Kenneth Dadzie

Kenneth KS Dadzie (born September 10, 1930 , † October 25, 1995 in London ) was a Ghanaian diplomat and between 1986 and 1994 Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Life

Dadzie joined the diplomatic service of the then British Crown Colony Gold Coast in 1952 , which became independent as Ghana in 1957 . In the course of his many years of diplomatic activity, he also took on tasks in the headquarters of the UN Secretariat in New York City , but also in the branch in Geneva . Most recently, he was the permanent representative of Ghana to the United Nations in Geneva and at the same time ambassador to Austria and Switzerland .

At a time when multilateralism was being called into question and political commitment to development cooperation was stalling, he became Secretary General of UNCTAD on January 1, 1986. During his term of office, which lasted until March 31, 1994, he was instrumental in bringing about the 7th UNCTAD conference from July to August 1987 in Geneva, which led to a new consensus in international development cooperation and sought to break the north-south division . At the 8th UNCTAD conference in Cartagena , Colombia in February 1992 , he succeeded in reviving the conference by reorganizing the development partnership.

After leaving UNCTAD, Dadzie became Ghana's High Commissioner in the United Kingdom and died in office a year and a half later.

Web links and sources

• Biography on the homepage of UNCTAD