Thank you very much.
I'm Steve Akorli, from Ghana. I was a member of Parliament in Ghana for 12 years. I retired, voluntarily, in 2004. I am associated with the African-Canadian parliamentary strengthening program, and I became the co-chair of the coordinating council. The program is running a course of four years. The management of the program thought my experience was still valuable, and that is why I'm here with you. Maybe if it extends and they still find me useful, you may see me in the future.
Canada has helped Africa a lot. I want to particularly zone in on Ghana. In 1992 we had to break away from a military regime and get into a constitutional government. Those of us who offered ourselves as guinea pigs to Parliament--Parliament having been in abeyance for more than 15 years--were completely without tools. Out of the 200-member Parliament, there were only ywo people with previous experience; 198 people were completely new, including me.
It took a country like Canada to come to our aid in building our capacity. Within two years, we were able to live up to the task of passing constitutional bills as well as building the framework to make Ghana the solid democracy it is now.
We are now in our fifteenth year. The climate in Ghana, now, about elected government is that it's better than the best military regime. Going back is not a foreseeable agenda. Going forward and building on our democracy is an agenda that we have set for ourselves. We are so happy about the role Canada is still playing, especially in this program in which I'm on the coordinating council.
Over the years, we've benefited. As a result of the three or four networks that Augustine just talked about, Ghana's parliamentary capacity and oversight in the areas of financing and poverty-related issues has deepened a lot.
The issue of gender activism has been elevated to a level you cannot imagine. The civil society within Ghana has come up with what it calls a “gender manifesto”. It looks at what can be done for women, to move from where they are to where they can have access to land, credit, and things that will give them a bigger voice.
These are the offshoots of the democratic experiment we have done over the past 15 years. We are very grateful to Canada for it.
There is a sister program directed at the Parliament of Ghana. I happen to be a beneficiary of that program too. It is in place now, and it has built the capacity of a lot of members of Parliament.
In order to make life better for our children and our children's children, our hope and aim is that we rise to the level of the Canadian Parliament and uphold the same values of freedom, good governance, and transparency that have brought you to where you are today.
We thank you for the support we have received. We are grateful.