyond the primary school level”, he said.
The President commended the United Nations, Japan International Co-operation Agency and United States Agency for International Development for their continuous support to Ghana.
President Mahama had earlier joined other world leaders such as the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, President Barack Obama of the United States of America and President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, for the opening session of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly.
Source: GNA