The Ambassador of Israel to Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Her Excellency Shani Cooper-Zubida, paid a day’s working visit to the University of Health and Allied Sciences, where she delivered a public lecture entitled The Israel Model for Economic Transformation at the Cedi Auditorium, Main Campus, Ho.
Vice Chancellor Professor John Owusu Gyapong said, “Although the topic is somewhat not related to the areas of our university, I am optimistic that the lecture will present us with a lot of useful knowledge.”
Ambassador Cooper-Zubida paid tribute to Ghana’s first president and founder, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Golda Meir, Israeli’s first female prime minister, for establishing strong relations between the two countries. Ghana was the first sub-Saharan nation to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
She attributed the success of Israel to “political continuity” in policies irrespective of the political party in power, and introduced Israel to the audience with a brief but comprehensive presentation, which outlined the historical and political antecedents that culminated in the transformation of the modern state of Israel from a developing to a developed country attributable to three contributing factors — agriculture, Diaspora and innovation.
The Ambassador credited the bond between the state of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, particularly the proactive role of Jewish international agencies with collectively contributing significantly to the economic development of Israel, saying, “I think Ghana can do and make this work beautifully.”
She expressed the opinion that for Ghana to transform its economy to that of a developed country, the country would need to establish an innovative system focused on solving indigenous problems, in addition to a strong social welfare foundation and organized pressure groups where citizens would demand accountability from central government and its agencies.
The Israeli Ambassador cited several examples of how Israeli entrepreneurs and institutions have been a part of the socio-economic development of Ghana by building both human resource capacity and infrastructure.
Her Excellency Shani Cooper-Zubida concluded the lecture with a call for effective “collaboration between the academic/research institutions, industries, and foreign players.”