Eco-Schools Ghana & Sustainable Development

The opening line in the last one of UNs 2016, 17 sustainable development goals goes as followed: “A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. “

Eco-Schools Ghana is one civic organization working towards reaching the SDGs. Although the main focus of the program is Environmental protection it goes hand in hand with poverty reduction and a number of the other goals as the 17 SDGs concerns everything from Energy and Economic Growth to climate change and oceans. Success in one of these areas implements improvements for the others. The eco-School program is under the umbrella organization of Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE) who already operates within a context defined by the SDGs. Education is one of the strategies to achieve the goals and FEE has multiple programs based on Education for Sustainable Development who all show a strong link with the educational Goal (SDG 4) and the goal on global partnership (SDG 17) among others.

Sustainable Development is often defined as "Development that meets the need of The present without compromising The ability of future generations to meet their own needs" 
According to the Brundtland Report Sustainable Development cannot be achieved without poverty reduction and Environmental Protection. Goal number 1 is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. Poverty eradication is recognized as the greatest global challenge facing the world today. Sustainable development requires meeting the basic needs of all and that a world in which poverty is endemic always will be prone to ecological and other catastrophes. Climate change has long been known to affect the poorest and most vulnerable people the most. It states that Environment and Development are not separate challenges, that they are inexorably linked and that Development cannot subsist upon a deteriorating environmental resource base. According to The UN and SDG number 13 concerning Climate Change, Climate Change is now affecting every Country on every continent. It is a global challenge that does not respect national borders. People are experiencing the significant impacts of Climate change every day, which includes changing weather patterns, rising sea levels and more extreme weather events. Fortunately there are now affordable, scalable solutions available to countries to leapfrog towards cleaner, more resilient economies, but also there are super easy things every person can adopt into their daily routines that if we get enough people onboard will make a difference. This is what Eco-School Ghana is working towards. Trough education and information, we wish to help people realize that they all can contribute by making small adjustments in their daily routines. 

One of the themes of the Eco-School program is Global Citizenship and for over a decade a collaboration between Byåsen School in Norway, and Akosombo International School in Ghana has been ongoing. This small scale project has consisted of letter exchanges between students; sharing and learning about each others culture and improving communication skills. It was an interesting process for many of the student realizing that although the schools are far apart and the people may look different and sound different than themselves that they are much more alike than they first may have assumed. 
Also, they quickly found themselves talking about environmental similarities and differences, and realized that both places struggled with the same issues concerning climate change, pollution, waste management, and that what they do when it comes to both environmental protection and Environmental pollution has consequences for the other party as well as themselves. 
Today the collaboration has developed from a School to School collaboration into a city to city collaboration which concerns not only strengthening cultural ties, but also on a civic level working towards reaching the SDGs. Seeing as the collaboration has been between Ghana and Norway we were exited to learn that The Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama and Norwegian Prime minister Erna Solberg will Co-chair The group of SDGs Advocates. The UN emphasized the importance of engaging all relevant stakeholders in putting the new agenda into practice. And we hope that the Eco-School collaboration shows that there are already people on the right path, willing and wanting the do the work required in different parts of the world, and that with us all working together, reaching the goals should be feasible.