Global Health and Safety Environment contest and awards launched

The Global Health and Safety Environment Contest and Awards has been launched to commemorate the World Safety Day and Health at Work in Accra.

The contest is aimed at advocating global standards for safety through participation and social dialogue to build positive safety, health and sustainable environment culture in communities.

The launch, which was aligned with the United Nation (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, was on the theme: “Participation and Social Dialogue in Creating a Positive Safety and Health Culture.”

The Global Health and Safety Environment Contest and Awards was an initiative of Think Safety Global Limited in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Solution, and the Ghana Institute for Safety and Environmental Management Professionals (GhISEP).

Present at the programme were students from tertiary institutions and representatives of professional groups such as health practitioners, social workers, Ghana Police Service, Ghana National Fire Service, the Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Solutions (ISEES), the media, non-governmental organisations, and community-based organisations.

Nana Annor Amihere II, the National President of the GhISEP, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency called on government to consider building and maintaining preventative safety and health culture as a national priority.

He said: “A culture in which the right to a safe and healthy working environment is respected at all levels, where government employers and workers actively participate in securing a safe and healthy working environment.

“A system of defined rights, responsibilities and duties, and where the principle of prevention is accorded the highest priority is what we all desire and advocate.”

Nana Amihere urged all stakeholders, both public and private to support the Global Health and Safety Environment Contest and Awards initiative, which advocates standards on health and safety.

He called for safety and regulations compliance while integrating them into the general business management structure to achieve a positive safety culture.

The National President said the GhISEP would continue to promote and defend a health and safety culture while ensuring that regulators would do the right thing as well as social justice.

Mr Solomon Mensah Darkwah, who deputised for Dr Ibrahim Salifu, the Chairman of the occasion said:

“As government we are responsible for providing the infrastructure, laws, and services necessary to ensure that workers remain in employment so that enterprises flourish. We also ensure that institutions develop policies and enforce compliance of safety measures.”

Mr Eric Daniels, the Chief Executive Officer of Think Safety Global Limited called on the government to develop ambitious action plan by building on existing laws to come out with a national comprehensive health and safety policies.

“This would help in ensuring that regulators comply and implement laws in health and safety in the country,” he said.