The National Vice President of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD), Ms. Sirina Mahamadu, has urged world leaders to expedite action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensure that they encompass the interests of people with disabilities.
She emphasized that it is crucial for front-runners to focus on those “furthest behind” to make the political declarations and national commitments, as articulated in the recent United Nations SDG Summit, more inclusive.
Ms. Mahamadu made this appeal during a petition presentation by GFD to the Chief Director of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection in Accra.
The petition, titled “Promise in Peril,” was initiated by GFD and Sightsavers and garnered 48,063 signatures from 121 nations, including 14,178 signatures from Ghana.
It received support from the disability movement, individuals with disabilities, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), and the general public.
The ‘Equal World' campaign, part of the petition, calls on world leaders to uphold the SDG commitment of “leaving no one behind” and ensure that disability issues are explicitly addressed in SDG discussions.
The campaign is prompted by concerns that the global goals are “off-track,” as highlighted during the SDG Summit held in New York from September 18 to 19, 2023.
David Agyeman, Senior Programmes Manager of Sightsavers, underscored the challenges faced by people with disabilities due to a “lack of progress on poverty and inequality.” He emphasized that the promise to “leave no one behind” is at risk.
The call for inclusion follows a United Nations (UN) report revealing that the SDGs cannot be achieved unless immediate action is taken to incorporate marginalized groups, including people with disabilities.
At the recent Summit, world leaders issued a political declaration acknowledging that the world is far from achieving the SDGs set in 2015.