CFR GHANA PRESS RELEASE
CFR Ghana Hosts Lecture by UN General Assembly President

The President of the UN General Assembly, Ms. Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces of Ecuador, will give a lecture hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations – Ghana (CFR-Ghana) on Friday, May 10 at 4.30 pm at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Ms. Espinosa will speak on the topic: “Responding to global challenges in a fast-changing world: The case for strengthening multilateralism.” In 2018 she became the fourth woman to be elected to the presidency of the General Assembly.

Her address will cover important issues facing societies in the 21st century, such as automization and the future of work, cybersecurity, globalization, reform of the UN General Assembly, the Security Council and multilateral rules, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ms. Espinosa is the third speaker of the Distinguished Speakers Series of CFR-Ghana, an independent, non-governmental and non-profit foreign affairs think tank since it was inaugurated in February this year.

Ms. Espinosa was elected as President of the General Assembly in June 2018.  She has more than 20 years of experience in international negotiations, defence, gender equality, and sustainable development.

The two previous  CFR-Ghana Distinguished Guests speakers were British politician and diplomat Baroness Amos and Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel.

Ms. Espinosa had previously been minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, and Co-ordinating Minister of Natural and Cultural Heritage. She was special adviser to the President of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 2008 constitution of Ecuador.

Before taking up politics and diplomacy, she was an academic and researcher, with post-graduate qualifications in Social Sciences, Amazonian Studies, Anthropology, and Political Science.
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