By Albert Futukpor
Accra, June 05, GNA – Changing Lives in Innovative Partnerships (CLIP), an NGO, has engaged Ministers of Environment, and Climate Change as part of its advocacy efforts on issues of climate change and sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable farmers and communities.
Discussions centered on CLIP’s interventions over the years, its current focus on issues of climate change, government’s programmes and policies in addressing the impact of climate change, and how CLIP and the two Ministries could collaborate to drive meaningful change.
The engagement was in line with CLIP’s implementation of the climate change component of the Empowerment for Life (E4L) Programme, which seeks to ensure that climate vulnerable communities use climate resilience strategies and technologies to increase agricultural adaptability and have improved livelihoods.
Mr Lukman Yussif, Director of CLIP, who led a team from the organisation to pay courtesy calls on the two Ministers in Accra, emphasised need for strong collaboration and engagement between government and NGOs in policy formulation to ensure that policies and programmes reflected the interest of the people.
CLIP, which is based in Tamale, has been working for the past 30 years in empowering vulnerable communities through integrated programmes that ensure climate resilience, sustainable livelihoods, and community development.
Mr Yussif emphasised need for programmes and policies that would ensure that climate vulnerable communities had improved adaptive strategies and resilience to climate change as well as need for vulnerable farmer communities to have improved resilience and livelihoods, and vulnerable communities’ perspectives reflected in national climate change policies and programmes.
Mr Abdallah Mohammed, Technical Advisor, Food Security, Climate Change and Resilience, E4L Programme, CLIP, accentuated the need for views of vulnerable smallholder farmers to be incorporated into the National Adaptation Plan as well as ensure that issues of climate change were factored into the Medium-Term Development Plans of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation acknowledged the role of NGOs in national development and gave assurance that his Ministry would deepen collaboration with CSOs because government could not do it alone.
He commended CLIP for its work over the years in empowering vulnerable communities for sustainable livelihoods and community development and assured the forum of the Ministry’s readiness to work with the organisation to address issues of climate change and food security.
Mr Seidu Issifu, Minister of State in-charge of Climate Change and Sustainability was happy about CLIP’s work especially in the areas of renewable agriculture, climate sustainability and livelihoods saying, “These are sensitive areas that we need to focus on.”
He gave assurance of collaborating with CLIP to expand its work saying he had established Climate and Sustainability Relationship Framework with all government ministries to put in place a technical working group to ensure that the right things were done with regards to issues of climate change.
The E4L Programme seeks to ensure that civil society organisations in northern Ghana contribute to improved resilience, equity, and more accountable governance in the country.
It is being implemented in the Northern, North East and Savannah Regions by four local partners; Ghana Developing Communities Association, School for Life, CLIP, and YEFL-Ghana with funding support from Civil Society in Development, through Ghana Venskab, a Danish organisation.
GNA
Edited by Eric K. Amoh