An Orange light has gone dim: West Africa’s OFSP advocate & Former U.N Secretary-General has gone to rest

On the 18th day of August 2018, we awoke to the sad news. Kofi Annan, an advocate of the OFSP in West Africa is no more. He was eighty years old.

The Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and his wife Nane Annan, have been tirelessly behind the success story of OFSP in West Africa for some years now.

An OFSP variety Nan, released earlier this year in Ghana ( https://tinyurl.com/yb6k3yu4 ) was named after his wife, as recognition of their advocacy for OFSP In Ghana. The former United Nations Secretary general, once said “suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere”.  It is in light of this that he and Mrs. Nane Lagergren Annan decided to hold hands and fight malnutrition together with CIP, using the orange fleshed sweetpotato, the nutritious vitamin A powerhouse. He was the first African to head the United nations. Kofi Atta Annan was a twin, born in the city of Kumasi, Ghana (then Gold Coast) in April 1938

In 2001, Mr. Annan’s humanitarian work enabled him and the UN to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was concerned with peacekeeping, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, climate change, and food security and nutrition, among others. He established the Millennium Development Goals – an ambitious set of priorities to meet by 2015, from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS. His visits to Ghana as an OFSP advocate along with his wife would always be remembered.  Between August 2015 and January 2017, the Annans visited Ghana four times on advocacy missions, with preparations mainly undertaken by CIP staff under the organizational motor of Dr. P.E. Abidin.

The Annans have championed the agenda of OFSP lobbying for support to allow CIP and partners to carry on the work of bringing OFSP to Ghana as a sustainable, delicious and effective source of pro-vitamin A in diets for all. Kofi Annan will be missed, but his work with the U.N and in support of agriculture in SSA will never be forgotten. Rest in Peace ( Demrefa due) your Excellency: your life’s work would always save lives.

 

 

 

 

Here are a few dates you may be interested in.

    _{1938: Born in Kumasi}

    _{1962: Starts working at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland}

    _{1965: Weds Titi Alakija. They have two children, a boy and a girl}

    _{1984: Marries Nane Lagergren, having divorced a year earlier}

    _{1991: Twin sister Efua dies}

    _{1993: Becomes head of peacekeeping operations}

    _{1997: Appointed seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations}

    _{2001: Wins Nobel Peace Prize}

    _{2006: Steps down as secretary-general after 10 years}

    _{2012: Made chair of The Elders, a peace and human rights advocacy group.}