DRNGhana organises workshop for stakeholders ahead of maiden climate change debate competition

Ahead of the official launch of the maiden edition of the Climate Change Debate competition, a Disaster Relief Network Ghana organised a one-day workshop for various stakeholders and actors on Friday 25th August, 2023 at the Mikado Conference in Accra.

The debate is an initiative of DRNGhana in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, Ministry of Environment Science Technology and Innovation and the Environmental Protection Agency along with other key stakeholders.

The event was also streamed live to a global audience via DRNGhana’s social media channels.

Headmasters, headmistresses and assigned teachers and facilitators from eight selected senior high schools in the Greater Accra Region were convened for the workshop, which was to acquaint the debate actors with the technical guide for the debate competition to enable them properly prepare their participating students for what is expected to be a very competitive battle for the ultimate prize. Also participating were debate judges, moderator and other officials. The eight participating schools for the Greater Accra maiden edition are Accra Girls High School, St Thomas Aquinas Senior High School, Presbyterian Boys Secondary School, Chemu High School and St Mary’s Secondary School, Accra Academy Senior High School, Labone Senior High School, and Achimota Senior High School.

Delivering his welcome remarks, Godwin Avenogbor, chairman of the board of directors of DRNGhana and communications director at the Melcom Group of Companies, thanked the major partners and stakeholders for their cooperation and the schools for their participation. He emphasised that climate change is a global catastrophe that requires a coordinated global response employing all the tools available to mankind.

In particular, he said, there is the need to orient students to the challenge, which the climate debate intends to do. Mr Avenogbor called for clearer communication on climate change in a way that will resonate with people in order to spur them towards the changes that they need to make to save the planet and humanity. He urged the participants to engage fully in the workshop for capacity building function to derive the maximum benefits from it.

Dr Emmanuel Takyi-Aubynn, acting director for climate change, EPA, in his speech, said the agency was happy to join hands with DRNGhana to sensitise the public on the threat of climate change and the actions needed to combat it, He said that EPA has since 2016, stepped up communication with regard to climate change, including annual climate education weeks with symposiums, exhibitions, durbars, dialogues and quizzes. Under the current Ghana education curriculum, climate change is studied at the junior high schools level, while 2000 teachers have been trained on the subject, an indication of the need to provide young people with knowledge on the issue. He commended DRNGhana for the initiative, saying that it will complement and enhance the government’s efforts.

The debate competition will be launched on 8th September, 2023, while the competition itself will be held on 22nd September, 2023 at the Presec Hall. Schools will compete in knockout rounds, with the winning school receiving a prize amount of GHc10,000 to be split between the school and competing teams. The second and third places schools will receive GHc8,000 and GHc6,000 respectively, also to be shared equally between the schools and the debating teams. Debaters will be assessed by a panel of expert judges on preparation, argumentation and delivery.

The organisers said in addition to boosting knowledge sharing on climate change, the competition will build the capacity of students and help them develop critical thinking and communication skills. Representatives from the schools expressed satisfaction with the workshop and said they were now better able to prepare their students for the competition.