Wednesday, April 15, 2009

clean up exerscise at Lartebiokorshie(15/04/09)

EXECUTIVE Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Branch 'B' and the Atta Mills Fun Club in the Lartebiokorshie electoral area in the Ablekuma Central Constituency celebrated the Easter holiday with a clean-up exercise.
They also filled pot-holes on the streets and later organised a picnic to invigorate the two clubs.
The activities were to mobilise people in the vicinity to clean the environment while having fun.
The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma Central, Mr Theophilius Tetteh Chaie, said the exercise was to conscientise people on the importance of keeping their environment clean in order to avoid sicknesses.
He said they had planned to organise the exercise every two weeks in each of the five electoral areas in the constituency to keep the place free from filth because the constituency was densely populated and engulfed in filth, so there was the need to clean up the area in order to avoid the outbreak of any disease as the rainy season approached.
The Assembly member of the Lartebiokorshie Electoral Area, Mr Gamboidris Wangabi, expressed the belief that the youth had to help in keeping their surroundings clean because the exercise would eventually help people to save money which could have been used to treat filth-related sicknesses in the hospital.
He also gave the assurance that the electoral area would repeat the exercise every month to keep the gutters and surroundings clean and help to build a better Ghana.
The Acting Chairman of the Atta Mills Fun Club, Mr Joseph Tagoe, said it was important for them to help keep their environment clean instead of waiting for the government to intervene.
"It is important for members of the community to help develop their community to progress," he emphasised and urged all members of the community to

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Ghana to extend coastline (9/04/09)

THE Commonwealth Secretariat and the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) have presented documents of Ghana’s application and evidence for the extension of the country’s coastline to the Minister of Lands and Natural resources, Alhaji Collins Dauda, in Accra.
The document will give the country the opportunity to extend her coastline from 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles, which area Ghana would have exclusive sovereign rights over all natural resources.
Making the presentation at the ministry, the Legal Adviser at the Special Advisory Services Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Ms Judy Nadine, said the preparation of the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) claims was part of the secretariat’s mandate under its Maritime Boundary Delimitation Programme of assistance.
She said the Commonwealth had for the greater part of the decade being encouraging its member states to prepare their claims, and had a priority of helping its member states to maximise their maritime claims under Article 76 of the United Nations (UN) Convention.
She said under this process, Ghana stood to gain an additional continental shelf area (coastline) of between 9000 and 12000 kilometres in the Eastern and Western parts of the country.
She noted that the partnership with the committee for the Ghana National Continental Shelf Delineation Project, chaired by the minister, had been productive and fruitful, under which a significant amount of legal, technical and diplomatic work with neighbouring states had been done.
Ms Ndaona said the technical work included a boat cruise in November and December 2008, which gathered seismic data in the relevant areas of the continental shelf to support Ghana’s ECS submission before the deadline on May 13, 2009.
She said the document included an executive summary, the main body and appendices including the supporting scientific and technical data.
She said the necessary discussions had been made on the next steps to be taken by the government to ensure the successful lodging of the ECS submission to the UN before the deadline.
The minister said the importance of the subject could not be overemphasised, since it was tied to the socio-economic development of the country.
He said he was confident that Ghana was set to make her submission to the UN before the deadline in May.
He thanked the Commonwealth secretariat and BGR for their support, and said the government acknowledged their support for and sponsorship packages to the project.
He said it was his hope that the discussions and comments that would follow would be in the interest of the country.

Ghana spends $760m to treat Malaria (9/04/09)

THE Country spent $760million on the treatment of Malaria last year, a report by the Ministry of Health has indicated.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey when the Ambassador of Spain, Mrs Julia Olmo made a courtesy call on him in his office last Tuesday.
The call was to officially introduce the Ambassador to the Minister, brief him on some health projects Spain had undertaken with the country and to strengthen relations between the two countries.
The Minister stated that his priority was to eliminate the malaria disease in the country and the ECOWAS sub-region in the next two years, with the help of other Health Ministers of the sub-region.
He said the serious implications of the disease was its high cost of treatment and low productivity in the country.
He expressed concern about the inadequate number of ambulances which hindered the delivery of quality emergency services in the country.
He said the country had only 41 ambulances for all the public hospitals in the country with only six of them operating in the Greater Accra Region.
Dr Yankey appealed to the Ambassador to help provide vehicular and air ambulances for the country to ensure the delivery of quality emergency services and save more lives through accidents and disasters.
The Ambassador of Spain informed the Minister of a 5 million Euro fund targeted for feasibility studies at the ministry.
She pledged her country’s continuous support to the health sector and prayed that the relationship between the two countries would grow stronger.

Japan supports rice production efforts (9/04/09) BP

Story: Jennifer Dornoo
THE Japanese government has handed machinery worth over $3.2 million to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to help revamp the production of rice.
The machinery, which includes 78 tractors, 20 rice mills and 22 water pumps were procured under the Japanese Government Grant Assistance for underprivileged farmers in 2007.
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Keiichi Katakami, who did the handing over, said the machinery is to be distributed to farmers on hire-purchase basis to improve the rice sector.
He said this was part of steps being taken by the Government of Ghana to reduce poverty and accelerate development by modernising Agriculture.
The ambassador commended the efforts of government to modernise rice production to enable the country attain self-sufficiency and ensure food security through increased production.
The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, said Ghana’s mechanisation policy was aimed at making available, appropriate sizes and capacities of machinery and equipment to all categories of farmers.
Mr Ahwoi expressed his appreciation to the government and people of Japan and expressed the hope that the coming years would see more of such fruitful co-operation between the two countries.
He said the Agricultural Engineering Services Directorate (AESD) of the ministry had a team of engineers and technicians who were ready to train and update the technical skills of tractor operators and mechanics throughout the country to make them more efficient in handling the machines.
He appealed to beneficiaries from the Eastern, Volta and the three northern regions of Ghana to do their instalment payments on time to enable the Japanese and Ghanaian governments sustain the programme.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Gender Budget Monitoring Unit for MOWAC (2/04/09)

Gender equality and empowerment of women are indispensable tools for advancing development, reducing poverty and also key to achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals that serves as a framework for halving poverty and improving lives.
In spite of tremendous efforts over the world, discrimination against women and girls, including gender-based violence, economic discrimination and others, still persist. Marginalisation of women due to some cultural practices has not helped in developing the capacity of women in Ghana and other countries.
To help strengthen women’s participation in economic decision-making through their engagement in budgetary processes, as well as enhance the incorporation of gender into economic governance and leadership processes, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Administration began a Gender Responsive Budgeting Initiative (GBI) to give a further boost to women’s participation in taking economic decisions.
That initiative became necessary after Cabinet approved the adoption of a gender responsive budgeting guideline for all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the 2008 budget. It requires ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the country to adopt a positive change in their organisational culture to accommodate gender responsive budgeting in their programmes and also give policy direction for all MDAs to take into account critical gender equality, equity and women empowerment concerns at all levels of activity planning and resource allocation.
Speaking at a seminar on Gender Budgeting for Directors of the various MDAs in the country, organised by the Civil Servants Association Ladies Club (CISALAC) in Accra on Tuesday, the Minister for Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), Ms Akua Sena Dansua, said the government was to establish a Gender Budget Monitoring Unit at the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) to facilitate the implementation of gender budgeting in all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
She said the unit would be given the mandate to facilitate the development of gender based budgets in all the MDAs and monitor their implementation.
This she said was to ensure that the gender equity commitment of the government was respected and adhered to, adding that the objective was to ensure that the National and Sector Budgets for 2010 and beyond were gender responsive.
She stressed that the decision by the government to introduce Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) was born out of the realisation that poverty, vulnerability, marginalisation, social exclusion and the disparity gaps between geographical areas could be reduced faster, addressed and narrowed if the concerns and specific needs of all these segments were taken into account during sector and national policy design, budgeting and implementation.
Ms Dansua stated that the government therefore regarded GRB as an important tool for gender mainstreaming and women empowerment.
She said some of the benefits to be derived included promotion of good governance, ascertaining whether public expenditures were allocated in an equitable way, promoting the realisation of women's rights and promoting accountability and transparency.
She stressed that the GRB was not a separate budget but a budgeting tool or process that took into account the various concerns of males and females in any development planning.
She said the GRB was a holistic and effective approach to addressing human development since it responded positively to the needs and development aspirations of all segments of the population.
The Resident Representative of Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), Ghana, Mr Kunihiro Yamauchi, said the government of Japan had realised the important role of women in the social economic development of the country and would continue to champion the cause of women in Ghana.
He said the marginalisation of women due to some cultural practices had not helped in developing the capacity of women in the country.
The President of CISALAC, Mrs Cynthia Saar Bediako of MoFEP, said the seminar was to provide participants the opportunity to share knowledge and information on gender responsive budget and new trends in gender budgeting to accelerate the GRB and gender mainstreaming agenda.
She said participants of the workshop would be taken through the background of gender budgeting in Ghana, the existing situation, understanding gender and concepts, GRB, importance of budgeting and tools for analysis.
She said the one-day seminar would help the participants appreciate and criticise the budget and also contribute to the decision making process in Ghana.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Do away with divisive activities - moderator (1/4/09)

THE Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Rt Rev Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, has called on Ghanaians to do away with activities that have the tendency of sowing seeds of division among the people.
“Let us remain as one people and one nation with a common destiny,” he stated.
Delivering his Easter message for the year, the Moderator said, “Let us use this period of Easter to pray for the peace, unity, stability and prosperity of our nation.”
He said it was time Christians and others renewed their dedication and commitment to the tasks of stewardship to their neighbours by helping them and treating them with love, care, selflessness and dedication.
He urged all government officials, parliamentarians, the judiciary and all people in higher positions to consider the sacrifices that Christ made on the cross and resolve during the Easter season to cut down on their wants for the sake of others.
He urged Ghanaians to go the extra mile by sacrificing part of what they had for the needy in society.
“I, therefore, urge all of us to reshape our lives, priorities and lifestyles so that we can free up a part of our money and luxuries to give to our poor and needy brothers and sisters whose sorrows we may lessen and whose comfort we may increase,” Rt Rev Dr Frimpong-Manso stated.
He said it was his prayer that political and religious leaders of the nation, as well as traditional leaders, would turn their hearts to God and rely on Him to enable them to govern the nation creditably.
“As leaders, we must learn to give of ourselves wholeheartedly to serve the people,” he stated, adding that the citizens must also be willing to sacrifice selflessly for themselves and for the development of the country.
He cautioned against people who saw the church as a place for “personal contacts and business advantage” and advised them to attend church to worship God.
The Moderator advised all to give their lives to Christ in order to experience the power of the cross, saying that Christ’s cross was the hope for eternal life.
He noted that physical death was not the end of life but the gateway into God’s eternal home.
“Let this Easter bring you hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and let the relevance of the cross propel you to sacrifice for the sake of the other person,” he said.

KASEC needs Science, Maths teachers (1/4/09)

THE Headmaster of the Kadjebi-Asato Senior High School (KASEC) in the Volta Region, Mr Musah Ayamba Issahaku, has expressed concern about the shortage of staff and inadequate logistics in the school.
He said the challenges posed a threat to the ability of the school to provide the students with quality education.
Speaking in Accra during the launch of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the school , Mr Issahaku said, the school needed additional teachers in Mathematics, English and Science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The school also required Science laboratory assistants, a librarian, security men, office clerks, cooks and labourers.
He said the ban on employment had made it difficult to engage such workers.
The school has a problem of inadequate water supply, and frequent power outages in the night, which created a lot of disciplinary problems for the school.
He called on the old students union (KOSU) to help the school with a stand-by generator and a school bus.
The headmaster also called on the old students to help develop their alma mater to enhance quality education in the school.
He expressed the hope that the celebration of the anniversary, which would take off on October 3, 2009 on the theme: “Education, the key to development, the role of KASEC,” would help the school.
The Chairman of the school’s board of governors, who was also the special guest of honour, Mr Anthony Gyambiby, advised the old students to use the occasion to unite and support the school to advance the frontiers of knowledge and development.
“Make a commitment to contribute your quota towards the development of the school, ” he stated.
He pointed out that some challenges of the school, which included the Science Resource Centre which was ill equipped had adverse effects on teaching and learning in the school.
He said the library, which was small and could not accommodate the large number of students, was also not well-stocked with the requisite books and other modern learning materials.
Mr Gyambiby said the school needed a well equipped computer laboratory to prepare the students to become computer literate.
He said in order to solve the numerous problems facing the school there was the need to generate funds.
“We all need to demonstrate our preparedness to contribute our widow’s mite towards this noble agenda for the sustenance and development of the school,” he added.
He officially launched the 50th anniversary celebration of KASEC.
The acting President of the Kajebi Senior School Old Student’s Union, Mr George Nana Kankam, called on members of the union to do all they could to enhance the image of the school by contributing to the success of the anniversary celebrations.
He noted that a fund-raising dinner dance would be held on June 27, 2009 to raise funds for the development of the school.