Delegation from the United State of America has witnessed firsthand the potential promise and challenges of collaboration with Ghana’s sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The Delegation led by Dorothy McAuliffe, the U.S. Special Representative for Global Partnerships, recently visited the Impact Hub in Ghana to learn about the local startup culture and identify opportunities for collaboration between the United States and Ghana.
The visit was under the Partnership Opportunity Delegation (POD), which announcement underscores the steps the United States and African nations are taking to strengthen partnerships that advance shared priorities. PODs are to facilitate partnership activities between the public and private sectors of the United States and selected countries.
Speaking at the meeting with sustainable entrepreneurs in Ghana, Ms. McAuliffe emphasized the importance of the intersection between technology and the solutions for climate change and how it provides life-impacting livelihoods and opportunities for both Canadians and Americans. She mentioned that the delegation was interested in working and partnering with the private sector in Ghana to find entrepreneurial solutions to the pressing issue of climate change.
On December 12, 2022, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced an upcoming Partnership Opportunity Delegation (POD) to Accra. The POD is part of the Connecting Climate Entrepreneurs (CCE) initiative and aims to create new engagement between the U.S. and Ghanaian technology and innovation industries through public-private partnerships.
McAuliffe stated that the role of the State Department is to facilitate partnerships, bring people together, and then step back. The State Department has provided the network and opportunity, and they expect the private sector and businesses to assess the bottom line, look at their strategic plans, and create opportunities together.
The U.S. government has identified Ghana as a great place for opportunity, given the long history of friendship and shared ideals around economic prosperity and democracy. The U.S. Ambassador to Ghana invited the delegation to visit and explore the possibility of partnerships.
After the delegation’s visit, there will be a lot of follow-up between the delegation and the entrepreneurs they met, including the Impact Hub. The funding for partnerships will only come when the strategic goals and mission of the partnership align on both sides.
“It’s very exciting the prospects for opportunity here,” said McAuliffe. “We’ve gathered a lot of contacts and have created the opportunity. We hope that a lot of opportunity and funding will come.”
The delegation, consisting of 20 members from the U.S., was impressed by the work that the Impact Hub has done over the past 10 years to support startups and entrepreneurs in their quest for big ideas and market scalability. The delegation comprised of representatives from startups and ventures, educational institutions, climate and sustainable technology investors, NGOs, international organizations, and more. Companies such as Climate Kic, Arm, New York City’s Impact Hub, LinkedIn, and others have already confirmed their participation in the POD.
The CCE initiative is a public-private partnership between the Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships and private sector entities, aimed at leveraging the U.S. entrepreneurial ecosystem to support climate entrepreneurship worldwide. It was launched in collaboration with LinkedIn, Salesforce, and General Electric in 2021 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
