General News of Monday, 25 September 2017
Source: Graphic.com.gh
2017-09-25
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, has said empowering the girl-child in Africa is critical to the development of the continent.
“Women and girls account for 51 percent of the population of Ghana and same across the continent, therefore, empowering them is critical to speeding up Africa’s progress,” he stated.
The President said this when he joined the 6th Annual Global Citizen Music Festival at New York City’s Central Park last Saturday.
The Global Citizen Festival is an annual music festival started in 2012. The festival is organized by the Global Poverty Project.
Charity mission
The Global Citizen Festival is a charitable mission aimed at sparking action as well as raise funding to further the United Nation’s project of eradicating global poverty by 2030.
The festival was attended by an estimated crowd of about 60,000. It brought together musicians and world leaders who made commitments toward health, gender equality, education and other poverty issues.
Nana Akufo-Addo said “as President of Ghana, Co-chair of UN Sustainable Development Goals and as AU Gender Champion, I am committed to putting in place policies and programmes aimed at improving the development of the girl-child in Ghana”.
Commitments
“I am equally committed to ensuring access to a minimum of senior high school education to the girl-child in Ghana, a policy that has already begun to work.”
“I am also committed to improve the lives and support towards ending child marriage in Ghana and in African,” he stated, adding, “together we can achieve gender equality, empower the women and girls and achieve global needs and goals of the sustainable development goals”.
Finally, he declared that “one day we are going to have a female President in Ghana”.
Admonishment
The Executive Director of United Nations (UN) Women, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said it was time for people to take the responsibility and say ‘no more to child marriage and gender inequality’.
“Please support UN Women ‘He For She’ movement and say no more, no more child marriage,” she said.
Festival
The festival brought together some icons from across the globe, including the legendary Stevie Wonder, who, during his performance, held on to his son, Kwame Wonder. The 67-year-old later took to both knees in “prayer for our planet, our future, our leaders of the world and our globe. Amen”.
As part of the concert, the artiste artistes stood together with Global Citizens to call on leaders in the US and around the world to uphold their responsibility to end poverty, tackle climate change and fight inequalities by 2030.
The 2017 festival was in partnership with GUCCI, CHIME FOR CHANGE, MSNBC, Comcast NBCUniversal, Live Nation, Johnson & Johnson, Citi, HP, Cadillac, iHeartMedia, and NYC Parks.
