The Minister-Designate for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Hon. Egyapa Mercer received at the Ministry, a delegation representing the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to Ghana led by the Representative to Ghana, Mr Edward Moukala N’Gouemo.
The UNESCO Accra Office promotes the Organization’s objectives and ideals in Ghana through contributing to global peace, poverty alleviation, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through a wide range of the Organisation’s expertise. By acting as an advisory body in determining the policies and programmes that seek s to promote the ideals of UNESCO, it fosters close cooperation between state agencies and services, professionals and other institutions to advance mutual knowledge and understanding of UNESCO’s work
towards the common welfare of humankind.
While the Minister-Designate noted that UNESCO is an important stakeholder in the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, he underscored the importance of
deepening the collaborative spirit between the two institutions.
Mr N’Gouemo shared the value of culture in Ghana’s socio-economic and political development, noting UNESCO’s regard for Ghana’s Culture policy (which is currently being finalised) as a strategic document that can shape politics, education and development. Along this line, he posited, that UNESCO was interested in
ensuring the finalisation of the document.
Another area of interest to UNESCO is harmonising heritage and creative arts with Artificial intelligence,” he said. “AI is a powerful tool which could be used to preserve our culture and heritage as well as make same accessible to the
world,” he added.
Hon. Mercer iterated the enormous potential that exists for the arts and culture sector to drive economic growth in Ghana. On the back of that, he thanked UNESCO for its support over the years particularly in successfully rolling out a series of capacity building initiatives in Ghana.
