Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal
Tamale Ghana – 24 October 2017
In 1948, the UN General Assembly declared October 24 the anniversary of the Charter of the UN, as a day to be devoted to making known to the people of the world the aims and achievements of the UN and gain their support for its work. The United Nations (UN) commemorated this day 72 years on Tuesday the 24 of October 2017 with a flag-raising ceremony at which the Foreign and Regional Integration Minister, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, reiterated the country’s continued support and preparedness to collaborate with the UN in finding solutions to the challenges facing humanity.
The Tamale celebration, appropriately themed “Achieving the SDGs: Innovating, mobilising and partnering for the implementation of the SDGs in Ghana,” was also a celebration of sixty years since the nation became a member of UN.
A photo exhibition visualising the UN’s historical milestones, both globally and in Ghana, was mounted, highlighting the role of the President at the recent meeting of the UN General Assembly. During a Model United Nations session on 24 October, Junior High School students demonstrated their keen interest in the UN.
The Foreign and Regional Integration Minister, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said that Ghana would continue to collaborate with the UN and other partners and organizations in the delivery of the SDGs as part of resolving the numerous challenges humanity was saddled with.
“The achievement of the SDGs holds a prominent place on the government’s development agenda. It is for this reason that the goals have been incorporated into Ghana’s 40-year development plan and development policies such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, one-district, one-factory and the free SHS,” she said.
International Potato Center (CIP) was represented at the anniversary celebration by Dr. Putri Ernawati Abidin. CIP got an opportunity to display orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) roots and materials with the participants at the special event. The Hon Minister Salifu Sahidi was very happy to see the OFSP roots which are currently being produced by farmers in Northern Ghana and he was very pleased with the initiative CIP is involved with. The minister onserved the dire and urgent need to pay more attention to working on the school feeding program in Northern Ghana. He noted that plans are underway to discuss this school feeding program initiative with the World Food Program (WFP) and CIP. Dr. Abidin got a chance to briefly explain CIP work in breeding and the intensive two-month school feeding program intervention CIP was involved with in Kumbungu District that promoted the popular ‘mpotompoto’. Sh also shared with the minister that inspite of the high popularity of OFSP in school meals, the root producers needed money in exchange for the roots which the schools did not have.
CIP got to display and distribute the product cookbook, training of trainers manuals (ToT) on OFSP processing and utilization, Sweetpotato cropping guide (CABI pub) and brochure. CIP presented the minister with a gift; a bag of OFSP var Apomuden.
