US State Department announces “Partnership Opportunity Delegation” to Ghana

The United States Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, has announced an upcoming Partnership Opportunity Delegation (POD) to Accra, Ghana at the ongoing US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington DC.

The delegation will travel to Accra from Monday 6 to Friday 10 February 2023, to cultivate and enable collaboration and partnership opportunities between the U.S. private sector and West Africa’s burgeoning climate innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The Secretary made the announcement during the Innovators Gathering pre-summit event for the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit. The announcement underscores the steps the United States and African nations are taking to strengthen partnerships that advance shared priorities.

PODs are organized by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships (GP) to facilitate partnership activities between the public and private sectors of the United States and selected countries.

POD Ghana 2023 will be the first in-person POD since the beginning of the pandemic, and delegates will include representatives from ventures and startups, educational institutions, startup ecosystem developers, climate and sustainable technology investors, Ghanaian diaspora, NGOs, and international organizations.

Numerous organizations have already committed to joining the POD, including Climate Kic, New York City’s Impact Hub, Arm, LinkedIn, among others.

As part of the Connecting Climate Entrepreneurs (CCE) initiative, POD Ghana 2023 aims to cultivate new engagement between the vibrant technology and innovation corridors of the United States and Ghana through public-private partnerships and supports the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit’s goals of fostering new economic development and responding to the climate crisis.

Delegates will take part in facilitated introductions to Ghana’s public and private sector leaders, engage directly with climate innovators, and witness firsthand the potential promise and challenges of collaboration with Ghana’s sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem.

“POD Ghana 2023 demonstrates how the public and private sectors can contribute jointly to endeavors that strengthen, deepen, and reaffirm United States’ commitment to increasing creative collaboration with Africa nations in advancement of our shared global priorities, challenges, and opportunities” the US State Department’s statement announcing the POD visit to Ghana read.

CCE is a public-private partnership between the Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships and private sector entities to leverage the U.S. entrepreneurial ecosystem to advance climate entrepreneurship worldwide.

CCE was launched in collaboration with LinkedIn, Salesforce, and General Electric in 2021 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.

Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken is scheduled to meet with President Akufo-Addo later today, Thursday 14 December 2022 for further talks on this and many other developments and mutually beneficial policies between the United States and Ghana.