MINI-CONFERENCE ON CULTURE, DIVERSITY AND DEVELOPMENT
LABORATORY FOR THE STUDY OF DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
MOSCOW, 18-19 OCTOBER 2013
CULTURE AND THE PURSUIT OF MDGS IN GHANA
ABSTRACT
Ellen Bortei-Doku Aryeetey (Sociologist)
In the ongoing preparations for the post 2015 agenda culture has emerged as a potentially key
variable in the success of any future MDG agenda. The shortcomings of the first MDG decade
have been blamed among other things on the low recognition given to culture. For the 2013
Annual Ministerial Review of the UN Economic and Social Council, the UN Secretary-General
viewed science, technology and innovation as well as culture as: “tools for societies to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and pursue sustainable development” (ECOSOC,
2013:1). The UN and African leaders who have raised the issue of culture and MDGs have dwelt
on potential development gains rather than losses linked to culture. Though they mention
harmful cultural practices and their negative effects on the attainment of MDGs, not enough
discussion has taken place on the Subject. This is hardly a new argument, yet far from a finished
discussion. Drawing on national surveys and administrative records the paper explores this
theme in the case of Ghana’s efforts to implement MDGs to achieve equity and human rights.
Attention is focused on vulnerable groups such as: poor or/ and abused women and children,
persons with disability. Sen’s (2004) cultural framework is used as an organizing framework.
The paper concludes that persistent restrictive rather than rights based cultural frameworks have
hampered progress on the MDGs, and considers ways for moving forward on this topic.