WFP’s Food-For-Work Initiative Creates 300 Ha Forest Plantations

Tree plants prepared for planting

Arguably, nearly all the causative factors of negative climate change effects and environmental degradation in many parts of Northern Ghana are human induced. Talk of bush burning, indiscriminate felling of trees, charcoal production, overgrazing by ruminants and bad farming practices among others, and the results are too glaring for everyone to see.   

The 1952 Forest Inventory Record of Ghana indicates that the total tree cover of the three regions of the North was 41,600 kilometres square, representing 46% of the total land area of the entire North. 

However, by 1996 approximately 40% of the woodland was estimated to have been exposed to acute soil erosion and other human activities, meaning that about 38,000 hectares of tree cover are lost yearly in the three regions.

Thus, one wonders why some residents of the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions of Ghana are refusing to come to terms with the fact that, their persistent abuse of the natural environment is negatively affecting their sources of livelihoods.

Luckily however, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has in recent years initiated a recovery operation aimed at assisting over 400,000 people in these regions, who have been badly hit by recurrent floods, droughts and rising food prices in domestic markets.

Most  of  these people are  participating  in what WFP call “food-for-work” –a programme  that  supports  the  re-construction  of  vital  community infrastructure such as desilting of dug-outs and creation of forest plantations through beneficiaries as source of labour and giving them (beneficiaries) food rations after engaging them to do the work. 

A woman cooking her share of the WFP food ration

Recently the WFP according to Nasigri Mahamadu, Assistant Manager in charge of Operations at the Walewale Forestry Services Division of the Forestry Commission, presented a total of 75 bags of white beans, 746 bags of white maize, 500 gallons of edible oil and 15 bags of iodated salt to 13 communities in the West Mamprusi, Mamprugu Moaduri and Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo Districts in the Northern Region.

The beneficiaries, he noted, include Mishio, Moshefongu/Walewale and Zua in the West Mamprusi District; Tantala and Daboseisi in Mamprugu Moaduri District as well as Jinlik number 1, Jinlik number 2, Yunyoo, Gbetmumpaak, Kauk, Namongo and Chintilung in the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District.

Mr. Nasigri told Savannahnews in an interview, that the donation, which was the second in 2013 with the same quantity as the first one presented in early April/May, was in line with the food-for-work initiative implemented by WFP and supported also by the Forestry Services Division. A total of 323 residents comprising of 173 men and 150 women in all 13 communities benefited from the food ration, he disclosed. 

According to Mr. Nasigri, a total of 323 hectares of forest plantations had also been created across all communities in the three districts, adding that, trees planted included cashew, moringa, acacia, teak, ceiba, eucalyptus, neem, grafted mangoes and mahogany for the purposes of medicine, woodlot for fuel wood, local building construction, food and income as well as carbon sequestration and desertification control.

Ghanasco Gets New Dormitory Block But Still in Need

Mrs. Lordina Mahama

The Ghana Senior High School in the Northern Regional town of Tamale has been provided with a new girls’ dormitory block to ease the pressure on limited accommodation facilities confronting the school.

The 700 bed dormitory block in a two storey building which was officially commissioned and handed over at a brief ceremony by the First Lady of the Republic Mrs. Lordina Mahama, was one of two functions lined up for her to perform during her visit to the Northern Region.

Ahead of the commissioning of the girls dormitory at Ghana Senior High School (Ghanasco), Mrs. Mahama also performed a groundbreaking ceremony at Gambaga in the East Mamprusi District for the construction of a vocational Training Institute.

The Gambaga project, when completed, would provide skills training to women and young girls in the area to enable them earn incomes. “….women have a lot to contribute to the life of our societies. A woman’s dignity and fundamental rights must therefore be respect”, she said in a statement.

The First Lady continued: “….Let us help our women to pursue meaningful careers, enjoy full inclusion and integration into the mainstream of our Ghanaian society”, she charged. 

In addition to the project, a demonstration block with offices and dormitories; a single storey hostel and other facilities; and a six-unit classroom block would also be constructed spanning within two years.

At Ghanasco, her alma mater, Mrs. Mahama also noted that, the most important areas to advance socio-economic development were the provision of quality education for citizens of this country, adding that “government will continue to expand access while improving the quality of education at all levels.”

The Headmistress of Ghanasco Mrs. Mary Asobayire Dan-Braimah, said the handing over of the new girls dormitory would go a long way to ameliorate the accommodation problems that was currently facing the school.

However, she added that, the school still needed more accommodation facilities citing lack of an Assembly Hall, incinerators, and other resources. She therefore, appealed to government and other philanthropic organisations to come to the aid of the school.

Too Much Advocacy For Girls Disadvantageous To Boys –GJA Chairman

Caesar Abagali, N/R GJA Chairman

The Northern Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Caesar Abagali has said that, the rate at which rights advocates were unrelentingly advocating for the education of the girl child was somehow also disadvantageous to the empowerment of the boy child.

He observed that, currently a lot of resources, time and attention were deliberately being devoted by government and most especially non-governmental organisations towards the empowerment of girls through education.

Mr. Abagali however, noted that, if care was not taken a time would come when those advocating for girls would have to start doing same for the boys because they were overemphasizing the importance of female education and relegating that of boys to the background. “I can tell you that, many boys are increasingly losing interest in school and dropping out to engage in menial jobs”, he stated. 

He continued “I’m one of those who always hold the view that, if you are a beautiful girl but an illiterate, you’ll get an educated man to marry when you grow up. But the same cannot be said about a boy who is handsome but an illiterate.”

Mr. Abagali who is also the Manager of the Northern Regional Bureau of the Ghana News Agency said this in Tamale at a sensitisation and training workshop on child labour organized by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in collaboration with the Northern Regional chapter of the GJA for journalists.

The overall purpose of the workshop was to contribute to the implementation of the National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) in Ghana through enhanced media advocacy.

The objectives of the workshop was among other things to sensitise journalists on the concept of child labour: incidence, causes and consequences; an overview of existing programmes and projects in the context of the National Plan of Action on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour; and the international, national and legal frameworks governing interventions.

The ILO National Programme Manager for Ghana Kwame Mensah, said the media was a key outlet of information and education. Both traditional new media, he said, had become almost indispensable tools for information dissemination and social mobilisation. 

According to him, the Ghanaian media had not done badly on child labour reportage. However, much of its focus, he said, had been on mundane coverage of events and occasional sensational reporting on alleged child trafficking and abuse cases. 

Mr. Mensah also observed that, many media practitioners had no thorough understanding of child labour issues, adding “They have little grasp of the concept and the various types of child work; the factors involved in the definitions relating to the different forms of child labour as well as the incidence, scope and consequences of the problem.”

He stated that, generally, journalists were unaware of the international, national and local legal frameworks and intervention policies, programmes and projects existing to address the issue of child labour. “The knowledge gap of journalists in this regard hampers their ability to effectively promote efforts to combat child labour”, he pointed out.

Mr. Mensah disclosed that, in Ghana over one million children were involved in child labour particularly in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, child domestic servitude, kayayei, streetism and commercial sexual exploitation among others.

He charged journalists to take keen interest in child labour issues by learning about it so as to enable them educate the public very effectively on the rights of children and its effects on society.

Meanwhile, participants were trained on how to effectively report on child labour issues using the right terminology; developing an interest in child rights, child protection and child labour reporting and social mobilisation; and understanding and overcoming the challenges involved in child labour reporting.

Buipewura Calls on Investors to Consider Buipe As Investment Destination

Buipewura

In his avowed quest to turn Buipe into a leading commercial center in the whole of the three Northern Regions, the Paramount Chief of Buipe Traditional Area, Buipewura Mahama Jinapor II has called on both local and foreign investors to come and establish in the area. The Chief also has plans to organize the first ever Buipe Investment Forum in Accra to showcase the investment potentials in Buipe and bring home the needed investors.

The Chief who described Buipe, the administrative capital of Central Gonja District as an emerging destination for business or commercial activities in Ghana, assured the investors of total peace and the availability of more affable and fertile lands.

Speaking in an interview with Savannahnews at his Palace in Buipe, the Former Police Commander bemoaned the Buipe chieftaincy dispute that emerged between the two main royal gates in the area some three years ago. 

Buipewura Jinapor II lamented that, the incident had had a serious retrogressive effect on the development of Buipe. But at the moment, Buipe can be described as one of the most peaceful areas in the Northern Region, as the two rival chiefs, Buipewura Jinapor II and Buipewura Bawa Awushie Jewu have reconciled themselves and their supporters for a common aim of promoting accelerated development.

Buipewura Jinapor II in affirming his commitment to peace and development, has enskinned his main rival Bawa Awushie Jewu, as Danyampewura after he was declared the legitimate chief of Buipe by the Supreme Court. 

The Paramount Chief of Buipe recently held a unity durbar in the town which saw the two chiefs dancing together and exchanging pleasantries to the admiration of the several hundreds of inhabitants from both royal gates. 

According to Buipewura Jinapor II, his main priority after securing the peace in the area was to expose the numerous potentials and resources in Buipe to the world especially investors and other business entities to move into the area for the new business revolution he had envisaged to be actualized. 

BOST Terminal in Buipe

The Administrative Capital of the Central Gonja District, Buipe, is fast emerging as the second largest commercial or industrial city in the whole of Northern Region after the regional capital, Tamale.

Buipe is located on the Kintampo - Tamale Highway just after the bridge on the Black Volta River, which serves as a border between the Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions. The town has a human population of about 45,000. The Buipe town is not only strategically located, but has also been gifted with a large volume of natural resources including gold, diamond, clinker, water and forest resources.

However, the enormous opportunities have largely remained untapped mainly due to limited investment funding and the limited exposure of the district to potential and prospective investors.

Fishing is one of the major employments for most of the people apart from farming. This is because the Buipe town is traversed by several streams and the Black Volta, which forms the district’s southern boundary with the Kintampo North District. Most of the people especially the young women are also engaged in petty trading.

At the moment, 400 million dollar cement company, Savannah Cement (SAVACEM), is operational in Buipe on a 12,000 hectares Yakumbo Forest Reserve, which is rich in clinker. 

Another cement company called International Cement Company Limited was also expected to establish in Buipe, with exploration works already done. Apart from that, Government of Ghana has also established a 10 million dollar shea nut processing factory in Buipe.

There is also an inland Port sited in Buipe on the Black Volta. It links businesses from the Southern part of Ghana to the North and the neighbouring Burkina Faso. The Port mainly transports GHACEM and Diamond Cements from Tema and Aflao respectively, Oil from Tema Oil Refinery, Shea nuts and other food produce to and from the North.

Meanwhile, Buipe also serves as a comforter to the Oil Dealers up North who used to travel from far away Northern Sector to Tema for Oil supply. The Tema Oil Refinery now has a Sub-station for the storage of refined Oil for supply or commercial use in the three Northern Regions through the Bulk Oil Supply and Transport (BOST) Company in Buipe.

 As a result, Buipewura Mahama Jinapor II was of the view that Buipe could become the leading commercial centre, if given the needed attention by government as well as local and international investors.