A NEW Afrobarometer Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Scorecard for Ghana has revealed that Ghana was performing poorly in reducing payment of bribes for public services as well as reducing the gender gap in unemployment and getting access to medical care.
The Afrobarometer SDG Scorecard, which provides citizens’ assessments of Ghana’s progress on important aspects of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, also indicated a lack of progress in reducing poverty and hunger as well as increasing public awareness and understanding of climate change.
According to the report, progress towards gender equality was mixed, explaining that while gender equality in financial control was improving, trends in digital connection showed stagnation and decline.
It however revealed that Ghana was making significant progress on citizens’ trust in state institutions as well as access to clean water/sanitation and affordable energy.
The newly developed Afrobarometer SDG Scorecards highlighted citizens’ experiences and evaluations of their country’s performance on democracy and governance, poverty, health, education, energy supply, water and sanitation, inequality, gender equity, and other priorities reflected in 12 of the 17 SDGs.
These citizen assessments can be compared to official UN tracking indicators. They present both summary assessments for each SDG – via blue, green, yellow, and red “stoplights” – as well as the data behind these assessments.
Afrobarometer, an independent pan-African survey research network, released scorecards for five West African countries on Monday as part of a series of regional webinars focusing on progress towards the SDGs in Africa.
Speaking at the webinar, Daniel Armah-Attoh, Afrobarometer Project Manager for Anglophone West Africa and North Africa, said the Afrobarometer SDG Scorecards were unique in highlighting the perspectives of ordinary citizens – the intended beneficiaries of the SDGs.
“The SDGs are intended to improve the lives of people, and numerous important indicators and scorecards are being used to track progress,” he stated.
“Looking at how these citizen assessments compare or contrast with other SDG indicators should stimulate debate, help to identify gaps, and support action to move forward in each country,” he added.
Afrobarometer SDG Scorecards for 31 countries are being released from May – July 2021. All scorecards can be accessed on the Afrobarometer website’s SDG Scorecards page.
Afrobarometer is a non-partisan African survey research network that provides reliable data on citizens’ experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance and quality of life.
Seven rounds of surveys have been completed in up to 38 countries since 1999. Round 8 surveys (2019/2021) cover 34 countries.
Afrobarometer’s national partners in all regions of Africa conduct face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice.
In the most recent survey in Ghana, the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) interviewed a nationally representative, random, stratified probability sample of 2,400 adult citizens in September-October 2019.
A sample of this size yields country-level results with a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.