The first consultative workshop for the formulation of a Green Economy Action Plan (GEAP) for Ghana, organized by the country’s Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), with the technical support of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), took place in Accra on 16 July 2015.
The workshop was the first of a series of consultative sessions that will be undertaken in Ghana to develop a robust GEAP for the country, as a vehicle for integrating and reinforcing inclusive Green Economy goals and national economic and development planning.
The aim of the workshop was to obtain inputs from key stakeholders in the agriculture, forestry and energy sectors in order to map out actions and strategies to inform the various segments of the GEAP document. These three sectors are the focus for Green Economy actions and strategies in Ghana because they were prioritized, through prior consultative workshops and the Green Economy Assessment Study, as the key contributors to the national economy in terms of GDP, trade, employment, low carbon development, and natural resources management.
The workshop participants were divided into three groups – each group corresponding to one of the key sectors – and completed the matrices developed by ISSER to obtain sector-specific inputs for actions and strategies.
The findings from the workshop will be used for the formulation of a draft GEAP, which will be reviewed during a second consultative workshop to be convened by MESTI and ISSER on August 28, 2015. The finalized Action Plan will be formally adopted by Ghana’s Government during a validation workshop to be held a month later. Additional activities to monitor and support this mainstreaming of inclusive Green Economy into national economic and development planning, will be led by the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE).
The Green Economy Assessment Report arising from the study is scheduled for publication by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in August 2015.
The consultative workshop and the Green Economy Assessment study were commissioned by UNEP for the Government of the Republic of Ghana with generous funding support from the European Commission and the Government of the Netherlands.