Ghana commemorates United Nations Day

Ghana commemorated the 70th United Nations Day with a flag-raising ceremony at the forecourt of the State House in Accra on Saturday.

The event attracted government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, senior officers of the security agencies, schoolchildren, chiefs and heads and staff of UN agencies in Ghana.

The UN Day, celebrated on October 24 since 1948, is set aside by the UN General Assembly to highlight, celebrate and reflect on the work of the global organization.

UN Resident Coordinator Christine Evans-Klock raised the UN Flag while Ghana's Minister for Foreign Affairs Hanna Serwaa Tetteh hoisted the Ghanaian national flag.

Evans-Klock said the UN is proud to celebrate Ghana's success in having met the target to cut extreme poverty in half; that it did so significantly ahead of the 2015 MDG target date, making it the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to do so.

She said Ghana has made substantial progress in reducing HIV prevalence, increasing access to primary education for girls and boys equally, and reducing hunger.

She said the UN and Ghana were drawing lessons from this success and were redoubling efforts to fill remaining gaps.

"The lessons learnt will be important as Ghana commits itself to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 agreed at the UN in September," said Evans-Klock.

Tetteh said the UN continues to play key influential roles in global affairs over the years.

She said the UN has always provided the biggest platform for touching on the majority of all progressive nations of the world to reach out to one another and build bridges towards creating common conditions for the respect of human rights, and better standards of living for all, among others.

This year's UN Day celebration was under the global theme: "Strong UN, Better World." Endit