Ghanaian Public Relations Professionals joined others at the 35th Annual Conference of the African Public Relations Association (APRA) held in Côte d’Ivoire.
The conference, whichook 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 was represented at the conference by 24 Public Relations professionals, drawn from corporate organizations, academia and consultancies.
There was active participation in the discussions by the Ghanaian professionals with insightful contributions during 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 lecturer 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 continued to face challenges in accessing digital content.
Obstacles to accessing digital information, Ms Asare-Danquah said included 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”, she said.
Ms Asare-Danquah, also a PhD candidate, urged public relations professionals to consider advancing collaborations and forming alliances with key stakeholders while enhancing cultural significance in campaigns and content creation.
She further called on them to promote 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 excluded them from digital communication.
Ms. Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, the newly elected President of the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana, who delivered a goodwill message on behalf of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), noted that public relations offered great opportunities for promoting 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 said.
According to Ms Cobbah, also the CEO of Stratcomm Africa, said there was a need for the mobilization of strategic alliances and collaboration on the global stage, not only on formal platforms and in institutions like the United Nations, but in social and cultural contexts in the world for Africa’s collective voice to be heard globally.
Ms. Cobbah conveyed the readiness of the International Public Relations Association, where she serves as a Board Member, to put its resources, including its consultative status with the United Nations, at the disposal of the African Public Relations Association.
The IPR President, who spoke about the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana, said, “Our vision is to build a strong community of professional public relations practitioners that make an enduring impact nationally, continentally and globally.”
APRA will be 50 years old next year and is set to organize its 36th annual conference in Mombasa, Kenya to celebrate its Golden Jubilee.
