The College of Humanities of the University of Ghana recently held its 5th International Research Conference after a long while due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The two-day conference themed “Perspectives on Inequalities: Challenges and Prospects for Sustainable Development Before, During & After Covid-19”, took place on the 13th and 14th of October 2022, at the Cedi Conference Centre, University of Ghana. The event was attended by international academics and non-academics, faculty, staff, and students at the College of Humanities and the University community, as well as civil society organisations.
At the launch of the conference, the Provost of the College of Humanities, Prof. Daniel Frimpong Ofori, gave the welcome address, in which he mentioned that the conference is geared towards boosting post-graduate education and faculty research to facilitate the attainment of the University's strategic priorities and to cement its eminent position of leadership in shaping University of Ghana’s mandate of national, regional, and global relevance. According to Prof. Ofori, international research conferences allow us to effectively deliver on our mandate as a research and training institution. Speaking on the theme of the conference, the Provost averred that the conference provides a timely avenue for creative theorising, analysis, and discussion of perspectives and inequalities from all disciplines that seek to address the global governance and developmental challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Chairperson of the conference, Professor Felix Ankomah Kwabena Asante, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Office of Research, Innovation, and Development (ORID), in his speech, mentioned that the event is timely and relevant as it is in line with the University of Ghana’s mission to contribute to the intellectual discourse on global issues. According to Prof. Asante, the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened existing inequalities and created new forms of inequalities at different levels (globally, regionally, nationally, and even to some extent within households), as well as different spheres of life; political, economic, and the domains of discourse, gender, race, and ethnicity. He highlighted that the conference seeks to address the myriad ways in which research in the humanities can be focused on addressing the challenges of inequalities for sustainable development.
Subsequently, Prof. Augustin Kwasi-Fosu, the keynote speaker, gave a detailed presentation on the theme of the conference. He spoke about inequalities, with a primary reference on economic inequality (EI)-disparities in well-being among individuals, groups of people, countries, or regions. He mentioned that Global Economic Inequality has fallen, particularly in the 2000s, mainly attributable to the fall in between-country inequality: notable income growth in China and India, which have accounted for the bulk of the global population. However, it is within-country inequality that accounts for country performance on well-being (sustainable development). Prof. Kwasi-Fosu stated that as far as Covid is concerned, we can only theorise, because we simply don’t have enough evidence to discuss imperatively what this outcome is. He then went on to talk about the implications for sustainable development actions for before, during, and after the pandemic.
It is worth noting that the presence of civil society organisations and non-academics at the 5th International Research Conference of the College of Humanities, makes this year’s conference unique since this is the first time the college is partnering with CSOs and non-academics for the conference.
In this regard, Mr. Mohammed-Anwar Sadat Adam, Head of Programmes & Campaigns, Oxfam International - Ghana Office, presented a statement on behalf of Oxfam and STAR-Ghana. The statement discussed the problem of inequality across the globe, and what can be done to curb the menace. He mentioned that the historical and political factors that give rise to inequality cannot and must not be ignored when trying to solve the problem of inequality. To end, he averred that it is their hope that this conference will help answer this question: “How can collaboration between academics and practitioners in civil society advance progressive policy change to tackle inequalities, and equally contribute to a wider social and political transformation in our societies?”
The launch of the 5th International Research Conference of the College of Humanities ended with a question-and-answer session, closing remarks by Prof. Felix Ankomah Kwabena Asante, and a vote of thanks by Dr. Margaret Amankwah-Poku, Department of Psychology, University of Ghana
Watch the 5th International Research Conference of the College of Humanities here.
