The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, will deliver a public lecture on the topic “A Vision for a New Commonwealth in a Fast-evolving World” on Friday (2 February 2024).
The speech, which will take place in the Distinguished Lecturer series of the Council on Foreign Relations-Ghana (CFR-Gh) at the Accra International Conference Centre, is one of the highlights in a programme of events to mark the fifth anniversary of CFR-Gh.
CFR-Gh is an independent and non-partisan think tank which has Ambassador D K Osei, one of Ghana’s most astute diplomats, as its president.
Botchwey, Ghana’s top diplomat, is a lawyer, communications professional and politician. She has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration since January 2017. She is also a member of the National Security Council.
Her experience in diplomacy dates back to the second term of President John Agyekum Kufuor, when she served as deputy minister of foreign affairs and regional integration from 2006 to 2009. She had previously served as deputy minister of information and deputy minister of trade and industry.
As Foreign Minister, Botchwey also chaired the Council of Ministers of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for two successive terms from 2020 to 2022.
In her political life, she served as the spokeswoman on foreign affairs for the New Patriotic Party between 2009 and 2013, when the NPP was in opposition. In the same period, she held the position of ranking member of the parliamentary select committee on foreign affairs and subsequently also served on the appointments, defence and interior committees of Parliament.
A four-term MP, Botchwey represented the most populous constituency in Ghana – Weija, in the Greater Accra Region – for two terms (between 2005 and 2013) until it was redemarcated.
She subsequently represented Anyaa/Sowutuom in Greater Accra for two terms (between 2013 and 2021).
In the immediate past parliament (2017-2021), the Foreign Minister sat on the parliamentary committees for communications as well as gender and children.
She was also a member of the ECOWAS Parliament from 2013 to 2017 and served as the vice-chair on the NEPAD and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Committees.
CFR-Gh has hosted many global personalities in its prestigious Distinguished Lecturer series. They include the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, the UN deputy secretary general Amina Mohammed and María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés of Ecuador when she was serving as the president of the UN General Assembly.
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