Photo By Sgt. Michaela Granger | From left, Maj. Beth Simek, North Dakota Bilateral Affairs Officer for Ghana, Maj....... read more read more
ACCRA, GHANA – Delegates from the North Dakota National Guard traveled to Accra, Ghana, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the State Partnership Program between the state of North Dakota and the country of Ghana, Feb. 22, 2024. The North Dakota National Guard has been partnered with Ghana since 2004 and is the third oldest partnership on the continent of Africa.
Attending the event were Maj. Gen. Al Dohrmann, NDNG adjutant general, Sgt. Maj. Eric Binstock, NDNG state command sergeant major, Lt. Col. Mark McEvers, NDNG SPP director, Maj. Beth Simek, NDNG bilateral affairs officer for Ghana, and other members of the NDNG.
“We’ve accomplished a lot in 20 years, and that should come as no surprise; it’s easy to accomplish big things when you’re friends, and we are friends,” said Dohrmann. “Calling the State Partnership Program, a program, is really a disservice to what we’re doing here, it really underestimates the importance, the impact. I see it more as a commitment, a bond between the people of Ghana and the people of North Dakota that transcends borders and cultures, a bond based off of shared values, goals, and aspirations.”
Despite the vast geological differences, Ghana and North Dakota both suffer from severe flooding. The two countries share information for their disaster preparation and response. Disaster preparation and response is one of the NDNG’s most enduring and significant portfolios in the SPP. This partnership is one of eighteen on the continent of Africa. The Republic of Ghana is a regional peacekeeping provider, with over 75,000 peacekeepers deployed throughout their history.
“We were very lucky to get Ghana,” said McEvers. “What this partnership provides Soldiers and Airmen is the experience to work with different cultures and using some of the knowledge they’ve gained through the North Dakota National Guard and share that with our partners in Ghana.”
The strongest civil-to-civil relationship North Dakota has with Ghana is between the NDNG, the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services (NDDES), and Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO). NADMO is codified within their laws to be the organization that manages all logistics for disasters, tying in well with NDNG and NDDES strengths. The North Dakota organizations have helped build a National Emergency Operations Center and regularly train with Ghana on Incident Command Principles, ensuring that the country is trained to respond effectively to disasters.
The most enduring military-to-military relationship is between the 164th Regional Training Institute in Devils Lake, North Dakota, and the Ghana Armed Forces Engineer Training School, in Accra, Ghana. For 15 years, the countries have hosted an exchange program for noncommissioned officers' cadre to learn from each other by interacting with the institutional leadership and engaging with students attending both locations, gaining valuable feedback from the field.
Funding for the program comes from both the National Guard Bureau and the combatant command. No money is taken directly from the state of North Dakota. The NDNG has conducted more than 200 activities with the Republic of Ghana and all of the funding for the engagements has been provided by NGB and U.S. Africa Command, as their mission is directly tied to maintaining the relationship with Ghana and other African countries.
“This is just a wonderful opportunity to be able to use some of our knowledge and to understand new cultures, and new processes and procedures,” said McEvers. “I have not once had a North Dakota National Guardsmen come back and say, ‘That engagement wasn’t worth my time.’ … it means a lot when they see this too, the North Dakota National Guard Patch. We’ve been stopped many times, and they see the patch and they go, ‘North Dakota!’ So, that’s one of the things I’m most proud of.”
The state partnership program was developed in 1993 in response to the Cold War. The goal was to maintain relationships between the U.S. and other countries and to move forward with security cooperation that encouraged and enabled international partners to work with the U.S. to achieve strategic objectives. Currently, the program has partnered states with over 100 countries.
| Date Taken: | 02.22.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.23.2024 07:40 |
| Story ID: | 464540 |
| Location: | ACCRA, GH |
| Web Views: | 107 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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