GAAS launches 50th Anniversary

THE Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has assured the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) that the government will soon construct a modern office complex to house the academy.
This, the Vice President said, would facilitate the work of the academy and help it to carry out its mandate while contributing to the socio-economic advancement of the country. GAAS is currently located on the premises of CSIR in Accra.
The Vice President gave the assurance when he launched the six-month long 50th anniversary celebration of the GAAS.
Mr Mahama said that as a developing nation, the country needed an innovative means of tackling the challenges that confronted it and “we will need your expertise in this direction to develop the nation”.
Mr Mahama said the Prof Atta Mills administration recognised the important role science played in the development of a nation and so would not neglect its responsibilities towards the academy.
He commended the fellows of the academy for their contributions to national development over the last 50 years.
“I say this with the assurance that the next 50 years ahead of you would witness a more meaningful impact of your existence than before,” he stressed.
The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey Enyo, in his address, admitted that unless there was the political will at all levels to support the work of the academy, it would be impossible for it to attain its mandate.
Mr Tettey Enyo said in order for the country to achieve middle income status by the year 2020, there should be a deliberate effort to develop a stable science and technology institute.
He therefore urged the GAAS to develop scientific methods by which modern technology could be delivered to the poorer groups in the country.
The minister again commended the fellows of the institute for presenting to the government various advisory reports on Agriculture, the Economy, Environment and Higher Education and promised they would be acted upon.
This, he said, would help in achieving the objectives of the academy, which include the creation, acquisition, dissemination and utilisation of knowledge for national development.
The President of GAAS, Prof Reginald Fraser Amonoo, told the Daily Graphic that the academy had over the last five decades presented a number of lectures and held public presentations on a number of public issues of national concern.
Prof Amonoo said that as part of the mandate of the academy, it had promoted the study and the extension and dissemination of knowledge of all the sciences.
The president, who also chaired the launch, said discussions on including junior fellows in the academy were on-going, stressing that that would help the younger generation to have a better understanding of the sciences and their role in national development.
Prof Amonoo appealed to the general public for financial support as government support was not enough to run the academy and also carry out its mandate. “There are a lot still to be done by the academy. However, our greatest limitation has been the financial resource to achieve our ambitions.”
The honorary secretary of the Academy, Prof S. K. A. Danso said the academy, within the last couple of decades and within the context of the environment it found itself, had broadened the scope of its activities to include roundtable discussions as a platform for public discussion of topical issues that would impact on policy formulation.
Prof Danso mentioned some of the activities lined up for the celebration as public forum on constitutional review in Ghana, inaugural lecture, annual lecture and the 5th African Science Academies Development Initiative Conference.
All these would be climaxed with an awards and dinner dance in November 2009.

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The Vice President with some of the fellows of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences