Keynote Address by the Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance at Launch of the 2020 SDGs Budget Report
Source: ministry_of_finance_ghana
Date: 2021-05-21

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen; and welcome once again to the Launch and Presentation of the 2020 SDGs Budget Report. With less than 9 years to 2030 - the deadline for realizing the Sustainable Development Goals - the government of Ghana concurs with the United Nations on the need for accelerated action to enable us to realise these ambitious yet critical objectives that we have set for ourselves in the Sustainable Development Goals. The Pandemic has exacerbated the challenges of achieving the Global and Country level SDG Goals – but we cannot despair. Reasons for developing the SDGs Budget Report In 2018 when the SDGs Baseline Report was launched, we recognized the challenges that countries were facing with accessing critical financing for the implementation of the SDGs; aligning our domestic budget to the SDGs was the first step towards optimizing our current financial resources for Agenda 2030; and how this process could place government in a better position to encourage the injection of more private capital in the implementation of the SDGs. Observations from the 2019 and 2020 SDGs Budget Report After the development of the Ghana 2018 SDGs Baseline Budget Report, the Ministry of Finance developed an automated system to generate reports on budget allocations and expenditures towards SDGs targets and goals in all the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, as well as for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies. The new tracking system was developed after new codes were implemented in the national Chart of Account. By aggregating the information at the target level, total allocations and expenditures at goal level could be tracked – For example, according to the 2019 and 2020 report, Goal 17 (Partnership for the Goals) had the most funding allocated to it - GHs32,082,685,522 in 2019 and GHs34,877,466,156 in 2020, meanwhile Goal 5 (Gender Equality) received 26,191,056 in 2019 and 65,012,082 in 2020, the least to be allocated to a goal at the national level. Total spending on the SDGs by Government through MDAs came to 31,448,312,790 in 2019 and 35,774,648,335 in 2020; and Rankings by regions also revealed that in both years Greater Accra, Ashanti Region, Northern Region and Eastern Region were among the regions to receive the most funds for the SDGs. Having the opportunity to view our spending on the SDGs in such an organised transparent manner, annually – enables Government, Private Sector, Developing Partners and our Civil Society Partners to engage in a more constructive manner when it comes to the financing of the Sustainable Development Goals – The SDGs Budgeting Information (i) provides both Private Sector and Multilateral Development Partners the opportunity to determine which goals require more attention, or the MDAs & MMDAs that require financial or technical assistance in working towards the achievement of the Goals. It also provides the Government the opportunity to adjust its allocations to ensure the equitable distribution of resources across MDAs & and MMDAs. provides insight into resource distribution at the local level – such as which Assemblies are receiving the most or least in funding towards the implementation of the SDGs locally.