Fifteen persons from various governmental institutions are participating in a two-week capacity building workshop in the Republic of Korea.
The Participants were drawn from the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Department of Cooperatives, Ghana Cooperative Council, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Regional Coordinating Councils.
The delegation from Ghana are receiving first-hand lessons and experiences on the best practices that contributed to the successful economic transformation of Korea with special emphasis on the promotion of social enterprises and cooperative movements.
Among other important topics, the trainees are receiving tuition in Korea’s experiences in cooperative development and preparation of action plans to be implemented in their home country.
A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said as part of the training, participants will be visiting cultural heritage sites in Korea, agribusiness industries, model cooperatives societies and social enterprises form an integral aspect of the training program.
Beneficiaries of the training programme are expected to transfer the knowledge acquired to the Farmer-based Cooperatives and their colleagues upon their return to Ghana as part of a concerted effort to reposition Ghana’s cooperative movement within the contemporary global framework.
The training, which is the second in a series of three Overseas Invitational Trainings programmes, is fully funded by the Government of the Republic of Korea and represents one of the six components of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) “Capacity Development of Farmer-Based Cooperatives and Organizations (FBCs/ FBOs) Project”.
The project represents a bilateral arrangement between the Governments of the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Ghana and has the overarching goal of improving the quality of lives of rural residents in Northern Ghana.
The key partners for the project are the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) and the Department of Cooperatives (DOC) in the five Northern Regions namely; Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East and Upper West regions.
The other components being implemented under the four-year KOICA FBCs/FBOs project are; Cooperative Policy Advisory and Advocacy, Training of Trainers (TOT), Training of FBC/FBO leaders (TOL), Networking and Marketing Support, and Pilot Projects.
South Korea represents a transformational success worthy of emulation by all countries desiring economic transformation. Korea’s achievements become even more remarkable when they are seen in the backdrop of its economic history.
The country experienced a very turbulent and unstable past, notable among such setbacks was its division into two sovereign states by the United States and the Soviet Union which was shortly followed by the Korean civil in 1950 resulting in near-total devastation of the Republic.
South Korea made a remarkable recovery over a relatively short period, which is widely termed the miracle of the Han River. The country has since rose from its former status as one of the poorest countries in the world to the world’s eleventh-largest economy.
