A GNA Feature by Bertha Badu-Agyei
Koforidua, Oct. 29, GNA – The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs was adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action or global projection to end all forms of poverty and discrimination to protect the planet by 2030 so that all people in the world enjoy peace and prosperity.
The 17 SDGs are integrated and recognized that action in one area would affect outcomes in others with the guiding principle that development must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
The 17 goals include: End to Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education and Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Climate Actions among others.
Ghana, as a UN member country with an obligation towards the SDGs, has aligned its development priorities in partnership with Civil Society Organization (CSOs) and the private sector to achieve the global call, thus, Ghana has adopted five themes namely, People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnerships which spans across the 17 SDGs.
In spite of the multisectoral approach and efforts by the government and its allied partners in achieving the SDGs to ensure a better life for all, there are challenges in achieving these goals due to the economic and social situations of many communities across Ghana, particularly the rural communities whose economic mainstay is farming or small-scale agriculture for their livelihoods.
In line with Ghana’s operational strategy in achieving the SDGs, The Hunger Project-Ghana a not-for-profit international organization in collaboration with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has launched a multi-million-dollar project to improve food security, water, sanitation, and nutrition in two districts in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
The beneficiary communities are Dominase and Bawale epicenters in the Fanteakwa and Okere districts respectively in the Eastern Region. The project is estimated to cover about 60,000 rural folks in these two districts with sustainable agriculture interventions to enhance their livelihoods and contribute to the local economy and development as well as
Some of the variables under the project are the establishment of food processing centers to improve food security, provision of irrigation systems for all-year-round farming, establish farm/agriculture inputs shops, boreholes/improved water facilities for access to water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Others are the provision of motorbikes for outreach health services in hard-to-reach communities within the operational areas to ensure timely access to healthcare primarily maternal healthcare services.
Mr Samuel Afrane, Country Director, of Hunger Project-Ghana, indicated that the project had been carefully designed and its key targets touch on 12 out of the 17 SDGs, mentioning quality healthcare, clean water, and sanitation, economic empowerment through the provision of systems and technologies to enhance farming communities at rural communities.
The two-year project from 2022-2024 is a collaborative effort between his outfit and the Latter-day Saints’ Church to improve the situations of rural dwellers who relied on farming as their main economic activity resulting in improved economic situations as well as an increase in household incomes.
He explained that the Hunger Project-Ghana and the Latter-day Saints Church had been collaborating since 2018 on a number of interventional projects to improve the livelihoods of people in epicenters or operational communities including a project entitled “Food Security and Nutrition Improvement project” in six epicenters namely Taido, Asaforo, Tokome, Akpo-Akpamu, Fesi-Bame and Kwakyekrom in the Central, Eastern and Volta regions respectively.
“Following the success of the project over the years, the two institutions have forged a new strategic partnership to extend the project to the two epicenters in the Eastern Region and we hope that the modalities of the project implementation would be absorbed into the local planning and development by the assemblies to ensure sustainability and continuity” he added.
He said the smallholder farmer remains at the Centre of every intervention geared towards economic empowerment in line with the SDGs since it was the main economic activity or source of livelihood for people living in rural communities “and once their economic activity is improved through the provision of irrigation systems for an all-year-round cultivation it has impacts on all aspects of living conditions”.
Mr Tseko Ahiale, a farmer at Dominase hailed the project describing it as a very good intervention to improve their farming activities considering the climate change impacts “the weather patterns have changed so am unable to rely on the rainy season for my planting schedules for instance all my maize was spoilt due to lack of rains at the expected period”.
He said the provision of irrigation facilities would reduce their reliance on rain-fed agriculture to all-year-round cultivation and that would in no doubt improve their incomes.
This is impacting the lives of many, and other organisations must emulate to reach more people to impact their lives, find solutions to their daily needs and make the communities and the country a happy place to live in.
GNA