A memorial lecture in honour of Dr. John Kofi Turkson, a Senior Energy Economist, who died in a plane crash in January 30, 2000, has been held in Koforidua.
He was the younger brother of Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, the President of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace at the Vatican.
The Ghana National Catholic Youth Council (GHANCYC), in collaboration with the Energy and Environment Policy Researchers in Africa and abroad organised the lecture to showcase the exemplary leadership the late Dr Turkson exhibited to the youth.
Briefing the audience on the Turkson Foundation, during the lectures, Dr. Johannes Akpabla Mawuli Awudza, the President of the Kofi Turkson Foundation, said Dr. Turkson, was a man full of life and determined to make a difference in the lives of his fellow human beings.
He died at the age of 46 in a plane crash off the coast of Abidjan while en route to Uganda as an ambassador of Energy Economics.
Mr Awudza said the late Dr. Turkson gave part of his life to the service of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Youth in Ghana and in the West African Sub-Region.
He said: “He gave part of his life for the promotion of sustainable and renewable energy for Africa and the world and he showed exemplary leadership worthy of emulation.”
He stressed that “Dr Turkson promoted energy efficient cook-stoves in order relieve users, who are mainly women, from some of the hazards associated with the use of open stoves”.
“It is therefore appropriate that a lecture on ‘women’s wellbeing, the role of energy’ be organized in his memory.”
Delivering the lecture, Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, the West Africa Regional Programme Director for the ABANTU for Development, Ghana, lamented that women were benefiting from the gains of developmental change in the country.
Dr Mensah-Kutin said women were traditionally responsible for family wellbeing and yet most of the time, they were only engaged in low paid jobs.
“In times of crises, women often stand profoundly disadvantaged; they engage in vulnerable employment and work for longer hours. Much of women’s work is unpaid or poorly paid”, she said.
Dr. Mensah-Kutin lamented over how women in this present age still use fire wood for cooking in their various homes in spite of the health dangers associated with it.
She was not happy about how the fate of women and household energy poverty situation still remained the same among urban and rural poor communities.
She called for state institutions to invest in areas where women could easily become principal beneficiaries of health care, child care, income support and easily accessible energy services.
According to her, cooking with LPG with its co-benefits for women’s health and the environment should be promoted rather than using the LPG for fuel vehicles.
“It is about policy choices and what will add the greatest value to the wellbeing of a nation’s citizens, especially women.”
Dr. Mensah- Kutin called for women’s right and gender equality in the society since it is a key in promoting the wellbeing of women.
She also stressed on the need for gender responsive policies in all energy policies and legislations to address concerns of women and ensure equal participation in decision making.
Works of the late Dr. Kofi Turkson were displayed and sampled at the end of the programme.