Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, Minister for Tourism, Culture, and Creative Arts, delivered an inspiring address at the Stakeholder Dialogue Preparatory Forum. The event, organized by the Ghana Culture Forum in partnership with the Ghana Tourism Authority, set the stage for the grand celebration of 2025 Ghana Culture Day & Taste 68@68 Food Fair.
Addressing a gathering of cultural icons, industry players, and heritage enthusiasts, Hon. Gomashie reaffirmed the government’s commitment to preserving and promoting Ghana’s rich traditions.
The event, a melting pot of traditional music, dance, and gastronomy, showcased Ghana’s diverse cultural tapestry. The Taste 68@68 Food Fair, a special highlight, celebrated 68 iconic Ghanaian dishes, paying homage to the nation’s 68 years of independence. Hon. Gomashie lauded the initiative, encouraging Ghanaians to embrace local cuisine as a tool for cultural diplomacy.
Her statement below :
Permit me to make a brief statement to set the tone for this second section of the 2025 Ghana Culture Day Celebration which is a Stakeholder Dialogue Preparatory Forum – a precursor to a proposed National Stakeholder Forum on the Resetting Ghana’s Culture and Creative Ecosystem to be held later this year.
This is envisaged in the frame of a national conference on Arts, Culture, its allied sectors and Industries and it is designed to bring together practitioners from the public and private sector and other stakeholders to discuss Ghana’s agenda on arts and culture development and programmes towards the renaissance of the sector. This national stakeholder engagement is also aimed at stemming the inertia, demoralization, waning enthusiasm and lethargy that has engulfed the institutions, staff and practitioners of arts and culture in the country and help create new spirit of rejuvenation and renewal among industry players.
We are glad that we are able to use the occasion of Ghana Culture Day to initiate a discussion on this plan and the key issues that should inform the framing of this important national undertaking.
Some of the issues that we would wish this preparatory forum to look at among others are:
• Mainstreaming culture in national development (moving culture from the peripheral to the centre)
• Advancing culture and socio-economic development
• Defining the architecture of the culture and creative sector
• Policy and legal framework coherence
• Empowering and capacity building: institutions/organisations of culture including art associations and guilds in the civil society space
• Research through quantitative and qualitative data and the enabling and driving role of culture in sustainable development
• Affirming cultural identity and heritage
• Developing culture and the creative industries
• Ensuring popular participation in culture: women, youth, students, physically challenged, traditional communities, social organisations and networks
• Systematising and structuring government and civil society partnership in the cultural and creative sector
• Promoting domestic tourism and the culture of travel. (To enhance knowledge about each other so as to bridge the seemingly cultural distances between our people)
• Culture and the education system: pedagogy – content, form, curriculum etc
• Funding of the culture and creative sector
• Enhancing international cultural co-operation
We are proposing the setting up of a 11-member Planning Committee that will be charged with planning and managing the National Cultural and Creative Sector Stakeholder Forum. The planning committee is composed as follows:
1. Nanahema Adwoa Awindor – Chairperson
2. Professor Kodzo Gavua – Vice Chairperson
3. Mr. Divine Owusu Ansah – Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts – Member
4. Mr. Geoffrey Tamakloe – Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts – Member
5. Madam Alice Kala – National Commission on Culture – Member
6. Mr. Ahuma Bosco Ocansey – Ghana Culture Forum – Member
7. Chieff Moomen – Member
8. Dr. Avea Nsor (Manifesto) – Member
9. Mr. Adokwei Moffat – Member
10. Ms. Agnes Panfred – Member
11. Mr. Carl Ampah, National Programme Officer, Culture Sector UNESCO Office in Accra – Ex-Officio Member
The PROPOSED TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) FOR THE PLANNING COMMITTEE are as follows:
To make proposals to include the following:
A. Date and Time
B. Venue
C. Theme
D. Agenda/Programme (including plenary, breakout, workshop sessions, artistic component) etc
E. Participants
F. Role Players including speakers, panellists, chairpersons, rapporteurs etc
G. Event Management including logistics, equipment and facilities, consumables hospitality, protocol, transport, secretariat services including registration systems, invitations, production staff, décor, etc
H. Publicity, documentation and reporting
I. Budget
J. Sponsorship (Fund and resource mobilisation)
It is our aim that the road map towards the holding of this national forum will include an engagement process with the relevant stakeholders, partners and sectors to ensure that there is the necessary traction and the building of needed social capital that engenders collective ownership of this national effort.
I will like to thank you for your attention.
Story by Obaapa Janee) ahotoronline.com
