Presidential Lecture at UConn

President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana will speak at the University of Connecticut, Student Union Theater on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 12:30 pm on the topic of Human Rights and Democracy in Ghana.

Since coming to power in 2001, President Kufuor has pursued stringent monetary and fiscal policy that has stabilized the national economy following the difficulties of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund?s Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) in the previous two decades. He has accelerated privatization programs and improvement of social services, thus unleashing domestic entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. The economic policies under President Kufuor have contributed to growth and dramatic poverty reduction in Ghana.

President Kufuor was the first African Head of State to voluntarily submit Ghana to the New Economic Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). The aim of the APRM is to evaluate how far African countries meet reasonable international standards of good governance, macro-economic management, corporate governance and socio-economic development.

The submission of Ghana by President Kufuor to the African Peer Review Panel is significant, as Ghana occupies an important place in the historical annuals of Africa. A West African nation bordered on the north by Burkina Faso, on the east by Togo and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, Ghana was the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans arrived to trade - first in gold, later in slaves. Formerly a British colony known as the Gold Coast, Ghana was the first black nation in the region to achieve independence from colonial rule on March 6, 1957.