A grant program for businesswomen in Ghana

A little good news today, from the African success story of Ghana. Even with the economy performing well, Ghana still struggles with an education gap between men and women. This gap makes it difficult for women to earn a meaningful wage later on in life.

The education charity Camfed has teamed up with Mastercard to give women a kick-start. Women who were educated by Camfed can apply for grants from Mastercard Foundation to invest in their own businesses.

From the Guardian, writer Afua Hirsch describes the program.

Camfed – which has provided funding for more than 66,000 children to attend primary and secondary school in Ghana since 1998 – believes it has found a way to supplement the poor quality education on offer in state-run schools. In 2002 it created a Ghana "Cama network" of Camfed alumni, which brings together young women who have graduated with its support.

Cama members are able to access skills training on financial literacy, business, leadership and life skills through the network's twice-monthly meetings. And since last year, those who complete training are eligible for "innovation bursaries" – a Camfed/Mastercard Foundation collaboration that offers small grants to female entrepreneurs to kickstart their businesses, together with work experience in relevant industries. Since the first nine bursaries were awarded in Ghana last September, six women have launched businesses, and all are turning a profit, says Camfed.

In Fuo, a rural suburb of Tamale, the capital of Ghana's northern region and one of the poorest parts of the country, 31-year-old Balchesu Iddrisu has turned her husband's family compound into a small food processing hub. Outside are mounds of rice, which she has employed a local elderly woman to sift, removing stones.

A room inside the building contains piles of wheat, soya and maize, which Iddrisu blends with milk creamer and groundnuts to make her own recipe for "weenie mix" – breakfast porridge. Iddrisu sells more than 1,200 units of weenie mix a month – at about £1 a bag – and she has begun approaching large supermarket chains and hospitals to buy in bulk. By buying her ingredients directly from local farmers, she says she has cut out middle men and is able to influence the quality of producers' crops.

"I am very happy with the way my business is going," Iddrisu says. "It helps me and my family a lot. I didn't even know I could reach this level, with people working under me and creating jobs in my community. In 10 years' time I believe that I will have my own factory, and I will be training many people to become entrepreneurs."

How does a country escape the poverty trap?

Without much fanfare, 28 different countries have escaped the poverty trap. These countries were once counted as a least developed country by the World Bank, but are now classified as a middle-income. So the question is how did this happen, Was it through development aid or through foreign investment?

From the Guardian, a commentary co-written by Charles Kenny from the Center for Global Development and Andy Sumner from the Institute of Development Studies takes a stab at answering the question.

So what's behind all of this sudden income growth? Is it a story about aid? One prominent Zambian, Dambisa Moyo, has written of her country that "a direct consequence of the aid-driven interventions has been a dramatic descent into poverty. Whereas prior to the 1970s, most economic indicators had been on an upward trajectory, a decade later Zambia lay in economic ruin". In the 1980s, aid to Zambia averaged about 14% of GNI. In the 2000s, a decade of strong growth, the same proportion was 17%. If Zambia's ruin in the 1980s was the result of aid, is Zambia's graduation to middle-income status in the new millennium a sign that aid now works really well?

Of course both the ideas that previous stagnation was all the fault of aid, or current growth was all the result, are ridiculous. The price of copper (Zambia's major export) was depressed in the 1980s and saw its price rocket in the middle of the last decade as China and India's economies grew and demand for the metal soared.

But growth among low-income countries in Africa and elsewhere isn't just limited to big mineral exporters. And the continent is fast drawing in more investment. Foreign direct investment to Africa is projected to rise to $150bn by 2015, reports the Africa Attractiveness Survey (that's more than the total global aid budget) – and domestic resources are being mobilised at a faster rate, too, as the Commission for Africa 2010 report discussed.

Even diamond-producing Ghana, which declared itself 63% richer at the end of last year than previously thought, didn't suggest the newfound riches were the result of mineral exports. Instead, the recalculation was driven by the fact the country's services sector was a lot bigger than previously calculated. Part of that will reflect the incredible success of the telecoms sector - 75% of the country's population are mobile subscribers. And, of course, the expansion of telecoms is a worldwide phenomenon. So a lot of the growth we are seeing in poor countries is broad-based, not just reliant on the current commodity boom – which is good news for the future.

Of course there's much to do to translate this growth into better and faster poverty reduction. Looking at the progress data for the millennium development goals (MDGs) for Ghana and Zambia there's nowhere near the kind of progress you would hope to see on income poverty. Twenty years of growth in Ghana has reduced the number of people living on $1.25 or less from just over 7 million to just under 7 million – and inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) rose significantly. However, in both Ghana and Zambia, the number of children in primary school has climbed along with literacy rates, and infant mortality has fallen. Even if they're not on track to meet the MDGs, quality of life is getting much better.

Overnight links for December 22nd

The Guardian has a video about early marriage in Ghana. The video profiles a fourteen year-old girl who is about to be taken into marriage. 

Yemen is the recipient of a lot of aid from the U.S. but the aid is given with control of al-Qaida in mind. This Associated Press story that we find at Google News tells us that fighting al-Qaida is a very low priority for Yemen. 


We are approaching the anniversary of the 2004 Christmas tsunami that killed a half a million people. An article from the BBC says that Indonesia's Aceh has made a great recovery, but is still vulnerable to future disasters. 

How does Ghana avoid the oil curse?

Ghana begins drilling for oil today. An oil field called Jubilee should produce 120,000 barrels a day for the next 20 years.

We have seen oil be a curse more so than a blessing in other parts of Africa. Bad governance has sucked all of the oil revenues away into a few corrupt pockets instead of being used to bless the people. The country of Ghana is often held up as a good example of governance by the western world. So how does Ghana avoid from falling into the same curse?

We have two different perspectives on this topic. First the website The Africa Report has an exhaustive study on the Ghana oil. One sidebar to the study concentrates on the how to avoid the oil curse.

This time it must be different. That is the oft-heard demand from 
activists, politicians and business-people when discussing oil’s potential in Ghana. The discovery of the Jubilee field – with about 1.8bn barrels – is different from its African counterparts. It is the first time substantial amounts of oil and
gas have been found in one of Africa’s established democracies.


Estimates on the quantum of Ghana’s oil wealth vary hugely. The common starting point is that Jubilee will produce about 120,000 barrels per day and some $1.2bn in government revenue a year for 20 years. The adjacent Tweneboa field is reckoned to be as big as Jubilee’s, but industry experts forecast the biggest finds will be onshore in the Keta basin. With companies like Exxon Mobil, BP, ENI and Sinopec
vying to buy equity in the Jubilee field, the assumption is that Ghana has several billion barrels of reserves. 


A key imperative, according to the World Bank’s Sébastien Dessus, is revenue transparency. That means signing up to full disclosure under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and working with civil society groups on the analysis of contracts and the monitoring of environmental impact. Then there are the corrosive effects of revenue accruing to an over-centralised government. Worst of all is the ‘Dutch disease’, under which the currency appreciates as oil revenues flow. Bank of Ghana Governor Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur says he is determined to hold down the value of the cedi against the US dollar to maintain the
competitiveness of exports.

Next, this Oxfam press release points to the lack of transparency that they already find in Ghana's oil production.

On Wednesday, December 15, Ghana will celebrate the start of oil production at the major offshore “Jubilee” field, kicking off an oil boom expected to bring billions of dollars into the country. As Ghana prepares to “turn on the tap” with an elaborate inauguration ceremony, international humanitarian organization Oxfam America urges the government to quickly address large gaps in the legal framework needed to make the most of the billions in government revenue Ghana will receive from the sector.

“The start of oil production represents an important opportunity for Ghana. However, we are concerned that three-and-a- half years after discovery of the Jubilee field, there is still no oil revenue management law in place and no independent regulator established for the sector. Ghana has an enviable recent track record of progress on fighting poverty and improving democratic accountability, but the sudden onset of oil wealth often comes at the expense of good governance and effective development. Ghana’s challenge as an ‘oil hot spot’ will be to manage this industry with transparent and accountable policies and practices, so the people of Ghana can truly benefit over the long term,” said Ian Gary, Oxfam America’s Senior Policy Manager for Extractive Industries and author of the Oxfam report, Ghana’s Big Test: Oil’s Challenge to Democratic Accountability.

By early 2011, estimates are that Ghana will be producing approximately 120,000 barrels of oil per day. The Jubilee field has 500 million barrels of proven reserves and a potential for over 1 billion barrels. The production rate is expected to supply more than $400 million to the government’s 2011 budget and around $1 billion per year into the country in the early years. Promising indications from adjacent exploration oil wells could mean even higher levels of production and reviews in the next few years.

The Ghanaian government must establish a legal framework that ensures transparent publication of oil payments received, open and competitive contract bidding and contract disclosure, and active monitoring and participation by civil society. While there have been some positive signs – Ghanaian President John Atta Mills promised disclosure of oil contracts in March 2009 and a petroleum revenue management bill tabled in the Ghanaian Parliament in July contained important transparency and safeguard provisions – with first oil right around the corner, the necessary laws and systems have not been put in place. Despite government commitments, oil contracts remain unavailable to the public.

“The Ghanaian Parliament is currently debating an oil revenue bill, and important provisions – such as a prohibition against using oil revenue as collateral for loans – have already been stripped out of the bill. A Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill, which had numerous weaknesses, has been shelved. Celebrations of first oil are clouded by the fact that the government has yet to establish an independent regulator since the Jubilee discovery was announced in 2007,” said Richard Hato-Kuevor, Oxfam America’s Extractive Industries Advocacy Officer in Accra, Ghana. “These oil laws involve national questions that require national consensus. There is simply too much at stake for Ghana to adopt inadequate laws to manage this massive industry.”

The removal of a ban on using future oil revenues as collateral for loans is particularly worrying. Many oil producers around the world – such as Nigeria, Angola and Congo-Brazzaville – have gone deep into debt due to unsustainable oil-backed borrowing. Such loans, with steep interest rates and short repayment terms, are often taken out in secret with little or no parliamentary or public scrutiny. Recent press reports have noted that the state oil company, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, is working with Deutsche Bank and other private banks to secure a $500 million loan. The terms and purpose of the loan are not clear.

Ghana is one of the most peaceful and relatively prosperous countries in West Africa but remains poor with the majority of Ghanaians living on less than $2 a day. While poverty needs are pressing, stabilization and savings funds must be established and funded to avoid the price shocks and wasteful spending in the early years of an oil boom, which have bedeviled other countries.

Historically, the exploitation of natural resources in Africa has far too often led to increased poverty and conflict, a phenomenon often referred to as “resource curse.” In 2009, Africa produced 13 percent of the world’s oil with great investment and exploration throughout the continent, but this has yet to translate into tangible benefits for Africa’s poor. In fact, resource-rich countries in Africa have actually experienced lower growth rates than countries with scarce resources.

“Oil wealth threatens the growing democratic accountability that has been built in Ghana’s recent history,” said Mohammed Amin Adam, convener of Ghana’s Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas. “This industry presents very real risks to Ghana’s fragile economy, including incurring too much debt through oil-backed loans. We as Ghanaians need to see December 15th as a day to wake up to these challenges and hold our government accountable for the management of this enormous opportunity for the country.”

In March 2011, Oxfam will publish a “Readiness Report Card” analyzing Ghana’s efforts to prepare its oil boom.

Forced evictions in Ghana to try to avoid flooding damage

In an effort to minimize damage from future flooding, Ghana is demolishing buildings that are built on water drainage-ways. The demolition of housing has forced hundreds of people to look for another place to live. Most of the people who are subject are suspucious of the Ghana city government true motivations. Some of those evicted say they are not given enough notice, and that it is a violation of human rights.

From Reuters Alert Net, writer Suleiman Mustapha gives us some background on the forced evictions.

In Accra, government officials say homes and businesses built in or along drainage routes are illegal and their owners will be given no compensation if they are demolished. Officials argue adequate warning is being given to home owners.

But residents dispute that assertion.

"This house had been standing here for the past decade and nobody had informed me my house was sitting on a waterway," said Charles Okoe, a 48-year-old businessman whose home in Sakama, a suburb of Accra, was demolished in June as part of the waterway clearing campaign.

Okoe said he was only informed in March that his house was sited on a waterway. He is now staying with friends and family until he has enough money for a new permanent home.

Since June, 30 houses in Sakama have been razed to clear waterways and many more are marked for demolition, Mayor Alfred Vanderpuije said.

Flooding caused by heavy seasonal rains killed at least 35 people in Ghana in June, prompting the crackdown on structures built in or alongside drainage routes.

The volume of flood water was less than a year earlier, when it hit record levels, but the National Disaster Management Organisation, the country's relief agency, said the aftermath of this year's flooding was the worst in recent history.

There have been similar scenes across much of West Africa, similarly hit by heavy rains.

Since June this year, floods and mudslides in the region have killed at least 77 people, destroyed the homes, businesses and farms of over 152,000 others and crushed bridges, roads, schools and other infrastructure in at least eight countries, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Another report says that Vietnam has met MDG #1

We are seeing a lot of reports and studies being issued now just before next week's United Nations Millennium Development Goal conference. International aid organizations, charities and more are giving the heads of state some data before the summit to hopefully guide them into action.

The next report we would like to mention comes from a British think-tank. The Overseas Development Institute says that Vietnam and Ghana are leading the way in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. This echos a report we saw yesterday from Oxfam.

From this AFP article that we found at ABS-CBN news, we read more about MDG achievers.

On the positive side, Vietnam had made "unprecedented progress" in improving the lives of the poor, said the report.

The Asian country had managed to halve the proportion of underweight children and reduce the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day from nearly two-thirds to one-fifth in 14 years, said the institute.

Ghana had reduced hunger by nearly three-quarters -- from 34 percent to nine percent between 1990 and 2004 -- an area in which it had outperformed all other countries around the world.

It is on course to achieve the Millennium goal of halving rates of poverty and hunger by 2015, said the think-tank.

Ten African countries -- including Ethiopia, Egypt and Angola -- had already halved their poverty levels, according to the ODI.

But the institute warned: "In other areas progress has been slower, or even reversed, and challenges remain in a number of countries."

It highlighted great variations in HIV infection rates across Africa and uneven progress in tackling hunger and poverty across Latin America.

Review of Ghana's Community-Based Rural Development Project

A full description of the community policies and rural development in place in Ghana. From The Ghanaian Chronicle, by Daniel Nonor.

Ghana’s fight against poverty to make progress towards the Millennium Development Goals has seen various successive policies introduced to accelerate national development, with a special focus on rural development.

By far, the design and implementation of these policies for social well-being have required a constant evaluation of how these systems have evolved over the years and to understand what impact they have had on development and poverty reduction programmes.

One such programme is the Community-Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP), which was initiated by the Government of Ghana as part of its poverty reduction strategy in 2004. The Project aims at using rural community participation to reduce rural poverty and to build and strengthen capacities for effective local government administration.

The Project aims, among others things, to build and strengthen the capacity of rural communities, and enhance their quality of life by improving their productive assets, rural infrastructure and facilitate their access to key support services from public and private sources.

In addition, the Project contributes to improved employment and economic growth, especially among the rural population, with varied innovations to make projects community-owned by maximizing community involvement in the implementation of projects.

The projects under the Community-Based Rural Development Project have been categorised into five main components, namely: Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building; Infrastructure for Agricultural Development; Rural Enterprise Development and Learning Centres, Infrastructure for Social and Human Development as well as the Community-Based Natural Resource Management.

After six years of its implementation, the CBRDP has made significant contribution to the effort to alleviate poverty among Ghana’s rural population. With the construction of five dams, one dugout, 188 feeder roads, 20 market structures and 12 slaughterhouses in rural communities across the country, many otherwise disillusioned rural folk can now make something meaningful out of life.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, and the future looks even brighter with on-going projects on two wind pumps, eight dams, two dugouts, irrigation facilities, 214 feeder roads, 45 market structures and 15 slaughterhouses, which are expected to bridge the urban-rural development gap.
Institutional Strengthening
and Capacity Building

The activities under this first component are meant to provide support to strengthen and build the capacities of local government institutions in support of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy through good governance and human resource development at the national, regional, district and community levels. This is meant to enable the beneficiaries to play effectively their crucial role in the implementation of the projects under CBRDP and thereby become more effective players in the entire local governance set up.

So far, CBRDP has provided training for all 138 district assemblies and 454 selected district councils in decentralisation policy and regulations, procurement, financial management, planning, and monitoring and evaluation.

With support from CBRDP, the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has trained personnel from all public services in procurement. Also, the entire accounting system for the district assemblies has been reformed in collaboration with the Controller and Accountant General while the Internal Audit Agency conducted an orientation for newly recruited auditors for the district assemblies.

The capacity building training provided under CBRDP has already started bearing the anticipated fruits. The training programmes, for instance, have had a tremendous impact on the knowledge and performance of local government entities, thus promoting the realisation of project outcomes beyond the CBRDP. Now beneficiaries like Regional Planning and Coordination Units, NGO’s, CBO’s, private and public service providers and rural communities apply rapid project implementation methods with impressive success rates.

To achieve the Project’s objectives, Learning Centres have been established in rural communities to serve as focal points for empowering the poor through the acquisition of knowledge and skills, processing units and marketing outlets.

A total of 1,606 trainees have acquired various valuable vocational skills from the Learning Centres found in various parts of the country. Out of these, 1,209 beneficiaries have been given funds to start their own businesses. Nine hundred and fifty-seven (950) of them have actually set up and are doing very well.

By 2009, 17 Learning Centres in Western and Central Regions had received funds to upgrade their activities. These Learning Centres include Pioneer Bamboo Processing Company Ltd, Profound Integration Company Ltd, Monfre Enterprise, Odo Pee Herbal Centre, Ante Sara Adom Mmoroso Bakery, Association of Beekeepers, and Eddiebay Kente Weaving Learning Centre in the Central Region.

The Learning Centres in the Central Region that have received 100 percent disbursement are Aboadi Rural Agricultural Technology Centre, Centre for Improved Animal Production System (CIRAPS), GABS Catering Services, God With Us Beekeeping & Learning Centre, Biri Cane Work & Shoe Making Training Centre, Okooba Gyasi Farms, Thess Broni Ventures, Kpemli Ventures, and Western Coast Jewellery Enterprise. Between 95 percent and 99 percent funding levels have been achieved for Learning Centres and their trainees respectively.

The implementation of projects under this component has had a tremendous impact on rural dwellers through the provision of support services. This has resulted in increased employment opportunities with increased income levels and rural livelihood as a whole.

Beneficiary enterprises have seen drastic expansion, while many more have been established to provide knowledge and skills to rural dwellers.

When such programmes are well monitored and implemented ,the country would go a long way in reducing poverty and meet the millennium development goals by 2015.

Unequal education slowly improving in Ghana

In Ghana, girls are often kept out of schools. Old social attitudes lent to a preference for boys education, while the girls stayed at home and helped with chores. But that is starting to change through some educational efforts and even from girls football teams.

From the Guardian, writer Jessica Shepherd has a long piece about unequal education in Ghana.

There are 41 million girls around the world who should be in primary school all week, but aren't, the Department for International Development says. At least 20 million of them are, like Abigail, in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Ghana, 91% of boys, but only 79% of girls finish primary school. By the time they complete junior high school – for 12- to 15-year-olds – 65% of boys and just 54% of girls are still in lessons, says the lobby group the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition.

Here in Asesewa – one of Ghana's poorest districts – Abigail's nearest junior high school has just five girls out of 20 pupils in its most senior class. The school improvement plan is torn, written in felt tip and peeling from a wall in a corridor. It is the middle of the dry season and temperatures can reach 31C, but the school's tap is empty and the toilets don't work. The most the school seems to have is a few exercise and textbooks that look as though they date back to the 1950s.

The average income for Asesewa's population of 90,000 is between £11 and £14 a month, according to the international charity Plan, which has a base here.

Almost 80% of inhabitants farm maize and the starchy cassava plant. The work is done with machetes or by hand. Most families have no running water or electricity in their homes and almost half are illiterate.Living in poverty like this, girls stand little chance of being spared the time – or the money – for school.

Ministers in the Ghanaian government abolished fees for primary education in 2005 and boast that they spend the equivalent of £6 in state funds on each primary pupil every year. But parents must pay for exercise books, school uniforms and exams.

It is these hidden costs – which can amount to more than £100 per child per year – that dissuade many from sending their girls to school, says Joseph Appiah, Plan's chief fieldworker in Asesewa.

Besides, the value of an educated girl is lower than that of an educated boy. "The feeling is that girls will marry and belong to another family; boys bring back what they make to their parents," Appiah says.

And, in these rural communities, girls are needed at home. From as young as seven they can be expected to prepare breakfast and lunch for their parents, take it to them in the fields and cook a hot dinner in the evenings. Many will also have to fetch water from several kilometres away and sell what they can to supplement their family's meagre income. That leaves little time for lessons. "Here, it is only when a girl has extra determination to make it in her education that she will," Appiah says.

Comment: Not "Dead Aid" but Reverse Aid

In one of the most controversial books about international aid in recient years, Dambisa Moyo says that African nations are worse off than they were 50 years ago. In her book "Dead Aid" she uses the figure of $1 trillion dollars when talking about the total amount of money that has been spent in African aid.

However in this commentary from Joy Online, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson challenges the figure and describes why it may not be entirely accurate. At the same time, Dr Thompson shows an unwanted side-effect that some aid loans have on African nations. Dr. Thompson is a development economist who lives in Ghana.

First is the exact scale of the “aid” that Moyo tells us, with irritating frequency, has been “transferred to Africa” over the past 50 years with seemingly no meaningful reciprocity. She parrots the oft-repeated claim of “US$1 trillion,” a figure whose origin and credibility remain murky, at best.

But that’s only half the problem of Dead Aid. The other (unspoken) half is the amount of money that poor countries have transferred to rich countries over the same period.

Perhaps for Moyo there is no data on this other transfer to warrant its discussion, but the case of Ghana (a poster child of the aid-underdevelopment paradox) shows why such an omission cannot be ignored for whatever reason.

In 1994 (five years before donors labeled it “heavily indebted” and “poor”), Ghana’s budget statement made the following grim disclosure about its 1993 performance: “In the second half of the year, Ghana also obtained a Compensatory and Contingency Financing Facility [from the IMF] equivalent to US$65.1 million. At the same time an amount of US$67.9 million was paid back to the IMF, thereby showing a net outflow to the IMF of US$2.8 million.” If every African country in 1993 sent out an average of US$2.8 million more to donors than it received, that would be about US$150 million in net transfers, a princely sum for a continent supposedly hard up for development finance.

Of course we cannot forget the well-known disparity between what donors publicly pledge to “transfer” (headline aid) and what they eventually give to, or for, poor countries (pipeline aid). For example, data from Ghana’s Ministry of Finance shows that between 1990 and 2006, donors promised some US$1.1 billion in aid to the education sector but actually disbursed US$766.9 million
But even here we must distinguish between “disbursements” and “transfers”. Some donors insist, as a matter of commercial policy, that a portion of disbursed aid (sometimes as high as 75%) be spent on imports, including consultancy services, from their home countries; very little money is actually “transferred” to the recipient countries.

Besides the well-known problems with such “tied aid”, poor countries also lose large amounts of their own monies to rich countries through such practices as transfer pricing (self-dealing) and invoice-tampering by unscrupulous multi-nationals, as well as the abuse of tax holidays granted to these multi-nationals ostensibly to help stimulate economic growth in poor countries. In Ghana, some multi-nationals have been known to sell off their assets to others, typically from their home countries, just as their tax holiday is about to expire for them to pay taxes. The tax holiday is effectively extended, depriving Ghana of resources for development and, paradoxically, deepening its aid dependence.

Perhaps rather than Dead Aid we should be talking about Reverse Aid.

500,000 Ghanaians could fall into poverty by 2010

Ghana is used an African success story and for good reason. The country had a great reduction in poverty from 1999 to 2006. The percentage of those in poverty in Ghana was at 36 percent but is now at 29 percent.

Now the World Bank predicts that 500,000 Ghanaians could fall back under the poverty line by 2010. In fact, the bank admits a policy that the bank persuaded the Ghanaian government to follow could contribute to the increase. The bank hopes that could turn around in the long term.

From Modern Ghana, this Stateman article quotes a World Bank report on the situatiuon.

Explaining what may give rise to an increase in income poverty for the next two years, the World Bank refers to the tight fiscal policy it has persuaded the Mills government to implement. It says, poverty will rise further “because the planned macroeconomic adjustment entails increased cost recovery in the energy sector and increased taxation, staff forecasts aggregate per capita private consumption growth to fall, which will result in income poverty rising by as much as 2 percentage points between 2008 and 2010 (an additional 500,000 people below the poverty line at US$1.25 a day) assuming unchanged income distribution.”

Meanwhile, under the New Patriotic Party , the World Bank admits that “all major regions recorded reductions in poverty,” with some achieving them much more rapidly than others.

Unfortunately, the bulk of poverty has become concentrated in the three northern regions which now comprise about 80 percent of the poor.

Efforts to address the special needs of these lagging regions had been initiated in the recent past, and there are “ongoing efforts to amplify them in the context of an ambitious Savanna Accelerated Development initiative which is supported by several Development Partners (DPs) including the Bank,” the report adds.

Though the NPP has been portrayed by its political opponents as anti-poor, the World Bank admits that when “the domestic price of food rose substantially against that of non food items between November 2007 and July 2008,” the Kufuor administration, went ahead to protect the purchasing power of the poor with “ tax exemptions on fuel and food instituted in 2008 and still operational, and by a scaling up of safety nets (including additional health and educational benefits, a new program of direct transfers to the ultra-poor, and subsidies for fertilizers in food insecure regions).”

Baby Harvesting

An especially disturbing form of human trafficking called "Baby Harvesting" is taking place in Nigeria. However we learned about it today from a story in Ghana, as officials there want to make sure it does not occur in their own country.

From Joy Online, writer Ebenezer Hanson recieved a description of the practice.

Baby Harvesting is the act of luring teenage girls who are economically challenged to cities in the name of adoption according to Mr. Eric Boakye Peasah, the Counter-trafficking Field Manager of the International Organization for Migration (I0M).

Mr. Peasah explained that these unsuspecting girls are usually kept in homes where men are arranged to have sexual intercourse repeatedly with them until they get pregnant. He explained further that the girls are usually provided with antenatal care until they give birth after which the babies are plucked from these unfortunate girls who are then paid off.

"It has not yet occurred in Ghana but once it is happening in Nigeria we must all take steps to forestall it in this country," he told stakeholders at the launching of a Legal Resources Centre (LRC) capacity building for law enforcement officers and victim service providers in Trafficking in Persons in Accra.

He revealed that a group of swindlers has been busted in Nigeria for engaging in 'Baby Harvesting' which must serve as warning signs to Ghanaians.

Also happening in Nigeria, Mr. Peasah further disclosed, is the mind boggling act known as 'Touching'. With these adults without any modicum of conscience turn themselves into 'gynaecologists' and examine the private parts of girls. Those who are found with 'suitable' genitals are adopted and when they grow to become teenagers, they are pushed into prostitution.

Ghana receives another visit from a U.S. President

U. S. President Barack Obama is about to visit the African country of Ghana. This will be the third consecutive U. S. President to visit the country. The U. S. continues to pay the visits because of the great strides the country has made in improving it's economy and shrinking poverty.

As a preview to the visit, this story in the Canada's Globe and Mail explains some of the improvements in the country. Writer Geoffrey York also includes some things that Ghana still needs to work on.

Ghana has become the darling of the Western donor community. With its bold programs in health and education, its vibrant democracy, its booming economy and its political stability, Ghana is widely touted as a model for other African countries.

Since 2003, when the new education policy was introduced, the number of school children in Ghana has expanded by a remarkable 1.2 million. Ghana now has one of the highest school-enrolment rates in West Africa, with 83 per cent of its children in school.

Child mortality, for children under the age of 5, has dropped by 30 per cent in the past decade. Malnutrition has declined, the health budget is growing, and only 28 per cent of the population is below the official poverty line, compared with 52 per cent in the early 1990s. Ghana is one of the few African countries on track to meet its goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. With oil resources now being developed, the country even has an ambitious target of becoming a middle-income country by 2020.
...

Ghana's successes, however, are far from complete. There is growing inequality between the rich and the poor. Schools in northern Ghana have much lower enrolment rates than southern schools, and poverty is much higher in the north.

“Stark and rising inequalities have been generated by the growth model that Ghana has pursued in the last decade,” says a recent report by Oxfam.

“Millions of men and women living in northern Ghana have been marginalized from the development process. Poverty levels in two of the three regions are higher than they were in 1991-92.”

Despite its progress, Ghana is still ranked only 142 of the 179 countries in the UN human-development index, which measures quality of life. Some Ghanaians are so poor that they turn to desperate measures. Just last week, when a Ghana International Airlines plane landed at Gatwick Airport near London, the undercarriage contained the dead body of a man who had apparently risked his life to flee the country. He perished at high altitude.

The effect of the global recession on Ghana

Ghana, the only country in Africa to have met the Millennium Development Goal on hunger is now seeing more people struggle to find food thanks to the global recession. The drop in exports and investments that the recession has caused are leaving more in Ghana vulnerable to going hungry.

From this IRIN story that we found at All Africa, the UN's Food and Agriculture Director comments on the situation.

"Ghana has shown that real progress against hunger, malnutrition and poverty can be achieved, through increased investment and diversity in agriculture, and better access to food," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf in a 23 April statement. "But Ghana will need greater support in identifying and helping the millions of people who remain food insecure and vulnerable."

"The economic crisis is already starting to affect people in Africa. The early impacts in Ghana are small, but they could get worse depending on how the situation evolves," Bauer said.

Price drops in cash crops such as shea nuts, export drops in some raw materials including timber, and remittance cuts could all contribute to people's increased vulnerability to food insecurity, says WFP.

But chief director at the Agriculture Ministry, Dr. Nurah Gyiele, said Ghanaians are "safe" from food insecurity this year. "I do not anticipate any clear and present danger on any significant scale in terms of food shortages because we still have maize stocks on the market," he said. "And there is no shortage in any of the other crops [rice, yams, cassava]...we can say that this year we are safe and even if there is a challenge we will be up to it."

The government has placed 900 metric tons of emergency rice and maize stocks in the regions where people are most prone to food insecurity: Northern Region, Upper East and Upper West, and plans to provide a further 900 mt over the course of 2009 as well as stocking the 10 regional capitals, according to Gyiele.

But some subsistence farmers in the north say they are already struggling to get by.

"The price of everything has gone up," said John Akarebo, shea nut farmer and father of six, in Northern region. "I spend about 80 percent of my earnings feeding the family. It is very difficult. If it were not for the government's policy to make basic education free, my children's education would be threatened."

High cases of malaria in Children and pregnant women

A nutritionist has worries about the high rates of malaria that she sees among children and pregnant women in Ghana. Nutritionist Hannah Adjei, who works the Ghana Health Service spoke at a forum about her concerns yesterday.

Adjei says that proper nutrition plays a role in recovery from malaria. Malnourished children take longer to recover from the disease if they do at all.

From the Ghanaian Chronicle writer William N-lanjerborr Jalulah reports on the forum's presentation.

Speaking at a forum in Bolgatanga, the nutritionist said malaria remained the single largest killer of children, accounting for about 26% of deaths, and 40% of out-patient and hospital admission cases.

According to her, the limited availability of preventive items such as Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets had been identified as a key bottleneck in the fight against malaria and associated child mortality.

Madam Adjei said the disease was more frequent and severe among malnourished children, leading to higher morbidity and mortality.

She said a recent study in northern Ghana, reported that underweight children were significantly more likely to have clinical malaria and anemia.

She said the main objective of the NMCCSP was to improve utilisation of selected community-based health and nutrition services for children under the age of two, and pregnant women in the target districts.

The project would also support priority areas, like nutrition and malaria control in the programme of work of the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service, which were known to have strong links with child survival, but have received inadequate attention.

Stats from Ghana

An article in The Ghanaian Chronicle gave us some statistics on the numbers in the country that live in poverty. The story focuses on a press briefing that was given by the group the Christian Council of Ghana.

November 3rd The Ghanaian Chronicle

A study conducted by the United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) in 2007, has revealed that more than 10 million people in Ghana, live on less than GH¢1.00 a day, while more than 2.5 million children and families go to bed hungry every day.

[comment] Talks reveal the inefficiency of aid in development

from Business Daily Africa

Written by Yash Tandon

The OECD-inspired and promoted Accra Action Agenda (AAA) on “aid effectiveness” was concluded on September 4 2008 as a “consensus” document by almost 1,200 delegates from about 100-odd countries and intergovernmental organisations (IGOs).

There was also a side event of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) attended by some 600 delegates from 325 CSOs from 88 countries.

What did Accra achieve?

What the Accra conference achieved was to draw attention to the unwieldiness of aid as an instrument of development.

According to the OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development), donors sent 15,000 missions to 54 recipient countries in 2007. In Tanzania alone the local aid bureaucracy produced 2,400 quarterly reports to donors.

The Paris Declaration that formed the basis of the negotiations in Accra was aimed at bringing some order to the aid industry. However, the irony of the situation is that the present chaotic situation of the aid industry is the second best option for the poor countries than the anticipated order of the AAA. (The best option is to get out of aid dependence).

Western control

The AAA is a worse option than the present chaotic situation. This is because if the AAA does get implemented, it might reduce the 15,000 missions to 5,000 and Tanzania’s 2,400 quarterly reports to 400, but the process, monitoring, evaluation, and sanctions would now be centralised and controlled by western aid industry bureaucrats located in the World Bank and the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD, and development or foreign (even defense) ministries of donor countries.

Why should that be so?

This is so for three reasons: one, because it is in these places where the “aid industry elite” are located – employing literally thousands of “aid experts”, “country report evaluators”, and “aid dispensers”.

Secondly, because the aid receiving countries are fragmented and divided, and are made to believe, erroneously, that without infusions of aid from the North they will not get out of poverty.

And thirdly and most importantly, because the AAA, if it succeeds in getting off the ground, will make the really poor countries (i.e. excluding such large countries as Brazil, China, India and South Africa) even more subject to the collective discipline and control of the northern donors and the agencies they control such as the IMF and the World Bank.

Dr Tandon is the Executive Director, South Centre

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8m To Receive Medicines under new initiative to fight diseases

from Peace FM Online, Ghana

Ghana and the United States, starting this September, would begin distributing medicines to about eight million people as part of a new initiative to fight neglected tropical diseases, President George Bush, has announced.The two countries, he said, stood as one in their work to free people from diseases.

President Bush was speaking after bilateral talks at the Oval Office in the White House with President John Agyekum Kufuor, who is on a four-day State Visit to the country.

The visit at the invitation of President Bush is to re-enforce the strong and enduring ties of friendship between the two countries. Their discussions centred on the promotion of economic opportunities, education and the fight against malaria and other diseases plaguing Africa.

President Bush lauded the leadership of President Kufuor and said his country was proud to stand by Ghana "to secure freedom from poverty.” “Ghana's leaders are governing justly, fighting corruption and investing in their people.”

It was on account of this that they were supporting the country"s efforts through the Millennium Challenge Account Compact and promoting trade as a powerful engine of prosperity. Ghana-US trade last year, was valued at more than $600 million, an increase of more than 55 per cent since 2001.

President Bush also recognised Ghana’s contribution towards the promotion of global peace with more than 3,000 of its soldiers serving on peacekeeping missions from Liberia to Congo to Kosovo and Georgia. On his part, President Kufuor urged the US to provide the necessary leadership to deal with the global challenges of climate change and the turmoil on the international financial market.

He said the country should be the vanguard of finding solutions to these problems, which were hurting the economies of developing nations particularly in Africa and eroding the modest economic gains they were making.

President Kufuor expressed appreciation to President Bush for what he said were his administration’s “humanitarian policies to Africa”, from which Ghana has been a major beneficiary.

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MOH pledges to eradicate malaria

Ghana Dot

This year's health summit of Health Development Partners opened in Accra on Tuesday with a pledge by the Ministry of Health to completely eradicate malaria which had an estimated total economic cost of 772.4 million US dollars per annum.

Major Courage Quashigah (Rtd), Minister of Health, who opened the summit, said the amount was equivalent to the MOH’s annual budget for 2008 and that if urgent actions were not taken, the disease, being the number one cause of morbidity and mortality, would erode the National Health Insurance Fund as well.

During the three-day summit, stakeholders would agree on the 2008 priorities after reviewing progress and lessons in 2007, and the vision of the future as captured in the Health Policy five-year programme of work from 2007- 2011 as well as Ghana Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy.

Major Quashigah said the calculation of the treatment of malaria, which translated to GH 30.04 cedis or 32.65 dollars per capita, was based on the number of reported cases alone and was thought to be an underestimation.

"For this reason, in 2008, we will continue with the distribution of insecticide treated nets and promote the intermittent treatment of malaria among pregnant women as well as the proper case management of those with malaria,” he said.


Major Quashigah said as part of the intervention, the high impact rapid delivery programme was being complemented with other programmes to scale up the control of malaria as well as Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS with funds from the Global Fund and other development partners.

The Health Minister said the government would be working with stakeholders to develop a medium-term strategy to eliminate malaria as a public health problem in addition to polio and measles.

He said documentation for certification of Ghana as a polio-free country had been accepted by the Africa Regional Commission on Polio Certification and for the past four years measles cases had fallen below 500 with no deaths reported.

He said improvements in the maternal, infant and neonatal care would help reduce maternal and child mortality and this could be achieved if pregnant women delivered under supervision in health facilities with those with complications receiving caesarean section and safe blood.

Major Quashigah said there was the need for adequate numbers of health workers and well-equipped facilities in the remotest parts of the country to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

He said regenerative health and nutrition was another priority the MOH was undertaking to address risk factors for ill-health and that it had been piloted in 10 districts and would be scaled-up in 2008.

Regenerative health aims at promoting health literacy, healthy lifestyles and healthy environment to renew strength and prevent diseases.

Touching on the National Health Insurance Scheme, Major Quashigah said it was one of the most important pro-poor social policies to be implemented by government which was operational in all districts with 55 per cent coverage as at September this year.

He said to make it sustainable, a closer look would be taken on the financing of the fund, and improve access and quality of service by improving the timeliness of claims and monitoring of supporting hospitals to manage resources efficiently.

He mentioned the three challenges that the health sector faced as the availability and productivity of the human resource for health delivery; availability and accessibility of health infrastructure; and ensuring adequate and predictable financing of the programme of work.

As the first step, the Ministry would consolidate the programme for rationalising salaries of health workers and initiate a programme to enhance workforce productivity.

"I see 2008 to be a challenging and busy year. It is for this reason that I declare 2008 as a ‘Year of Action’ for the health sector" he said, and called on all partners and stakeholders to help to make a difference.

Ms Lidi Remmelzwaal, Ambassador of the Netherlands, who represented the development partners, said all stakeholders must work in a coordinated manner to complement one another.

She said the MOH must complement the work of the District Assemblies in the provision of social services like water, education and sanitation to make the regenerative health aims a reality.

She called for collaboration between the Ministries of Health, Finance and Economic Planning, Education, Water Resources, Works and Housing and the Local Government and Rural Development in promoting health for all and that the development partners would strive to support and participate in their endeavours.

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Poor sanitation poses threat to child survival

from My Joy News Online

More than 15,000 children die in Ghana annually of sanitation related diseases before attaining the age of five, a United Nations Human Development report has revealed.

The diseases include malaria, diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera.

Mr Kweku Quansah, Programme Officer at the Environmental Health Sanitation Directorate of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment disclosed this in Kumasi at the weekend.

He said 72 percent of Ghanaians, representing 18 million of the population, had household latrines, whilst the remaining 18 percent shared toilet facilities.

Mr Quansah was speaking at a seminar on sanitation for media practitioners in the northern sector of the country.

The two-day seminar, jointly organised by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment and the Coalition of non-governmental organisations in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) was attended by participants from Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions.

The objective of the seminar was to examine the causes and solutions to Ghana’s sanitation situation and to explore the peculiar roles of the mass media in increasing advocacy, demanding accountability as well as in throwing searchlight on sanitation as a national issue.

Mr Quansah noted with regret that, despite significant efforts by the government, progress on sanitation targets had been slow and uneven.

He said the government spent 732 million dollars annually on the treatment of malaria and that 70 percent of Out-Patient Department cases were sanitation related.

Mr Quansah emphasized that environmental sanitation was among the powerful drivers on a nation’s development as it affected the quality of life and the production of a sound population.

“As a result of sanitation related diseases, 10 percent of the Ghanaian electorate did not turn up to exercise their franchise in previous national elections”, he said.

Mr Quansah stressed the importance of recognizing the impact of sanitation on public health, poverty reduction, economic and social development and the environment.

He added that the national environmental sanitation policy (1999) was under review to make it more comprehensive.

Dr. Anthony Bonnah Koomson, a Senior Lecturer of the School of Communication Studies of the University of Ghana and a facilitator, stressed the need to construct special latrines for children.

This, he noted, would help minimise sanitation crisis and its repercussions on living conditions.

“If faeces is contained and recycled properly, it could be used to produce gas and electricity”, Dr. Koomson said.

He mentioned the lack of law enforcement, facility availability and behavioural change as contributory factors to high incidence of open defecation in the country.

Dr. Doris Yaa Dartey, a Communication Consultant and also a facilitator, urged the media to focus on sanitation as a national agenda.

She disclosed that Ghana ranked number 14 on sanitation crisis out of 15 countries in the sub-region, beating only Niger to the last position.

On solid waste, Dr. Dartey said Ghana was able to manage only 30 percent solid waste generated daily and that the deficit of 70 percent accounted for the incremental heaps of rubbish found throughout the country.

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Fighting Poverty, Village by Village

from The Morung Express

by Ernest Harsch

Standing in the midst of a freshly planted maize field, Bright Osei Kwaku recalls that last year he more than doubled his output with the help of improved seeds, fertilizer, and advice on farming techniques. Altogether, his two to three acres yielded about 15 100-kilogram bags of maize, compared with just six bags the year before, when he had no such support.

Many other young Ghanaians have either left agriculture or dream of doing so. But Kwaku, now 25 years old, thinks he can stay on the land. “I will continue to farm,” he told Africa Renewal. “I got income and food. I got enough from the farm.”
With world food prices rising, it is a good time to push for higher production, argues Isaac Kankam-Boadu, the agriculture and environment facilitator of the Millennium Villages Project in Bonsaaso, a cluster of poor and remote settlements in Ghana’s Ashanti Region. “The high food prices are an opportunity,” he says. “The farmers can earn more money.”

Last year, Kankam-Boadu reports, Bonsaaso’s maize farmers managed to quadruple their yields from an average of about one ton per hectare (two and a half acres) to four tons. Besides boosting their own incomes, the farmers contributed about a tenth of their crop to the area’s new school feeding program, which helps many of the area’s children.

Millennium Villages
Such linkages are at the heart of the Millennium Villages Project. The first Millennium Village was launched in 2004 in Sauri, Kenya, as an integrated development initiative. Besides Ghana, the project also soon expanded to include villages in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda. The sites were selected on the basis of their poverty indicators and to represent Africa’s different ecological and climate zones. Altogether, more than 400,000 people now live in villages chosen for the project.

The idea grew from research and policy deliberations of the Millennium Task Force, directed by the United Nations secretary general’s special adviser on the Millennium Development Goals (M.D.G.’s), Jeffrey Sachs. The M.D.G.’s, adopted by world leaders in 2000, strive to reduce poverty and deprivation drastically around the world.
The Millennium Villages approach is based on two central ideas: The first is that simple and inexpensive changes in nutrition, health, water, sanitation, education, women’s status, agriculture, communications, roads, and electricity can lift rural Africans out of severe poverty. The second is that a combination of community mobilization, government support, and external aid can fund these efforts for only about $110 per person per year. Most of the Millennium Village projects are being implemented by the United Nations Development Program.

Initial funders included the government of Japan, which gave more than $9 million, and the United States-based financier and philanthropist George Soros, who gave $5 million. On 13 March, the Japanese government decided to extend its assistance by an additional $11.4 million.

Japan’s assistance to the project is part of that country’s wider program of support for Asia-Africa cooperation, known as the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (T.I.C.A.D.). The fourth conference was held in Yokohama, Japan, on 28–30 May, and was attended by Ghanaian President John Kufuor and nearly 40 other African heads of state. Near the top of T.I.C.A.D.’s agenda was achievement of the M.D.G.’s, which is also central to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Africa’s own blueprint for economic, social, and political progress.

From School Meals to Cell Phones
The Millennium initiative came to Bonsaaso in March 2006, initially in 10 localities. By the end of that year the project had expanded to 30 communities, covering some 400 square kilometers and affecting more than 30,000 people. The area was selected because many residents were very poor, malnutrition was common, there were few health services, many children did not go to school, and numerous other indicators of human development lagged. Rather than focusing on just one or two sectors, the project’s designers want to show that poverty can be attacked across a wide front. If successful here and in other countries, says Sam Asare Afram, the Millennium Village manager in Bonsaaso, the project could provide a “model” for the continent.

Although the project is only two years old, communities in Bonsaaso are already enjoying real results. Rita Adjei, head nurse at the health clinic in Watreso, says that the new anti-mosquito bed nets mean that fewer children get malaria, although diarrhea is still a serious problem caused by a lack of clean water and sanitation. She points to a bank of solar-powered chargers for cell phones, donated by Sony Ericsson. Once the Bonsaaso area comes under better cell phone coverage, Adjei and her assistant nurses will be able to obtain better information and advice quickly for their patients.

Nana Dapaah Siakwan, the traditional chief of Aboaboso, estimates that enrollment in the local primary school has increased from 200 to 500, largely thanks to the school feeding program that began in March 2007. There also is a new health clinic. Until it opened, seriously ill patients had to be carried many kilometers along forest paths to a distant clinic—on a tabletop, since there was no stretcher, explains the chief. Now, he adds, “We have seen the benefits.”

Mohammed Salifu, a cocoa farmer, produced nine 64-kilogram bags in 2007, up from just four the year before, simply by following the advice of an agricultural extension officer sent to Bonsaaso by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. With new seedlings of a higher-yielding and faster-growing variety of cocoa, he hopes to do even better this year.

Bigger cocoa and food harvests will bring new challenges, however. The abysmal state of the roads within Bonsaaso and with other parts of Ghana makes it hard for farmers to get their crops to market. But Chinese road contractors hired by the government are busy at work, and the project has acquired two five-ton trucks to help transport produce. Developing physical infrastructure is not one of the M.D.G.’s, notes Ernest Mensah, a project facilitator. “But if you want to eradicate poverty,” he adds, “you need infrastructure.”

Avoiding Dependency
Critics of donor-aided development projects in Africa point out that they often tend to make the beneficiaries dependent on outside assistance, and frequently collapse if that money eventually dries up. The Millennium Villages Project does rely on significant inflows. On average, about 60 percent of project financing comes from donors, 30 percent from national and local governments, and the rest from the communities themselves.

In part, the project is designed to convince donors to provide more financing over the long term, by demonstrating concretely that aid can be used effectively to reduce poverty. A careful tally is kept of every dollar spent in Bonsaaso and other Millennium Villages, not only to avoid waste and inefficiency, but also to demonstrate to donor governments that simple interventions can make a real impact. “They don’t know how practical the solutions are,” says Sachs, referring to donor agencies. “They don’t realize that at very low cost—just a few dollars—you can save children’s lives.”

By showing that external aid can indeed be effective in Africa, Sachs and his colleagues hope to convince the major industrialized countries to live up to their commitments. The 2005 summit meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries, for example, pledged to provide Africa with about $50 billion in aid annually by 2010—still about twice what donors are giving so far.

To help guard against local expectations that such outside assistance will continue to keep the Millennium Villages functioning, project planners stress that certain forms of aid will be steadily reduced and that governments and villagers will need to take up a greater share of the cost. The new higher-yielding cocoa seedlings provided to farmers are currently subsidized, notes Kankam-Boadu. But as farmers earn more from their cocoa sales, by next year the subsidies will begin declining, “to let them know the realities of the market.”

Similarly, health care in Bonsaaso’s new clinics is free for the time being, to encourage poor villagers to use their services. But, explains Afram, free care is not sustainable over the long term. Project workers therefore are helping villagers sign up for Ghana’s national health insurance scheme.

In various ways, project organizers are encouraging national and local government bodies to expand their presence in Bonsaaso: by building roads, extending electricity connections, and sending in more teachers, health care workers, and agricultural extension advisers.

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