By Edward Acquah
Accra, Nov. 15, GNA – The United Kingdom, United States, and the World Food Programme (WFP) have teamed up to provide GHS58.3 million ($3.6m) in support to individuals affected by the drought in Northern Ghana.
This contribution will enable the WFP to provide cash transfers to nearly 70,000 Ghanaians, including vulnerable minority groups, helping them meet their essential food and nutrition needs.
A joint statement issued by the UK, US, and the WFP, and shared with the Ghana News Agency, said the intervention would provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to the target beneficiaries hit by the drought.
The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and United Kingdom, through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), in partnership with the WFP voted GHS27($1.7), and GHS 20m (USD 1.9 million) respectively to address the most acute needs of affected communities.
“With the staple food prices going up higher and out of the reach of the majority of families, this contribution is so timely. WFP is grateful for U.S. and U.K. Governments’ continued support to Ghanaian families in need,” Madam Aurore Rusiga, WFP’s Country Director and Representative in Ghana, said.
The WFP said more than one million people (around 3 per cent of the total population) are estimated to be affected by severe drought in the eight of the 16 regions in Ghana including Bono, Bono East, Oti, Northern, North-East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West.
The Organisation said most of the communities affected struggled to access food due to price increases, weak financial capacities, and low seasonal production and earlier than normal depletion of households’ food stocks.
“The USAID and FCDO donations come at a critical time when food prices are at a record high, exacerbated by large-scale crop and livestock production losses due to extended weeks of reduced precipitation affecting significant areas in northern Ghana,” it said.
GNA