A Professor of Management Studies at San Jose State University in California, United States of America, Anne T. Lawrence has called on multinational companies to prioritise social, ethical and environmental issues arising in the global supply chain in their operations.

Prof. Lawrence called on organisations to put in place systems to prevent dangerous working conditions, discrimination, excessive overtime, low wages, environmental pollution and the use of child and forced labour.

The Professor of Management made this call when she delivered a public lecture at the University of Cape Coast on the topic “Social, Ethical and Environmental Responsibility in the Global Supply Chain.” She said the consequence of such actions included loss of huge sums of money in law suits and a dent in their reputation which would lead to a decrease in their customers. She cited several cases in which legal action had been taken against some companies for violation of standards in the course of their business. On the negative effect of the environment, she said the natural resources on which the organisation depended on would drastically reduce.

 Prof.  Lawrence advised Supply Chain Managers to properly monitor the activities of their suppliers and also build their capacity to avert such problems. She explained that the complexity of supply chain was making it difficult for some companies to take responsibility and added that in order to improve conditions in the industry, companies were collaborating with unions, non-governmental organisations in cross-sector coalition.

The Provost of the College of Distance Education, Prof. John Nelson Buah who chaired the lecture expressed worry that multinational companies were selective in resolving ethical, social and environmental issues. He noted that they normally take things for granted, especially when such crises occur in their subsidiary companies in developing countries.  He entreated governments and agencies in charge of supervising these companies to enforce the laws irrespective of the status of companies that flout them.

The Deputy Director of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr. Divine Ndonbi Banyubala has called on policy makers to pay attention to cultural dynamics of society before they come up with rules and regulations.

This was contained in a presentation made on his behalf by Dr. Justice Bawole of the University of Ghana Business School at the opening of the 2nd Faculty of Arts Colloquium with the theme “The Humanities and Indigenous Knowledge In Health”.

In her welcome address, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Dora F. Edu-Buandoh said the colloquium was the faculty’s way of collaborating with medical practice to find answers to some critical questions in that area.

Opening the colloquium, Vice-Chancellor, Prof. D. D. Kuupole noted that there was the need to integrate traditional and orthodox medicine since “we do not have to act as if we do not have any indigenous knowledge of our own medicine”. “We are running to them every day, it means they are there and therefore the linkage is already there’.

Prof. Kuupole advocated for the theme to be further developed with those in Sociology, Information Technology and Medicine to help government formulate policies that would impact society.

Dr. Banyubala who was the keynote speaker for the colloquium indicated for example that human organ and tissue transplantation was one biotechnological advancement that has for over half a century presented a number of ethical, legal, social, cultural, clinical and economic challenges.

For this reason, Dr. Banyubala said, countries starting or developing transplantation programmes needed adequate legal and professional frameworks to govern human organ donation and transplantation together with effective and transparent regulatory oversight systems.

In the case of Ghana, Dr. Banyubala said the first test transplant involving living related donors in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has been conducted in the absence of any specific legislation on organ donation and transplantation activities. “Mr. Chairman, our immediate challenge, however, is whether or not in the Ghanaian socio-legal context we could successfully ground our policy choices both on the pursuit of our basic goal of maximizing organs for transplant and respecting the cultural rights of the people as guaranteed under the 1992 constitution”.

Dr. Banyubala called for the avoidance of policy choices that may appear theoretically alluring but which nonetheless have a high likelihood of offending sensibilities and therefore more likely than not to create deep-seated public resentment. He said the strong protection accorded the traditional Ghanaian family coupled with the entrenched nature of cultural rights in the 1992 constitution to mean that a regulatory system purporting to govern the retention and use of (deceased) human biomaterials must take the wishes of the deceased and their families into account.

He submitted that respecting the interest of the dead by safeguarding their reputation at custom as ancestors is a cultural right that a transplant policy that hopes to have social legitimacy in the Ghanaian traditional setting must address. He noted that whether or not we happen to believe in sainthood or ancestorship, indigenous knowledge when sensitively and open-mindedly explored might illuminate key health sector policies such as organ and tissue donation for transplantation and science research.

The University of Cape Coast Parliament represented by Paul Addah and Awutunde Awosika won silver at the recent Common Wealth Debate which was organised by the Parliament of Ghana for six universities in the country at the International Conference Centre, Accra.

Participating Universities were the University of Cape Coast (UCC), University of Ghana (UG), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The rest were University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), University for Development Studies (UDS) and the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR).

Contestants from the Universities debated the topic “Should Ghana have a New Electoral Roll for the 2016 Elections.” The UCC team argued in favour of the motion and qualified for the final round. At the end of the debate, UG won gold followed by UCC with silver whilst KNUST took bronze for placing third position. The first winner and the two runner-ups received trophies and cash prizes.

The contestants led by their patrons, Prof. Samuel Yeboah Mensah and Prof. Koawo Edjah presented the trophy to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. D. D. Kuupole in his office. The Vice-Chancellor praised the team for their hard work and encouraged them to use the UCC Parliament House to preach peace and unity on campus in particular and the nation in general.

Prof. Kuupole commended the UCC Parliament and added that I have been following the activities of UCC Parliament though I have not witnessed any of your sittings but I must commend you for not causing any trouble either in the University or at your sittings.” He noted that management was proud of UCC students and the numerous achievements they continue to chalk academically and in sports.

Present were the Registrar, Mr. John Kofi Nyan, Director of Finance, Mrs. Elizabeth Obesse and some students from the UCC Parliament.

The Centre for International Education has been meeting senior members of the various faculties/schools of the University of Cape Coast to create awareness among members of the functions of the Centre and the opportunities that are available to staff/faculty and students. Full details coming up.

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