Ghana's Poverty Reduction Project Is Reaching More Households

In Ghana, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) project, which has been around since 2008, is reaching and thus benefiting more and more households across the country. The project's main goal is to reduce poverty, through both conditional and unconditional cash transfers to the people who desperately need it the most, the extreme poor. Basically, the LEAP project provides a sort of economic safety net for very poor households against extreme poverty, giving them better access to support and opportunities that can help lead them away from impoverished livelihoods towards better living conditions.
The Deputy Minister for Employment and Social Welfare in Ghana, Antwi Bosiako Sekyere, believes that cash transfers have been observed as "one of the most effective instruments through which the poor could be empowered, and serve as a springboard for poverty reduction." He also notes that the lack of cash is the largest problem for people living in extreme poverty, which makes it very difficult to buy or have access to enough food to feed families. These cash transfers help people with this very problem, by providing them with supplies of money they can use on food, or even further investments or trading. Currently, the LEAP project is optimistic that it will reach 250,000 households by 2015.

- Brock McNairy

SOURCE: allAfrica.com

Independent Report To Assess MDG Targets

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has decided to commission its first-ever independent report to track and assess national initiatives and progress towards achieving MDG goals, set a decade ago. With five years left until 2015 target, ECOWAS along with an international team of experts from Global South Group (GSG) started their member-states assessment with Ghana. The commission will meet government officials and various policy-decision makers to determine their success in poverty-reduction, education, gender equality, health, and environmental stability, and assess their gains using most recent data. Over a 5-month period, the commission will visit all 15 member states of ECOWAS. Their report will directly contribute to strengthen the regional integration process and track the success of the African states in attaining MDG goals.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: MTN GHANA FOUNDATION

Ghana Introduces First Solar Panels

Ghana historically suffers from consistent energy shortages. In hopes of easing these deficiencies, a Ghanaian company called Atlas Business and Energy Systems (ABES) introduced the country’s first locally produced solar panels Thursday.

Authorities are optimistic about the solar panels’ ability to meet the Ghana’s growing energy needs. Additionally, the solar panels support a local company, are cost-effective, and represent a more environmentally sound alternative to use of fossil fuels.

-Michelle Leung

Source: Africa Good News

President Obama Gives Speech in Ghana

President Barack Obama arrives to speak to the Parliament of Ghana in Accra, Saturday, July 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

During U.S. President Obama’s visit to Ghana, the 44^th President spoke in front of Ghana’s Parliament on June 11. In his speech, Obama praised Africa’s achievements, offered warnings and charity as well.

Ghana is one of Africa’s leading economic countries, which has demonstrated impressive rates of growth in its economy alongside countries like Botswana and Mozambique. However, Obama also noted the terrible conditions in countries like Zimbabwe, Sudan, Congo and Liberia where financial collapse is a very real threat and violence is a daily occurrence.

The President committed $63 billion to a comprehensive global strategy excluding the Global Poverty Act, which is another part of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. The bill would commit $854 billion, over the course of eleven years.

In relation to the bill, then Senator Obama stated, “We can – and must – make it a priority of our foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America’s standing in the world, this legislation will not only commit to reducing global poverty, but will also demonstrate our promise and support to those in the developing world."

-- Jaimie Hwang

Read Full Text of Obama's Speech Here.

Source: Digital Journal

President Obama Visits Ghana

President Obama made his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa on July 10-11, 2009, visiting Ghana after attending the G8 Summit in Italy. Obama is the third consecutive U.S. President to stop in Ghana, one of the top African nations that has consistently been reducing poverty and improving lives through economic growth.

Some Ghana stats:

• Ghanaian citizens have participated in five consecutive peaceful transitions of power. (See an overview Ghanaian elections here.)

• In 2004, the Ghanaian government announced the elimination of school fees for primary schools. This coupled with a new school feeding program, increased enrollment rates for primary school boys from 60% in 2004-2005 to 84% in 2007-2008, and girls from 58% to 82%.

• Ghana currently receives funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and is one of the 15 focus countries in the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI). PMI's work in Ghana aims to distribute more than one million bed nets, spray 100,000 houses with pesticides that kill mosquitoes carrying malaria, and to provide 1.2 million doses of malaria medicine to treat children under five.

• Ghana has a 5-year, $547 million compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), focused on agriculture, rural development and infrastructure improvement. During President George W. Bush's visit to Ghana in 2008, then President Kafuor renamed a main highway in Accra (a project of the MCC) the "George W. Bush Highway."

• Ghana has experienced 4-5% annual growth over the past 20 years, and has nearly halved its poverty rate since 1992, putting it on track to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal by 2015.

• In 2007, Ghana was the United States' tenth largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa and the sixth largest exporter to the U.S. (Compare even more key development stats between Ghana, Sub-Saharan Africa and the U.S. here).

President Obama’s recent trip to Ghana showcases the country’s success story as a concrete example of how targeted smart aid, joined with good governance, can lead to noticeable, positive change.

-- Jaimie Hwang

Source: ONE