Ghana was chosen to represent Africa as a live-stream partner during this year’s World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development (WED) held on Friday, 4th March 2022. The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi TeK TV, hosted the African broadcast.
The 24-hour liver-streaming of the first ever global WED 2022 virtual celebration was held under the theme ‘Build back wiser’. It was broadcasted from Sydney-Australia, Beijing-China, Mumbai-India, Kumasi-Ghana, London-UK, Paris-France, Washington DC-USA and ended in San Jose-Costa Rica. The participants attending the World Engineering Summit (WES) in Costa Rica between March 4-11, 202 include: leadership of the World Federation Engineering Organisations (WFEO) and UNESCO; delegations from all member Professional Engineering Institutions (PEI) of WFEO; the Federation of African Engineering Organisations (FAEO); the West African Federation of Engineering Organisations (WAFEO); Commonwealth Engineering Council (CEC); and other international Engineering Organisations converged to observe the day.
In Ghana, World Engineering Day was celebrated on the theme ‘Engineering: Key to Achieving National Development’, at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Sunyani. The Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE) Branch 2 hosted the event. with Ing. Dr. Emmanuel Kwesi Nyantakyi as convener. Chairman for the
Day was Prof. Elvis Asare-Bediako, Vice-Chancellor of the UENR, with the Hon. Justina Owusu-Banahene, Bono Regional Minister, as Special Guest of honour.
This year’s event focused on young people, and was celebrated with a GhIE-sponsored Robotics and Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fair for 200 pupils from selected public Junior High Schools in the Sunyani municipality. The Dext Science Set from a local Ghanaian engineering startup was used.
Speaking from far-away Costa Rica, President of the Ghana Institution of Engineering, Ing. Rev. Prof. Charles Anum Adams, said Ghana is thrilled to host Africa as a live-stream partner on WED 2022. He called on the government of Ghana and all stakeholders in the education sector to pay greater attention to STEM education, engineering regulation and the training of female engineering practitioners. He reiterated that without engineering and technology Ghana is going nowhere, and advised that stakeholder collaboration and joint ownership of STEM policies is the way to succeed. He congratulated all engineering practitioners for their great work toward the national development agenda.
The GhIE President is attending the World Engineering Summit in Costa Rica with Ing. Mrs. Carlien Bou-Chedid, the President of FAEO; Ing. Alexander Leslie Ayeh, President of WAFEO; and Ing. David Kwatia Nyante, the GhIE Executive Director.
