“Ghana Beyond Aid” conference held in Bolgatanga

By
Godfred A. Polkuu, GNA

Bolgatanga, Sept. 23,
GNA – A two-day development forum has been organized in Bolgatanga to give
multi-stakeholders the opportunity to appreciate northern Ghana’s development
in light of the President’s vision of “Ghana Beyond Aid”.

The conference was
convened at the instance of STAR-Ghana, a multi-donor funded voice and
accountability programme that supports collective civil society engagement, in
collaboration with the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), TAMA
Foundation and the Northern Development Authority (NDA).

The forum brought
together stakeholders in academia, civil society organizations, municipal and
district chief executives, traditional and religious leaders across the
Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, including all three regional
ministers and the media.

Hajia Zenabu Lariba
Abudu, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NDA, who addressed the forum
on behalf of Alhaji Dr Abdel-Majeed Haroun, the CEO, said the Ghana Beyond Aid
(GBA) mantra is a call for new paradigm of development.

She said the call was
meant to propel the nation into a frame of mind that would accelerate the pace
of development.

“As relevant as this
statement is for Ghana, it is more so for northern Ghana if we consider the
fact that the zone has little or nothing to show but decimal development
statistics despite decades of governmental development programmes and donor
support initiatives. Ironically, northern Ghana is endowed with abundant
natural resources and human resource potentials.”

Hajia Abudu said the
situation of poverty and inequality in northern Ghana was so pervasive and easy
to notice.

The Deputy CEO said
all dimensions of poverty in the NDZ including poverty head count, poverty
depth and poverty inequality lagged behind national averages and Ghana as a
country has been lauded for its great efforts at poverty reduction.

“The Ghana Living
Standards Survey Six (GLSS6) report shows a reduction in the poverty incidence
from 31.9 per cent in 2005/6 to 24.2 per cent for 2012/13 and that of extreme
poverty from 16.5 per cent in 2005/6 to 8.4 per cent for 2012/13.”

Hajia Abudu said while
these national poverty statistics were showed a positive trend, that could not
be said for the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions, adding that these
regions continue to report high incidences of poverty.

Dr Hakeem Wemah, Board
Chairman of the NDA and Chairman of the High-Level Conference on GBA, said
without the support of the myriad of Non-Governmental Organizations including
development assistance from churches and Islamic organizations, fewer children
may have made it to higher levels of education or even survived.

He said “northern
Ghana has much to be thankful to development partners” adding that without
them, the poverty levels and levels of desperation may have been even worse.

This, notwithstanding,
poverty remains widespread and even endemic, Dr Weman said.

GNA

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