Ghanaian Public Relations Professionals were well represented at the just-ended 35th Annual Conference of the African Public Relations Association (APRA), held at the Golden Palace Hotel in Grand-Bassam, the historical city of Côte d’Ivoire.
The conference, which took place from 13th to 17th May, under the theme ‘One Africa, One Voice: Bridging Africa’s Communication Divide’, brought together hundreds of public relations professionals, mostly from Anglophone Africa with some participants from Francophone Africa.
Ghana had 24 Public Relations professionals, drawn from corporate organizations, academia and consultancies, at the conference.
There was active participation in the discussions at the conference from the Ghanaian professionals with insightful contributions during the various sessions.
The conference covered subject areas such as ethics in PR practice, storytelling as a potent tool in PR, cultural sensitivity in storytelling, the use of AI as well as ESG and Sustainability.
Ms. Gladys Afumwaa Asare-Danquah, a university lecturer, PhD student and Managing Partner at Burgundy Africa (a PR and Marketing agency in Ghana), presented a paper on ‘Barriers to Digital Inclusion and Accessibility of Public Relations Content in Africa’.
She noted that although there was much advancement in ICT infrastructure in Africa, significant segments of the population continue to face challenges in accessing digital content. Obstacles to accessing digital information as Afumwaa noted include infrastructure deficiencies, economic discrepancies and social inequities.
“It is interesting to note that in some rural areas, community members still identify particular trees which they climb to make phone calls successfully,” Ms. Asare-Danquah said.
She urged public relations professionals to consider collaborating better and forming alliances with key stakeholders, enhancing cultural significance in campaigns and content creation as well as promoting digital literacy in their operations to bridge the digital gap.
Ms. Asare-Danquah also emphasized the need for content creators to pay attention to the requirements of people living with physical challenges as failure to do so automatically excludes them from digital communication.
Ms. Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, recently elected President of the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana, and CEO of Stratcomm Africa, delivered a goodwill message on behalf of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), on whose Board she serves.
She noted that public relations offered great opportunities for promoting great understanding between Africa and the rest of the world for mutual benefit.
“No voice is more critical in setting the African agenda than the African voice. The voice of Africa must be heard and the messages from that voice understood, embraced and acted on globally,” she emphasized.
According to her, there was the need for mobilization of strategic alliances and collaboration on the global stage, not only on formal platforms and in institutions like the United Nations, but also in social and cultural contexts in all parts of the world for Africa’s “One Voice” to be heard globally.
Ms. Cobbah conveyed the readiness of the International Public Relations Association to put its resources, including its consultative status with the United Nations, at the disposal of the African Public Relations Association.
She also took the opportunity to extend to the gathering, greetings from the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana.
“I am delighted to bring greetings to all of you from your colleagues in Ghana. Our vision is to build a strong community of professional public relations practitioners that make an enduring impact nationally, continentally and globally.
“I could not have asked for a better launch of my new role than participating in this APRA Conference in Abidjan with the important theme, ‘One Africa, One Voice: Bridging Africa’s Communication Divide’,” she said.