The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has accepted an invitation from the Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization to play the role of a Champion of the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa.

It may be recalled that on 25th July 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/70/293 in which it proclaimed the period 2016–2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III), calling upon the African Union Commission, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the Economic Commission for Africa and, specifically, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), to develop, operationalize and lead the implementation of the programme for the IDDA III.

The role of a champion is mainly to provide publicity and advocacy support towards the implementation of the IDDA III

Consequently, UNIDO developed a Roadmap for implementing the IDDA III anchored on six interlinked pillars namely, global forums, strategic support to develop and manage industrial policy instruments, technical cooperation, cooperation at the level of the African Union, regional economic communities and countries, partnerships and resource mobilization, and communication and advocacy.

Under the sixth pillar – communication and advocacy, the championship initiative is aimed at leveraging high-level political leadership for the promotion and visibility of the IDDA III. In this regard, the role of a champion is mainly to provide publicity and advocacy support towards the implementation of the IDDA III.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to play the role of a champion of the IDDA III from 2021 – 2023.

The Presidents of Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Malta, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia have previously played the role of champions of the IDDA III from 2018 – 2020.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Embassy of Ghana - Vienna, Austria.