Empower Women to transform Agriculture

The availability of credit to smallholder women farmers has been identified as one of the keys to a revolutionary increment in Agricultural production.
This is borne out of the fact that smallholder women farmers’ access to equal allocation of land, labour and capital with men in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia led to agricultural production increments between 10 to 20 percent more than that of their male counterparts.
Annina Lubbock, Senior Technical Advisor on Gender and Household Food Security of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) disclosed this during a panel discussion on Gender in Agriculture as part of activities marking an international conference organised by IFAD in Rome.
The conference, themed ‘Enabling Poor Rural People to Overcome Poverty’ was organised by IFAD in the wake of the global food crisis and financial predicament that has hit the world.
It served as a platform for bringing together agricultural experts of diverse background from 164 countries to brainstorm on issues ranging from problems encountered by smallholder farmers, the impact of climatic change and the land tenure system on agriculture to the challenges of promoting food security in the world.
Ms Lubbock said given that a one percent increment in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) as a result of an increment in agricultural production impacts on poverty four times as that of an increment derived from a non-agricultural source, developing countries stand to gain a lot by empowering women to step up agricultural production.
She said the present practise of giving micro-credit to women was not sufficient to effect a radical change in women’s participation in agriculture since the amount involved is so small that it is more likely to be diverted to cater for the health and nutritional needs of family members by buying drugs and food.
“However, if women receive big loans from banks, they can buy machinery and other agricultural inputs to boost food production”.
She called for a holistic approach to addressing the issues that hinder the efficiency of women’s participation in agriculture such as a huge domestic work load wrought about by the non-availability of water and health services.
“There is the need to free up time for women. If women would spend less time fetching water and caring for sick family members, they would have more time for agricultural activities”, Ms Lubbock said.
“Interventions such as the provision of a bore-hole or a better village water supply system and the provision of the appropriate health facilities and services would go a long way to enhance women’s participation in agriculture”, she emphasized.
David Stevenson, director of Policy Planning and Strategy Division of the World Food Programme (WFP) said of the 300 million small holder farmers in Africa, 70 percent are women.
Speaking at a round table discussion on the topic “Food price volatility and how to help smallholder farmers manage risks and uncertainty”, Mr Stevenson lamented that smallholder farmers are often marginalised and at the mercy of natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts and floods and usually account for 50 percent of people needing food assistance in the event of any disaster.
He said in view of the chronic need for food assistance, especially among the rural poor who are mostly smallholder farmers, WFP is shifting its strategy from food assistance to tackling the root cause of hunger.
He identified one of the causes of hunger as poor remuneration for smallholder farmers, saying, “returns to farmers are low hence they are constantly in a poverty trap” However, tremendous investments such as the school feeding program being promoted in some parts of Africa exist for farmers to sell their produce at economic prices.
He said part of WFP’s new strategy was to help promote market friendly solutions, adding that, the programme was currently looking at how payments for agricultural produce could be made to the 70 percent women farmers currently working in agriculture.

Animal diseases catch up with humans

About 90 percent of new human infectious diseases have their origins in animal diseases, Laurent Thomas, Director of the Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said.
Consequently, there is the need to address food chain emergencies by the timely prevention and control of animal and poultry diseases so as to prevent their spread into the human population.
Mr Thomas was speaking to a group of journalists from Media21 Geneva, a network of international journalists, in Rome at a panel discussion on “Feeding the World in 2050, Challenges and Possibilities” where he addressed the issue of “FAO’s Emergency Operations.
He said the FAO was currently paying attention to the incidence of avian
Influenza in poultry as part of measures to prevent disease pandemics that originate from the consumption of diseased poultry and animals.
He said steps were also being put in place to control locust infestation and new diseases such as UG 99, a wheat rust disease that originated in Uganda in 1999 and has now spread to Iran,
Mr Thomas expressed fears that if adequate steps were not taken to contain the spread of UG 99, which is now spreading in the direction of India, it could affect wheat production worldwide, reducing the availability of wheat which would in turn increase its price.
Outlining the activities of the FAO in disaster areas, he said 50 percent of its resources are related to emergency response hence the organisations decision to promote disaster risk management by inserting a notion of prevention and disaster impact mitigation in its activities. Other activities aimed at helping farmers and fishermen to recover from the impact of natural disasters have also been put in place.
Mr Thomas said this is of utmost importance to the FA0 since rural farmers and fishermen form the bulk of the victims of natural disasters which often occur in rural areas and impact heavily on rural agriculture, fishery and agro-forestry.
In addition, international aid agencies tend to focus solely on humanitarian activities hence the need for interventions by FAO to enable farmers and fishermen to rescue their agricultural activities.
Mr Josef Schidhuber, Senior Economist of the Global Perspectives Study Unit of the FAO, who addressed a topic on “Whether the world would be able to feed itself in the next 50 years” said problems confronting food security in the world are multi- dimensional and not confined to only food production but include issues such as access to land and incomes generated by farmers.
He said the world today has enough resources to feed itself since only a small percentage of its 4.2 billion hectares of land are under cultivation which is augmented by adequate global water resources in addition to a vast genetic potential that can be tapped.
However, energy prices and climate change pose a big challenge to future increases in agricultural production and ultimately food security over the next 50 years, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt of the effects of global warming.
Mr Schidhuber said Africa was set to double its population to two billion in the next forty years and this poses a challenge to food security on the continent while countries like Nigeria and Niger would face peculiar food security problems in the future.
This is because; Nigeria would have 75 percent of its population living in urban areas in the next fifty years which is bound to lead to a drastic change in population structure. The entire population would assume an urban character and become trade- oriented with a radical change in nutrition behaviour and consumption patterns.
Niger, on the other hand, has very little prospects for development since 10 million hectares out of its 11 million hectares of arable land are already under cultivation while its current 11 million population is set to reach 50 million over the next 50 years.
Niger’s economic prospects are thus gloomy since it has no other sources of income like tourism while, uranium, its only natural resource is being controlled by foreign hands.
Mr Schidhuber said the only way out for Niger would be a drastic reduction in fertility rate coupled with migration.

CHALLENGES OF EVENGELIZATION: CAN THE IRISH EXPERIENCE EVER TAKE PLACE IN AFRICA

Can you imagine a group of Irishmen crouched around 30 sacred large stones arranged in a circle on a hill overlooking the Irish Sea or Atlantic Ocean at midnight, as they peer into the night sky trying to discern the stars and the position of the moon in relation to the tide? And can you imagine this ritual being performed on a regular basis in a bid to seek guidance and good fortune from the forces that govern nature?
Or can you imagine an Irish king who lives in fear of an eclipse of the sun or moon because such an incident will be a sure proof of the displeasure of the gods with his stewardship and an end to his monarchy?
You may find it difficult to imagine or belief that such superstition once existed in Ireland which today is associated with a strong Christian tradition and culture with 88.4 percent of the population being Catholics!
But this is how the Druid priests of the peoples of the various clans that make up Ireland today practice their ancient religion which was rooted in astrology and the worship of nature.
Recounting the history of religion in Ireland, Dessie M’Callion of Heritage History Tours of Inishowen in Donegal, said Druid priests, formed an important part of the ancient peoples of Ireland as much as the Shanniky or historians who recorded the genealogy, misdeeds and good deeds of each member of the clan and the Bards who put this history into poetry that was sung.
“The power the Druid priests held over the peoples and chieftains of Ireland was based on their secret knowledge of astrology and magic which they used to rule them. They could not only predict an eclipse of the sun or moon but they used such natural occurrences to control the rulers and the peoples. Thy will tell a chieftain that an eclipse was a sign of displeasure by the gods signaling the end of his rule”, Mr. M’Callion said.
According to the dictionary of Irish myths and legend, the word ‘druid’ may have signified ‘oak knower’ or ‘knower of a great deal’. This is because Druids were associated with the oak tree, which they held in special reverence and ate acorns to prepare themselves to prophesy. The Druids were the next important group of people to the kings and their religious teachings included the immortality and transmigration of the soul. They worshipped the sun, the moon and idols, and probably offered human sacrifices to a particular idol called “Crom Cruach”. People offered in human sacrifice were normally prisoners taken in battle, criminals guilty of grave offences and even their own children.
They had a limited knowledge of medicine, studied the stars and read the secrets of the future from the position of the stars, the croaking of ravens and the chirping of wrens. On appointed occasions such as May Day or Midsummer Eve, druidical sun worshippers marched around the ritual stone circles, which also served as calendars, in a sun wise direction. Cattle were also passed through two fires lit by the Druid priests to protect them from disease.
Druid priests were not peculiar to Ireland but formed the priesthood of the ancient Celts who were found in Britain, Gaul and Ireland. However, whilst Gaulish druidism was stamped out in A.D. 54 and Britain little later, that of Ireland persisted until A.D 432 when it was stamped out by Saint Patrick.
The son of a Roman magistrate in Britain, Patrick was captured by the High king of Ireland at the time, known as Niall of the Nine Hostages, and sold into slavery to a pagan chief, Milchu of Antrim, in Ireland. King Niall became High king of Ireland by capturing hostages from the nine leading families of Ireland and forcing them to swear allegiance to him.
When Patrick managed to escape from his master after six year of a life of drudgery, he went to Rome where he studied for missionary work after which he was sent back to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity.
St Patrick’s first confrontation with the Druid priests was at Easter time, around the spring of A.D 431. “It was customarily and part of their rituals for the druid priests to light the first fires on ‘bealtine’, an important date in the druid calendar, to signify the New Year”, Mr. M’Callion said. However, while the fires of the druid priests were burning in the spring of that year, they saw another fire on the ‘Hill of Slane’. They interpreted this as a challenge to their power and authority and St Patrick was summoned before the Druid priests and the High king, who was Laoire, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages who had taken Patrick captive in his youth.
Unshaken by the threats of the Druid priests, St Patrick went on to disprove their power and authority. The magic spells and portions cast on him by the Druid priests did not harm him thus undermining their power and authority before the High King and his peoples. St Patrick proved to the High king that he longer needed the Druid priests to rule and told him the eclipse of the sun and moon were a natural phenomena.
Thus, the high king of Ireland adopted this new belief which liberated him from his dependency on the Druid priests. Very speedily, St Patrick had the entire Irish population Christianized
Dear reader, you may be wondering, “why this article on St Patrick. Don’t we know enough about him already? The work of St Patrick in Ireland is an eye-opener for all communication students of the Pontifical Gregorian University, especially those from Africa. Missionaries had already been sent to Ireland from the church in Rome for several years to convert the pagan Irish to Catholicism. But it took the wisdom, foresight and experience of one man, St Patrick, to turn the whole of Ireland to Christianity. So what were the strengths of St Patrick that set him apart from earlier missionaries, making him “to do what Napoleon could not do”. His strength was that he “took the bull by the horns”. He went straight for the pillar around which paganism revolved, the Druid priests and their secret knowledge of astrology, and toppled it over.
The Druid priests of Ireland have strong parallels in contemporary African culture in the form of sorcerers, witchdoctors, soothsayers and fetish priests, who have persisted despite the fact that Christianity has been in Africa for several decades. Why have these forms of worship not been stamped out and why has the Irish experience of wholesale conversion eluded African missionaries for several years. The answers can be found by examining the strengths of St Patrick.
First of all, St Patrick had first hand knowledge of Irish culture, thanks to the time he spent as a slave among the Irish. This gives credence to the biblical passage that “all works for good for them that love the Lord” He knew the language and spoke it very well, much to the chagrin of the other missionaries who neither understood the culture nor spoke the language.
Secondly, in his bid to evangelize the Irish, St Patrick dismantled their belief system by exposing the Druid priests as frauds. With the resulting vacuum that was created, Christianity was easily absorbed by the High King, the chieftains and the peoples as they groped for a new belief system to lean on.
Thirdly, having evangelized the Irish, St Patrick was not consumed by complacency but set about the process of inculturation to consolidate Christianity as an authentic Irish religion. According to Mr. M’callion, it took St Patrick and his men eight years to gather all the Brehon laws, traditional Irish laws which covered all aspects of Irish life from wood gathering to how aged people in Irish society should be treated, into what he called the “great old law” (shanchuas mor). Laws that were found to be compatible with Christianity were incorporated into the Christian faith. Those found to be in conflict were supplanted by biblical teachings.
In contrast, these three processes did not take place at the time when Africans were first introduced to Christianity. Rather, attempts were often made by the early missionaries to wipe out what they described as “heathen practices” and replace them with their own. Learning the language and culture and attempts at inculturation normally occurred as an afterthought, after initial attempts at evangelization had failed to produce the desired results and familiarity with the new religion had already bred contempt among non converts, making it more difficult to convince them.
The result was often outright resistance or half- hearted conversion resulting in half-baked Christians, who run back to the old religion; sorcerers, witchdoctors and soothsayers, for help when life in their new faith become intolerable. This back and forth movement of Christians to and from traditional African religious practices still presents a challenge and is an indication that such converts are not yet aware of the power and potential inherent in them as Christians and that they do not need the old religion to make it in life.
So what does this tell students of communication? Having a vibrant faith is not enough to evangelize. The first missionaries who went to Africa had a strong faith and were zealous to evangelize. They set out at the risk of death to the “white mans grave” and the “mosquito coast”. But what they lacked was an effective system of evangelization. The danger is that, despite all the training we have received at the Pontifical Gregorian University, we may still be found wanting and unprepared for issues on the ground.
The first problem is that of culture. Even though we often use the phrase “African Culture”, in reality, there is nothing like “African culture” since culture in Africa is not homogenous but varies greatly from one ethnic group to the other. Hence, what is acceptable in village “A” may be a taboo in village “B” even though they may be only a few kilometers apart. In village “C”, a woman’s virginity may be revered while in village “D”, virginity is frowned down upon and the virgin bride becomes the laughing stock among women in her husband’s household.
This poses a challenge to African missionaries themselves and they should not assume that their cultural values hold true for other ethnic groups. It calls for a non-stop process of studying new cultures in which one finds himself instead of making assumptions based on past knowledge of other cultures.
Closely linked to the issue of culture is that of language. Over 50 different languages are spoken in Ghana alone while Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, can boast of over a 100 languages. In Ghana, two parishes, the Bolgatanga and Navorongo dioceses which are separated by just 18 miles speak two very different languages, requiring that priests be fluent in both languages in order to reach the majority of the population. Whilst English is the official language of Ghana and Nigeria, the high illiteracy rate in these countries, which is the same for most African nations, makes English ineffective for reaching most of the population with any kind of information.
But language plays a crucial role in any evangelization process. “I belief the inability of the British to speak the Gaelic language made their efforts at spreading Protestantism in Ireland unsuccessful”, says M’ Callion. “This was in spite of the fact that at that time, Catholicism in Ireland had sunk to its lowest ebb and long after Pope Gregory VII, who ruled from 1076 to 1085 had passed the celibacy law, Irish priests still continued to marry up to the 16 century, even though it was frowned upon by Rome. Names like Mc Taggart, which means “son of the priest” and Gillespe, which means “boy of the Bishop” became entrenched in Irish culture”.
“Catholicism in Ireland at that time was a far cry from what it was in earlier centuries when schools in Ireland became places of refuge, making it the leading light of Christianity throughout Europe. People seeking refuge from warring tribes in Northern Europe arrived in Ireland with sacred relics and manuscripts”, said M’Callion.
Hence, during the dark days when Europe was struck by the plague and other diseases and Christianity all but disappeared from mainland Europe, it flourished in Ireland. Explaining how Catholicism declined in Ireland, M’ Callion said, “From the 11 century onwards, Irish missionaries went back into Europe to set up schools and colleges. As they left, Ireland again fell into its role as backwater, had its own brand of Christianity and the celibacy rule had no effect on it”.
Britain’s efforts at turning Ireland into a protestant enclave without first mastering Gaelic did not only fail but provided the impetus needed for Ireland to subscribe to the laws of Rome. This was in spite of the Penal Laws which Britain enacted to persecute Catholics and Presbyterians alike. The laws among other things, denied education to Catholics, prohibited them from owning firearms, land and a horse valued more than five pounds. Priests were abolished from the land and seminaries were closed down. The head of a priest carried the same prize as that of a wolf. Presbyterian marriages were not recognized; their children were illegitimate and could not inherit property according to British law. The Penal Laws were repealed for Catholics in 1829 and for Presbyterians in 1845.
The defiance of the Irish against British efforts to convert them to Protestantism proves that the initial evangelization carried out by St Patrick was not only strong enough to root out paganism but also strong enough to resist later attempts to reconvert them to a different Christian teaching. This brings into mind the biblical story on evangelization, depicted by the parable of the sower; Mathew 13, 1-8, 19-23.
If the catholic faith had not been deeply rooted in the Irish, the “cares of the world” which were denied them under the Penal Laws such as the right to land, to own a horse and firearms, would have been a stumbling block and finally destroyed their faith. Instead, it turned out to strengthen and purify their faith. This seems to be the reverse in Africa. Most often, the “cares of the world” strangles the faith of professing Catholics. Prolonged sickness and disease turns people away from the church to witchdoctors. Even a single nightmare can send a seemingly devout Christian scrambling off after soothsayers looking for an interpretation. Catholic politicians in Africa have been known to seek the power of voodoo or juju to help them win elections and illiterate witchdoctors and soothsayers guide educated politicians during political campaigns. The faith of leaders in authority does not serve as a counter check on corruption, even though these corrupt leaders may be active in church. Hence, there exists a dichotomy between the lives of professing Catholics and the faith that they profess. This again poses another major challenge to missionary work in Africa. Not only is there the need to convert people from paganism but even those who have supposedly been converted need to be reconverted.
This demands that, this time around, we need to do our homework well as communicators of the Catholic faith if we are to have any impact on Africa. In this regard, efforts at inculturation are in the right direction since this is the only way Christianity can be integrated into the lives of Africa to ensure that Christianity takes root as proved by the works of St Patrick in Ireland.
If one defines hegemony as the dominance of one group over the other, with or without brute force, then inculturation is essentially a process of cultural hegemony where aspects of the culture of the evangelized people are incorporated into the dominant religion, which in this case is Christianity. They thus identify with it and accept it thus ensuring that Christianity becomes rooted in their lives. Whether we like it or not, cultural hegemony that allows African cultural perspectives to be skewed in favor of Christianity remains the key to effective and sustainable evangelization in Africa, as exemplified by the accomplishments of St Patrick in Ireland.

Natural Resource and Environmental Governance: The Role of Civil Society

Fifty years after the Mole Game Reserve was established, displaced inhabitants of the area and communities along its fringes still do not understand what the issue of wildlife conservation is all about.
“We are waiting for government to decide whether we should die for the game reserve to exist”, Alhaji Ibrahim Awudu Jaa, chief of Laribanga near the game reserve told RUMNET.
The 4,480km2 Game Reserve situated at Damongo in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region saw the displacement of several communities, including Kunkua, Dushie, Gbantariga, Jang, Belipong, Salakowo and Bugubeli.
For Chief Awudu Jaa, the establishment of the Mole Game Reserve in 1958 is the bitterest experience that he and his people were forced to endure, with the wounds still bleeding even after 50 years.
“We lost our crops; millet, maize, cassava, yam and even mango plantations”, he moaned.
The affected farmers were forced to move their farms as far as 10 miles away from their original farms. But even then, nemesis caught up with them.
“Due to constant invasion by elephants, we do not harvest much. The elephants have also muddied our dug-outs and ponds from which we used to drink so we do not have clean drinking water”, Chief Awudu Jaa said.
The scenario enumerated above simply illustrates how painful the opportunity cost of attempts at conservation, management and exploitation of natural resources can be to those directly affected if it is not implemented with a human face.
This then calls for a change in policy in the implementation of such programs since certain sections of the population cannot always be forced to sacrifice their homes, farmlands and other sources of livelihood without the commensurate compensation in addition to programs to equip them to move on with their lives.
It is in this regard that the proposed program document on Natural Resources and Environmental Governance (NREG) which is being supported by the International Development Association (IDA) is a step in the right direction.
In its definition of ‘what is Natural Resource and Environmental Governance’, the program spells out seven essential elements.
These include “institutions and laws relating to who makes and enforces rules for governing natural resources, participation and representation of the public, authority level(from local to international ) over natural resources, property rights and tenure over natural resources, impacts of markets and financial flows on natural resources and the environment, how ecological and social science is incorporated into decisions on natural resources use to reduce risks and identify new opportunities and accountability of those who manage natural resources and transparency of their actions.
Clearly, most of these elements were left out in earlier programs that bordered on natural resources. Taking the Mole game reserve again as a test case, the indigenes living in and around the Game reserve were never informed, let alone consulted, when Government decided to establish the game reserve. Thus, the participation and representation of the public was overlooked.
According to a research conducted by Mason in 1993, the first time the indigenes realized the fauna and flora which had provided them with food and meat for generations was no longer in their possession was when a newly appointed Game Warden and his rangers made their first arrest of a hunter in the area for hunting within the boundary of what had become the Mole Game reserve.
Unknown to them, the paramount chief and the Damongo Traditional Council had been consulted on the issue. The phenomenon of chiefs not informing their subjects about decisions they have taken that affect their livelihood persists even to this day.
The people of Jangol-Nakura, a village near Kpacha on the Yendi road were never informed when their farmlands were leased to Biofuel Africa for the cultivation of jatropha. According to Alhassan Wumbei, caretaker chief of the village, he was never consulted.
“The other chief (meaning the paramount chief) gave the land to them (meaning Biofuel Africa). It consists of several hectares of land. I have never seen it (jatropha). It was not there when we first settled here. We do not know anything about it. We do not know its benefits”, Naa Wumbei said.
When asked what he and his inhabitants did when they saw this strange plant growing on their farmlands, Naa Wumbei said “We have shifted our farms further inland. The land belongs to the paramount chief. We were not consulted before it was given out. We have no say”.
Normally, it is due to the failure of government and other implementers of programs on natural resource to court the interest of communities that have been directly affected that makes them feel alienated and hostile to such programs.
Hostilities between game wardens and indigenes of the Mole Game Reserve are rife. Game wardens have been mandated to shoot poachers on sight. Hence, a number of poachers have been shot dead while Game Wardens have also come under fire by poachers who believe they are being denied what is their rightful heritage.
The protection of natural resource dependent communities was listed as one area where the government faces serious challenges under the objectives of the IDA document while a Letter on Development Policy by the government under its NREG program has also identified insufficient involvement of communities in resource management as a problem.
The NREG is being funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Department for International Development (DFID), the French Development Agency, the European Union and the World Bank.
It is in this vein that the government hopes to strengthen the participation of civil society in natural resource policy making so that it can contribute to arrangements on resource allocation. This would also make the dissemination of information at the grassroots to those directly affected by natural resource programs more effective.
Such a step, however, necessitates that civil society should be given the ability to perform; so one of the aims of the NREG is to enhance the capacity of civil society to engage in the policy dialogue and to be able to hold government accountable for its actions.
Thus, a civil society facility, KASA that would support the capacity of civil society organizations was designed last year. It would among other things help improve cross- sectoral environmental management by being involved in the formal inter-ministerial forum on environment and sustainable development.
The KASA Programme, which is being jointly implemented by CARE, ICCO and SNF and supported by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, is running an Interim civil society support mechanism for two years.
The programme seeks to strengthen the capacity of civil society, research and media organizations to advocate in a concerted for equitable access, accountability, and transparency in natural resource and environmental governance throughout Ghana with the aim of reducing poverty.
Given that Ghana’s economy has long been fuelled by natural resources, which make up 15 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), generates 25 percent of government revenue and accounts for 60 percent of foreign exchange, with over 70 percent of its population dependent on natural resources for food, water and energy requirements, the establishment of KASA is long overdue.
This is because the exploitation of natural resources cannot be halted in as much as people cannot be asked to stop drinking or eating, nor can the government put a halt to the exportation of produce from our natural resources because it constitutes one of the strongest pillars of its financial base.
What is needed then is to apply wisdom and caution in the exploitation, management and conservation of natural resources so that one does not exterminate the “goose that lays the golden eggs” nor bring untold hardship to some sectors of its population. This exactly is what is being spearheaded under the NREG.
For instance, a Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) conducted in 2007, revealed that Ghana’s natural resource base is at a transition point with its forests and non-timber forest stock rapidly depleting while wildlife populations and biodiversity are in crucial decline.
So apart from protecting natural resource dependent communities, one other challenge the government seeks to redress under NREG in a bid to secure the natural resource base is to reduce environmental degradation.
In line with this, KASA would provide platforms for civil society dialogue on key issues in the NREG program and support some organizations with core grants or project grants in addition to providing training to civil society and the media in advocacy and research.
Perhaps, if a mechanism such as KASA or the NREG programme had been in place 50 years ago which allows the participation of civil society in the management, allocation and exploitation of natural resources, the establishment of the Mole Game Reserve would not have brought in its wake massive distress and disintegration of indigene communities.
This is because, since the establishment of the game reserve, there has been a steady decline in the socio-economic status of households and individuals among communities in the area. Rural urban migration is at its peak with young boys seeking jobs as farmhands and teenage girls working as head-porters (Kayayee) on farms and in cities in the southern sector respectively leaving behind ‘ghost’ communities.

1.6 Million People ‘Smoked ‘to Death Every Year

About 1.6 million people worldwide of which 60 percent are women die from smoke related diseases each year as a result of inhaling wood smoke emanating from inefficient cook stoves in poorly ventilated kitchens.
The phenomenon, known as indoor air pollution, is due to the emission of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and particulates from solid fuels such as firewood, charcoal, crop residue and dung, collectively referred to as biomass.
This was contained in a report entitled ‘Energizing the Millennium Development Goals’s’, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which sought to establish the link between energy poverty and under-development and the need for improved energy services to the rural and urban poor in order to realize the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) .
The report said worldwide, 2.4 billion people, more than one third of the world population, rely on biomass as their principal energy source for cooking, which impacts dearly on the lives of women and girls who spend a bulk of their time collecting firewood, crop residue or dung for cooking.
Furthermore, women spend a lot of time and energy manually processing food in the form of dehusking, threshing and grinding before cooking, which together with the time spent on searching for biomass represents a huge opportunity cost for women.
This is because women are denied opportunities for more productive activities such as education and employment and also fail to get the necessary amount of rest.

Corruption Promotes poverty

Unless Ghana institutes adequate steps to stem out corruption from both the public and private sectors of its economy, all efforts geared towards promoting development and curbing poverty would remain unsuccessful.
“There can be no effective reduction of poverty strategy without emphasis on combating corruption”, Mrs. Florence Dennis, Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition (GACC) said in Tamale. She was speaking at a Regional Policy Dialogue for representatives of member organizations of the GACC and other stakeholders in the fight against corruption.
Mrs Dennis said “Many of the consequences of corruption are well known and documented: they include under-development, unfavourable climate for national and international investment, lack of resources for basic services, lack of confidence in governmental systems and the threat to democracy and governability.
She sited the case of the decentralization policy and local government reform programme which was aimed at promoting participatory development by making local government more responsive to local needs, and guarantee efficient and effective service delivery and accountability to stakeholders. Susequently, the local government Act, 1993 (Act 462) was passed to cater for the administrative, political and fiscal mandates of the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to whom authority was being transferred from central government ministries, departments and agencies.
While the district chief executive is important to the decentralization of local government, recent developments arising from the dissatisfaction of the populace over the choice of district , municipal and metropolitan chief executives poses a big challenge to the success of the process.

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Ghana needs over a billion dollars to protect shoreline

Ghana needs a total of 1.14 billion US dollars to protect parts of its 550 kilometre shoreline that are at risk of being washed away by the sea in the wake of rising sea levels fueled by climate change.
The endangered shorelines that are being considered for protection are those with populations greater than 10 persons per kilometre square.
Some areas of Ghana’s shoreline are well below sea level, making them very vulnerable to sea erosion with the eastern coast of Ghana currently being subjected to an alarming rate of erosion of three metres per anuum.
This was contained in a document entitled ‘Climate change and the Ghanaian Economy’, prepared and released by the Environmental Protection Agency at a KASA CSO training in Tamale which was attended by non-governmental and civil society organizations working in the areas of climate change and environmental protection. It said the cost of protecting only important parts of the shoreline at risk would reduce the cost to 590 million US dollars.
The document noted that most of Ghana’s infrastructure, particularly, industry, and her only two ports at Tema and Takoradi are along the coast. Thus, a rise in sea level, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and flooding would not only have significant impacts on coastal communities but on the country’s economy as a whole.
It said historical data on Ghana’s climate observed by the Ghana Meteorological Agency across the country over a forty year period from 1960 to 2000 shows a progressive and discernible rise in temperature and a concomitant decrease in rainfall in all agro-ecological zones of the country. Future climate change scenarios developed on the basis of the forty year observed data also indicate that temperature would continue to rise progressively on an average of about 0.6, 2.0, and 3.9 degrees Celsius by the year 2020.
The document stated that recent studies carried out to determine the vulnerability of agriculture to climate change in Ghana indicate that climate change, through the fuelling of extreme weather conditions, would worsen food security by reducing crop yields. Maize yield is expected to drop by seven percent by 2020 if the current trend in climate change continues unabated.
Episodic drought and habitat destruction brought on by water stress would render inland fisheries more vulnerable while ocean warming would modify ocean currents with possible impacts on coastal marine fisheries. Farming systems that are predominantly along river banks would also suffer during periods of intense rainfall that result in floods.
The document stressed the need for action to nib the impact of climate change on Ghana in the bud since an increase in damaging floods, dust storms and other extreme weather conditions would damage settlements and infrastructure, paving the way for epidemics that would undermine the health of Ghanaians and expose them to a lot of suffering and hardship.
Climate change might also exacerbate desertification, since the two are inextricably linked through feedbacks between land degradation and precipitation. Hence, by altering the spatial and temporal patterns in temperature, rainfall, solar insulation and winds, climate change could worsen desertification. On the other hand, desertification aggravates carbon dioxide induced climate change through the release of carbon dioxide from cleared and dead vegetation and the reduction of the carbon sequestration potential of desertified land.
The document therefore stressed the need to integrate climate change in sectors such as water management and agriculture: including the cultivation of cereals and root tubers, fisheries and cocoa production as well as the health, energy, coastal infrastructure, tourism and disaster management sectors. “The challenge is to understand the additional vulnerability introduced by climate change and to reorient current policies, plans, programmes and practices to take climate change into consideration”, it stated.
It observed that, “many of the changes required in the transition to mainstreaming are not very costly in financial terms but require changes in existing institutions, legislations, policies and infrastructural design” and stressed the need for international financial support in the short to medium term to assist this transition in Ghana.
“This support should be integrated into the national budget framework and co-ordinated by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment and its implementing agencies, particularly, Environmental Protection agency, to allow Ghana to assess climate change against other priorities to ensure that adaptation is not seen as a standalone activity”.
The document pointed out that, in order for Ghana to achieve its long term development goals such as the Ghana Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), climate change should be integrated into development issues. “The diversity in agro-climactic regimes across the country from savanna grassland to tropical rainforest with differing degrees of temporal variability make discussions on climate change for Ghana challenging”
Nonetheless, in order to enhance the capacity of Ghana to cope with climate change and reduce poverty, it is necessary to link climate change adaptations and response mechanisms to the livelihoods of the people to enhance the resilience of the poor and vulnerable and increase their capacity to cope with climate variability.

Institute Steps to Stem out Waste in the Sheanut Industry

About 80 percent of sheanuts in the Northern Region remain unharvested and go to waste in the wild due to the lack of a comprehensive system that allows sheanut pickers to delve deep into the wild to pick the nuts.
Sheanut picking is normally done by women in the rural areas who limit themselves to a distance about two to three mile radius from their communities. Hence, they are not able to reach out into the wild where the bulk of sheanut trees abound and thrive.
Furthermore, the women are constrained by other household chores such as fetching water, milling grain and cooking. Hence, they have to limit sheanut picking to between 12 noon to 2pm to enable them to attend to these chores.
Mr Adam Iddrissu Alidu, Municipal Agricultural Officer in charge of Plant Protection and Regulatory Services (PPRS) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) disclosed this in an interview on problems militating against the maximum utilization of natural resources in the Northern region especially and Ghana as a whole.
Mr Alidu said sheanut picking is normally carried out on foot by women who have no access to wellington boots, bicycles or motorbikes to allow them to travel longer distances. In addition, the ability to carry the nuts back to their communities on their heads limits them to only what they are capable of carrying.
He said given the regions settlement pattern with communities situated far away from each other, a distance of just 20 miles between communities would mean that sheanut trees along a distance of between 14 to 16 miles may never be reached by the pickers.
“Nobody has ever passed under some sheanut trees not to talk of picking nuts from them, and there are scores and scores of such trees in the wild”, Mr Alidu said.
He said in order for the country to fully maximize the utilization of sheanuts, it would be necessary to come out with a project that would provide transport to sheanut pickers to enable them to reach where they cannot reach. It would also be essential to provide silos or storage facilities at vantage points in the wild where the sheanuts can be heaped and even processed and parceled before they are moved into the communities.
Mr Alidu said the under-utilisation of natural resources is not only limited to sheanut trees but to the dawadawa and other trees which grow in the wild but are very beneficial as food and medicine to the human population. For instance the seed in the fruit of the dawadawa tree is processed into a spice that does not only make meals tastier but is rich in protein and vitamins. It also has medicinal properties, chief among them being its ability to lower blood pressure hence it is highly sought after from people suffering from high blood pressure.
The yellow powder surrounding the seed of the dawadawa tree is normally milled and separated from the seed and used in the preparation of porridge. It can also be eaten in its powder form or mixed with water to form a syrup.
Mr Alidu therefore called on governmental as well as non-governmental organizations as a matter of urgency to come out with projects that would allow the nation to fully harness and utilize its natural resources to their fullest potential.

Rural Women Celebrate Their Achievements

Save the Sheabutter Industry, Plead Rural Women
By Bernice Agyekwena
Rural Women involved in sheabutter extraction have called on government to devise a strategy to promote the local utilization and consumption of sheabutter in order to save the industry.
Wheareas in the past the local consumption and utilization of sheabutter was high enough for women involved in its extraction to earn a living from it, the situation today is different due to the preference for imported cooking oil and cosmetic creams for cooking and taking care of the body and hair respectively.
Speaking at a durbar to mark ‘Rural Women’s day” at Sagnerigu, a suburb of Tamale, Madam Fulera Yakubu, Makazia of the Pagasogni Sheabutter Group, said even though women engaged in sheabutter extraction have tried to add value to their produce by producing body creams and putting them in attractive packages, they cannot compete favourably on the market with imported products because they lack the technology and expertise to bring them up to world standards.
It therefore behoves on government to provide the appropriate technology and expertise that would ensure the production of edible oil, body creams and hair creams from sheabutter that meet the tastes and standards of today for the Ghanaian market.
Standing amidst numerous packing cases of sheabutter that had failed to find buyers on the market, Madam Yakubu said rural women may have to quit sheabutter extraction if nothing is done to help them access the local as well as the international market since they cannot even realize their capital, not to talk of profit, when they invest in it.
Mr Iddi Abubakari, of Action Aid, said this year’s International Rural Women’s day is being celebrated under the theme ‘Rural Women at the heart of Innovation’. He said the day was mooted at the Beijing Conference in 1995 and in December 2007 was officially declared as a yearly celebration by article 62/136 under the United Nations General Assembly. This was in recognition of the contributions by rural women in enhancing agriculture and food security, eradicating rural poverty and promoting the development of their communities and countries as a whole.
Mr Abubakari said reports by the International labour Organization indicate that 68 percent of women in sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in agriculture with rural women participating in livestock and food production, provision of fuel wood, performance of on-farm and off-farm duties, caring for children and undertaking other domestic chores. All these functions point to women’s creativity and engagement in a wide array of activities.
Yet, in spite of all this, women and girls continue to be the most disadvantaged in society, face a lot of inequalities and are discriminated against with respect to their male counterparts. Hence, Action Aid as a pro-poor organization views addressing the power balance between men and women as a core intervention area which has necessitated the organization’s interest in the celebration of the day.
Mr. Abubakari said in spite of efforts by the UN and other international bodies to recognize the role of women in society, a lot still needs to be achieved especially when one considers the fact that inequalities and discrimination is still high in terms of access to education, health care, income generating activities and employment opportunities among several others. Hence, the durbar which was organized and sponsored by Action Aid was to allow women to showcase the products of their ingenuity and creativity in their efforts to contribute to community and national development.
Mr. Sumai Osman, an Official of Africa 2000 Network, said the perception that women are always in the kitchen is outmoded since development in the modern world cannot be achieved by men alone. In addition, women are not able to achieve much because they are most often denied the necessary education that would enable them contribute more. “As a nation, there cannot be effective development without the participation of women and they can only participate effectively when they are educated”, he said.
Mr. Osman appealed to people in the region to strive and maintain peace in the region to ensure that investors continue to invest in the country to speed up its economic development, saying. “Investors come to Ghana because there is peace. No investor would like to invest in an atmosphere of chaos.”