TWENTY-EIGHT thousand metric tonnes of food, estimated at US$22m, is to be distributed to vulnerable households in the Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions over the next two years.
This is a support package initiated by the World Food Programme (WFP) to assist in alleviating poverty in the three regions and help in the recovery of families affected by past floods.
The project, which has been christened the Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO), is expected to bring relief to over 400,000 vulnerable people, who will have access to nutritious food on a food-for-work or training basis.
Launching the programme, the Head of Programme of the WFP, Mr Nguyen Duc Hoang, explained that the project sought to support the government’s efforts at mitigating the impact of natural disasters, high food prices and the global economic crisis.
He said a 2009 survey conducted on food security in the country revealed that the three northern regions remained the most food insecure areas in Ghana.
Mr Hoang also noted that the malnutrition rate in the three regions had been estimated at 13 per cent, which was considered by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as very serious.
“The surveys also recommended that efforts are stepped up to help those who have been severely affected by droughts, floods and food price increases,” he stated.
He said it was for those reasons that the PRRO was formulated to reverse those trends, in line with other initiatives such as the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).
He pointed out that under the food-for-work programme, vulnerable households would undertake activities such as tree-planting, rainwater harvesting, dam rehabilitation and water soil conservation in return for food, while the scheme would require beneficiaries to make themselves available for training sessions in income-generating activities, agricultural extension, cereal fortification and micro-business establishment.
The WFP head again said more attention would be paid to the elderly, the sick, malnourished children and nursing mothers.
In a speech delivered on his behalf, the Northern Regional Minister, Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, noted that the north had been constrained by both natural and man-made factors, such as limited resources, fewer mineral deposits, poor soil fertility and short and erratic rainfall seasons, which resulted in short farming seasons and low yields.
“These factors have contributed to high poverty levels in northern Ghana,” he stated, adding that climate change was also bringing in its wake extreme weather conditions that had dire consequences.
Mr Mabengba, therefore, commended the WFP for coming up with the PRRO and said he was particularly happy with the food-for-work and food-for-training activities.
He said the WFP had a long tradition of supporting supplementary feeding for households, school feeding programmes, girls’ education and activities of women’s groups.
“Recently, the WFP bought local rice estimated at nearly US$1m from companies that work in the Savelugu-Nanton, Tolon-Kumbungu, West Mamprusi, Karaga, Nasia and Kardo areas,” the minister said, adding that that intervention by the WFP was assisting farmers in the three regions greatly.
Mr Mabengba urged the WFP and other humanitarian agencies working in northern Ghana to align their programmes along the objectives of the SADA “so that, together, we can develop northern Ghana in a more holistic and concerted manner”.
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