Accra, Oct. 24, - The African
Union has through an assessment report commended Ghana’s government for its
role in the maintenance of peace and security in West African and the entire
Continent.
The Continental body said Ghana’s
championing of democracy, gender equality and its adoption of mechanisms to
address issues of climate change, gave confidence to the socio- economic space
in the country.
This came to the fore when
Ambassador Smail Chergui, the African Union’s Commissioner for Peace and
Security called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House
in Accra on Wednesday to present a copy of the report on Ghana’s Structural
Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment.
The AU’s Country Structural
Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment (CSVRA) CSVRA is designed to facilitate
the identification of a country’s structural vulnerability to conflict at an
early stage, with special emphasis on areas that are relevant in identifying
drivers of violent conflict including, socio-economic development; good
governance, rule of law, democracy and human rights; security sector;
environment and climate change; gender and youth; post-conflict peace-building;
and transitional justice and reconciliation.
The CSVMS process culminates in
the development of strategic and medium to long-term measures that are designed
to address the structural vulnerabilities to make countries more resilient to
conflict. It further explores the dimensions upon which the AU and the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) can best support the actions to be
undertaken in the implementation of the mitigation strategy.
Ghana is the first country to
have volunteered for the assessment.
“Through this exercise, we found
out that Ghana is really beacon of stability, democracy and the policies,
conduct in this country under your leadership Mr. President, gives confidence
to the social economic space here”, Ambassador Chergui said.
“We also note with great
pleasure, the progress in gender equality in key positions of the government;
we also noticed the adaptation of all mechanisms here to the climate change, we
also noticed that on security, the country is doing well; in fact, per capita,
violence is one of the lowest here,” he said.
Thus, the AU Commissioner
commended Ghana for being the pioneer of the Continental body’s new assessment
endeavour of member states, which found that Ghana had a good early warning
system to prevent conflict.
However, he noted some
shortcomings in the Ghana report and urged the government to work on them.
Ambassador Chergui commended
President Akufo-Addo’s exceptional leadership and his role in promoting the
African agenda and pushing for greater trade and not aid between the Continent
and the rest of the world.
”I think we need leaders like you
to really take us forward in dealing with the challenges that are coming”,
President Akufo-Addo on his part
said Ghana attached a great deal of importance to the Africa Union and the
continental objective of unification and integration.
“You know very well that our
first leader was one of the biggest torchbearers of the Pan African banner, it
has since then been the commitment of successive leaders of Ghana to the Pan
African agenda”
“It’s come to my turn, we
continue to believe that Ghana’s national interest is inextricably linked to
this continental agenda; so whatever we can do always to push forward the
claims of the continent, we believe it is in our interest to do so”, he said,
and assured of the implementation of the recommendations of the report.
GNA
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