UN Ghana staff embark on a beach clean-up exercise

UN Day 2019 in Ghana has been all about climate change, the environment and drawing attention to plastic menace in support of the UN Secretary-General's call on climate action. Over 200 UN staff members devoted their time to clean the La Bamba beach in Accra.  Led by some Heads of Agencies, UN staff, branded in their agency t’shirts were supported by EcoSchool members, Plastic Punch, a local NGO that creates awareness on the dangers of plastics in our environment, and Jekora ventures, a waste management company in Ghana. For nearly three hours, UN staff members, from programme specialist to administrative staff to Heads of Agencies and drivers together worked to rid the beach of debris.  The debris were segregated and weighted for records purposes.

At the national level, the focus of UN Day was again on the environment. Led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, another 300 men and women from the security services – Ghana Armed Forces, Ghana Police Service and Ghana Immigration Service – were rallied to clean the Nima community, a suburb of Accra.  For nearly four hours, the team cleaned gutters and swept the community while students held SDGs placards to drive home the message to keep our environment clean and for climate action.

Meanwhile, the UN system in Ghana is embarking on a greening initiative to discourage staff from the use of single-use plastics in its offices.  Guided by UN Ghana Greening Team, UNIC Accra undertook a week-long social media challenge to encourage staff to avoid single-use plastics and live “green”.  The challenge reached over 20,000 via twitter and Facebook.