Osei-Owusu launches policy makers to promote good governance

General News on Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-06-18

Senior Vice President Joseph Osei-Owusu advised African policymakers to promote good governance and accountability in order to take advantage of the economic benefits of the demographic dividend.

According to him, countries wishing to progress towards medium and long-term development goals must also pay attention to investments in education, health, economic reforms and job creation.

Mr. Osei-Owusu made the announcement at the opening of the tenth Global Diplomacy Laboratory Incubator (GDL) in Accra.

The conference, which began June 16 and runs until July 19, 2019, is titled "Global Shit: Next Generation Political and Economic Inclusion – Working Together to Realize the Potential of the Demographic Dividend."

The conference, organized under the auspices of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany and the African Parliamentarians Against Corruption (APNAC), brought together participants from Ghana, Benin, Zimbabwe and the United States. 39; Germany.

The purpose of the conference is to explore the potential for achieving the demographic dividend in Africa and, hence, to examine how new formats for international collaboration could contribute to more effectively achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. (ODD).

The specific goal is to experiment with new approaches, which can enable states to work collaboratively to achieve collective goals on the theme of population dynamics.

Osei-Owusu also said that, despite the high level of interest and effort, bad governance persisted across much of the continent, including the loss of public funds for citizens.

He said weak accountability mechanisms and poor coordination of management between different levels of government continued to pose a challenge to African countries.

He said the tools to improve governance at the continental and national levels were in place, and emphasized the need for lawmakers and anti-corruption campaigners to come together to ensure the experts' dividend.

Mr. Osei-Owusu also said that for the country to benefit from demographics, the cycle of poverty and inequality in the system must be broken.

In addition, essential services such as education, character training, health and social protection need to be addressed while addressing the issues of civic engagement, transition to employment and the Empowerment of girls and women on the African continent.

He emphasized that interventions should target children, adolescents and young people, who should be supported by policies that enable them to participate in building their future and that of their countries.

Mr. Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, Member of Parliament for Ho West, said the conference would offer participants the opportunity to learn and share their experiences to improve the management of the people on the continent .

He said the meeting would give participants an opportunity to discuss the population in Africa and how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Mr Firmin K. Adjahossou, Head of the Accra Incubator Laboratory, stressed the need for Africans to exploit its demographic dividend taking into account population growth and resource limitation. .

He said it was important that African governments develop good education policies in order to have better citizens.

He added that all the policies articulated at the conference could not be conducted in isolation, but in partnership with various actors at the local and international levels.