GIMPA to train queenmothers in leadership, governance

Professor Samuel Kwaku Bonsu, Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), has pledged the commitment of the Institute to enhance the knowledge and skills of members of the National Queen Mothers Platform in leadership and good governance.

The commitment, which involves the training of Queen Mothers at the GIMPA School of Public Service and Governance and Faculty of Law, aims at making them more influential and better contributors to community growth and national development.

Prof. Bonsu, who said this at a National Conference and Workshop organised by the National Queen Mothers’ Platform and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, said GIMPA was also considering the setting up of a Centre for Traditional Leadership that would among other things provide the necessary research background to support the activities of traditional leaders.

The pledge followed concerns raised by the Queen Mothers to be engaged in a well-structured institution to enable them to play an integral and more influential role in national development.

Prof. Bonsu said Queenmothers were positioned to offer quality leadership in communities and emphasised the readiness of GIMPA to help them offer such services to the people.

Mr Seth Kwame Acheampong, the Eastern Regional Minister, who chaired the workshop, bemoaned the disputes that had engulfed some parts of the traditional settings, saying it was one of the barriers to community growth.

He urged traditional leaders to use Alternative Dispute Resolution procedures in resolving non-criminal disputes among community members.

He commended GIMPA for offering to provide a strategic structure to train Queenmothers so they could settle disputes and promote peace.

Mr Acheampong said his office would provide the necessary "public safety measures" to enable them to successfully go through the programme.

Dr Arne Wulff of the Konrad Adeneaur Stifung, a German Political Foundation that maintains, peace and justice, said traditional leaders had a lot of influence to determine how the country should look in terms of pollution on the environment, which subsequently influenced climate change.

“You can work more and harder on plastic pollution. We can have a much more beautiful country when we look at issues of plastics and tackle it,” he said.

Dr. Wulff said Ghana could emulate some East African countries that had totally ban plastic bags, adding: “If we say we want to replace plastic bags, we can definitely find a way.”

He charged the Queen Mothers to work hard with the influence they had, their importance, and knowledge to protect the environment, saying his Organisation was willing to support Ghana to do away with plastic bags.

Nana Amponsah Dokua II, President of the National Queen Mothers’ Platform, said the Platform would continue to engage various strategic allies to seek partnership in the implementation of its programmes and activities.

For her part, arbitration, democracy, and governance were essential elements of national development that merited the continuous attention of the National Queen Mothers’ Platform, hence, she said the Platform would establish a structured relationship with the Konrad Foundation to promote that development.

“To all Queen Mothers, regional representatives present here, let us go back to our regions and share what we have learnt from this conference with our sisters who could not be here.

“Let us also apply the lessons in the execution of our role in our respective traditional areas. If we put in our best efforts, we will impact our communities and the nation as a whole,” she said.

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