SADA Board Chairman lobby UN system in Ghana and other development partners to turn dream Into reality(TO:Graphic Editorial Message flagged Friday, March 2, 2012)

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga The Board Chairman of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority, (SADA), Alhaji Alhassan Andani has appealed to government, the UN system in Ghana and other development partners to support the authority with fund mobilization to fasttrack the development of the northern savannah ecological zone. Speaking at a briefing held for various heads of the United Nations agencies at Bolgatanga, Mr. Andani stressed on the role of UN system and their contributions to improving lives of people in the northern ecological zone. “We have had enough of the research. The talking has to stop and the doing has to start now”. He said there is a need for strong partnership between the SADA management, the UN system in Ghana and other development partners to help raised the needed resources for accelerated development of the zone. The briefing was attended by Regional Ministers of the Upper East, Northern Region, Volta Region, namely Messrs Mark Woyongo, Moses Bukari Mabengba, and Joseph Amenowode, respectively as well as the Deputy Minister for the Upper West Region, Mr. Caesar Kale It was also attended by Municipal and District Chief Executives from the Upper East Region, Regional Coordinating Directors, Regional Economic Planning Officers, in the SADA Zone. Alhaji Andani described the under development of the SADA zone as a national security issue which needs urgent attention. “We have a situation where only two kilometers away from the regional capitals, people are living in deplorable condition. It’s getting worse because the soils are so impoverished and poorly managed. For eight months in a year, able young men and women are sitting in their villages doing nothing and you see children just being created who are not going to school and it is just that bad”, he said. “We don’t need statistics to tell you what problems confront us. Our villages are still deprived yet they are sitting on land and water bodies which can transform any serious country into a serious economic opportunity”, he added. Alhaji Andani indicated that government of Ghana have made significant efforts at resourcing SADA by fully releasing the approved budget approved for 2011 and also ensuring that the 2012 budget also took account of all the issues that SADA presented. Again, the investment fund has been solidly established and “we are been chance to collect the cheque for the first GH c 100 million which we will do when the president has had the opportunity to inaugurate the stakeholder steering committee which will ensure that there is proper governance within the SADA processes”, he said. The Chief Executive Officer of SADA, Mr. Gilbert Iddi, said the mangers of SADA are seeking to meet all development partners working in the zone to align their activities so that they can focus and concentrate on a common agenda for the acceleration of development process of the SADA zone. He said management with the approval of the board has identified two growth poles. The first being the Nasia-Kukobila community and the other being the Pwalugu area for the production of vegetables and fruit trees. He added that SADA intends to set up service plots, which will be developed and irrigated to encourage dry season farming as a means of accelerating development in the zone. SADA is also thinking of providing sustainable housing initiatives, improving rural transport that will lead to lower prices of food produce and also looking at the possibility of improving water transport opportunities. The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo highlighted the key things that ought to be done to accelerate development and bridge the development gap between the northern ecological zone and that of the southern parts of Ghana. These include investments that will stimulate the modernization of agricultural development and competitiveness of small holders, transforming the subsistence oriented smallholder farmer and processor. According to him, specific issues that should be considered among others include improved access to irrigation and water management technologies for all year round farming, rehabilitation and desilting of existing dams, construction of new ones, tree crop production as a source of steady flow of incomes to empower the poor to build their assets and enhance their capacity to invest in farm and non-farm production activities. He also stressed the need for investment in road infrastructure and development to open up production zones for increased production and link them to marketing centers in the southern part of the country as well as the expanded markets in the neighboring Sahel countries. Mr. Woyongo also stressed the need for investment in education and health infrastructure to complement the economic ones, massive investment in water and sanitation, expansion of rural electricity to support the small-scale industrial sector as a means of diversifying the economy of the SADA zone. “It is the conviction of stakeholders of development in the north that if these interventions are properly co-ordinated under SADA, northern Ghana would be ushered onto the path of economic recovery and prosperity with the nest 15 years”, Mr. Woyongo said. The UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Harmandip Ruby Sandhu-Rojon said the UN system Ghana is ready and committed to partner Ghana to address the regions with the greatest needs. She stressed on the role of UN under the recently launched UN Development Assistance Framework action plane for the next five years which will be working in four thematic areas to build on the weaknesses in the MDGs. The thematic areas are food security and nutrition, sustainable environment, energy and human settlement, human development and productive capacity for improve social services, and transparent and accountable governance. It will also target other cross cutting issues which include gender, capacity development and sustainability of UNs intervention and build on the partnership that already exists. She said while it is true that Ghana has made a relatively headway in the eradication of poverty at the national level, the same cannot be said of the situation in the SADA zone for instance where poverty has actually increased and there are issues of food security and malnutrition. She said these are some of the challenges, agencies like the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme are working on through school feeding, increasing income generating activities among others. -End-