Taking Part in the UN Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Accelerating Ghana's SDG Progress

In March 2026 I took part in a high-level multi-stakeholder dialogue on accelerating Ghana's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the period 2027-2030. The dialogue was convened by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Resident Coordinator's Office in Ghana, and held at the UN offices in Accra.

The dialogue

With the 2030 deadline for the SDGs approaching, the dialogue brought together government, development partners, civil society and young people to discuss where Ghana stands, what is holding progress back and where the opportunities for acceleration lie in the final years of the 2030 Agenda. The session formed part of the UN Country Analysis consultations, through which the UN system gathers views on Ghana's development priorities.

Participants worked in panel sessions and reported back to the plenary. Presenting for the youth panel, youth delegate James Amankwaa Yeboah Korang highlighted three propositions:

• addressing institutional bottlenecks that slow implementation;
• bridging the gap between industry and education, so that training matches the skills the economy needs; and
• promoting youth-led innovation as a driver of progress across the goals.

My participation

I took part in the dialogue as a participant, contributing to the discussions on how to speed up progress in the remaining years to 2030. My own work sits across several of the goals the dialogue addressed, including clean energy (SDG 7), sustainable cities and transport (SDG 11), water (SDG 6) and climate action (SDG 13), and dialogues of this kind are where the evidence from that work can inform national priorities.

The message I share with the youth panel is simple: young people should have a seat in policy development, not only in consultation but in shaping and delivering the priorities that follow.

Acknowledgements

I thank UNDP Ghana and the UN Resident Coordinator's Office for convening the dialogue and for including young people in it, and James Amankwaa Yeboah Korang for sharing the photographs.

Photographs: James Amankwaa Yeboah Korang.