Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals: An Analysis of the Potential Role of Philanthropy in Ghana

In September 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly as the cardinal agenda for guiding future global development. In financing the SDGs, there has been an increasing call on stakeholder diversification by leveraging on other non-state actors and private finance including philanthropic institutions in influencing, delivering and advancing the SDGs. Drawing on insights from the Ghanaian philanthropic sector, I show that philanthropic institutions play complementary roles in service delivery, support civil society organisations to engage in active action and advocacy, and enhance paradigm shifts in development thinking around the SDGs. I argue for the need in embracing complexity thinking that recognises that the attainment of the SDGs is dependent on the creation of an enabling environment and effective multi-stakeholder consultation.