Helping Ghana, one meal at a time
Every day since he assumed his diplomatic post in Canada seven months ago, Ghanaian High Commissioner Sulley Gariba has made a point of eating at least one Ghanaian meal a day.
It’s a small thing, but he aims to inspire other with his efforts, which help support small, rurally oriented, women-led businesses in Ghana.
“Imagine that one (order from Canada worth) $5,000, could lift a whole village out of poverty,” Gariba said. “I’ve had one Ghanaian meal a day. Imagine 100,000 Ghanaian families having one meal a day. What that would do to trade with Ghana is phenomenal.”
Gariba noted that there are several Ghanaian supermarkets in Toronto and even two in Ottawa. And his hope is that those kinds of small businesses will benefit from the establishment of a foreign investment protection agreement that’s long been in the works. “I’ve told my staff to let us look at FIPA and make sure the agreement will help small companies and lift people out of poverty.”
He said he’s also brought about a mutual accountability framework to strengthen Canadian development assistance to any country. “We got that signed late in April,” he said.
Asked about his priorities for his post, he first noted his government’s priority of engaging with the diaspora in various countries. “Right now, there are an estimated 200,000-plus living in Canada,” he said. “Many of them are living eminently. I want to take (this priority) beyond cultural relations. I want to engage the diaspora in a way that allows them to make important contributions to the development of Ghana, and we’re already seeing some success in that area.”
He said remittances are important, of course, but there are other ways to engage Ghanaianborn Canadians, specifically community leaders who can help to carry out developmental activities in Ghana.
“I’ve tried to narrow the priority to engage in that very strategic way,” he said. “We are making a lot of progress already. We have a Ghanaian at Toronto Sick Kids Hospital who has been able to mobilize the entire specialists group to launch an initiative now funded by the Canadian government to the tune of $9.5 million to train nurses and midwives in Ghana. They’re not just committing resources in money terms, but also human terms. We’ve issued complimentary visas to them.”
His second priority is to connect with Canadians who’ve had experiences in Ghana, to engage them for their advice and contacts. The high commissioner studied at Carleton University, where he completed his master’s and PhD degrees. While doing that, he worked as a guide, briefing Ghanaian-bound officials from the Canadian International Development Agency, among other places.
“Because I worked for more than 10 years briefing Canadians going to Ghana, I have quite a roster of people who are working all over the country, and all of these people have been able to give some advice about how we can be investing in Ghana.”
His third priority is education. “The education you receive in another culture gives you incredible life opportunities. My education has lifted my family and the entire community I come from.” He wants to promote exchanges and give Ghanaians the opportunity to study here, but he also wants Canadians to study in Ghana.
“They come back and give Ghana a positive image,” he said of the Canadians he knows who’ve studied or volunteered in Ghana. “And that influences the next generation of decision-makers.”
The high commissioner is a big fan of what the Canadian government does with development assistance. In fact, his career path — he is a monitor and evaluator of international development initiatives — owes something to CIDA because one of its biggest projects in Ghana was the Northern Region Rural Integrated Program, which provided water, sanitation and food security to his home village of Tamale.
“It signalled to me one area of possible professional study.”
Imagine 100,000 Ghanaian families having one meal a day. What that would do to trade with Ghana is phenomenal.