By Philip Tengzu, GNA
Nanchalla, (UW/R), April 22, GNA – Some beneficiaries of the Land of Opportunity Global Mechanism (LOGMe) project in the Upper West Region have indicated that the project interventions have had a tremendous impact on their economic and social lives.
They said aside improving the vegetation, environment and protecting their water bodies, the project had also provided them with secured sources of income and food for improved family nutrition.
Madam Sahada Chanbua, a beneficiary from the Nanchalla community in the Sissala East Municipality, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the community during a field visit to the project sites that through the project they were able to meet the education and health needs of their children.
The project is being implemented in eight communities, six in the Upper East Region and two in Sakalu, and Nanchalla communities, in the Sissala East Municipality.
The beneficiary communities received diverse landscape restoration and economic interventions including tree planting, solar-powered mechanised boreholes, and fenced areas for dry-season vegetable production.
Others were beekeeping, shea processing machines, energy-efficient cooking stoves, skill empowerment in briquette production and education on Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs) among others.
Madam Chanbua said through the beekeeping intervention, which was for only the women beneficiaries in the community, they made GHȻ5,200.00 in two years with which they supported their families, saved in their Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) and reinvested part of it into the beekeeping business.
She added that the community also received a shea processing machine, which had helped enhance their shea business and they planned to process the shea into butter, pomade, and soap to sell.
Madam Chanbua said they also received a roller planter, energy-efficient cooking stoves and training on briquette production among others, which had helped improve their livelihood.
At the Sakalu community, Madam Saadia Tahiru, a beneficiary, indicated that through the project they were trained to produce grass briquettes and use energy-efficient cooking stoves, which reduced their cost of buying charcoal to cook.
She explained that the project also cultivated plots for each beneficiary and provided them with improved seeds and inputs coupled with the knowledge of GAPs, so they could sustain their agricultural production beyond the support.
She said the garden they received from the project would serve as a source of economic activity for them during the off-season.
The beneficiaries could not hide their joy in commending the IUCN and its partners and funders for the intervention as it helped enhance their socio-economic livelihoods.
Madam Félicité Chabi-Gonni, the Regional Coordinator of the LOGMe project, expressed satisfaction with the project implementation in the communities visited and its impact on the beneficiaries’ lives.
She said it was achieving the expected results considering the project plan and the work done so far after three years of its implementation.
She explained that the field visit had enabled them to see what had been done and to hear from the beneficiaries how it was transforming their lives, which corroborated with what was planned and the data they received in the report.
Madam Chabi-Gonni appreciated the Italian government for showing interest in improving the livelihood of people in the three countries through the LOGMe project.
Mr Godwin Evenyo Dzekoto, the Northern Sector Manager of A Rocha Ghana, stated that producing the grass briquette for family consumption and sometimes for sale would prevent the women from felling trees to produce charcoal.
He explained that with the abundance of grasses in the area, which would have otherwise been burnt, the women could maximise them to produce the briquette through which they could earn a decent livelihood.
Mr Isaac Kofi Razak, the Extension Officer at the Sissala East Municipal Agricultural Directorate, expressed hope that the livelihood interventions the project had provided would prevent the women from felling trees to produce charcoal as a source of livelihood.
The project was dubbed: “Creating Lands of Opportunity: Transforming Livelihoods through Landscape Restoration in the Sahel” and is known as: “Land of Opportunity Global Mechanism” (LOGMe).
The Italian Ministry for Ecological Transitions provided funding for the project through the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
It was implemented in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Niger to contribute towards meeting the land degradation neutrality targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The IUCN led its implementation in Ghana in partnership with A Rocha Ghana, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI), and in collaboration with the Water Resources Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture.
GNA