Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, ECOWAS head, is new ACP Secretary General

Outgoing ACP Secretary-General Sir John Kaputin, right, congratulates his successor Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas of Ghana following his appointment during the 90th Session of the ACP Council of Ministers on Tuesday 17th November 2009. The President of ACP Council, Hon. Eunice Kazembe, MP of Malawi announced his appointment after the Council adopted the recommendation of the Bureau of the ACP Council of Ministers Bureau to appoint Chambas as the new Secretary-General during its meeting on Monday 16th November 2009. Dr. Chambas will take office on March 1, 2010. Photo: ACP Press/Communication

Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, a national of Ghana who currently heads the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is to become the new Secretary General of the Brussels-based Secretariat of the 79-strong group of African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations.

The announcement was made on 17 November after an ACP Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels adopted the recommendation of the Council’s Bureau to appoint Dr. Chambas.He will take office on March 1, 2010, replacing incumbent Sir John Kaputin from Papua New Guinea.

He accedes to the post at a crucial time for the ACP Group which requires firm leadership in the face of challenges to its unity in view of the various regional trade packages the EC is concluding with individual African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions.The Cotonou agreement (2000-2020) governing relations between the EU and ACP states remains intact.A mid-term review of the agreement is due to take place next year.

In the running for the S-G position were also Cape Verde’s current Ambassador the the EC, Fernando Wahnon Ferreira and The Gambia’s former Ambassador to the EC, Alieu Ngum.

Dr Chambras is multi-skilled having previously held posts as a lawyer, diplomat, politician and academic. He has degrees in Political Science from the University of Ghana, Legon and Cornell University Ithaca, New York (MA 1977, Phd 1980) and a law degree from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

He has previously worked in teaching positions in the United States and practised law with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland (US) before returning to Ghana where he became a schools administrator. In 1987, he became Ghana’s Deputy Foreign Secretary.

He served as Member of Parliament for Bimbilla (Ghana), 1993-1996, for the National Democratic Congress party and between 1993-1994, he chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament.He became a mediator between warring parties of the Liberian Civil War of the 1990s and subsequently the Ivorian Civil War. He lost his seat in Ghana’s parliament in 1996 but returned to government as Deputy Minister of Education 1997, a post he held until 2000.

On regaining his parliamentary seat in 2000, he worked within Parliament to facilitate the transition to constitutional government in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.

He was elected as Executive Secretay of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African regional body pushing for greater political and economic integration, having been nominated by President John Kufuor, and acceded to the office on 1 February 2002.

In 2007, he was chosen by member governments of ECOWAS to become the first President of the ECOWAS Commission for a four-year term beginning 1 January 2007, a mandate he will now not complete in view of his new position.