Ambassador Stephanie Sullivan with other dignitaries at the ceremony. Ambassador Stephanie Sullivan’s Remarks
Cargill Sod Cutting School Project
Hon. Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, Ghana Chief of Staff to President;
H.E. Ron Strikker, The Netherlands Embassy in Accra, Ghana;
Mr. Aedo van der Weij, Cargill Managing Director
Hon. John Ntim Fordjour, Deputy Minister of Education;
Hon. Michael Baafi, Deputy Minister of Trade & Industry
Hon. Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, MP for Tema West Constituency;
Ms. Rose Tchwenko, Country Director, CARE Intl. Ghana
Nii me, Naa me, and dignitaries;
All protocols observed.Good morning! Wow, let’s try again. Good morning! …I used to be a teacher, oh. I want everybody to be paying attention. There will be a quiz later!I’m delighted to be here with you at this sod-cutting event. This particular location, at project Kojo, is representative of the several school sites that Cargill will hand over to the Ministry of Education when construction is completed in the Greater Accra Western North and Western Regions. Today, we celebrate this public-private partnership between Cargill and the Government of Ghana (GoG), with the support of the local nongovernmental organization here, that will improve learning opportunities for local school children.As a former student, and also a teacher, this warms my heart! And as all of us are inhabitants of this planet, I am sure we all recognize how important a well-educated and healthy youth population is to our collective future! Today’s sod-cutting for this wonderful school project has been made possible by Cargill’s global leadership in cocoa processing, and Ghana’s leadership in raw cocoa production.Cargill’s Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana, and indeed all around the world, is outstanding. In addition to its main focus in Ghana on cocoa production, Cargill works with 156 cocoa growing communities in Ghana to advance education access, child protection, community governance, and food security and nutrition. We need companies like Cargill to set the social responsibility tone for the industry.These are challenging times for the cocoa sector. During the pandemic, global cocoa demand has declined, while COCOBOD has tracked a record raw cocoa harvest. Even as Ghana looks to diversify into value-added cocoa processing, the current cocoa market has reduced prices for both raw cocoa and value-added cocoa products.To weather this season, Cargill and the GoG will strengthen their mutual partnership, and partnerships with cocoa growing communities, to be more resilient, adaptive, supportive, and innovative. And working together, including with concerned diplomatic partners, we are determined to build […]
