Accra, Feb. 19, GNA - The managing team of BarCamp Ghana, a branch of an international informal gathering to generate ideas for development through partnerships and networking, on Saturday announced its programme of events for the year 2011.

Mr Kweku D. Anane-Appiah, Communications Chair, BarCamp Ghana, at a press conference in Accra, announced that the events, starting from March 26 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, would be under the principal theme; "Fostering Partnerships and Entrepreneurial Engagements towards African Socio-Economic Independence," for all its activities. He said notwithstanding the principal theme, regional BarCamp events would concentrate on their own sub-themes reflecting the current issues thriving in the respective metropolis.

Mr Anane-Appiah said the regional BarCamps are scheduled for April 23 at the Ho Polytechnic, May 28 at the University of Development Studies, Tamale, July 23 at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra, September 24 at the Takoradi Polytechnic, October 29 at the Sunyani Polytechnic and November 26 at the University of Cape Coast. He said the year's events would be climaxed on December 17 with the BarCamp Ghana at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre in Accra.

Mr Anane-Appiah explained that the BarCamp Ghana project was an open participatory workshop which aims at helping the Ghanaian youth to learn and share ideas about issues that affected them, and generate ideas and form partnerships with those who had similar interests to improve or start businesses and projects.

He said the programme also sought to inspire and engage the social consciousness of the Ghanaian youth in discovering and managing the countless possibilities inherent in their undeveloped yet fertile geographical space. He stressed that imbibing these sense of believing in Ghana was critical in the nation's attempt to brand itself as a state of socio-cultural and economic prominence.

Mr Anane-Appiah said the Ghana project had been running since 2008 and was currently being coordinated by the GhanaThink Foundation, a voluntary Africa-focused think-tank of young African leaders based in Ghana and the United States of America.

He said the programmes had recorded numerous feedback and post-event comments which bore testimonies of rousing enterprise and industries and also facilitated several entrepreneurial programmes including the birth of the Google Technology User Groups in Ghana. It had also given the opportunity for different firms to gain feedback on their products and services, he added.

Anane-Appiah stressed that in the feverish attempts towards the resolve of the Millennium Development Agenda and enhancing socio-economic advancement, it was important that Ghana prescribed targets that were geared towards improving national and international economic development.

He said Ghana should also advance the human capacity and condition in an increasingly connected global village through strategic cooperative partnerships and engagements.

"We believe that fostering partnerships and engagements between passionate and talented young change makers who believe in the intrinsic wealth of the seemingly underdeveloped geological scope, follows the right order in the continuum towards national socio-economic independence," he said.

GNA