Vice President Paa Kwesi Amisah-Arthur has called on HR practitioners in the country to develop a self-motivated human resource base to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all by 2015.
The Vice President made this call in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Nii Armah Ashietey at the investiture of the newly-elected National Governing Council of the Institute of Human Resources Practitioners, Ghana on Saturday, 22nd February, 2014 at the Accra International Conference Centre.
Speaking under the theme: “The relevance of Human Resource development to National Development,” the Vice President said: “The relevance of human resources development in Ghana today as a factor in the overall national development agenda cannot be overlooked. A developed and self-motivated human resource base is extremely critical to achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all, the message said.
“In Ghana for example, some progress in achieving full and productive employment and decent work has been made. Nevertheless, important challenges, which reflect high levels of decent work deficits, have remained, making the achievement of one of the targets of the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG1), which seeks to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger a difficult one,” he added.
The Vice President noted that “considering that we have barely two years to 2015 where our interventions towards the MDGs would be assessed, it behooves us to harness all approaches that will critically have an impact on the interventions, especially decent work.
In his acceptance speech after being sworn-in as the New President of IHRMP, John Wilson, an HR Management Consultant and Executive Director, ILO-SCORE Training Solutions, Ghana said, “My team and I decided to hit the ground running by starting to organize and execute an ambitious growth plan for the Institute within our two-year tenure ahead of the usual formalities. Our first action was to set up institute Business Teams to facilitate our new Vision translated in 3+1 thematic areas of Expansion, Visibility, Capability & Culture Change.”
Andy Osei Okrah, HR Director of the Forestry Commission, was sworn-in as the Vice-President of the Institute.
Other executive members of the National Governing Council include: George Anto-Boateng, Nana Yaa Twum, Dr. Edward Kwapong, Leonard Quarcoopome, Samuel O. Asiedu and Ebenezer Agbettor, who is the Executive Director of the Institute.
The occasion was also used to officially launch the first programme on the Institute’s 2014 calendar, which is to put up an ultramodern complex for HR practitioners behind the Trade Fair Centre, Accra.
A fundraising committee was inaugurated by Joe Debrah, Greater Accra Regional Minister to kick-start the process of sourcing for funds to build the HR Complex.
The event was attended by the outgoing President of IHRMP, Dan Acheampong, who pledged his continuous support to the new leadership and the Institute.