Prioritizing sustainable development goals in Africa: Perspectives from academia in Ghana and Uganda

Abstract

United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) are interlinked targets for global development adopted in 2015 to be achieved by 2030. While UN prioritizes progress for those countries further behind, individual countries set their own priorities within SDGs based on their circumstances. The prioritization is a recognition that certain goals may hold greater significance than others. The paper examines how academic staff in selected African higher education institutions prioritize these goals using Q-sort technique in Ghana and Uganda, supplemented by a survey for the logical reasoning behind the ranking. The paper highlights that each country has distinct preferences for SDG actions influenced by their unique circumstances. Additionally, it suggests that countries’ periodic SDG performance may not solely result from national efforts but also from factors like natural events and luck.