The Omanhene of New Juaben and United Nations Commissioner on the International Civil Service Commission, Daasebre Prof. (Emeritus) Oti Boateng, has observed that the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), though laudable, lacks the basic community development substratum to attain implementation efficiency and sustainability.
He acknowledged that the agenda for sustainable development was well-crafted with respect to its 17 goals and 169 targets but its major fault-line remained the lack of a functional community development process mechanism to anchor its implementation and sustainability.
Daasebre Oti Boateng shared these views at the Statistics Division of the United Nations when the Director, Mr Stefan Schweinfest, presented him with a booklet honouring him and 32 other distinguished chairpersons, who have guided the United Nations Statistical Commission during the past 70 years.
Community involvement
According to him, a well-refined community development receptive strategy was the basic development requirement to undergird any quest for sustainable development.
Daasebre Oti Boateng pointed out that the communities, which were the vectors of development and legitimate owners of these processes, must be deeply involved in the planning and implementation to ensure its success.
He thus called for a sustainable community development model to be adopted as a major pathway to put communities in the front-burner for the implementation of the United Nation’s SDGs.
“The United Nations should play the vital role of a facilitator of the programme while nation states and communities therein fuse a linkage to ensure a smooth and successful implementation.”
“In order to ensure the success of the SDGs, the communities must be deeply involved in the implementation of the process,” Daasebre Oti Boateng said.
He pointed out that the communities which were the legitimate owners of the process and mostly affected by poverty and marginalisation were unfortunately not involved in the implementation plan.
On this basis, he called for the full involvement of the communities in the implementation strategy of the sustainable development agenda.
Daasebre Oti Boateng further stressed that his award-winning root-based sustainable community development model provided a credible pathway for the involvement of communities and a win-win implementation strategy for the country and community alike.
Decoration
Daasebre Oti Boateng was also decorated with an insignia of the UN Statistics Division by the director of the division. In addition, he was presented with a 70-page official report detailing all the 16 meetings (405th to 420th meetings) held by the Commission under his chairmanship from February 23 to March 4, 1987.
In turn, Daasebre Oti Boateng presented Volumes One and Two of his Development in Unity series as well as his current papers on women empowerment to the director and staff of the Statistics Division who thanked him for his inspiring visit and the “pleasure and honour to learn about global statistical history”.
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