World Economic Forum partners to launch Africa’s 1st Country Financing Roadmap

The World Economic Forum is partnering with the Government of Ghana to launch the first Country Financing Roadmap (CFR) initiative in Africa.

This government-led project, in collaboration with the Sustainable Development Investment Partnership, a World Economic Forum and OECD/DAC joint initiative, seeks to address bottlenecks in the financing of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A statement issued by the Forum, says “Just as the global community enters the Decade of Action to deliver on the SDGs, the COVID-19 pandemic has afflicted the world, creating an upheaval in health systems and devastating impact on the global economy.

While the economic and social crisis is seriously affecting every country, Ghana is emerging as a social and sustainability champion. Although the country has been affected by the pandemic, the government continues to work assiduously in containing the impact on society.

Still, Ghana, despite recent economic gains, is threatened by challenges such as climate change and desertification, – challenges that could exacerbate inequalities in different parts of the society and set back the economy.

Accordingly, the country stands committed to using the SDGs as its framework for its post COVID-19 recovery, as well as in building back better.”

“The optimal way to recover from this crisis and build a more inclusive and resilient society is to frame the economic and social recovery in the context of the SDGs. As such, we are delighted to partner with the World Economic Forum on the Country Financing Roadmap. Through this initiative, working closely with other key partners, we will identify key SDGs financing gaps and determine a set of actions to unlock capital for critical investments in our country”, says Dr. Eugene Owusu, Special Advisor to the President of Ghana on SDGs.

Member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum, Terri Toyota, said that, “As the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an economic crisis around the world, it is clear that sufficient finance cannot be mobilized from the public sector alone. The existing financial gap to pursue the 2030 Agenda must be filled by effective private-public cooperation.”

“The Government of Ghana has shown tremendous leadership as an SDG champion, and our partnership will be instrumental to inform and advance our joint efforts to open new markets,” she added.

Funded by the Government of Denmark, the European Commission, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Ghana CFR initiative builds on existing assessments and experience from the public and private sector, international organizations, civil society and multilateral institutions, with the aim of defining an action plan to scale up financing for the SDGs.