Dr Felix Addo-Yobo, Acting Director, Development Policy Division, National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has reiterated Ghana’s commitment to “Leave No One Behind” (LNOB) in their implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He said the LNOB was a core principle and a central commitment of the 2030 Agenda.

He said Ghana was committed to the LNOB, which consists of ending extreme poverty in all its forms, reducing inequalities and addressing discriminatory behaviour.

Dr Addo-Yobo said this on Thursday at the Voluntary National Review (VNR) Report validation meeting in Accra.

The VNR is part of the formal intergovernmental follow-up and review process on the Agenda 2030 and will be presented at the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July in New York.

It represents a country's progress report to its peers and other stakeholders at the global level on the implementation of the Agenda 2030.

Dr Addo-Yobo said as part of the VNR process, Ghana assessed how the principle LNOB was put into practice.

He said young people, who were torchbearers of the nation, had a crucial role to play towards attaining the 2030 Agenda.

He said sections of the population who were particularly vulnerable to shocks and risk included; children, women and girls, people with disabilities, the elderly, rural populations, the youth, the unemployed and people in vulnerable employment.

He noted that they were deprived of dignified life and faced many barriers to reaching their full potential.

He said an overall reduction in poverty rates in Ghana was expected to have an improvement in overall well-being of the poor.

With regard to good health and well-being, Dr Addo-Yobo said there was a general increase in access to health services and essential medicine.

He said in 2017, maternal mortality declined to 310 per 100,000 birth, which was still high compared to the UN standard.

He said the proportion of birth attended by skilled health personnel was also increasing, while the under-five mortality rates were dropping.

Dr Addo-Yobo said the percentage of new HIV infections dropped from 19.25 in 2013 to 19.1 in 2017.

He mentioned increasing malaria incidence rate and that deaths due to road accident injuries remain a major development concern.

On strategies for reaching those who were at the risk of being left behind, Dr Addo-Yobo mentioned expanding the national cash transfer programme to reach more of the elderly population and ensuring growth pro-poor programmes.

Others are; building stronger complementarities among interventions to maximise impact, scaling up efforts to address rural poverty and improving services for persons with disabilities.