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| Romanus Gyang |
CARE INTERNATIONAL, an international
NGO operating in Ghana has extended its Community Based Adaptation Learning
Programme (ALP) for Africa by two more years to further address existing
development challenges such as food and income security, poverty, disasters,
diseases, environmental degradation and women marginalization among others.
The five (5) year ALP programme which
started in 2010 in Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya and Niger and was expected to exit
in this year 2015, is now extended to 2017 for all the target countries except
Mozambique.
The ALP Programme Manager for CARE Ghana,
Romanus Gyang at seperate meetings in Gambanga and Gara-Tempane to reflect on
the successes chalked by the programme in the beneficiary communities, hinted
that the ALP programme which was supposed to exit in January 2015 is now given
a two more year extension.
So far, eight (8) disaster prone
communities in the Upper East and Northern Regions of Ghana are benefiting from
the ALP programme. They include; Jawani, Saamini, Zambulugu and Dimia all in
the East Mamprusi District of the Northern Region and Akara, Farfar, Kugri and
Tariganga also in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region.
Mr. Romanus Gyang disclosed that the ALP
programme by CARE International was fashioned to combat climate change and
build the capacity of vulnerable people in sub-saharan Africa to adapt to the
impact of climate change. It is also to influence the incorporation of
Community Based Adaptation (CBA) into goverment policies and programmes.
The CBA framework he indicated has four
inter-relating strategies which include the building of resilient livelihood to
improve cultivation of variety of crops such as onion, pepper, okro, tomatoes and
early maturing cassava among others to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Most of these communities are now into dry season farming for the cultivation
of the aforementioned crops. CARE International also provided the communities
with Water Pumping Machines for the dry season farming.
The second strategy is about Disaster Risk
Reductions Strategy which is integrated into the district development plan and
aimed at protecting the development investments or livelihoods of the people
from any form of disaster be it rainstorm, floods, fire or draughts and to also
make their districts or communities more resilient to climate change.
The third strategy as outlined by Mr.
Romanus Gyang was about Building Local Organisational Capacities (also known as
Adaptive Capacity) which is also aimed at building capacity of community people
to have the requisite knowledge to act in the rightway, design their own
strategies to bridge development gabs and respond to climate change impacts and
the fourth strategy is about Poverty Reduction Strategies which also is
empwering the local women to play critical roles in reducing the impact of
climate change and also increase thier incomes.
The ALP programme according to the
Programme Manager had created a strong collaboration between district
assemblies or duty bearers and the local people towards promoting common
development goals.
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| Farmers with early maturing cassava |
With the Community Based Adaptation
strategy, development interventions are now decided or designed based on the
understanding of the current and future impacts of climate change. At the
moment, every development activity or projects executed by the district
assemblies are determined by or done with the explicit concern of the people.
In further broadening the knowledge base of
the people on climate change, CARE International under the Community Based
Adaptation has established Climate Information Centres each in the two
districts to educate the people on climate dynamics.
The District Coordinators for Gambaga and
Garu-Tempane, Zakariah Abudulai and Philip D. Baazeng respectively in seperate
speeches read for their District Chief Executives commended CARE International
introduction of the ALP which they admitted had broought unimaginable
transformation in teh beneficiary communities.
They indicated that the initiative had made
the work of the assemblies very easy in terms of planning and winning the
support of the community people.
The ALP according to the Coordinating
Directors had also helped the assemblies to design several implementable disaster
risk reduction and mitigation plans and also helped them to encourage the
communities to plant more trees within localities.
There were other presentations by the
various District Planning Officers and communities monitoring teams on the
general performance of the ALP programme and how it had impacted on the lives
of the people and the communities at large.
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