African ministers converge in Accra for information access

African ministers responsible for libraries will converge at the Labadi Beach Hotel from October 29 and 30, 2019 for the 3rd roundtable conference for African Ministers on developments on the provision of library and information services in Africa.

About 25 African countries will be represented by participants, 15 of whom would be the sector ministers responsible for libraries.

The conference is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Education represented by the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) and the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AFLIA).

To be chaired by the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the two-day brainstorming session aims at providing leadership and guidance on how governments can integrate libraries in their national development plans and ensure allocation of resources towards the achievement of the development goals.

The conference, on the theme, “Libraries on the African Development Agenda: Progress made,” will be taking place within the framework of the AU 2063 Agenda, the Charter for African Renaissance and the related outcomes of the AU Commission meeting held in Algeria in October 2018.

Countries that have so far confirmed participation include Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, Angola, Central Africa Republic, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mali, Brundi, Lesotho and Cameroon.

Speaking ahead of the conference, the Chief Executive Officer of the GhLA Mr Hayford Siaw was excited that the conference would be hosted by Ghana’s Minister of Education Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, expressing the hope that it would create limitless opportunities for the country.

He said coincidentally, the conference was coming to Ghana at the time when the GhLA had declared the year 2019 as a “Year of Reading” to encourage the youth and students to develop the habit of reading.

Touting the success achieved so far, Mr Siaw said the GhLA had attained five of its main strategic objects to be attained by the end of the year.

“We promised making sure that our libraries are conducive for learning and to that we have made a lot of progress; we promised digital library, we have delivered that.

“We promised to expand our footprint and have moved from 61 to 68 libraries; we promised more books and we brought in over 100,000 books.

“We promised various programmes as part of promoting libraries in the country and to that, we have done a lot of programmes such as personality reading and also a nationwide competition,” he told the Graphic Online.

Mr Siaw explained that “all these also explain why Ghana has been selected to host the conference during which participating countries will learn from best practices.”

He hinted that there would be a meeting of the National Librarians / Directors of Library Services on October 28, 2019 at the Erata Hotel to consider various interventions, which had been made towards the desired goals in the past year.

He explained that on October 30, 2019, a report on the directors’ meeting would be presented as well as reports from the CEO of the GhLA Mr Siaw and other bodies on how libraries met the development agenda and the way forward.