Working Paper

Localizing Sustainable Development Goals in Ghana using a CBMS

The important role of regional and local governments in the successful implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) has been widely recognized. Having recognized the important role of local governance in the implementation of the SDGs, the pressing issue now is, how to foster a local geographic approach to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda? In order to successfully achieve the SDGs, the need to generate quality information/data at the local level to help monitor progress of the SDGs for bottom-up planning is very important. This study therefore sought to analyze the socioeconomic conditions of the communities in the Atebubu-Amantin Municipality in the context of monitoring the progress of the SDGs at the local level. Information on the SDGs were collected from a household census conducted in January and February 2018 covering 2,176 households drawn from 20 communities using CBMS methodology. The results from the study revealed that about 75% of the population lived below the US $1.90 a day poverty line, and about 50% of the households in the communities in Atebubu-Amantin Municipality lived below the median daily household income threshold. The results also found that the percentage of the population who were multidimensionally poor was 6%. With regards to some basic services, the results revealed that only 18.24% of the population that lived in households had access to sanitary toilet facilities and about 50% of the total population in the Atebubu-Amantin Municipality had access to safely managed drinking water. Findings from the study also indicated that, there was a wide gap in school attendance between children who were 6-11 years old and those who were 12-15 years old, a proportion of 3:1. The main policy implications of our findings are that monitoring the progress of the SDGs at the local level using the CBMS methodology can provide policymakers with a good information base for tracking the progress of the SDGs at the local level for development planning and support rational allocation of scarce resources.