Tracking progress on the localisation of the SDGs: Lessons for the West African Sub-region from Ghanaian Local Governments

The report examines Ghana's progress in localising the SDGs, highlighting the use of its decentralised planning system to align global goals with local development plans. While it finds robust institutional and legal frameworks, it identifies significant challenges in funding and data collection.

• Ghana played a significant role in the international formulation of the SDGs, being among the first 50 countries selected for in-country consultations and co-coordinating global discussions on inequality with Denmark.
• The government established a multi-layered institutional framework to coordinate SDG implementation, including an SDG Advisory Unit in the Office of the President, a High-Level Ministerial Committee, and a Technical Committee.
• Ghana utilises its existing decentralised planning system, governed by the National Development Planning (Systems) Act, 1994 (Act 480), to mainstream SDGs into the Medium-Term Development Plans (MTDPs) of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
• The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) facilitates localisation through a three-stage process of alignment, adaptation, and adoption, ensuring global targets are modified to suit national circumstances and data capabilities.
• Presidential flagship initiatives, such as 'One District, One Factory' and 'Planting for Food and Jobs', are explicitly linked to the SDGs to drive inclusive development.
• MMDAs employ various community engagement strategies to raise SDG awareness, including town hall meetings, radio discussions, and the translation of goals into local dialects and symbols.
• A major barrier to achieving the SDGs in Ghana is the inadequacy of domestic resources and the inconsistency of central government transfers, such as the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), which was in arrears for three quarters at the time of the report.
• Ghana faces challenges in monitoring progress due to a heavy reliance on survey data generated at five-year intervals and gaps in the metadata requirements for many SDG indicators.

APA

Anaafo, D. (2021). Tracking progress on the localisation of the SDGs: Lessons for the West African Sub-region from Ghanaian Local Governments. Good Governance Africa. https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2021/10/Localization-of-the-SDGs-in-Ghana.pdf

Chicago

Anaafo, David. Tracking progress on the localisation of the SDGs: Lessons for the West African Sub-region from Ghanaian Local Governments. Good Governance Africa, 2021. https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2021/10/Localization-of-the-SDGs-in-Ghana.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Anaafo |first1=David |title=Tracking progress on the localisation of the SDGs: Lessons for the West African Sub-region from Ghanaian Local Governments |publisher=Good Governance Africa |date=July 2021 |url=https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2021/10/Localization-of-the-SDGs-in-Ghana.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{anaafo2021tracking, author = {Anaafo, David}, title = {{Tracking progress on the localisation of the SDGs: Lessons for the West African Sub-region from Ghanaian Local Governments}}, institution = {Good Governance Africa}, year = {2021}, month = jul, url = {https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2021/10/Localization-of-the-SDGs-in-Ghana.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }