Ghanaian top diplomat Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas has been honoured with the prestigious German Africa Award by the German Africa Foundation. Dr. Chambas received the Award on October 6, 2010 in Berlin from German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Guido Westerwelle.
Chambas (photo) was Executive Secretary and President of the ECOWAS Commission from 2002 until 2010. Currently he is General Secretary of the ACP Group of States based in Brussels.
The award was presented to Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas because of his “outstanding efforts for peace, stability and regional integration in West Africa,” according to the Berlin-based foundation.
"Under the leadership of Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, ECOWAS became the most modern and most effective regional organisation in Africa, (inspite of )very difficult political and economic conditions in the region. ECOWAS is the main pillar of peace, political stability and economic development in the West African region», said retired State Secretary Dr. Volkmar Koehler, president of the independent jury for the German Africa Award 2010.
"Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas is an outstanding and inspiring personality who stands for African success stories. With his principle of ‘African solutions for African problems’, he represents a generation of modern, self-confident and ambitious Africans who are the future of this proud and magnificent continent. Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas made West Africa a better place and we congratulate him for his achievements which we are proud to honour with the German Africa Award 2010», noted Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Horhues, president of the German Africa Foundation.
The German Africa Foundation is an independent political foundation encompassing all the political parties in the German Federal Parliament. The foundation strives for a better understanding between Germany and of Africa, fostering a partnership at eye level. The members of the foundation who are mainly German parlamentarians seek to strengthen ties to Africa on all levels of society, especially by enhancing the image of Africa as a modern and rising continent.
Since 1993, the German Africa Foundation has awarded the prestigous German Africa Award to outstanding African personalities who stand for peace, stability, human rights, social and economic development across the continent. Each year, the German Africa Award is presented by one of the top political leaders in Germany.
Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas is the second Ghanaian to receive the award, after the late Dr. Francis Appiah (APRM Ghana governing council) who was given the award in 2007 by German Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel.
One of Chambas’ last assignments as ECOWAS Executive Secretary was meeting with coup makers in the West African state of Niger (see video).
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