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| Dr. Charles Abugre |
The acting Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), Dr.
Charles Abugre has launched the SADA Zone Media Review Platform, with a call on
the media to play a critical role in the acceleration of development in the Northern
Savannah Ecological Zone (NSEZ).
The SADA Zone Media Review Platform is to
bring SADA and its key partners and the media together in every quarter to
review the activities of SADA and update journalists on any new projections by
SADA in respect to the development of the Zone. The platform would also afford
all partner organisations of SADA, the opportunity to brief the media about
their activities and the role they play in the implementation of SADA’s agenda.
Launching
the platform at a media sensitisation programme organised by the Private Journalists
Association of Ghana (PJA) with support from SADA, Dr. Abugre further implored
journalists not to hesitate to draw the attention of management of SADA to
developments they also found inappropriate in the implementation of projects.
The
media sensitization programme brought together over 50 Journalists from the
Upper West, Upper East, Northern, Brong Ahafo and Volta Regions to sensitize
them on the mandate of SADA and achievements made so far by SADA. It also provided
an opportunity for participants to gain a better understanding of how they could
utilize their unique positions as agenda setters, to strategically and
consistently give balanced and accurate reportage about the activities of SADA.
The
President of PJA Edmond Nana Gyebi, said the SADA Zone Media Review Platform was mooted by
the Association to create a symbiotic relationship between SADA and the media,
so that together, they could push the SADA agenda forward.
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He
also observed that despite the numerous developmental projects SADA had
undertaken, majority of the people living in the SADA Zone had in the past been
kept in the dark. This, he attributed to the total breakdown of information
flow between SADA and the public as well as the media.
He appealed to
journalists to further suggest innovative ways of helping SADA to transform the
NSEZ. He also made a passionate appeal to employers and private media owners to
take critical look at the salaries and the general conditions of service of
their employees and provide them with the needed tools to work.
Undoubtedly, Northern Ghana has the highest percentage
of people living in extreme poverty, with more than 60 percent of the
population living on less than US$1 a day. The region’s environmental,
epidemiological and geographical challenges including low agricultural
productivity, a high disease burden rate and high transportation cost makes
villagers who are the most vulnerable to live in extreme poverty. This means
that to collect safe drinking water and firewood for domestic use, people must
walk several miles every day.
With these rural
communities trapped in a poverty web, they are unable to make the investments
in human capital and infrastructure required to achieve self-sustaining economic
growth.
Based on these facts, SADA, a government policy
initiative established by an Act of Parliament (Act 805, 2010) is aimed at transforming
the NSEZ. SADA’s mandate is to accelerate the socio-economic development of the
NSEZ through strategic investment in resource development. It envisions a
“Forested North” by 2030, where agricultural production is modernised and
oriented towards a larger market.
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