A new report by Afrobarometer measuring the progress of countries towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has found that bribery is worsening in Ghana.

The report further found that Ghana is not making progress in increasing access to health care, neither is it making progress in bridging the gender gap in unemployment.

Dubbed the Afrobarometer SDG Scorecards, the report highlights 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 said in the report.

The report however indicated that Ghana is progressing in the area of trust for state institutions and access to clean water, improved sanitation and affordable energy.

Daniel Armah-Attoh, a project manager at Afrobarometer for Anglophone West Africa and North Africa while commenting on the report in a webinar said, “the SDGs are intended to improve the lives of people, and numerous important indicators and scorecards are being used to track progress,” he said.

“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.”
Afrobarometer SDG Scorecards for 31 countries are being released in May-July 2021. All scorecards can be accessed on the Afrobarometer website’s SDG Scorecards page.