Strategic Communications Africa Ltd. (Stratcomm Africa) has won the United Nations Award for Public Relations and Sustainable Development at this year’s International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Golden World Awards for Excellence in Public Relations.

The ceremony took place on 5^th November, 2016 in Doha, Qatar. The prestigious UN Award, one of the two top Golden World Awards, is for outstanding achievement in Public Relations, giving recognition to PR programmes that address priority issues of the UN.

It was awarded to Stratcomm Africa for a PR campaign, “Colour me W”, that promotes the UN Goal of Gender Equality (UN Sustainable Development Goal 5).  Mr. Bart de Vries, President of the IPRA, presented the award.

The “Colour Me W” communication campaign was developed by Stratcomm Africa in support of Access Bank Ghana’s goal to promote economic empowerment among Ghanaian women through the introduction of banking products that meet their needs.

Other awards, under various categories of public relations practice, were won by various PR agencies from different parts of the world, including Japan, Korea, Angola, Nigeria, Netherlands, UK, Turkey, China, France, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Spain, Bulgaria and Russia. The event was hosted by the IPRA Chapter in the Gulf Region and was attended by IPRA members from all over the world. The Minister of Energy and Industry of Qatar, His Excellency. Dr. Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, was the Special Guest of Honour at the event.

Stratcomm Africa’s Chief Executive Officer, Esther A. N. Cobbah, who, along with some members of staff of the company, received the award said: “We are encouraged by this recognition from the UN and the International Public Relations Association. At Stratcomm Africa we see public relations as an important tool for Africa’s development. We are, therefore, delighted that this is an award related to the objectives of the UN for development. We are grateful to Access Bank Ghana for the opportunity to develop this campaign. We also thank God for this award.”

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stratcomm Africa, Rev. Professor Samuel K. Adjepong, also noted: “This UN IPRA award to Stratcomm Africa, a Ghanaian company with world class professional capabilities, not only shines the light on Ghana, but on Africa in general. It reinforces the fact that Ghana has a strong human resource base that is able to attain the heights of the international public relations industry as well as other fields of endeavour. We congratulate management and staff of Stratcomm Africa on the hard work that has earned this prestigious award.”

This is the second time an African company has won the UN IPRA award since it was established in 1990. 

Stratcomm Africa is the first Ghanaian company to win an IPRA award. It is also the first company in the West African sub-region to win the UN IPRA award.