As the second-anniversary approaches since the Global Citizen Festival: Accra took place in the iconic Black Star Square, Global Citizen, the world’s leading international advocacy organisation, has outlined some of the impact achieved across the country as a result of commitments made at the festival.
The 2022 Global Citizen Festival’s End Extreme Poverty Now six-week advocacy campaign concluded with a nine-hour festival across two stages, on September 24 2022, which began in Accra’s Black Star Square and ended in New York City’s Central Park.
During the festival, Global Citizen and partners announced key pledges across health, food security, agriculture, environment, education, finance and innovation.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework convenes more than 22 United Nations agencies with the ambition of reaching all regions in Ghana, responding to the needs of the most vulnerable and seeking to leave no one behind.
Through Global Citizen’s advocacy work, the United Nations brought forward this commitment and as a result the EPI programme was scaled to achieve greater impact.
One commitment to improve the lives of Ghanaian children was made by the United Nations in Ghana. Since the festival, the UN in Ghana has vaccinated over 1.2 million children via routine immunizations across the country. This was primarily achieved through the Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI), a programme supported by UNICEF and WHO. EPI was scaled as the result of the commitment made at the Global Citizen Festival in Accra.
“The immunisation of children is one of the world’s most effective public health tools, having prevented millions of deaths worldwide,” said Charles Abani, United Nations Resident Coordinator, Ghana.
“With the support of partners such as Global Citizen, we can continue our work to enable the country to provide this vital element of healthcare to all Ghanaian children,” he added.
“Global Citizen is proud to support the essential work of the United Nations Expanded Programme of Immunisation in Ghana,” said Liz Agbor-Tabi, Global Citizen’s Vice President of Global Policy and Strategic Relationships.
“This programme demonstrates that vaccinating Ghanaian children from an early age protects them from avoidable diseases, saves lives and thus protects the wider community.”