Various youth groups were on Monday engaged in a validation forum over Ghana’s implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as the country prepares to go through the United Nation’s Voluntary National Review (VNR) process in July.

The SDGs Implementing Coordination Committee (ICC) of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) held the youth forum, the first of the series of engagements with the general populace, to validate Ghana’s progress within the past four years, in implementing the SDGs.

Ghana would, be among 51 countries that would be reporting on their VNR of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the 2019 High Level Political Forum in New York, USA, this year.

The VNR facilitates the sharing of experiences and mutual learning to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the progress on implementation of the 17 SDGs the three cross-cutting themes on “youth engagement in SDG; leave no one behind; and “synergies across the goals.

The youth engagement, therefore, attracted students from basic and second cycle institutions, disability schools, young people from Curious Minds, youth non-governmental organizations, church youth groups, as well as civil societies on SDGs, among others.

Mrs Gladys Ghartey, Chief Economic Officer and Head of UN System, Ministry of Finance, said unlike the Millennium Development Goals that focused on reducing poverty, the SDGs was focusing on countries creating their own wealth and sharing it among its citizenry without leaving any one behind.

She said the SDG, specifically targeted long-term gains for everybody, including the youth, who were critical stakeholders in the implementation of the SDGs.

She said the youth, were therefore, being engaged so they could share their thoughts and feedback on the final report being put together, before the close of the week.

She said the consultation would also include groups from the private sector, the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the Municipal, Metropolitan and Districts Assemblies, the Civil Society Organisations, as well as the media and the other general groupings to help get the consensus of everybody to enrich the content of Ghana’s report.

Mrs Ghartey explained that when the validation ends by the close of the week, and the final document put together, it would be sent to the UN by June 15 before Ghana would go there in July to “basically defend it”.

Dr Felix Addo-Yebo, Director of Policy Division, NDPC, who is also the Coordinator of the ICC, mentioned areas of the SDGs that concerned the youth as Goal 1- No Poverty; Goal 2- No Hunger; Goal 3-Good Health and Well-being; and Goal 4-Education.

He said other issues of early marriages, high level of youth unemployment, children engaging in hazardous jobs, especially on the Volta Lake; and the issues of streetism, as critical development issues that needed urgent attention.

He said, in particular, issues of concern for the youth as gathered in the Ghana SDGs report being validated, included the low participation in policy decision by the youth, access to peace and security including vigilantism challenges; the low support for young entrepreneurs, increasing online fraud-Sakawa; inadequate opportunity for skills development, as well as the low knowledge of contraceptives among the youth, and the limited attention of parents and guardians for their children.

Mr Emmanuel Sin-Nyet Asigri, Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority, commended the NDPC for including the youth as part of the SDGs validation process, saying, the NYA supports the initiative, which would go a long way in ensuring that the youth had a say in Ghana’s report to the UN.

He said the NYA had also taken the initiative in integrating the SDGs into its programming that was why “since 2017, we have undertaken capacity building of the youth in on-line Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship and implemented programmes such as the Youth Livelihood Farms, the Annual Voluntary Youth Work Camps and the construction of 10 Youth Resource Centres across the country”.

He said the National Youth Policy was also being reviewed currently to reflect Government’s transformational agenda and the SDGs as well as to address emerging issues relating to gender and disability and current statistical data.

Dr Yoshimi Nishino, Chief of Policy and Evidence Programme, UNICEF, said the VNR was an important process that helped countries to track progress achieved against the SGDs and to realign their focus to areas they needed to accelerate efforts.

She expressed UNICEF commitments towards supporting Ghana in accelerating the achievement of the SDGs.