By Priscilla Oye Ofori/ Grace Ampomah
Accra, Aug. 23, GNA- The Gender Equitable and Transformative Social Policy for a Post-Covid-19 Africa project (GETSPA) annual conference has opened in Accra.
It is to disseminate the findings from participants country’s research and to identify and discuss common themes emerging from the findings and their implications for policy.
The conference, which brought together Social Policy scholars and academicians from around the African continent is also to identify questions arising for future research and review the organisation of GETSPA’s work so far and discuss the future of its network.
GETSPA is a multi-country research, policy advocacy, capacity building and network building project with a focus on Social Policy in Africa, hosted by the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana
Its mission is to transform the cultures of social policy making and implementation in Africa through research and constituency-building activities.
The project, which began in January 2021, is focused on understanding the value propositions underpinning social policy.
It is, therefore, focused on 10 country clusters spanning West Africa, East, Central, North, Southern and Lusophone Africa.
Professor Daniel Frimpong Ofori, Provost, College of Humanities, University of Ghana (UG), said the project was compelling and a timely initiative that promised to help transform social policymaking.
He said it would improve the well-being of individuals, families and communities on the continent.
The College of Humanities, Prof Ofori said, recognised the fundamental role of international networking in deepening research footprints beyond Ghana.
“I am happy to learn also that the GETSPA project aims will improve the capacity of social policy researchers in Africa through increased opportunities for exchange, collaboration, and advocacy,” the Provost said.
He said GETSPA was contributing in a significant way to driving the international networks objective of the College, and University by providing opportunity for its researchers to lead and engage with social policy scholars across Africa.
“As Provost, I am committed to supporting the GETSPA project to advance its objectives, for our common good,” Prof Ofori said.
He commended the Open Society Foundation for funding the network of Africa-based social policy scholars, and all who contributed to the advancement of the objectives of GETSPA.
The Provost also applauded the hard work of Prof Dzodzi Tsikata, Principal Investigator, Prof Nana Akua Anyidoho and Dr. Michael Kpessa-Whyte in negotiating for the establishment of the project within the College.
Professor Samuel Ntewusu, Director, Institute of African Studies, UG, noted that the goals and aims of GETSPA were driven by an African perspective, evident in the pan-African network of scholars.
He said its holistic Afrocentrism aligned with the founding vision of the Institute and its present operations.
“Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, on the opening of the Institute cautioned researchers in the Institute and the African continent to make their specific contribution to the advancement of knowledge through research and dissemination about the people and culture of Africa through past history and contemporary problems,” Pfof Ntewusu noted.
The Institute, he said, a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary, carried out that mission by engaging in the regeneration of Africa and her people through knowledge production, dissemination, application and preservation.
The Director said GETSPA upheld the vision of the Institute, where the project was housed, through the privileging of Afrocentric scholarship in realising its goal and aims.
He said with a representation of participants who were Africans based in 31 countries of the continent, the outcomes of the project would produce cutting-edge knowledge on social policy in Africa.
That, Prof Ntewusu said, would be relevant in shaping the development and implementation of social policies on the continent.
GNA