Deputy Registrar of the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA), Prof Vida Nyagre Yakong, has warned that Ghana cannot achieve sustainable development if women and girls continue to be left behind in access to quality healthcare, education and other opportunities.
She said development must go beyond constructing roads and buildings to creating systems that guarantee equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender or where a person lives.
“Any development that leaves women and girls behind is not sustainable,” Prof Yakong said.
She was delivering the keynote address at the Tamale Youth Summit held at the GNAT Hall in Tamale on Saturday, September 5, 2026.
Speaking from her experience as a researcher in women’s and child health and health systems, Prof Yakong said sustainable development must deliberately address the inequalities that continue to affect women and girls.
She challenged the youth to imagine a development system in which a girl in Northern Ghana enjoys the same opportunities for quality healthcare and education as her counterparts elsewhere in the country.
“Sustainable development is not just about buildings and roads. It is about building systems that will outlive us,” she said.
She specifically cited the need for a girl in Gushegu to have the same chance at quality healthcare and education as a boy in Accra.
Her comments place gender equality at the centre of the broader development debate, particularly in Northern Ghana, where disparities in access to essential services remain a major development concern.
Prof Yakong said young people had an important role to play in building systems that would benefit future generations rather than pursuing development that only produced physical infrastructure.
She also urged the youth to combine education and innovation with character, resilience, integrity and service.
The keynote formed part of the Tamale Youth Summit organised by the Dream Big Foundation under the theme “Breaking Limits: Empowering Youth for Leadership, Innovation and Impact.”
The summit brought together hundreds of young people to discuss leadership, innovation, opportunities and their role in sustainable development.
For Prof Yakong, however, the test of sustainable development is not simply how much infrastructure is built, but whether those developments expand opportunities for those who have historically been left behind.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
