Ghanaians in Toronto to meet a Team from Ghana on Diaspora Engagement

Ghanaians in Toronto to meet a Team from Ghana on Diaspora Engagement Policy this weekend at Applewood Crescent, Vaughan

From Joe Kingsley Eyiah, OCT, Toronto-Canada

The Ghanaian community in Toronto-Canada has been honored with the opportunity to be the first participants in an exercise to validate a newly developed Diaspora Engagement Policy. A cross-section of the community would be officially invited to meet with the technical committee from Ghana on Saturday, September 3, 2016, from 10am to 12noon and; on Sunday, September 4, 2016, from 5pm to 7pm at 612 Applewood Crescent, SpringHill Suites in Vaughan-Ontario. The team from Ghana would elicit views from the invitees on the draft policy which would be sent to the invitees earlier for their kind perusal.

A communiqué from the High Commission in part reads, “It may be recalled that pursuant to a presidential policy directive, a new Diaspora Affairs bureau was established in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration (MFA&RI) as the national platform for Ghanaian Diaspora engagement. Following several consultations with Ghanaians in the diaspora, the Ministry has developed a draft National Diaspora Engagement Policy for the engagement process.”

A portion of the Policy (document) to be validated reads, “The development of a Diaspora Engagement Policy for Ghana is very important because of the large size of Ghanaian emigrants living abroad and their immense contribution to national development…..most Ghanaians have moved across international borders for socio-economic reasons, such as work, marriage, and education. ”In recognition of the role of the Diaspora in national development, the Government of Ghana has developed a number of programmes and legislative instruments to enhance the country’s relationship with the Ghanaian Diaspora.”

The technical committee from Ghana will later go to other cities in North America and Europe to meet Ghanaians there for the same exercise.