Success
of UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030: the world must listen to Africa
By
Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath
 |
| UN SDGs AGENDA 2030 |
Traditional wisdom
counsels: “If you set up a trap to catch a prey, you don’t stand by and drive
away all approaching games at the same time.”
The just-ended UN
summit on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in New York where 193 world leaders
engaged in jaw-jaw gymnastics with ‘BIG, BIG English” (as we say in Ghana), was
very refreshing indeed! This author finds the summit to be memorable in several
ways. It was memorable because it coincided with the 70th natal day
of the UN itself. It was memorable because it served as a platform for
reflection on 15 years of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and adoption of
another 15 years of SDGs. It was memorable because it was under a theme:
“Transforming our world, realising the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development,” (SDGs).
What
is Sustainable Development?
(…) “In 1983, the UN
General Assembly created the World Commission on Environment and Development, (WCED)
an independent committee of twenty-two members, headed by Gro Harlem
Brundtland, the Prime Minister of Norway. Designed to examine global
environment and development to the year 2000 and beyond, the commission seeks
to reassess critical problems, to formulate realistic proposals for solving
them, and to raise the level of understanding and commitment to the issues of
environment and development.
“ Rather than
presenting a gloom and doom report about the destruction of natural resources, our
‘Common Future’ offers an agenda advocating the growth of economies based on
policies that do not harm, and can even enhance, the environment. The
commission recognises that the time has come for a marriage of economy and
ecology, in order to ensure the growth of human progress through development
without bankrupting the resources of future generations.”
I have quoted the above
paragraphs from WCED document with emphasis on the last sentence, “The
commission recognises that the time has come for a marriage of economy and
ecology…” It was out of that Brundtland report that the term Sustainable Development was born. Since
then Sustainable Development has been defined affectionately as “development
that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”.
Traditionally,
sustainable development can be illustrated by a fable thus: “Your great
grandparents drank water from an ancient well and left it for your
grandparents. Your grandparents also drank water from the same well and
preserved it for your own parents. Your parents finally drank water from that
well and handed it over to you. When you too, drink water from the same well, it
is your turn to leave it intact for your children before you kick the bucket”. This scenario is known in African folklore as
“tradition goes on.” However, the way “galamsey”
operators or illegal gold miners are polluting rivers and contaminating water
bodies in Ghana today, can our generation guarantee sustainable development of
the future generations of our nation?
Why
the world must listen to Africa
On Tuesday, September
29, 2015, the Daily Graphic page 32 published a story headlined: “Review
Africa’s role in global production.” The
story, which was written by the paper’s correspondent, Doreen Andoh, covering
the UN summit in New York, reported on the addressed delivered by Ghana’s
President on Saturday, September 26 at the event. Her opening paragraph reads: “President John Dramani Mahama has pointed out
the need for Africa’s role to be reviewed in the effort to realise global
sustainable development.” She reported that
President Mahama who spoke for Africa “stressed that if the world wanted young
Africans seeking work in Europe to stay at home, it would have to relocate more
industries and production to Africa.”
It is this clarion call
on the world especially Europe to relocate factories in Africa that inspires me
to write this article. In the 21st century of globalisation, it is
imperative for Europeans to change their
attitude towards Africa if they
are sincere about the success of the UN SDGs 2030. It is not necessary to remind the world about
the way they treated Africa through slave trade. From the 15th to 18th
centuries Europeans brought ships to Africa and forcibly uprooted millions of
able-bodied men and women who could have develop Africa to cultivate their
plantations for them in some parts of the world. Paradoxically, today, it
Africans themselves who are jumping into wretched boats to Europe but are being
blocked. Why? Are their services no longer needed?
In his book, “How
Europe Underdeveloped Africa” (2009), Walter Rodney, lamented about how some
European insurance companies and other capitalist firms exploited indigenous
hard working people of the Continent in the interest of Europe. “...The policy
of colonial reserves in metropolitan currencies can also be cited as ‘service’
inimical to Africans.” Page 253.
If Europeans no longer need the services of
Africans in their countries, they must listen to Africa, through Ghana’s President.
For UN SDGs to succeed, President Mahama is advising industrialised nations to relocate
some of their industries in Africa. This, he reasoned, would create jobs for
unemployed battalions to stay and work on their mother Continent rather than
embark on reckless journeys to Europe and perish in boiling waters of the
Atlantic Ocean!
The
author works with Information Services Department (ISD) Accra <abissath@gmail.com>
