The International Water Management Institute - Ghana (IWMI) has reiterated the need for Ghana to leverage opportunities presented by COVID-19 for rapid sustainable growth. The Institute made the call at a national policy dialogue on social transformation, which seeks to outline policy and regulatory strategies to help reverse the negative effects of Covid-19. The policy dialogue focused on social transformation through innovations and programmes that would ensure transformative rural growth and climate adaptation in the wake of the pandemic.
Chief Executive Director of Technology Development Centre of CSIR-STEPRI Accra, Dr George Essegbey, said social transformation and development required science, technology and innovation. He said as the country thought through ways of reviving the economy post-COVID-19, and it was imperative that it considered innovative ways of taking advantage of opportunities that came with the pandemic. Mr Essegbey said: “Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) are important forces in bringing about social transformation.
In this policy dialogue, it is important we draw out the STI perspective in analysing the COVID-19 situation and the disruptions and opportunities that it has created in climate adaptation and rural transformation.”
“For any transformation to be effective, the harnessing, adoption, application and diffusion of STI are fundamental,” he added. Mr Patrick Robert Ankobiah, Chief Director at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, said discussions on social transformation could not be conclusive without linkages to the transformation of agricultural systems.