The organization’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Siapha Kamara made the pledge at a ceremony organized in the East Gonja district capital, Salaga to wrap up the FOSTERING project.

He, however, emphasized the need for the recipients to repay the loans on time.

According to Mr Kamara, management of the Chamba and Salaga Community Cooperative Credit Unions (CCCCU) will be compelled to chase beneficiaries unwilling to refund.

He commended the Global Affairs Canada, Credit Unions Association of Ghana and the Cooperative Development Foundation of Canada for their support.

A Development Officer at the Canadian High Commission in Ghana, Majeed Mohammed said an evaluation of the project established that it exceeded its beneficiaries quota.

“Significant achievements had been recorded in the areas of food security and nutrition as well as income for farming households. For example, the number of families that have food available for 9-12 months a year increased by 28% between 2013 and 2017 while average annual incomes also increased by 154% for men and 161% for women at the same period.”

Mr Mohammed advocated a multifaceted approach to sustain the project’s achievements.

“Sustainability of most of the project activities remains a challenge and I, therefore, call on project partners, government authorities and project beneficiaries to remain engaged and put in every effort to ensure that the investments of the FOSTERING project and the achievements are sustained.”

The Zabzugu District Chief Executive, Ahmed Abukari Iddrisu likened the FOSTERING project to government’s Planting for Food and Jobs program.

“There are many lessons for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Northern Region to learn from the Food Security Through Cooperatives in Northern Ghana (FOSTERING) project.”

“There is a lot for us to learn. If you look at the entire FOSTERING project, you will realise that they (farmers) were taught how to manage funds and how to cultivate certain crops that will enable them have enough food throughout the year and whatever is left they can leave it and sell.”

The Zabzugu DCE commended SEND-Ghana’s development partners for the project’s successful implementation.

Genesis

SEND-Ghana in 2013 received 8,032,149.00 million Canadian Dollars for implementation of the FOSTERING project in eight districts in the Northern and Volta regions.

Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada (DFATD) and the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA), the project was piloted in the Kpandai, East Gonja, Nanumba North and South, Krachi-Nchumuru, Zabzugu-Korli, Tatale Sanguli and Chereponi districts.

Over 331,800 smallholder farmers including family members from 5,400 households were targeted.

Depending on the size of the farmlands, each recipient received between GHC450 and GHC900 cedis subject to repayment within nine months.

The recipients were allowed to cultivate any crops of their own choice but SEND-Ghana encouraged thereby cultivation of soya bean.

The production of soya bean in large quantities was targeted at reducing nutrition deficiency prevalent in deprived communities in the Northern Region.

As a revolving fund, each beneficiary received between GHc450.00 and GHc900.

They were scheduled to refund with flexible 20 percent interest within nine months for onward disbursements.

The FOSTERING project focused on improving food security and sustainable economic growth for small-holder farmers, improving production, better marketing of products, expansion of household activities into off-season businesses and access to finance.

It covered 130 communities in eight (8) districts of the Northern region comprising East Gonja, Kpandai, Nanumba South, Nanumba North, Krachi-Nchumuru, Zabzugu, Tatale-Sangule and Chereponi.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The 17-page annual report established that delay in reimbursement of funds to caterers interrupted regular feeding and strict adherence to menu.

“This is seen to be something that has the tendency to impact school attendance negatively,” SEND-Ghana said in the report.

[contextly_sidebar id=”alWqIlDNNSexVCIX5zAZCz7EPEzLkQ6e”]“Though the policy stipulates daily feeding, averagely the schools were fed only three times in a week,” it added.

The report suggested ways to help sustain and also prevent the financial leakages in the programme.

It indicated that inconsistencies in school enrollment data, provided by directorates, schools and caterers, made it difficult to determine the actual number of pupils that were fed and whether government paid the caterers for their services.

“This situation predisposes the programme to financial leakages,” the report said.

Although adopting the caterers’ model for service provision is a laudable, it said appropriate storage facilities and the quality of food prepared could not be guaranteed having recognized the limited supervision and monitoring by programme officials.

Against this backdrop, the report recommended that effective monitoring of the programme was key to ensuring that the food for the children is nutritious and safe for consumption.

It suggested that authorities make enough resources available for programme monitoring.

“The Ghana Education Service must also step up its monitoring activities and ensure that enrollment data captured by schools and district directorates are consistent with each other as a measure to block possible leakages and engender effective and efficient planning and budgeting,” it said.

Moreover, district desk officers should also be made to liaise with officials during monitoring, the report said.

The report called on the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to collaborate with the Ghana Education Service to ensure that head teachers act as first-line managers or supervisors of the programme to complement the work of zonal coordinators.

Metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies must also make provision in their annual plans and budgets to support monitoring by the school feeding desk officer to complement efforts of zonal coordinators, it added.

“The situation, if not addressed, will impact negatively on attendance and contribute to slowing Ghana’s quest towards the attainments of universal basic education for all children,” it said.

The School Feeding Programme is run by the Secretariat in partnership with international agencies like the World Bank, World Food Programme, Partnership for Child Development, UNICEF and the Canadian International Development Agency.

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Source: GNA

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The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, whilst presenting the 2018 budget statement to Parliament on Wednesday, said government has allotted GHc9.26 billion to the education sector.

But SEND-Ghana in a statement said the allocation is insignificant to address the numerous infrastructural constraints of schools in the country, because a huge chunk of the amount will be used for payment of compensation.

[contextly_sidebar id=”HKyu6GbLJApafF18XKa3bi0OPF4M3J6u”]SEND-Ghana among other things also complained that the aftermath of the introduction of the free SHS policy which experienced increased enrollment “has exposed the infrastructural deficit and logistical challenges which is affecting the smooth implementation of the policy, and for that matter impeding sound academic work.”

The implementation the free Senior High School (SHS) policy recently suffered some setbacks as some school heads attempted to  charge extra fees for the procurement of facilities such as desks.

The head teachers of such schools were interdicted, while one of them at the La Presbyterian Senior High School in Accra, was transferred for asking parents of beneficiary students to pay for the purchase of plastic chairs to enable their wards sit in class.

The civil society group called on government to do everything possible to address such problems.

“The implementation of the Free Senior High School has led to increased enrolment at the SHS level from 300,195 students in the 2016/17 academic year to 396,951 students in the 2017/18 academic year, representing an increment of 32.2%. This development has exposed the infrastructural deficit and logistical challenges which is affecting the smooth implementation of the policy and for that matter impeding sound academic work. Yet government’s allocation to capital expenditure and goods and services were insignificant to address this situation,” the statement added.

SEND-Ghana again raised issues with budgetary allocation in other sectors including health, agriculture, sanitation, and child protection.

On agriculture, the civil society group raised concerns about government’s over reliance on oil revenue known as Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), to shore up the drop in donor support, saying it might affect funding of the One-District One-Factory initiative, and other audacious promises made by government for the sector.

“A significant drop in donor funding (from 49% to 21.5%) was observed in the 2018 agriculture sector budget. The burden appears to have been shifted to Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), increasing MOFA’s reliance on the fund from 18% in 2017 to 41.6% in 2018. Though government is gradually moving away from the reliance on donor funding, it is important not to over rely on ABFA given the volatile nature of oil prices on the world market. It is expected that a significant drop in world market prices of oil will affect funding to the sector, making it suffer predictability constraints,” the statement added. Click here for the full statement:

Budgetary allocation for Free SHS ‘woefully inadequate’ – Ablakwa

National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has already described the government’s budgetary allocation for Free SHS as woefully inadequate to support the programme.

According to him, government would need at least two billion cedis to support Free SHS in 2018, 800 million cedis more than the amount that was allocated to it in the budget.

You can’t rely on voluntary contributions for Free SHS- Ablakwa

Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has also said the government cannot afford to rely on voluntary contributions to fund education, particularly free SHS, as projections for those funds may not materialize.

The government announced that it would set up a fund to receive voluntary contributions from individuals to support the implementation of the free SHS programme and the educational sector as a whole.

However, this plan has been criticized by the Minority who believe this is an indication that government does not have the funds to properly implement its much-touted programme.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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She said if community members do not change their attitude towards such persons, all the efforts aimed at improving their lives would be a farce.

Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang, made the call at a workshop organised by SEND-Ghana for coordinators of activities of the Participatory, Monitoring and Evaluation Committee under the People for Health (P4H) Project in some five districts of the Greater Accra Region.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Gy2UHNCeMjIqFuXWu0s5XYKyFE0RVzfW”]It was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with support from Penplusbytes and the Ghana News Agency.

The workshop aimed at strengthening the capacity of the collaborating agencies such as the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, was to also improve their assessment on P4H projects in the communities, and come out with emerging issues.

It was also to help establish problems associated with stigmatization and discrimination against Persons living with HIV/AIDS, as well as the benefits of victims disclosing their health status to their relations.

Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang expressed the hope that the strengthening of monitoring and evaluation programmes, would have a positive effect on persons living with the disease.

She said although there had been various ways of educating the public, some people had ignored the advice, and continued with the stigmatization and discrimination.

Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang said the knowledge of HIV among the public was high, but stigma and discrimination was common, hence the need for the workshop to enable the coordinators to report on the activities they encountered during their meetings with the communities.

Miss Sandra Sakwabea, the Project Officer of SEND-Ghana, took the Committee members through their responsibilities to ensure that the right things were done.

New executive members were elected for the Committee with Mr Isaac Ampomah of La-Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly being elected as Chairman, while Madam Jane Oku of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, and Reverend John Azumah won the Vice Chairperson and Secretary positions respectively.

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Source: GNA

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The organization maintains that Ghana is still far behind in terms of combating maternal mortality rate recorded especially in the three regions of the north.

Though the organization’s has made some modest achievements through its three years Improving Maternal Health Service Delivery through Participatory Governance project dubbed “IMPROVE,” it is expected that government and its development partners will speed up interventions aimed at eradicating the menace.

This was brought to the fore at the IMPROVE project’s close-out conference and awards event held in Tamale on the theme, “Contributing to the reduction of maternal mortality in Ghana”

Dr. Beatrice Heymann, Principal Medical Officer of the Ghana Health Service admitted that the magnitude of maternal mortality remained awful.

“Our district health data base recorded 941 maternal deaths in 2014, 926 in 2015 and 994 in 2016,” she disclosed.

She raised concern about most pregnant women apathy towards visiting health facilities for safe delivery and antenatal.

Dr. Beatrice Heymann commended SEND-Ghana and its allies for working tirelessly to overturn the situation.

She said the IMPROVE project created platforms for community members to engage duty bearers on their health needs.

SEND-Ghana’s Director of Policy Advocacy Programmes, Clara Osei Boateng in a presentation on the overview of the project said 150 community champions were trained to carry out maternal health education in the 30 districts.

According to her, the community champions succeeded in sensitizing 68,200 concerned citizens on maternal health issues.

Clara Boateng revealed that 30 Journalists in the three regions of the north were also trained on sensitive maternal health reporting.

She reiterated SEND-Ghana and its collaborators commitment to continue to apply consistent and participatory approach to solve the problem.

She called for deeper collaboration, transparency and accountability among civil society organizations working in the area of combating maternal and infant mortality.

Ernest Okyere, Acting Country Manager of Christian Aid called for attitudinal change to tackle the menace.

He appreciated the contribution of all stakeholders toward ensuring zero deaths during child birth.

The IMPROVE project was implemented in 30 districts across the three regions of north where malnutrition and poor maternal health are widespread.

SEND-Ghana in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) implemented the project funded by the European Union and Christian Aid.

The project’s overall objective was to influence and ensure effective delivery of maternal health services in Ghana and progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal 5.

Approximately 254,000 direct and indirect beneficiaries have been reached with sensitizations on maternal health issues, health financing, civic responsibility and taxation.

Some deserving health institutions and individuals were awarded for their contribution to the project’s success at dinner night.

By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The project is aimed at greening the Kumasi Metropolis.

Addressing the press in Kumasi, the Mayor of Kumasi, Kojo Bonsu said the purpose of engaging the school children in the tree planting exercise is “to instill in them the discipline to protect the environment.”

The Mayor announced that the assembly will reward the school children with computers, laptops and other school items to aid in their learning.

He noted that the project had already kick started and “it will gladden you to hear that the planting of the trees had taken off along the Asokwa and Anloga Junction roads.”

So far, about 171 trees have been planted and the planting is still ongoing.

The KMA is hoping to plant over one million trees by the year 2017.

The trees are to be planted along driveways, ceremonial routes, open spaces, and school compounds.

The KMA boss appealed to landlords who wish to plant trees in front of their houses to contact the Assembly, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Department of Parks and Gardens to collect seeds for planting.

By: Afiba Anyanzua Anyanzu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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