USAID Strengthens Development in Central and Western Regions

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ghana Mission Director, Andrew Karas, traveled to the Central and Western Regions from March 27-31 to meet with stakeholders and visit USAID programs and activities. The objective of the visit was to fortify USAID’s partnerships in Ghana’s Central and Western Regions to achieve positive development results.

During the trip, Mr. Karas met with Central Regional Minister Hon. Kwamena Duncan to discuss ways to accelerate economic growth in the region by improving access to quality education. Mr. Karas also met with fisherfolk in Kokrobite and Bortianor to discuss the adoption of responsible fishing practices to preserve fish stocks and marine ecosystems. At the University of Cape Coast, Mr. Karas met with the Pro Vice Chancellor and toured the research laboratories of the fisheries department, which was recently renovated and furnished with support from USAID.

While in the Central Region, Mr. Karas visited several USAID-supported health sites, including the Community Health Nurses Training College in Winneba and Nyame Tse Ase, a private maternity home in Komenda that provides maternal and child health services to more than 1,000 patients each month. He also met with anti-child labor and trafficking advocates in Moree, where USAID supports efforts to eradicate child labor in the region.

In the Western Region, Mr. Karas met with the Regional Minister, Dr. Kwabena Afriyie, to discuss child labor in the cocoa sector, as well as ways to curb illegal and unregulated gold mining operations, or galamsey. While in the region, Mr. Karas met with members of a small-scale mining and processing community to learn about the challenges they face, and to discuss potential alternative livelihoods. Following this visit, Mr. Karas toured a mangrove nursery along the banks of the Ankobra River where, with Feed the Future support, community members are taking the lead to preserve their valuable natural resources. Through Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, USAID works with coastal communities in the Central and Western Regions to encourage more sustainable fishing practices and the preservation of key natural resources.

“USAID is strongly committed to supporting development in the Central and Western Regions,” said Mr. Karas. “We work closely with the Government of Ghana, civil society, health workers, fisher folk, and other stakeholders to improve food security, health, and education, and to combat child labor and trafficking.”

USAID/Ghana works in four key areas: economic growth, education, health and democracy. USAID works with the Ghana Government to boost agricultural productivity, increase access to education, improve health services and promote good governance.

More children with disabilities get the chance to access mainstream school

Thousands of children with mild to moderate disabilities in Ghana now have greater access to mainstream schools thanks to a recently established Inclusive Education Policy. UNICEF, with funding support from USAID, is working with the Ghanaian Government through the Ghana Education Service to support 20 districts[1] in the implementation of Inclusive Education.    “It is encouraging to see that all children especially those with special needs now have a chance to learn in an inclusive environment,” said Susan Namondo Ngongi, UNICEF representative in Ghana. Today’s announcement comes as UNICEF and USAID jointly hand over essential assistive devices and basic screening materials procured by UNICEF worth USD $100,000 to the Government of Ghana for use in assessment centres in all ten regions across the country. The handover takes place at the flagship assessment centre in Central Region, located within the Cape Coast School for the Deaf/Blind. The equipment, which includes assistive devices (child-sized wheelchairs, crutches, complete spectacles, and hearing aids) and basic screening materials (including snellen charts, tossing rings, tennis balls, drums), will provide the much needed support for the community, especially pupils and students with special educational needs. “Inclusive education is a particularly strong priority for USAID,” said USAID/Ghana Mission Director Andy Karas. “I have seen first-hand the power of these efforts to not only open up opportunities for children with special needs, but to help all children receive a better education.”

Despite the commitment made by the Government in its Inclusive Education policy, children with disabilities are still at risk of stigma, misunderstanding, and discrimination particularly within their local communities.  Such discrimination hinders a child’s chance to receive a quality education.  UNICEF will therefore continue to support the Ghanaian Government, through the Ministry of Education/Ghana

Education Service,and Civil Society Organizations to create awareness of the IE Policy and its implementation at both national and sub-national levels.    “Children with disabilities will never be able to achieve their full potential unless they are given a fair chance to learn like any other child.  While Ghana’s Inclusive Education policy plays an essential role, we need greater collaboration with family members, communities, Development Partners, Civil Society, and all stakeholders to allow every child a chance to thrive. The UNICEF and USAID partnership is a demonstration of what can be achieved when we work together,” said Susan Namondo Ngongi, UNICEF Representative in Ghana.

Participants at agric forum demand coordinated agric policies

Participants at an agricultural symposium in Accra have called for proper coordination of the programmes and policies in the agriculture sector.
They said due to the multidisciplinary nature of the sector, all stakeholders must coordinate all agricultural and agricultural related activities to avoid poor coordination and implementation of policies.
A panelist, Dr Akosua Darkwah of the Department of Sociology at the University of Ghana, at a policy symposium on March 23, 2017, said there seemed to be different activities going on at different places which made it difficult to have a sense of direction and how to succeed.

Challenges with policy implementation
Most participants at the forum stressed the need to bridge the gap between policies and their implementation in the agricultural sector.
This, they said, would lead to a better transformation in the agricultural sector. An Officer at the Policy, Planning and Budget Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Madam Dorothy Effah, said the issue of funding for the needed investments in the agricultural sector was a challenge.
 “Funding is a big issue affecting the performance of the agric sector and subsequently monitoring. For us to move forward, we should invest in our agric and not rely so much on donor partners,” she said.
She said often, implementing policies had become a challenge because policy makers do not come out with policies that farmers on the ground could identify with.
 “The mistakes policy makers have been making over the years are that they forget to design policies that would benefit farmers on the ground,” she noted.
In a presentation on, ‘Sustainable Agricultural Intensification; Policy Implications for Agriculture Modernisation Ghana,’ the Head Research at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr Wilhemina Quaye, said agriculture had lot of opportunities but unfortunately, its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was dwindling, hence the need for value addition and modernisation in the sector.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007, predicts a reduction of 50 per cent in crop yield by 2020 in Africa, and a fall in crop net revenues of 90 per cent by 2100.
Consequently, Dr Quaye said deliberate efforts should be made to ensure that we made good policies and get them down to the targeted stakeholders.
“We can’t leave agric on the shoulders of government and donors alone. Research has revealed that transition towards more sustainable agriculture requires new kinds of knowledge and new ways of learning after which we put in to practice to ensure that resources are maintained for generations unborn,” she said.

Pull Quote
Funding is a big issue affecting the performance of the agric sector and subsequently monitoring. For us to move forward, we should invest in our agric and not rely so much on donor partners.
Key Note
Economists say that the widening gap is a result of unequal distribution of investments especially in the agriculture sector.

http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/national-agric-learning-alliance-inaugurated.html

Govt to engage agric graduates in extension services

THE government plans to begin the recruitment of first degree holders in agriculture and related fields on short-term trainings in extension services and then deploy them nationwide to help farmers improve yields and fight diseases, the Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, has said.
He said this was as part of efforts to enhance agricultural production.
“We have decided, in consultation with the universities that all those who have done degrees in agriculture will be in a position to provide extension services to farmers,” he said at the GRAPHIC BUSINESS-Stanbic Bank Breakfast meeting series in Accra last Tuesday.
Mr Osafo Maafo spoke on the government’s plans of job creation through agriculture and industrialisation.
Financing agric
He assured that the government was going to create jobs with agriculture and industry and ,therefore, it was important to make funds available to support them although not free of charge. 
“Agric cannot borrow at the rate commercial activity like someone selling cloth can borrow at 29 per cent. We need to look at agriculture with special eyes. Therefore, we need to access funds which are reasonably cheap to enable agric to also access funds,” he said.
He said the situation where everybody was moving to Accra for a job was dangerous to the system and that the country has to decentralise industrialisation as a way of creating jobs.
Participants’ concerns
Some participants at the meeting expressed concern about the high import of goods into the country.
“Why is it that we have opened ourselves so easily and quickly to certain imports? Ghanaian rice is polished but can’t be sold. We are now importing all sorts of furniture. What is happening? Can’t we stop these nuisance imports?” the Board Chairman of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd, Professor Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi, asked.
The senior minister said the government would use taxation to fight high and unnecessary imports. 
Others contributors questioned how Ghana would get industry and agriculture thriving when most of such companies established in time past have collapsed.
A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Aryeetey said Ghanaians needed to be more optimistic to correct the mistakes made over years.
“How do we strengthen them so they don’t collapse again? We must apply enough knowledge to things that we do. How do we introduce modern ways of farming when most of our farmers do not want to use improve seeds due to some myths? We need to research although theory is not everything but important,” he said. GB

Pull Quote
Agric cannot borrow at the rate commercial activity like someone selling cloth can borrow at 29 per cent. We need to look at agric with special eyes. Therefore, we need to access funds which are reasonably cheap to enable agric also to access funds.

http://www.graphic.com.gh/business/business-news/platform-to-aid-interaction-between-mmdas-citizens.html

http://www.graphic.com.gh/business/business-news/govt-to-fight-post-harvest-losses-with-cocoa-warehouses.html

http://www.graphic.com.gh/business/business-news/banks-run-away-from-agric-sector.html

http://www.graphic.com.gh/business/business-news/agric-insurance-offers-risk-mitigation-to-farmers.html

http://www.graphic.com.gh/business/business-news/time-to-deal-with-illicit-financial-flows.html

http://www.graphic.com.gh/business/business-news/agric-stakeholders-want-holistic-approach-to-solve-problems.html

USAID Global Health Corporate Champions Complete Service in Ghana

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Health Corporate Champions Program held its closeout ceremony today in Accra. The ceremony celebrated the completion of a month of service in Ghana by 13 Global Health Corporate Champions from around the world. U.S. Ambassador Robert P. Jackson joined members of Ghanaian health organizations, the Ghanaian government, and the private sector at the closeout ceremony, at which the Champions discussed their service.

Through this program, individual corporate champions are sponsored by their private-sector employers to participate in a one-month pro bono consulting opportunity. These Champions are accomplished professionals from American companies Dow Chemical, PIMCO, and WE Communications, and German company SAP. Over the past month, the 13 Champions leveraged their business and operational expertise to build the capacities of four Ghanaian public health organizations: the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in the Water and Sanitation Sector, Hope for Future Generations, the Ghana Registered Midwives Association, and the Nneka Youth Foundation.

“The Global Health Corporate Champions program exemplifies the U.S. government’s approach to development,” said Ambassador Jackson at the closing ceremony. “Partnerships are central to everything we do, in Ghana and around the world. Our partnerships have enabled us to make the best use of our resources, make the most out of every dollar spent, and ensure development gains are sustainable. Most importantly, our partnerships have enabled the people of Ghana to benefit from the combined resources, know-how, and reach of this broad coalition,” he said.

USAID engages in a number of partnerships with national and local government bodies, civil society, and American and Ghanaian businesses to promote development in Ghana. For example, it partners with the Coca-Cola Company to improve water and sanitation access in Ghana, with Hershey’s to improve child nutrition, and with John Deere to increase access of Ghanaian farmers to improved technologies.

About USAID

USAID is the lead U.S. government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential. USAID supports Ghana in increasing food security, improving basic health care, enhancing access to quality basic education, and strengthening local governance to benefit all Ghanaian people.

Smallholder farmers push for subsidies on fertiliser

By Ama Amankwah Baafi
Smallholder farmers have prevailed on the government to live up to its promise to increase subsidies on retail prices of fertilisers, seeds and other agrochemicals.

Subsequently, they proposed that subsidy, particularly on the fertiliser component, should be pegged at 50 per cent less than the current price to help enable farmers who do not often use the product to do so to increase their yield.

The Programme Officer of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Mr Charles Nyaaba, in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra further urged the government to consider the proposal of the farmers before the farming season began between April and June, this year.

He explained that a 50 per cent subsidy will help accomplish the rationale behind the Fertiliser Subsidy Programme (FSP), which is meant to encourage farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, to increase the application of fertiliser on their farms.

When the Fertiliser Subsidy Programme (FSP) was introduced in 2008, there was a 50 per cent subsidy component which declined to 21 per cent in 2015, representing a reduction of about 58 per cent.
Mr Nyaaba noted that access to fertiliser at the right time at the beginning of the farming season was critical to guarantee good yield.

“In terms of fertiliser subsidy, it is something they can do immediately because the FSP is announced in March / April. Last year for instance market price for 15x15kg of fertiliser was between GH₵105 and GH₵110. This dropped to GH₵89 after the subsidy was introduced so the subsidy component is less than 20 per cent, making the price high,” he said.

Concern of farmers
Farmers have often complained that the upward price changes of fertiliser affected the amount of fertiliser they could afford to used on the farm.
Experts have said that fertiliser was a key determinant of high crop yields, adding that as part of efforts to ensure that the country became food secure, farmers’ access to fertilisers should be of interest to all.

New government’s vision
The government, per its pledges, seeks to modernise agriculture, improve production efficiency, achieve food security and profitability for farmers to significantly increase agricultural productivity in the next four years.

Recommendation
The PFAG has urged the government to introduce measures, including effective monitoring, to prevent price variations in subsidised fertiliser across the country.
Indeed, it had on several platforms called for certain taxes to be dedicated to improving agricultural productivity, particularly the FSP.

Quick Read
Since the inception of the FSP, initiated in 2008 to help farmers increase their use of fertiliser, an amount of GH¢345 million has been invested out of which a total of 724,000 metric tonnes (MT) of fertiliser were distributed to farmers nationwide.