Obama To Visit Ghana In July
President Obama will visit Ghana in on July 10 and 11, the White House said on Saturday, AFP/Google.com reports. Obama will travel to Ghana after attending the G8 summit in Italy from July 8 through 10. Although Obama will travel to Egypt in June to give a speech to the Muslim world, the trip to Ghana will be his first trip targeting the African continent, according to AFP/Google.com.
"While in Ghana, the President will discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues with Ghanaian President Mills," Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. "The President and Mrs. Obama look forward to strengthening the U.S. relationship with one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa," according to the statement. Gibbs added that Obama looks forward to highlighting the important role that reliable "governance and civil society play in promoting lasting development" (AFP/Google.com, 5/17).
Ghana Should Ask Obama To Back Malaria Eradication
In an opinion piece reacting to the announcement of Obama's trip to Ghana and published in Joy Online Hayford Siaw, executive director of the Volunteer Partnership for West Africa writes that Ghana should use the visit as an opportunity to highlight the "most challenging issues confronting the nation and the African continent."
Siaw writes that Ghana should make "clear cut statements with our needs with specific time frame and budget." The country should propose that the President's Malaria Initiative fund a new malaria strategy "geared towards eradication of the disease," according to Siaw. "Ghana should take the lead to move policies of controlling the disease to policies of eradicating the disease," and it should call for investment in malaria treatments, insecticide-spraying and malaria education, Siaw writes, concluding that a strategy like this could help Ghana to eradicate malaria with three years (Siaw, Joy Online, 5/17).
- Joy Online also published an article that examines Ghana's progress towards achieving the targets set out by the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (Cudjoe/Simons/Bentil, Joy Online, 5/18).
- In other health news in Ghana, the country's Food and Drugs Board has created five mini laboratories in five regional capitals to test the safety and efficacy of malaria drugs, GNA/Ghana Home Page reports. The laboratories, which were created with the U.S. Pharmacopoeia's Drug Quality Information Program, cost a total of $30,000 (GNA/Ghana Home Page, 5/15).