United Nations Day Launched In Accra

The United Nations (UN), in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration (MFARI), has launched this year’s United Nations Day in Accra.
 
The Day, the 69th in a series, is on the theme: ‘Youth Engagement For Effective Nation-Building’ for which a series of activities including the UN Mock Summit and a Flag Raising ceremony were held to mark the event.

In an address at the launch, the Chief Director, MFARI, Ambassador Leslie Kojo Christian who represented the Minister, said the 24th day of October was significant as it reminded the world of the aims and achievements of the UN Member States as well as reflected on ways to advance its vision.

He said as the global community was confronted with a myriad of challenges, the concept of global citizenship became even more significant.

Ambassador Christian added that global citizenship embodied a concept, identity and responsibilities which transcended national borders.

Ambassador Kojo Christian emphasised that in harnessing the potential of global citizenship, the group that stood out was the youth.

He said people between ages 15 and 25 made up 1.1 billion of the world’s population, and expressed regrets that youth agitations, youth unemployment and violence, particularly against girls and young women, dominated the headlines in recent times.

Touching on the significance of youth participation, he said the rapid advancement of the social media had shaped and amplified the voices of the youth and projected young people to the centre of global decision-making.

Ambassador Christian was, therefore, of the view that the youth, when properly trained, prepared and motivated, could become the real engine of progress.

The Chief Director noted that many political and social developments in recent years had been fuelled by the engagement of the youth.
He expressed government’s appreciation for the United Nations involvement in advancing member states development and said the zeal and unwavering commitment of government in youth development had contributed immensely to growth and development.

Delivering a statement on behalf of the UN Country Representative, Mr Wolfgang Haas, UN Co-ordination Specialist, said the UN Peacekeeping Mission became increasingly necessary with the spate of wars and national disasters.

Mr Haas noted that global citizenship transcended the individual nations to the international, saying that UN was working closely with the Ghana government in eliminating the Ebola virus.

He said the UN identified improvement in maternal health in Ghana and the provision of the necessary health tools for the promotion of good health for Ghanaian women.
About the establishment of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) Headquarters in Ghana, he applauded the initiative as Ghana was an Ebola-free country.

Mr Haas announced that some Development Aid Agencies were putting together national plans which were in their final stages to fight Ebola.

ISD