Journalist with the Multimedia Group Limited, Joseph Opoku Gakpo, has been named one of 29 Global Leadership Fellows for the year 2016 by New York State based Cornell University’s Alliance for Science Programme.

The Cornell Alliance for Science programme which is run by the university’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences seeks to promote access to scientific innovation as a means of enhancing food security, improving environmental sustainability and raising the quality of life globally. 

According to the programme, Opoku Gakpo who works with Joy news’ Environment and Technology Desk was named among the 2016 fellows for his commitment to advocating for increased access to agricultural biotechnology and his emerging leadership experience in Ghana.

One other Ghanaian who was named in the list of Global Leadership Fellows is Vice President of the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen, John Awuku Dziwornu.

The 2016 batch of fellows which includes Asians, Southern Americans and other sub Saharan Africans are currently participating in a 12 week training programme at the Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

With a first degree in Agricultural Biotechnology and a masters’ degree in Communication Studies, Opoku Gakpo has spent a lot of his energy over the years researching and reporting on Ghana’s agricultural sector.

Documentaries he has produced on the cocoa sector and rural underdevelopment have been awarded by the Ghana Journalists Association over the last two years.

The Cornell Alliance for Science programme seeks to build a significant global alliance of partners who believe in the common mission of solving complex global hunger issues by leveraging advances in agriculture including the creative tools and insights biotechnology can offer.

The programme train partners around the world with the tools and skills needed to communicate about science and promote evidence-based decision making.