The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Ghana, through its Programme Migration & Diaspora (PMD), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ), has officially launched its Alumni Association for all Ghanaian – Returning Experts.
Returning Experts are Ghanaians who either lived, worked, or studied in Germany and whose return from Germany to Ghana, has been facilitated through and supported by the PMD since its inception in Ghana in 1994, at a ceremony held in Takoradi on September 21, 2021.
In his remarks at the launching of the Alumni association known as “Returning Experts Alumni Network Ghana (RANG),” the Guest of Honour, Dr. Nana Ato Arthur, Head of Local Government Service and a Return Expert, said, “the launch of RANG particularly excites me. As a Returned Expert, I believe there is the need to bring all of us together to support the development of Ghana with our diverse skills set, talents and resources in ways that will positively impact Ghana.
Our mantra “one person can make a difference” places a huge responsibility on us and challenges us to do more in our different capacities – but imagine what we can achieve and help this country to achieve if we join our forces together? He called on members of the Alumni network to support the initiatives of the government targeted at Ghanaians in the diaspora.
Addressing the members of the network, Wilhelmina Onyango, Project Manager responsible for the field of action, Development-Oriented Return (Returning Experts) within the Programme Migration & Diaspora said “our funding support offered for the regular period of two years does not indicate the end of knowledge sharing and exchange, but if anything, just marks the beginning of new shared experiences that we are able to build on together.
Your actions continue to promote Ghana in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals which is very much interlinked and each one of them influences the success of another. We call upon you today, the RANG Ghana, to champion with us as we engage the diaspora and our Returning Experts for sustainable development.”
On her part, the Programme’s Senior National Coordinator, Abena Owusua Amponsah-Bio, said, “the idea to create an alumni network of this kind started about four years ago and I am particularly excited that we are seeing it come to fruition.” Mrs. Amponsah-Bio thanked everyone involved in the success of the network and congratulated the leadership team of the alumni network for working tirelessly to make it a success.
In his remarks, Head of the Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration, Benjamin Woesten highlighted the support of GIZ to the alumni network and charged them to build on their established impact to continue to make their impact felt in the country’s development discourse.
Some alumni at the function and other institutional partners in solidarity messages pledged their support to make the alumni network a vibrant one. It is expected that the launch of the Returning Experts Alumni Network Ghana will create the needed ambience and related structures to foster knowledge sharing across the borders of Ghana and Germany, through migrant experts of Ghanaian origin.
