Svenja Schulze with Ken Ofori-Atta
German Minister for Development Cooperation, Svenja Schulze, has tagged Ghana as a pillar of stability, saying it is Germany’s best destination in Africa for collaboration and partnership on key developmental agenda.
Addressing the media at the residence of the German Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs. Schulze said “jointly, we want to achieve progress for people and enterprises here in Ghana.”
“It is really important to me that the rules are applying on the ground to help those at the beginning of the supply chain here in Ghana and in this context to strengthen children and women’s rights,” she added.
Mrs. Schulze was part of a delegation with her colleague, the Minister for Employment and Social Policies and the Director General of the International Labour Organisation, to Ghana.
The team met with the sector ministers in Ghana to deliberate on matters of mutual interest; top on the agenda was decent work, human rights and economic value chain.
The German Minister for Employment and Social Policies, Hubertus Heil, expressed optimism in Ghana and Germany relations stating that, it’s important for both countries to share the “same values, democracy and economic values. Everyone needs to be responsible, especially the government and the business sector.”
He commended the Government of Ghana for initiating measures to protect children against child labour by investing in compulsory child education.
“We are working together for decent work and for social protection,” he emphasised.
Director General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Gilbert Houngbo, in a brief statement, stated keenly what the labour organisation expects from countries, thereby availing ILO’s expertise into sector ministries in order to “put together an action plan that will push-up trade to a better quality to move our people out of poverty.”
On the issue of fair migration, he said Ghana has expertise in different sectors but “we also have the international guidelines on fair migration and that should help us to achieve what we call the triple win.”
Ghana’s Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, who doubles as the caretaker Minister for Trade, Samuel Jinapor said there’s a need for Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire to make appreciable gains as the primary producers of the world’s cocoa.
He believes effective collaboration with Germany has the potential to scale up the production value chain.
“Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire needs to rise to an appreciable level of the global market share of cocoa. Currently, both countries earn only $6 billion out of the over $113 billion, and it tells you that, if you don’t amplify or promote our cocoa, a lot of the rhetoric will not resonate or materialise,” he said.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri