Caught in a web of deceit, a human trafficking survivor from Ghana tells her story. Credit: Getty Images

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
Accra, May 10 2022 (IPS)

“It feels like yesterday when I was deceived by one man who claimed to be a travelling agent. He promised me a work opportunity and a good salary,” says 25-year-old Cissy, as she prefers to be called. “As a young lady coming from an average family who really needed help, I fell for his lies.”

Cissy says although she was a bit sceptical about the offer and afraid of her destination country, the so-called travel agent convinced her that she had nothing to worry about.

“He said I had a host mom who would receive me at the airport. In fact, she was the one sponsoring my trip, and I am supposed to work for her, and he claimed the work was legitimate,” Cissy adds.

However, the story changed when she arrived at the airport of her destination country.

“A man came to pick me up and collected my passport. I was taken to a house where I saw other young African women kept in the room, some having price tags. It was at that time I realised what I had gotten myself into,” she narrates.

She and the other women were later smuggled illegally into Iraq to work as domestic workers.

“I saw how my own African sisters were physically and mentally abused. Some were sexually harassed and subjected to forced labour on an empty stomach,” Cissy says.

She wanted to return to Ghana but was unable to until several months later.

After countless failed escape attempts, which left her fighting for her life, she finally had a breakthrough and was able to return home with the help of a good Samaritan and the authorities.

Since she returned last November, Cissy has devoted her time to irregular migration advocacy activities.

“I am happy to be alive today to tell you my story but not all the young ladies who travel out get the chance I got to return home to their families,” she says.

Assistant Superintendent of Police William Ayaregah says human trafficking is multifaceted and covers several situations from debt bondage, exploitation, and organised crimes.

Issues of human trafficking continue to be a human rights violation and cancer in Ghanaian society because it is a country of origin, transit, and destination for victims of human trafficking, Ayaregah, who is the Deputy Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit in the Criminal Investigation Department, says.

Likewise, the Gulf of Guinea is characterised by cross-border and irregular migration, human trafficking, and child exploitation.

Ayaregah says recently, the unit, with a non-governmental organisation, End Modern Slavery (EMS), and the Social Welfare Department, rescued four children, two boys and two girls, from a trafficker and reunited them with their families.

He reveals that the two boys, aged 10 and 13, were trafficked by a family friend identified as Rose, a trader from Berekum-Senase in the Bono East Region of Ghana. She said the children would attend school while staying with her in Accra.

Instead of sending the children to school, as she promised, she sent the boys onto the streets to hawk.

Ayaregah says the suspect, upon her arrest and investigation, claimed that she has been sending Ghc30 (about 4 US dollars) to the boys’ parents in Berekum every month.

In the other case, two girls, aged 13 and 17, were brought from Akim-Aboabo in the Birim Central Municipality and Adeiso to engage in ‘gari’, a dried cassava business at Amanase in the Ayensuano District in the Eastern part of the country.

The Director of Operations of End Modern Slavery, Afasi Komla, explains that “many victims of human trafficking have had traumatic post-rescue experiences during interviews and legal proceedings.

“In their attempts to get help, they have experienced ignorance, misunderstanding, victimisation, and punishment from offences their traffickers had them commit,” he says.

He adds that through the foundation, they have been able to help in identifying and saving hundreds of victims and supporting their rehabilitation.

Deputy Minister For Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hajia Lariba Abudu, says the country has responded to the issues of human trafficking in diverse ways. It passed the Human Trafficking Act, 2005 Act 694 to prevent, reduce and punish human trafficking offences and for the rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficked persons and related matters.

“The Ministry, together with our partners, we embark on community advocacy and engagements to educate the public on the dangers of human trafficking,” she says.

Abudu further indicates that together with the law enforcement officers, Social Workers and NGOs, the country in 2021 rescued 842 victims of human trafficking, gave comprehensive trauma-informed care, and reintegrated 812 of them.

“On the 1st of February 2019, the adults’ shelter was opened, and 178 adult female victims of trafficking have been cared for, and we are still receiving and caring for victims at the shelter now,” she says. “The Children’s Shelter was also fully operationalised in August 2020 and has cared for 98 child victims.”

She adds that the department received and investigated 108 cases, 42 being sex trafficking, 60 labour trafficking and six related cases that started as human trafficking offences.

“Thirty–four cases were sent to court for prosecution. Out of those, 22 cases were prosecuted involving 37 defendants, and we have gained 17 convictions for the country,” she adds.

Abudu says that even though a lot has been achieved, it is still not enough and calls for stronger partnerships to reduce human trafficking incidences, strengthen government institutions, and increase public knowledge.

This article is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.
The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7, which “takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms”.
The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalization of indifference, such as exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking”.

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Children in Paoua, in the Central African Republic, celebrate being at school which is often interrupted by armed conflicts. They are beneficiaries of an Education Cannot Wait funded multi-year resilience programme, delivered by the Norwegian Refugee Council, Plan International, UNICEF, and UNHCR. Credit: UNICEF

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
Bangui, Central African Republic, Mar 17 2022 (IPS)

Nine-year-old Marguerite Doumkel sits among other children in a classroom in Paoua, a sub-prefecture of Ouham Pende, in the Central African Republic (CAR).

With a smile on her face, she writes down the lesson for the day in her book. “I like to study history and French,” says Marguerite.

Education for children in communities such as Paoua has on several occasions been disrupted by military unrest and armed groups interventions leaving hundreds of children like Marguerite out of school for months.

“When there are soldiers, we don’t go to school. We stay at home. But I am happy I can continue my education now,” Marguerite tells IPS.

According to the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) CAR 2022, at the end of the 2020 – 2021 school year (July 2021), 27% of schools were not functional, and 65% of children aged 3-17 were not attending school regularly (38% not enrolled at the beginning of the school year, 7% dropped out during the year, and 20% not attending regularly).

In this grim picture, there is some hope. Marguerite and thousands of other children are able to return to school to continue their education thanks to the investments of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Through its multi-year resilience programme, delivered by the Norwegian Refugee Council, Plan International, UNICEF, and UNHCR, ECW is funding interventions that ensure access to education in safe, inclusive, and protective learning environments for displaced and returnee children in CAR.

ECW has been supporting communities in CAR for the past three years, reaching over 126,300 children – out of whom 41 per cent are girls.

“The children and adolescents in CAR are among the most vulnerable in this world. They have endured years of conflict, violence, human rights violations, extreme poverty, and repeated displacements,” says Yasmine Sherif, the Director of Education Cannot Wait. “Education is crucial to protect them and empower them to become the generation that will support a more peaceful and prosperous future for the country.”

The programme improves learning environments with the rehabilitation and construction of classrooms and school infrastructure. It also provides training for teachers, learning materials for school children, birth certificates for children, dignity kits to improve access to education for girls, psycho-social support activities, and skills training for the youth in the beneficiary communities.

“I had no school supplies at the beginning of the school year, but with the distribution of learning materials by UNICEF in our school, I have books and a slate to write on,” Marguerite tells IPS. “I have learned to write correctly, and I play teacher at home with my sister.”

Yasmine Sherif, the Director of Education Cannot Wait, says the children in CAR are among the most vulnerable in the world. Credit: ECW

ECW funds have also been essential to respond to a critical time of school closure and disruption of education at national scale caused by Covid19 as well as post-electoral security crisis, says Noemi Robiati, Education Manager at UNICEF CAR

“ECW’s support helped to scale up radio education, including through airing lessons on radio stations across the country and distributing radios with pre-registered lessons to households and schools. Education is a human right, and ECW funds have been critical to support such a fundamental right for the children of CAR,” she says.

Education specialist at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Chanel Ntahuba says that with ECW funding, NRC provides education for out-of-school children.

“We have been able to support students in school. We also support students who are out-of-school through the Accelerated Learning Programme for over-aged children, catch-up programmes for children who have missed a few weeks or months of the school year due to the conflict as well as through professional education that we call the Youth Education Package (YEP),” he adds.

Ntahuba tells IPS that the public budget allocated to education is low representing 1.6% of GDP and 13.3% of public expenses in 2019. Therefore, communities hire teachers to ensure that their children go to school.

These teachers, he says, are not paid by the government but through the contribution of the population. But, in situations where families struggle to make ends meet, they can’t afford to pay the teachers regularly.

“This is why with ECW funding, we support the payment of the teachers who are supporting the Accelerated Learning Programme, Catch-up class as well as those in the youth class,” he adds.

Ntahuba further notes that the program supports the training of teachers to improve the quality of teaching.

“We train teachers on the content of the teaching, also on how to prepare and present their lessons,’ he indicates.

A teacher poses in front of her class in Paoua, in the Central African Republic. Education Cannot Wait funding supports the payment of teachers who are involved in the Accelerated Learning Programme, catch-up class and the youth class. Credit: UNICEF

Justine Banguereya, a teacher at Paoua, says apart from the training she received, the money the programme offers to teachers has greatly impacted her livelihood. It also removes the financial burden from parents who do not have the means to pay for their children’s schooling.

“Today, I am paid up to 35,000 FCFA (about US$60) by month as an incentive bonus. This program has helped us meet the challenges of the inability of parents and the state to take care of the schooling of Central African Republic children,” Banguereya tells IPS.

She also mentions that she has become a better teacher after attending the ECW funded training. “I can prepare a lesson plan for any subject, and I have also learned how to provide psychosocial support and other forms of support in school to vulnerable children, especially girls and those with disabilities.”

Ntahuba says the financial assistance to teachers is one of the program’s greatest achievements, “it is why teachers come to school every day.”

ECW funds also support awareness campaigns to mobilize parents in sending their children to school. “Many parents do not send their children to school as they prefer to have them working on household tasks, gardening and farming, hence depriving them of an education,” says Ntahuba.

This is particularly important to get more girls in the classrooms. “The education of girls is not prioritized as compared to the boys. Keeping the school operational and encouraging parents to send them to school is one of the ways girls can escape early marriage and teenage pregnancy,” he explains.

He adds that the target of ECW is to reach 60 per cent of girls as beneficiaries.

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Sarah and Doris ride to school on their bicycles because they live several kilometres away. Ghana’s education sector was one of the hardest affected by the pandemic and for many girls, particularly those in rural areas, the consequences of school closures means many will never return to their schooling. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
ACCRA/WA EAST DISTRICT, Ghana, May 27 2021 (IPS)

Seventeen-year-old Muniratu Adams, a form two student of the Jeyiri D/A Junior High School at Funsi in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region of Ghana, is fortunate to have returned to school this January after the long COVID-19 shutdown.

Ghana’s education sector was one of the hardest affected by the pandemic and for many girls, particularly those in rural areas, the consequences of school closures means many will never return to their schooling.

“It was difficult for me to come back to school,” she tells IPS. “When I was home, I did not think I will be able to return to school.”

Adams was like many girls here who had to take on more responsibilities at home during the lockdown.

“I had little time to study my books because I had more household chores to do and I also had to help my family farm for food which we survive on,” she explains. “When I get to learn, I don’t get the help I need,” she adds.

Last March, Ghana closed schools in the wake of rising COVID-19 infections across the country.

Approximately 9.2 million learners from Kindergarten to High School and about 500,000 tertiary learners were affected until schools opened in mid-January, according to a report by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

However, the prolonged absence of teaching and learning activities in a structured setting disrupted the academic calendar affecting the gains made in education and negatively impacting low performing students.

For many children from vulnerable groups, including children with disabilities, the prolonged school closures have put a premature end to their education.

Prior to the pandemic, UNICEF data for Ghana showed that 16.9 percent of children aged 5 to 11 years, 50.9 percent of children aged 12 to 14 years, and 83.3 percent of children aged 15 to 17 years were either not attending school, two or more years behind in school, or have not achieved the correct level of schooling for their grade. 

The pandemic’s impacts on children’s access and quality of education were most severely felt through the tracking closure of schools without adequate alternative education services accessible by all children, nation-wide.

This exacerbated existing inequities in education in the short and long- terms and worsened existing barriers to access as urban/rural disparities are significant, with children in rural areas, as well as in the Northern and Upper West regions faring far worse.

Adams says initially she was unable to continue with her studies at home during the closure of schools as she did not have the tools to facilitate her studies.

“My parents did not have a television or a radio at home so I read only my notes ,which I had before our school was closed,” she says.  “But later I got a mobile device which helped me to learn through the remote learning system.”

Remote Learning Impact

Ghana’s government, with funding from the World Bank, introduced a $15 million, one-year remote learning system as part of the COVID-19 response for continued learning, recovery and resilience for basic education. 

It included developing accessible and inclusive learning modules through TV and radio, distributing printed teaching and learning materials, distributing pre-loaded content devices to vulnerable groups who lack access to technology, and in-service teacher training to ensure teachers can effectively deliver lessons through innovative platforms.

Despite the remote learning platforms, Adams says she and some students in her community still faced a lot of challenges in ensuring equitable access to these services, because “we do not have access to online learning devices or the internet at home”.

“A large number of us in my community lack technology such as TV sets, computers, smart phones and other online devices, as well as stable internet connectivity,” Adams says.

Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, Benjamin Kofi Gyasi, who is also the COVID-19 focal person for education, tells IPS that while remote learning strategies aim to ensure continual learning for all children, “we know that the most marginalised children, including those in the most rural, hard-to-reach and poorest communities and girls, may not be able to access these opportunities.”

He adds that the ministry is prioritising the learning of most vulnerable children through the provision of learning devices/equipment and connectivity, where possible, adding that the initiative has reached more than half of targeted learners.

Executive Director of the African Education Watch, Kofi Asare, tells IPS that more children have been left behind as a result of the pandemic. He believes the government can do more to ensure that vulnerable children especially those in the remote and poorest communities of the country have the tools needed to access quality education.

‘Now the children are back to the classrooms but I can confidently say that we have lost a significant number due to the long period schools were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he asserts.

His statement is confirmed by Adams, who says some girls in her class are yet to return more than five months after schools reopened.

“I have not seen some of my friends since we started school in January, I do not know if they will be coming or not,” she tells IPS. “My friend, Hassana Yakubu who came to school here from another community has still not returned.”

This feature was made possible by a donation from Farida Sultana Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Farida Sultana passed away in December 2020 after battling COVID-19 for two weeks. 

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Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Director Yasmine Sherif speaks to crisis-affected children in Burkina Faso. ECW has launched a multi-year programme in the country, providing $11 million in funding, but a further $48 million is needed. Courtesy: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
ACCRA, Jan 22 2021 (IPS)

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) – the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies and protracted crises – was on the ground in Burkina Faso last week with its Director, Yasmine Sherif, to launch a new multi-year programme that aims to provide an education to over 800,000 children and adolescents in crisis-affected areas.

ECW is providing $11 million in seed funding now, but a further $48 million is needed from both public and private donors over the next three years. Burkina Faso, located in the Central Sahel, is experiencing, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), ‘the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian and protection crisis’, with more than one million people displaced.

“The Central Sahel is among the most forgotten crisis regions in the world, and Burkina Faso is one of the most forgotten country crises globally. ECW is fully engaged in investing in education across the Sahel over the past two years, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger,” Sherif told IPS in a telephone interview from Ouagadougou.

Sherif had just returned from Kaya, the fifth-largest city in Burkina Faso, northeast of the capital, where she spent time with crisis-affected children, teachers and families. She saw much suffering there. “They sit in punishing heat, trying to learn. They don’t have the tents, school buildings or school materials. Water is missing, sanitation is missing, and they have fled incredible violence. Their eyes are hollow. These children are suffering,” she said.

Stanislas Ouaro, Minister of National Education and Literacy for Burkina Faso, said education in the country is suffering from both ongoing violence and insecurity, as well as the COVID-19 crisis. While the security crisis has seen more than 2,300 schools close, the COVID-19 pandemic further resulted in a nationwide shutdown of schools during several months in 2020.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

While the security crisis in Burkina Faso has seen more than 2,300 schools close, the COVID-19 pandemic further resulted in a nationwide shutdown of schools during several months in 2020. Courtesy: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

Inter Press Service (IPS): What has been the impact of the first ECW emergency programmes in the focused countries particularly Burkina Faso?

Yasmine Sherif (YS): What we see today is that more children and youth are now able to access schools across countries in the crisis-affected areas.  We see more girls, including adolescent girls, attending school and this is through ECW investments which support a holistic package of activities, from pre-school through secondary school. Today, we have invested about $40 million in these countries and the activities that we have provided include mental health and psycho-social support, which is highly important for children and adolescents who are affected by crisis. We have also responded to the COVID-19 pandemic very fast. We were among the first responders to COVID-19, providing sanitation and water facilities and building materials, as well as support for remote learning solutions for the communities.

IPS: You are currently on mission in Burkina Faso. At the end of last year, UNHCR stated that Burkina Faso is now the world’s fastest-growing displacement and protection crisis with more than one in every 20 inhabitants displaced by surging violence inside the country. More than 2.6 million children and youth are out of school in Burkina Faso, with another 1.7 million students at risk of dropping out of school. What are you finding on the ground?

YS: UNHCR was here on a mission recently and called on the world to take action and when they called for action, we had an obligation to act. So, this is why we prioritised our mission to Burkina Faso as a direct response to the call of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Now, what do we see on the ground? We see a high number of displaced communities. There are one million people who are internally displaced in Burkina Faso, as well as 20,000 refugees from neighboring countries and we also have the host communities where many of them live. These include children who have fled insecurity and violence; their villages have been burnt down and they have found security in government-controlled areas.

We visited the town of Kaya in Burkina Faso and we could feel there was more security there. But more resources are needed to provide these children and youth with the education that they deserve, which is challenging because an area of violence and insecurity is a barrier to education.

The government is very committed, the President, the Minister of Education – civil society organizations, NGOs, the United Nations – are all working together in strong partnership to provide resources and personnel to make education available in a secure environment for children and adolescents.

IPS: As you mentioned, you have recently returned from a field trip to Kaya. What have people, students, particularly girls, told you about the situation there? 

YS: In Burkina Faso, you see that the girls are strong but they are disempowered because they do not have the tools, they are disempowered because they do not have access to education – that is what we see and that is why we need more funding. If you want to empower girls’ education, you have to contribute the resources – because the political will is there, representatives are there to run the programme to ensure a collective outcome for girls – and learning tools. How can they concentrate and study under an insecure condition and environment? So again, resources are needed and urgently.    

IPS: Earlier this month ECW announced some $33 million in funding for Mali, Niger, the Central Sahel and Burkina Faso. Of this $11 million is being provided as a catalytic grant to Burkina Faso but $48 million is needed in additional funds over a few years. What does this mean in terms of the scope and scale of the task ahead?   

YS: The more funding we receive and the more we are able to close the funding gap, the more we can achieve the vision and goal and take action. No one can say there is no capacity to increase, we have great capacity in civil society, in UN agencies and there is great political will of the government. Now it is up to wealthier countries to provide the funding needed, and we want them to be partners because ECW is a global fund where our donor partners sit on our governance structure. Our partners provide the funding, are part of making the decisions and help fund our shared vision of quality, inclusive education for girls, for children with disabilities, for those that fall behind.

IPS: ECW focuses on collaborating with other agencies implementing the fund’s multi-year resilience programmes. How important are these partners in the execution and ultimately the success of these programmes?

YS: Our partners are absolutely essential – civil society organisations, UN agencies, and of course the leadership of the government – they are the ones working among the people, they are doing the work on the ground, they are making the sacrifices. Our job is to facilitate and make their work easier, to mobilise resources and to bring everyone together. Our partners on the ground have the credibility and they are the sources of the solution for communities who are struggling to provide for their children and their young people. They are our heroes and they keep us going.

IPS: Stanislas Ouaro, Minister of National Education and Literacy for Burkina-Faso, said that the security crisis resulted in the closure of more than 2,300 schools and the COVID-19 pandemic further resulted in the closure of all schools in Burkina Faso for several months. Why is continuity of education so important for children in crisis situation? 

YS: You know when a child does not go to school, when a girl is out of school, she is more likely to marry early, she is more likely to get pregnant early and as a result very likely to never attend school. So, the main impact of keeping her out of school is that you have disempowered her. If a boy is out of school, he is more likely to be recruited into an armed group, more likely to pick up arms and by doing that his opportunity for a proper education to be a productive citizen has been destroyed.

The longer they are out of school amidst the insecurity, the pandemic or any other crisis, the more likely that they will never come back and the vicious cycle of unintended pregnancies, trafficking, forced recruitment, extreme poverty and lack of livelihoods will continue. That is why any country affected by conflict and crisis is important to us. We have a brilliant, committed Minister of Education who was educated here in Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso was one of the most progressive country in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education five years ago but, because of the Sahel and Burkina Faso crisis, it has dropped back. So, we need to get them back to school quickly, we need to ensure safety of schools, we have to get protective measures for COVID-19, but the key is to also end the conflict and restore stability.

IPS: ECW’s programmes have given special attention to girls’ education, can you share the impact this decision is having on the beneficiaries?

YS: ECW has made a commitment to see a minimum of 60 per cent of girls in school through affirmative action. We believe that gender equality starts by empowering the girls through education and through our investments, we have seen more girls in school and we have also seen more girls now attending secondary education. So, there is direct correlation between our affirmative action, our financial investment and the number of girls who are now enjoying quality education. 

IPS: Is there anything else that you would like to add?

YS: Education is an investment in humanity, we are investing in the human mind, the human soul and spirit and it is more costly to ignore that investment than to make that investment.  Investing in a human being and a human being in crisis is a moral choice and I appeal to everyone to make the moral choice, the political choice and the financial choice that will create that reward. Be human, be authentic and be called to creating a better world.

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Excerpt:

Hans Friederich at a Chinese bamboo plantation. Photo Courtesy of INBAR

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
ACCRA, Dec 5 2018 (IPS)

The bamboo industry in China currently comprises up to 10 million people who make a living out of production of the grass. But while the Asian nation has significant resources of bamboo — three million hectares of plantation and three million hectares of natural forests — the continent of Africa is recorded to have an estimated three and a half million hectares of plantations, excluding conservation areas.

This means that there is a possibility of creating a similar size industry in Africa, according to International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) director general Dr. Hans Friederich.

“In China, where the industry is developed, we have eight to 10 million people who make a living out of bamboo. They grow bamboo, manufacture things out of bamboo and sell bamboo poles. That has given them a livelihood and a way to build a local economy to create a future for themselves and their children,” he tells IPS.

INBAR is the only international organisation championing the development of environmentally sustainable bamboo and rattan. It has 44 member states — 43 of which are in the global south — with the secretariat headquarters based in China, and with regional offices in India, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Ecuador. Over the years, the multilateral development organisation has trained up to 25,000 people across the value chain – from farmers and foresters to entrepreneurs and policymakers.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Africa is estimated to have three and a half million hectares of bamboo. While China has about six million hectares of natural forests, almost double the size of Africa’s, experts say there is potential for developing the industry on the continent. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

Inter Press Service (IPS): What has been INBAR’s Role in the South-South Cooperation agenda?

Dr. Hans Friederich (DHF): In fact, a lot of our work over the last 21 years is to link our headquarters in China with our regional offices and our members around the world to help develop policies, put in place appropriate legislation and regulations to build capacity, train local people, provide information, and carry out real field research to test new approaches to manage resources in the most efficient way.

I think we [have been] able to help our members more effectively and do more in the way of training and capacity building. I also hope we can develop bamboo and rattan as vehicles for sustainable development with our member countries around the world, especially in the Global South.

IPS: What are the prospects for Africa’s bamboo and rattan industry?

DHF: The recorded statistics say that Africa has about three and half million hectares of bamboo, which excludes conservation [areas].

So, if I were to make a guess, Africa has as much bamboo as China [excluding China’s natural forests] and that means theoretically, we should have the possibility of creating an industry as large as China’s in Africa. That means an industry of 30 billion dollars per a year employing 10 million people.

IPS: How is INBAR helping to develop such a huge potential in Africa?

DHF: The returns we are seeing in China may not happen overnight in Africa, China has had 30 to 40 years to develop this industry.

But what we are doing is working with our members in Africa to kick off the bamboo value chain to start businesses and help members make the most out of these plants.

IPS: Working with countries from the global south means replication of best practices and knowledge sharing among member states. Are there any good examples worth mentioning?

DHF: China is the world’s leading country when it comes to the production and management of bamboo so we have a lot to learn from China. Fortunately China has the financial resources that makes it easy to share that information and knowledge with our members …Looking at land management activities in Ghana, as an example, I think bamboo can really help in restoring lands that have been damaged through illegal mining activities.

Maybe that is actually where we can learn from other African countries because we are already looking at how bamboo can help with the restoration of degraded lands in Ethiopia.

Also, when we had a training workshop in Cameroon last year and we looked at architecture, we brought an architect from Peru who shared his experience of working with bamboo in Latin America, which was quite applicable to Cameroon. So we are using experience from different parts of the world to help others develop what they think is important.

IPS: What is the most important thing in the development of the bamboo and rattan value chain for an African country like Ghana?

DHF: There are a number of things that we can do. One area that Ghana is already working on with regards to bamboo and rattan, is furniture production. I know that there is fantastic work being done with skills development.

The value chain of furniture production is an area where Ghana already has a lot to offer. But if we can improve quality, if we can make the furniture more interesting for consumers, through skills training [of artisans], then that is an area where we can really help.

IPS: Which other opportunity can Ghana look at exploring in the area of Bamboo and Rattan value chain?

DHF: Another area of opportunity is to use bamboo as a source of charcoal for household energy. People depend on charcoal, especially in rural areas in Ghana, but most of the charcoal comes from often illegally-cut trees.

Instead of cutting trees we can simply harvest bamboo and make charcoal from this, which is a legally produced source.

The great thing about Bamboo is that it re-grows the following growing season after harvesting, so it is a very sustainable source of charcoal production.

IPS: What does the future look like for INBAR?

DHF: Two months ago Beijing hosted the China Africa Forum and we were very, very pleased to have read that the draft programme of work actually includes the development of Africa’s bamboo industry. There is a paragraph that says China and Africa will work together to establish an African training centre.

We understand this will most likely be in Ethiopia and it will happen hopefully in the coming years.

Another thing is that China and Africa will work closely together to develop the bamboo and rattan industry. They will also develop specific activities on how to use bamboo for land restoration and climate change mitigation and to see how bamboo can help with livelihood development in Africa in partnership with China.

This is a very exciting development, a new window of opportunity has opened for us to work together to develop bamboo and rattan in Africa.

Excerpt:

Frempong Koranteng (left) learns how to weave a bamboo and rattan coffee table. About 100 of Ghana’s artisans are benefiting from a 30-day skills development training in bamboo and rattan processing given by trainers from the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR). Training is taking place in Kumasi, the capital of Ashanti Region, Ghana. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
KUMASI, Ghana , Nov 12 2018 (IPS)

Yaw Owiredu Mintah from Ghana has been working as an all-round processor of bamboo and rattan since the 1980s. And while he says that he can do most things with bamboo like weaving, framing and finishing, he admits, “I need to improve my skills and designs because all of us are, most of the time, doing the same things.”

“That is why I am happy this training is taking place,” Mintah tells IPS.

Mintah is among the 100 local artisans selected to benefit from a 30-day skills development training in bamboo and rattan processing in Ejisu a suburb of Kumasi, the capital of Ashanti Region, Ghana.

According to research, Ghana has lost over 60 percent of its forests from 1950 to 2000. Since 2000, it has had a deforestation rate of three percent. A report by Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), a past project of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, shows that the general depletion of forests has led to the reduced production of wooden furniture and reduced exports of plywood and flooring. However, the report noted, as bamboo grows in the wild in Ghana, there could be a market for bamboo furniture, plywood and flooring and other products generally manufactured from timber.

Bamboo and rattan have been identified as important commodities in the country. The processing of this – from raw material to finishing — employs thousands of people across the country.

Under tree canopies along Ghana’s major streets, you will find local artisans selling mostly baskets and furniture made from bamboo and rattan.

But many of these local artisans use outdated technology, which results in lower quality designs and less durable products. And this subsequently results in lower income.

Thus industrial manufacturing techniques like those being taught at the workshop Mintah is attending will equip artisans, over the course of a month, to produce a wide range of long-lasting, strong and inexpensive goods produced from bamboo and rattan. In turn this can contribute to long-term poverty alleviation and socio-economic development.

“I have learnt a lot of things that would improve my work when I leave here and go back to my place of work,” Mintah says.

Participants from all parts of the country, including two women from the Greater Accra Region, are currently involved in the transfer of knowledge and ideas from 7 technical trainers, 5 translators and 2 administrative support staff from the International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (ICBR) headquartered in China.

Yaw Owiredu Mintah going through the finishing process of a bamboo and rattan chair with his trainer. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

China-Ghana Cooperation

This training follows a request made by Ghana’s government to the Government of China under its South-South bilateral Cooperation Agreements. These agreements support the capacity building of people whose livelihoods depended on bamboo and rattan in this West African nation.

The cooperation was facilitated the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR), an independent, intergovernmental organisation that focuses on bilateral South-South cooperation and has over 44 members, 43 of which are in the global south.

INBAR proceeded with a collaboration with the Bamboo and Rattan Development Programme (BARADEP), an initiative in Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

The participants are leaning how to combine about 10 different designs through the use of innovation as well as the use of simple but effective tools to perfect the finishing of the bamboo and rattan products. The training began on Oct. 15, at the Forestry commission’s technical centre in Ejisu.

Dai Honghai, Director of the Foreign Aid Programme from ICBR, tells IPS that the training sessions has impacted greatly on the participants’ raw material handling, creativity and innovation and their application of tools to improve and enhance product processing and finishing.

“It is expected that this training will impact the market and marketing of the bamboo and rattan products to meet both local and international market and standard,” he says. “We have been here for three weeks and it is going well.”

Honghai says the participants are already mastering the use of the tools and are already making products.

“You can see the products, all together 150 products like bamboo flower stands, chairs and tables, rattan chairs and coffee tables are been made from bamboo rattan and wood materials for exhibition at the end of the training next week.

“We try to combine all the materials locally to make the product so that after we return to China they can still use the local material,” Honghai says to IPS. He adds that with the marketing strategy session that would be held within the final week of the workshop, participants will be equipped to properly market the bamboo and rattan products both locally and internationally.

Stephen Osafo Owusu, President of the National Association of Bamboo and Rattan Artisans of Ghana, and also a beneficiary of the training, wants the association’s members to produce products that can access the international market. “We need more of such trainings so our members can make better bamboo and rattan products to sell locally and even export to the international market like the Chinese,” he tells IPS.

Faustina Baffour Awuah, programmes manager from BARADEP, tells IPS the government of Ghana has a special interest in developing the bamboo and rattan industry and thereby improving the livelihoods of some 4,000 workers.

“We have been engaging them and we thought this will be a good programme for their skills development because with this they can create better products which will earn them better income and improve their lives,” she says.

And indeed the project has long-term goals that will benefit the artisans. Michael Kwaku, Country Director of INBAR Ghana, tells IPS bamboo and rattan are one of the fastest-growing species that have been identified in place of other sources of wood.

He said that because of their fast rates of maturity, bamboo and rattan had enormous environmental benefits and could be used for restoration of degraded lands and in supporting afforestation.

“We want them to have a common place where they can go and process their raw materials using these new tools. So once they have this training when the place is established they can go and use the modern tools at the facility to work and enhance their lives,” he explains.

In the meantime Mintah is learning a lot.

“One thing I have learnt from this training so far is the application of the simple tools to have a perfect finishing. You know the beauty and worth of a product is in its finishing,” Mintah says.

Paul Ayormah and his friends on his maize farm in Donkorkrom in the Kwahu Afram Plains District of Ghana’s Eastern Region. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
ACCRA and DONKORKROM, Ghana, Aug 17 2018 (IPS)

Paul Ayormah and his fellow farmers make their way home after hours spent manually weeding a friend’s one-acre maize farm in Ghana’s Eastern Region.

“Tomorrow it will be the turn of my maize farm,” he tells IPS.

This year, Ayormah and his colleagues who live in Donkorkrom in the Kwahu Afram Plains District of the Eastern Region, have resorted to alternative means of cultivating their farms. The farmers group together and travel to each other’s farms, where they work to prepare and weed the farmland, taking turns to do the same for everyone else in the group. They have also resorted to using cattle dung to fertilise their crop.

“We are doing this to cut down on the cost involved in preparing our land for planting our maize,” Ayormah tells IPS.

Ayormah, a father of five, inherited his two-acre maize farm from his late father. And as the breadwinner in his family, Ayormah relies solely on his produce as a source of income.

Ayormah says that in a good season he is able to harvest 40 bags of maize, which he then sells in Koforidua, the capital of the Eastern Region, for an average of USD27 per bag.

“The money I make is what I use to take care of my family. Two of my children are in tertiary [education], one is in high school, and the other two are in junior high and primary school [respectively]. So there is hardly enough money at home,” he explains.

Ayormah believes he will have a good enough harvest this season, but says “I cannot promise a bumper harvest.”

Food Security

Ghana’s economy is predominately dependent on agriculture, particularly cocoa, though the government has taken steps to ensure that the cultivation of staples such as rice, maize and soya is also enhanced.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) says that 52 percent of the country’s labour force is engaged in agriculture, which contributes 54 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. However, it notes that the country’s agricultural sector is driven predominately by smallholder farmers, and about 60 percent of all farms are less than 1.2 hectares in size and are largely rain-fed.“Already our economy is not developing at the level we want it to and then we have this huge number of people depending on a small population for survival. So the little income or food must be shared among many people and this retards our economic growth and development.” -- Dr. Leticia Appiah, National Population Council director

Last April, president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched Ghana’s flagship agricultural policy, Planting for Food and Jobs, a five-year plan geared towards increasing food productivity and ensuring food security for the country. The policy’s long-term goal is to reduce food import bills to the barest minimum.

The programme also provides farmers who own two to three acres of land with a 50 percent subsidy of fertiliser and other farm inputs, such as improved seedlings.

Farmers who enrol in the programme enjoy a flexible repayment method where they pay their 50 percent towards the fertiliser cost in two instalments of 25 percent prior to and after harvest. Each payment is estimated to cost USD12.

Ayormah benefited from the programme last year, and had hoped that the use of chemical fertiliser would increase his farming yield and income. However, delayed rains and an armyworm infestation caused him to lose almost half of his produce.

He says although the programme was helpful, he cannot afford to pay the final USD12 he owes the government.

“With the little I will get from my farm produce this year, I will pay the money I owe the government so I can benefit [from the fertiliser] next year and get a bumper harvest,” he explains.

“If all goes well I hope to [harvest] my 40 bags. But this year is going to be a little difficult for my family because I am not getting the government fertiliser,” Ayormah laments.

A report by the ministry of food and agriculture assessing the one-year implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs policy, notes the negative impact of delayed rains and armyworm infestation on maize production in the country. So far, government interventions such as the routine pesticide spraying on farms is bringing the armyworm infestation under control. But 20,000 hectares of land have already been affected.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Ghana’s minister of food and agriculture, tells IPS the situation faced by farmers in other parts of the country, particularly the Northern Region, poses a potential threat to food security for this west African nation.

Agenda 2030

Hiroyuki Nagahama, vice chair of the Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP) at the Asian and African Parliamentarians, spoke with IPS during a three-day visit this August to learn the opportunities and challenges that Ghana faces.

Nagahama says that if the current grown rate on the continent, in excess of two percent, is not checked, U.N. Population estimates and projections put Africa at a risk of contributing 90 percent to the increase in the world’s population between 2020 to 2100.

He further notes that the population growth rate does not correspond with the food produced on the continent and this poses a threat to food security.

“According to calculations by the FAO, food security can be possible through cutting down on losses from food and engaging appropriately in farm management and production. But, economic principles compels us to ask difficult questions about how the population of Africa will have access to food supply,” Nagahama says.

A new project by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) and the JPFP, which focuses on enhancing national and global awareness of parliamentarians’ role as a pivotal pillar for achieving the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, was launched this year. The project also supports parliamentarians as they implement necessary policy, legislative changes and mobilise resources for population-related issues.

It is a platform to examine the ways in which both developed and developing countries can, in equal partnership, serve as the driving force to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and create a world where no one is left behind.

Rashid Pelpou, chair of Ghana’s Parliamentary Caucus on Population and Development, tells IPS it is estimated that 1.2 million of Ghana’s 29.46 million people are currently food insecure.

And that a further two million Ghanaians are vulnerable to food insecurity nationwide. In the event of an unexpected natural or man-made shock, their pattern of food consumption can be greatly impacted.

He says that as representatives of the people, parliamentarians’ priorities are to ensure that laws and budget allocations translates into constituents having physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food.

Reproductive Health

In Ghana, the National Population Council (NPC) stated last August that the country’s current 2.5 percent population growth rate was high above the global rate of 1.5 percent, calling it a disturbing trend.

Dr. Leticia Appiah, NPC director, tells IPS that population management is an emergency that requires urgent action. She previously said that the “annual population increase is 700,000 to 800,000, which is quite alarming.”

Appiah tells IPS that when people give birth to more children than they can afford, not only does the family suffer in terms of its ability to care for these children, but the government becomes burdened as it provides social services.

“Already our economy is not developing at the level we want it to and then we have this huge number of people depending on a small population for survival. So the little income or food must be shared among many people and this retards our economic growth and development,” Appiah explains.

African Development Bank Group data shows that “economic growth fell from 14 percent in 2011 at the onset of oil production to 3.5 percent in 2016, the lowest in two decades.” In April the Ghana Statistical Service announced an 8.5 percent expansion in gross domestic product.

“We have to really focus on reproductive health otherwise we will miss the investment we have made in immunisation and create more problems for ourselves,” Appiah says.

Nagahama addresses the issue of Africa’s population growth: “It is an individual’s right to choose how many children they will have and at what interval. But in reality there are many children who are born from unwanted pregnancies and births.”

“To remove such plight, it is important for us parliamentarians to legislate, allocate funding and implement programmes for universal access to reproductive health services in ways that are culturally acceptable,”Nagahama says.

Niyi Ojoalape, the U.N. Population Fund’s Ghana representative, tells IPS that strong government coordination is the way to harness demographic dividend—the growth in an economy that is the resultant effect of a change in the age structure of a country’s population.

Ghana currently has a national population policy with strategies to manage the country’s population for long term benefit, but implementation of this has lacked political will over the years.

Ojoalape notes that without sustainable implementation over the long term, Ghana will not be able to reap the benefits.

MP Beatrice Boateng had to overcome many obstacles when she ran for her seat in parliament. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

By Jonathan Migneault and Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
ACCRA, Jul 12 2012 (IPS)

Beatrice Boateng, a member of parliament with the New Patriotic Party, Ghana’s official opposition to the ruling New Democratic Congress, has earned her place among the country’s lawmakers.

As she takes her seat in parliament, she does so having overcoming the numerous obstacles that face all would-be female politicians in Ghana, including defamation and financial difficulties.

It is little wonder then that when visitors observe Ghana’s legislators in action, one thing is immediately clear – there are very few women who sit in the West African country’s parliament.

In fact, the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranks Ghana as 120 out of 189 countries for female representation in government. Only 19 of 230 members of parliament in Ghana are women. That leaves female representation at 8.3 percent.

“It was not easy,” Boateng told IPS, referring to her second shot at parliament in 2004. “The men really ganged up against me.”

That year, members of her own party defamed her in the media. “They said I was a teacher and didn’t have money, so I was flirting with other party members for it,” she said. “They thought as a woman they could manipulate me to do whatever they wanted.”

Boateng went to court over the allegations and eventually won the case that year. She was granted a retraction in the newspapers, an apology and some financial compensation. But not before the case was adjourned 11 times.

She did not win a seat that year.

She would have to wait four more years before she finally won the chance to represent the New Juaben constituency of the Eastern Region in parliament. In 2008 she won a seat as an MP and has been serving for the last four years. She did not win the party nomination in her constituency for the 2012 election, though, and will not run for a second term.

But Boateng’s triumph in politics is a rarity here. And a Ghanaian NGO called Abantu for Development has teamed up with the country’s Department of Women to draft a political affirmative action law to open the doors for women who want to follow in Boateng’s footsteps.

“If we do not put in place special temporary measures, women will never make it into public office,” said Hilary Gbedemah, a lawyer and the rector of the Law Institute in Accra who has worked on the draft legislation.

Eight years ago, the NGO Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa or LAWA Ghana made recommendations for draft legislation on affirmative action. Though work towards the legislation only started four years ago, with the Department of Women creating the Affirmative Action Legislation Working Committee, a four-person committee responsible for creating the draft legislation, in May 2011.

While the sub-committee is yet to start drafting and sifting through the varied recommendations received, they are working toward a gender parity zone where no gender occupies more than 60 percent of public or political positions.

In 1995, the United Nations’ Beijing Platform for Action on Equality, Development and Peace, to which Ghana is a signatory, recommended a minimum of 30 percent female representation in decision-making positions.

So far, 37 countries across the globe have reached the Beijing Platform’s 30 percent marker for female representation in parliament. Of those countries, only three achieved the feat without affirmative action initiatives.

“We are hoping that when we get the affirmative action law to back the policies that we have, we will have the basis to hold political parties responsible to give support to women,” said Patience Opoku, principal programme officer and acting director with Ghana’s Department of Women.

Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda are among the African countries with affirmative action laws. They each have more than 30 percent female representation in parliament. Rwanda leads the world with 56.3 percent representation.

But in Ghana, several factors still prevent women from reaching decision-making positions.

When Boateng ran for parliament for the first time in 1996, she said her biggest obstacle was her finances. “I knew I needed money and I didn’t have it,” she said.

Though in 2004, during her second attempt to run for office, she was in a better financial position and was able to secure loans from banks. But by this time her children had also completed their schooling, and she had more cash available.

Ghana is traditionally a patriarchal society. “When we come home we are given different roles,” said Hamida Harrison, Abantu’s mobilisation manager. “Those roles have brought about this relationship that is superiority versus inferiority.”

Women are expected to raise children and have fewer opportunities for tertiary education and professional advancement.

“Men have the money,” said Gbedemah.

At the elementary level, boys and girls are evenly represented in Ghana’s schools.
“But by the time we come to the tertiary level boys outnumber girls almost three to one,” Gbedemah said. She said that a study by ActionAid International found that the public perception of girls’ education, household chores and early pregnancy are all factors that have contributed to the disparity.

To increase the number of young women in Ghana’s tertiary institutions, a form of affirmative action is currently in place as the entrance requirements for women remain lower than those for men. It points to a long history of affirmative action in Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, set aside 10 seats for women in Ghana’s parliament in the early 1960s. Though that policy fell out of favour after he was overthrown by a coup in 1966.

“In India, and in the Nordic countries, we found that when you increase women’s representation they tend to focus on things like health, sanitation, education and social services,” said Gbedemah.

Issues that are specific to women, such as maternal mortality and domestic violence, also receive more attention when a country has a higher proportion of female decision makers.

The Department of Women and Abantu want to have nationwide consultations on the draft affirmative action bill by the end of the year, before it goes to parliament. While it will not be ready for Ghana’s December election, they hope to have affirmative action in place for the 2016 elections.

Ghana has taken a major step towards reducing its under-five mortality rate by becoming the first African country to introduce two new vaccines for rotavirus and pneumococcal disease.

Gladys Otabil holds her son Gabriel as he receives the pneumoccocal vaccine at La General Hospital in Accra. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

But a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official in the West African country says this measure will not be sufficient to meet the fourth United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two thirds by 2015.

Currently, 80 children out of 1,000 do not make it past the age of five in Ghana. According to UNICEF, Somalia has the highest infant mortality rate, at 180 deaths per 1,000 live births, and Sweden and Finland have the lowest at three deaths per 1,000 live births. (source: http://www.childinfo.org/mortality_ufmrcountrydata.php). In order to achieve the fourth MDG, Ghana would have to cut its under-five mortality rate down to 40 deaths per 1,000.

“Ghana is doing a lot, but I don’t think it’s enough,” said Dr. Anirban Chatterjee, UNICEF’s chief of health and nutrition in Ghana. He was referring to this country’s efforts with the new vaccines and the Health Service’s campaign to educate mothers on nutrition. “I think there is definitely scope and need for more improvement.”

Rotavirus and pneumococcal disease are the leading causes of diarrhoea and pneumonia in young Ghanaian children. Together they account for close to 25 percent of under-five mortality and are behind only malaria as the leading causes of child deaths here.

Now both the vaccines for rotavirus and pneumococcal disease are being given to young children before they reach four months of age. The measure is currently being rolled out across the country and to select hospitals in Accra. The GAVI Alliance, a public-private global health partnership, has helped fund the vaccines, which will be available for free to all Ghanaian children. More than 400,000 children in this country of 25 million people are expected to be immunised against both diseases.

The two new vaccines are expected to prevent 12,000 pneumonia-related deaths and another 10,000 deaths from diarrhoea, said Dr. Antwi Adjei, head of the expanded programme on immunisation at the Ghana Health Service.

On Apr. 26, Ghana’s Health Minister Alban S. K. Bagbin said in a press statement that the new vaccines would give this country the extra push it needs to meet the fourth MDG by 2015.

But for UNICEF, efforts to improve the nutritional health of children and provide them with vaccinations need to happen in tandem to reduce the under-five mortality rate. Chatterjee said malnourishment can sometimes double or triple the chances of dying from a condition like diarrhoea or pneumonia.

“Malnourished children are more susceptible to contracting the disease, having severe forms of the disease, and also dying from the disease,” he said.

Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child’s life is one way to prevent malnourishment in that crucial period. UNICEF has promoted the practice because it also helps create immunity to early childhood killers like pneumonia and diarrhoea.

In Ghana, 63 percent of children are exclusively breastfed during that period, which is relatively high compared to other developing countries. However, many women do not breastfeed their children because they are not aware of the benefits, or they work in an environment – such as the informal sector – where it is difficult to do so.

Adjei said that the Ghana Health Service has regular cooperation between departments such as vaccinations and nutrition. The service’s various departments are currently meeting for Child Health Promotion Week to develop new strategies and programmes related to child health.

One big challenge for the Ghana Health Service will be to reach all children with the rotavirus and pneumococcal disease vaccines. About 87 percent of children under one in Ghana have been immunised for tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, tetanus, hepatitis B, measles and several other childhood diseases. But reaching the last 13 percent has proven difficult.

“Wherever a person is, we have a responsibility to reach them and vaccinate them,” said Adjei. “Rising costs also make it more and more difficult.”

Some isolated communities around Lake Volta in central Ghana, for instance, can only be reached by boat. It is much more expensive for the Ghana Health Service to reach these small communities than to serve urban populations.

A small number of Ghanaians also do not take vaccinations due to religious or traditional beliefs. Adjei said, for example, that the local Twi dialect has only one word for “medicine,” and it does not differentiate between preventative vaccines and drugs used to treat diseases. He said it is difficult to overcome such beliefs.

“Fortunately for us these are isolated cases,” he said.

La General Hospital in Accra was one of the first institutions to offer the vaccines in the capital on Friday, May 4. About 40 mothers were gathered at the hospital with their crying infants in tow, as they waited for their turn for their children to be inoculated.

Gladys Otabil was at La General Hospital with her two-month-old son Gabriel.

“All I understand by the addition of the two vaccines is that they will protect my child from any disease and sicknesses,” she said. Otabil added that she was also advised to breastfeed her son for the first six months of his life.

The roll out will expand to other hospitals in Accra, and across Ghana, in the coming weeks.

The incessant buzzing of mosquitoes was the first sign that there was something wrong. While Bernard Akumiah could clearly hear the small insects, there were none within his vicinity.

Bernard Akumiah said that government needs to recognise mental illness as a legitimate health concern. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

The buzzing of mosquitoes eventually turned into voices coming from nearby rooms. The voices sounded as though they were in French, a language neither Akumiah nor his brother, with whom he lived, could speak.

The year was 1982 and the experience of hearing mosquitoes that did not exist was the first sign Akumiah, then a young man with his whole life ahead of him, had schizophrenia. The mental disorder, which can now be treated with the right combination of antipsychotic drugs, is characterised by paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations that are often paired with social dysfunction and anxiety.

But Akumiah’s diagnosis changed his life. Like many others with schizophrenia, he has been a victim of stigma.

“At first I had a lot of family support, they would even bring me food so I didn’t eat the food prepared at the hospital but when I was discharged, somewhere along the line, there was something like discrimination,” Akumiah said.

Stigma is a major impairment to mental health treatment in Ghana. The country is expected to pass a new Mental Health Bill by the end of March that could greatly improve mental health services if it is properly enforced.

Now 59-years-old, Akumiah has managed to control his illness by taking powerful antipsychotic medication every day. He is a volunteer with the Mental Health Society of Ghana and dedicates much of his free time to reducing the stigma associated with mental illness in the country.

He remains one of the lucky Ghanaians who are able to live normal lives with a severe mental illness.

He said the government needs to recognise mental illness as a legitimate health concern. “When you fall sick your family rejects you,” Akumiah said. “So who should take care of you? The government must accept and embrace people with mental illness with their whole heart and not by word alone but by deed.”

It is estimated that 98 percent of Ghanaians with mental illnesses never receive treatment. There are only three mental health facilities in the country, all located in the more populated south. In the poorer north there are no mental health services at all. There are more than 24 million people in Ghana but only 12 psychiatrists.

Ghana spends about one percent of its annual healthcare budget on mental health. Mental health practitioners estimate that as much as 10 percent of the population suffers from a mental illness of some kind. Dr. Akwasi Osei, director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, the largest facility of its kind in Ghana, has said that at least seven percent of Ghana’s total healthcare budget should be set aside for mental health.

“Our system for mental healthcare is quite poor,” said Osei.

Accra Psychiatric Hospital currently has 800 patients but only 500 beds. In the men’s ward patients are strewn about the floor of an open courtyard. Most are in a groggy state, thanks to their medication, and ask for better food or for a way out. Some said they get visits from family members but many others have been abandoned by their kin.

Osei said mental illness is not a priority in Ghana because of the stigma associated with it. That stigma manifests itself in three ways: against the condition itself, the patient and the mental health practitioner.

“The main thing is fear of the unknown,” said Osei. “People don’t know exactly what mental illness is and what causes it. And we are credulous beings. We want to believe. And if you want to believe and you don’t understand then you find superstition. Superstition becomes an antidote to ignorance, so we turn to associate superstition with mental illness.”

That superstition is most evident in the prayer camps scattered around Ghana. People with mental illnesses are often chained in the camps as preachers pray for their miraculous recovery.

But Ghana’s mental health practitioners and advocates believe the country’s new Mental Health Bill could help end the stigma against mental illness and allow for better treatment across the country.

The Mental Health Bill was first put before Parliament in 2006. It has gone through its first and second readings and is now at the committee stage. Humphrey Kofie, executive secretary of the Mental Health Society of Ghana, said the country’s health committee has assured him the bill will be passed by the end of March 2012.

Kofie said the bill would help protect the human rights of people who suffer from a mental illness. People who are known to be mentally ill in Ghana, for instance, are often prevented from voting during elections. Kofie said the Mental Health Bill would put an end to that kind of discrimination.

Osei said the new bill would be one of the most progressive pieces of legislation of its kind in Africa. “Healthcare will be community oriented instead of institutionalised, a mental health board and a trust to collect funds for mental healthcare will be established, it will provide enforcement power to end rights abuse and department for public education to further reduce stigma and train as well as monitor traditional healers,” he said.

The bill would also provide additional funding for mental healthcare in Ghana. There are no numbers for additional funding yet.

But Kofie said the law would need the proper legislative instruments to be put into practice.

Ghana’s Disability Rights Bill, passed in 2006, has still not been enforced. The country’s institutions are still largely inaccessible to people who have physical disabilities. Kofie has feared that the situation could be similar for the Mental Health Bill.

“The future is the legislative instrument,” he said.

Excerpt:

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri, - -, and Paul Carlucci
ACCRA, Nov 3 2011 (IPS)

On the grubby edge of Old Fadama, Accra’s infamous illegal slum settlement, 67-year-old Mariana Sayitou sits under a parasol and tends to her livelihood – selling several dozen kola nuts and a few piles of bagged beans to passers-by.

Sixty-seven-year-old Mariana Sayitou sells kola nuts and beans on the edge of Old Fadama. Credit: Paul Carlucci/IPS

Gender activists say the situation of women like Sayitou is caused by a confluence of factors, from low rates of female education to increasingly nuclear family structures, and from social policy vacuums to cultural discrimination. Compounding the picture are Ghana’s labour markets, which, because of longstanding gender roles, herd women into the informal sector.

“We need to realise that the majority of our women are the mainstay of our economy,” says Elizabeth Quarcor Akpalu, executive director of Advocates for Gender Equity. “We need to do something to help them in their old age. They are dying in pain.”

Sayitou’s husband divorced her after their families had a row and she raises three of their four kids herself. She buys them clothes, food, and pays for their education with the less than 19 dollars she makes every day (some of which also goes to her own food, clothing, and business supplies budget).

“I want to take care of my children,” she says, “but I also feel the pain of living alone. I pray that my children are in good health, so tomorrow they can take care of me when I can’t do anything.”

Deeper in the slum, 70-year-old Sanatu Seidu sits on a wooden bench among an open-air foundation of crumbling cement. She is surrounded by bubbling pots worried over by women wrapped in robes. This is Valne, her northern foods restaurant. Like Sayitou, she is part of the informal economy.

When she first started almost fifteen years ago, Seidu quickly turned big profits, building the business into a 15-staff, 375-dollar-a-day phenomenon. But the flow of job-seeking migrants to Old Fadama is never-ending, and competition from other businesses has driven her profits down to between 60 and 90 dollars a day.

She uses that money to pay a staff of six, keep the business stocked, feed and clothe herself and her four children, two of whom live in Northern Region, and look after her sick husband, who also lives in the north.

“I face a lot of difficulties because of my age,” she says. “Sometimes, I can’t come out and help. Sometimes, I just lie down because I’m tired or I’m having pain in my body.”

There are pension schemes in Ghana. The biggest is a statutory programme run by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) which, as of the end of 2010, included 107,312 people from the private and public sectors. Only 17,229 of them were women, because the scheme is for formal sector employees.

“There are more men certainly than women,” says Edward Ameyibor, general secretary of the National Pensioners Association. “In our system, it’s the men who work in the formal sector. It’s women who work in the informal sector.”

According to SSNIT’s 2010 annual report, beneficiaries get between 26 and 1,250-plus dollars a month. Some beneficiaries on the low end retired in the 1990s, when Ghana’s salaries were much lower and the corresponding contributions were fewer.

Those on the high end worked in high-income employment, earning larger salaries and making larger contributions. There are 94 men receiving pensions of 1,250-plus dollars, compared to 11 women. Over 50 percent of beneficiaries receive less than 62 dollars a month.

The National Pensioners Association has been battling SSNIT to have the baselines increased, but there have not been any breakthroughs. Up until recently, SSNIT had been giving percentage increases every year based on the fund’s investment returns. Last year, they gave an across the board increase of six dollars a month. The association is calling for a minimum benefit of 62 dollars a month.

Meanwhile, SSNIT does have a scheme for the informal sector. It started as a pilot project in 2005 and went national three years later. It is a flexible programme, allowing members to contribute what they can when they can. The contributions are stored in two accounts, one for retirement and one for working life. The latter account can be tapped after five months of contributions, a feature SSNIT says attracts younger workers into early savings programmes.

But just 32 percent of the account’s 90,000 contributors are female. Ghana’s 24 million people are almost equally divided among the sexes, though women live longer. And while there are plenty of men in the informal sector – hawkers, fishermen, masons – advocates say it is primarily a woman’s realm. However, there is no reason why so few women belong to this scheme.

“That’s where you find the majority of women, in the informal sector,” says Akpalu. “Without good education, it’ll be impossible for a lot to be in the formal sector. Even some with education, if you look at where they are placed, it’s a pyramid. They’re at the bottom section and lower echelon.”

Other than pensions, there is the government’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, which is designed for the extremely poor, the orphaned, the disabled, and the elderly. The programme, which grows year over year, currently targets 55,000 households, of which 35 percent are elderly. Of the latter number, 65 percent are female.

Depending on the size of the household, benefits are between five and nine dollars a month, paid six times a year.

“The LEAP is so little and insignificant,” says Akpalu. “It doesn’t address any problem.”

Additional support comes from a smattering of non-governmental organisations, church groups, and extended families.

Currently, Ghana’s 20-year-old constitution is under review. A review panel, formed in 2010, toured the country hearing from stakeholders, and a final report is in the works. The Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana sought to broaden the definition of discrimination in the constitution to include discrimination caused by economic and cultural systems, as well as address a host of rights issues.

“(The committee) didn’t take a lot of it on board,” says Akpalu.

Sayitou is not bothered with advocacy. She is accepting of her lot, and proud of her accomplishments. Everything else is just life.

“Some people, when they grow up, they’ve suffered since childhood,” she says. “But through that, the person can do anything for herself, because she has the capacity to succeed. Some people grow up rich and when they are aged they can’t work. They don’t know how to work.”

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As streams dry out, groundwater levels dwindle, and forests and other vegetation yield to droughts or sever storms, women who live their lives in the rural areas of Ghana have to spend more time and energy finding water and food for their families.

Mercy Hlordz (l), Akos Matsiador (centre) and Mary Azametsi (r) are all victims of climate change. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

For these women, climate change means more hard work just to survive.

However, “decisions to tackle changes in the climate, which has become a threat to livelihoods in developing countries, are void of women’s participation,” says Kenneth Nana Amoateng, chief executive officer of Abibimman Foundation.

Yet these women are also the same people who pick up the pieces, improvise solutions and provide responses to the challenges imposed by climate change.

Amoateng said that most of the women directly affected by climate change are either inadequately represented or exempted from government’s policies and programmes designed to solve the issue.

Akos Matsiador, a 40-year-old fish seller who lives in Horvi village along Ghana’s coast, is now homeless after rising sea levels led to tidal waves surging through her village almost a year ago.

“The current of the sea was so strong that it submerged the entire village. Baskets of smoked fish that I had stored to sell to other women in other villages were swept away by the sea,” Matsiador says.

She was not only displaced, but was also rendered jobless as her source of income – selling smoked fish – was destroyed.

Matsiador and other victims of the tidal wave, like Mercy Hlordzi who lost her husband and her livelihood, now live in a shed by the village chief’s house.

“We are just there, we don’t do anything because our work has been destroyed by the sea,” Hlordzi says.

They, together with other women who have suffered a similar fate because of climate change, are hoping that the Ghanaian government will intervene and help them rebuild their lives.

Their voices are currently not incorporated into the countries climate change discourse and processes as they have little or no knowledge of the issue and its effects on their livelihoods.

In their quest to give a platform to these women, Abibimman Foundation, together with Greenpeace and various other non-governmental organisations, organised the Women and Climate Justice Hearings on Monday in Tema, Ghana. Women from various towns and villages across Ghana were brought together to share their experiences.

The Ghanaian government ought to do more to involve women in the design and implementation of climate change policies and programmes, officials say. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

Memuna Sandow, an assemblywoman from the Wulugu electoral area in West Mamprusi district in northern Ghana, says the recent dry season in the region dried up water sources such as wells, streams and even some bore holes.

“The drought has lead to the loss of food, crops and animals, which are basic for human survival,” she says.

“They maintain the environment more than men, but when it comes to decisions regarding climate change, women are not represented,” Sandow adds.

She says, however, that women’s lack of knowledge on the issue of climate change has rendered them paralysed in the fight against it.

She says that it is necessary for the government to involve women in the design and implementation of climate change policies and programmes.

“Poor participation of women in the decisions has a negative effect on the efforts to combat climate change,” Sandow says.

Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs Juliana Azumah Mensah shares the same opinion.

“It is an undisputed fact that women constitute a large number of the poor in communities that are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihoods.”

She adds that Ghana, as a signatory to international conventions, agreed to infuse gender perspectives into ongoing research by the academic sector on the impact of climate change.

Mensah says government is considering the active participation of women in the development of funding criteria and allocation of resources for climate change initiatives.

“My expectation is that output from these climate change hearings will be communicated to appropriate agencies to inform plans at the national as well as local districts assembly,” Mensah says.

Amoateng reiterates an old Chinese proverb “we should see the earth not as an inheritance from our fathers but a borrowed asset from our children, which we will be required to give back to them.”

By Paul Carlucci and Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
Oct 6, Oct 6 2011 (IPS)

Emmanuel Joseph and George Amoah, two disabled Ghanaians, occupy different ends of the spectrum. The former lies on a piece of cardboard in Accra Central, his half-naked body twisted and mostly paralysed, the sun beating down on him while he waits to collect three dollars, the average proceeds of a day’s begging.

Emmanuel Joseph lies on a piece of cardboard in Accra Central. Paralysed from the waist down, he comes here every morning at 7am to beg. Credit: Paul Carlucci/IPS

The latter sits in a wheelchair and wears a tidy three-piece suit, his hair neatly cut and his eyes alert as he works through another day at a major international bank in the same neighbourhood.

They are just two of the country’s estimated two million disabled, who, according to the World Health Organization, account for seven to 10 percent of the population. Five years after its passage, the Persons with Disability Act has brought few changes to their lives.

On paper its provisions promise plentiful employment opportunities, free education, accessible buildings and transportation, and societal acceptance. The reality is much different.

“Sometimes I get insulted,” says Joseph, who says his legs became paralysed after he received a medicinal injection because he fell sick. “Sometimes people also beat me.”

He lives with his brother in a community called Post Office. Every morning, he wheels himself to Central and lies on the sidewalk. People with similar disabilities are all over the area, some pushing themselves around on pieces of plywood, while others wade into traffic snarls to beg for change.

“There is a very subtle discrimination,” says Amoah. “So far as you are physically challenged, you are categorised in a certain way. I do not know if you should only be begging or weaving or whatever. To a large degree, that’s the mind set of corporate Ghana.”

In some ways, Amoah lucked out. He is university educated, and he was able to find a position at the bank after a non-governmental organisation Sight Savers hosted its first annual job fair in 2010.

He is vague about the origins of his disability, but he says it struck him when he was young, and resulted in his missing five years of school. That he managed to get ahead in a country that often regards disability with superstition or derision is a victory. His disabled friends have not been so lucky.

“Obviously, it is a very difficult challenge,” Amoah says. “They have to depend on family. Some will have to find menial jobs, and a few of them (beg). Most of them do jobs that they are way above, but they have to survive.”

None of the Act’s provisions have been fully realised. A draft legislative instrument, which is supposed to flesh out clauses related to employment, education, penalties, and the built environment, has been stalled somewhere between the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Attorney General’s Office.

This comes as the Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD) is trying to leverage its relationship with government to make changes.

“If we do not do that, and the draft legislative instrument is passed as it is, there will be a lot of gaps,” says Isaac Tuggon, an advocate with GFD. “It is something that should have been ready a long time ago.”

According to the Act, Ghana’s built environment should be accessible by 2016. While there are accessible buildings in Accra, the city is still laden with barriers, from open gutters to old buildings with only steep steps and no elevators. Tuggon complains that hardly any work has been done to bring buildings up to code, and that even new structures are lacking ramps and other features.

“The government’s hands are tied because the government itself is not doing what is right,” he says.

In Accra Central, where many of the federal ministries are headquartered, only the Ministry of Social Welfare has wheelchair ramps.

“If I can go anywhere, I am not disabled,” says Amoah alluding to the fact that it is very difficult to get around the city. “Sometimes, it is the environment that is disabling.”

The Act also called for the establishment of a National Council on Persons with Disability. The council has been formed, but its executive secretary, Max Vardon, says it is under resourced and under funded.

One of the council’s tasks has been to pass guidelines for disbursing monies set in municipal, metropolitan, or district Common Funds. The funds were established in the 1990s as Ghana sought to decentralise its federal government.

In 2005, in response to advocacy pressure, two percent of those funds were pledged to persons with disabilities. That money was slow in coming, if it came at all. The guidelines were supposed to fix the problem.

“The bottom line is they are not really very interested,” says Vardon. “Ghanaians as a whole are not very interested in disability. We just do not want to know. The people who work in the district assemblies are also Ghanaians. They too have the same attitude. They do not want to know.”

In 2010, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development began issuing directives to municipal, metropolitan, and district governments insisting they fall in line with the guidelines, which, among other things, called for a separate account to hold the monies and a committee to determine how they should be disbursed.

Slowly but increasingly, committees are being formed and accounts are being opened. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) says it has over 52,000 dollars in an account. According to the AMA’s budget officer, a committee will be fully assembled within a couple weeks.

The AMA also disputes allegations that it had not disbursed money before the imposition of the guidelines. The local government’s budget officer has several documents showing grants for sewing machines and other working tools.

Until the Act’s legislative instrument is passed, there’s no way to penalise people or institutions that contravene its provisions. At the same time, most disability advocates seem to feel change is gradually coming. Some, like Amoah, think it is a slow evolution of corporate Ghana’s mind set. Others, like Vardon, think it is a matter of society reflecting itself in government.

“Over the years,” Vardon says, “this sector has not been as heavily resourced as others, and we reflect the choices we have made as society. If more people made more noise about their cousin, their aunt, their uncle, whatever, who have disability, more people made noise about it, then perhaps government would say, okay, let us make more resources available for that.”

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