Mahama to lead delegation to 68th UN General Assembly

President John Mahama would lead Ghana’s delegation to the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations from September 17 to October 4, 2013.

The delegation would participate in a high-level meeting to define modalities for the incorporation of disability issues in the post 2015 global development agenda and also guide the formulation of effective solutions to the challenges faced by persons with disabilities.

Ms Hanna Tetteh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, announced this on Tuesday September 10 at a press briefing on Ghana’s participation in the event to be held on the theme: “The Post-2015 Development Agenda: Setting the Stage”.

She said Ghana passed the National Disability Act in June 2006, to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities, and Governments since then, had pursued various initiatives to address issues of discrimination and marginalization, and more importantly, tried to mainstream disability issues into the national development planning process.

She said in pursuit of its cardinal goal of working towards the attainment of a secure and a peaceful world, the United Nations General Assembly was also scheduled to hold a high-level meeting on Nuclear Disarmament on September 26, 2013.

The meeting would be on the sub-theme: “Identifying concrete measures to strengthen coherence and cooperation at all levels, with a view to enhancing the benefits of international migration for migrants and countries alike and its important links to development while reducing its negative implications”.

On the successes chalked in attaining some of the MDGs, the Minister said, it was gratifying that Ghana had not been left out of that positive trend.

Ms Tetteh said it was gratifying to note that considerable progress had been made in Ghana with respect to most of the MDGs, and attributed the success largely to the effective policies and social interventions implemented by governments over the years.

“Having been mainstreamed into the national development framework- the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda, the MDGs have positively driven the national socio-economic development agenda,” she said.

She said it was evident that the task ahead of the international community in ensuring a concretization of the ideals of a better world for all was enormous.

“Mindful of this fact, the international community has started working in concert with relevant stakeholders towards the definition of another set of holistic and integrated strategies to overcome the interdependent challenges, including poverty, hunger, insecurity, climate change, environmental degradation and lack of energy," she added.