WFP PROJECT TARGETS OVER 400,000 VULNERABLE PEOPLE IN NORTHERN GHANA

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a food security and nutrition programme intended to ameliorate the food and nutritional values of vulnerable households and also create job opportunities for people in the three Northern Regions of Ghana.

Under the theme: “Building Resilience for food security and nutrition in Northern Ghana”, the project is expected to support 423,250 people across the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions of Ghana with relief and recovery activities over a two year period.

The project dubbed: “Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO)” which was launched on August 6, 2010 in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital will involve 27,785 metric tones of food assistance valued at USD$22 million dollars.

According to WFP Head of Programme, NguyenDuc Hoang, between 2008 and 2009, two surveys conducted informed the formulation of the PRRO.

“The first nationwide food security survey called the ‘Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis in 2008’, and an impact assessment of the ‘Global Crisis on Vulnerable Households in Ghana’ was conducted in 2009”, he recalled.

Mr. Hoang, said the findings of these surveys confirmed that the three Northern Regions remain the most food-insecure areas in Ghana with Upper West topping the table with 34%, Upper East 15%, Northern 10%, Ashanti 7% and Eastern 4%, followed by the five remaining regions

He pointed out that the surveys recommended that efforts are stepped-up to help those who have been severely affected by droughts, floods and food price increases.

The WFP Head of Programme explained that based on these findings and in line with the objectives of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authourity (SADA), this PRRO was developed to improve the food and nutritional security of vulnerable people in Northern Ghana who have been severely affected by multiple shocks over the past three years- repeated floods and droughts in 2007, high cost of food particularly staple foods in 2008 and the impact of the global economic downturn in 2009.

Under the relief component of the project, four main activities will be carried out including the sustainability of contingency emergency stockpile of food for flood and drought-prone areas in the three regions, giving special attention to the elderly especially sick or disabled refugees who remain in Ghana whiles the supplementary feeding programme of WFP, a safety-net for malnourished children, pregnant women and nursing mothers will be extended to districts in the beneficiary regions hit by high cost of food and acute malnutrition.

An innovative aspect of this project is the introduction of support to People Living With HIV on Anti-Retroviral Therapy and their families. This aspect addresses the Ghana Aids Commission’s concern that food security is a major impediment to the adherence of HIV treatment. Thus, 12,000 patients and 48,000 of their household members will receive highly nutritious food to ensure patients compliance with the ARTs treatment.

Also, the recovery component consists of food for work also known as food for assets, food for training and income generating activities. In partnership with government agencies and NGOs, vulnerable food-insecure groups of people will participate in food-for-work activities aimed at slowing land degradation and soil erosion in flood-affected areas.

Community members will be given food incentives in exchange for work on vital infrastructure such as desilting small dams and dugouts, constructing stonewalls, replicating seedlings, reforesting riverbanks and other climate-change adaptation and mitigation activities. The goal of this is to help reduce rural-urban migration by providing alternative work opportunities to some 100,000 people in food insecure areas.

Over 24,000 of the most food-insecure groups of people that are at highest risk of acute hunger, such as shea-nut harvesters, small-scale food processors, agro pastoralists, food and cash crop farmers, and daily labourers, will be targeted with food incentives for training activities. They will spend time learning new skills that increase the food security of their households and communities. Some of the activities being considered are seedling cultivation, tree nurseries, agricultural extension, training on how to fortify milled maize and other cereals, and how to rebag and retail iodised salt.