President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana has commissioned a new factory of Premium Foods Limited, one of two industrial agro-processors supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) to produce high quality specialized nutritious foods, a blend of cereals mixed with extra minerals and vitamins. Located at Kwaso in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti region, the factory was supported under WFP’s Enhanced Nutrition and Value Chains (ENVAC) project, funded by Canada. It is equipped to process over 96,000 metric tonnes of maize grits and cereals each year. It’s extrusion plant produces a ready-to-eat fortified blend of corn and soybeans, fortified with 18 vitamins and minerals, to improve the nutrition of pregnant and nursing women, adults and growing infants. Some 120 new jobs have been created, comprising technical and management positions whilst farmers and out-growers along the value chain have benefitted from thousands of direct and indirect income earning opportunities. Describing Premium Foods as a “classic example of the critical role agricultural production and value addition play in the economic development of countries”, President Akufo-Addo commended WFP, Canada and other institutions for the support provided which has culminated in the establishment of this state-of-the-art factory, one of few factories with such capabilities in West Africa. The honourable Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr. Alan Kyerematen affirmed his ministry would “continue to improve the strategic partnership with the private sector and collaborating organizations to establish similar modern factories which would be globally competitive and take full advantage of foreign market opportunities such as the Africa Free Continental Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).” Mr. Chris Nikoi, WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, noted that the new factory will serve not only Ghana, but the West Africa sub-region. “Until now, WFP has had to source specialized nutritious foods from the USA, Belgium, Italy or South Africa for use within the sub-region. Procuring directly from Premium Foods will reduce lead times by at least 3 months, reaching the people in need in our region much quicker. Now we are able to source from the region for the region!” He announced that WFP had placed its first export order to meet the nutritional needs of 30,000 children in Burkina Faso. “The ENVAC initiative, resulted from a Ghana-Canada-UN collaboration to support a public-private partnership lays a strong foundation to change the game on innovation in the nutrition value chain – from farm to factory, to the tables of those that need enhanced nutrition the most,” said HE Ms Kati Csaba, the Canadian High Commissioner. Validating the High Commissioner’s remarks, Mr. Tom Gambrah, the Managing Director of Premium Foods commended Canada for the bold decision to channel part of their development funds to the private sector and WFP for conceiving of the integrated ENVAC project and providing the seed funds as this gave their bankers the confidence to finance the project. The commissioning of the new factory is a befitting ending to the ENVAC project which has succeeded in addressing some of the bottlenecks prevalent in Ghana’s food systems. Agro-processors, such as Premium Foods, have been the pivot of the ENVAC project as they provide a market for smallholder farmers to sell their produce and their nutritious products have helped to improve the nutritional status of particularly, vulnerable pregnant and nursing women, children and adolescents, who are unable to regularly afford foods which provide the nutrients they require at critical stages of the life cycle. Abena Brefi, a 53-year-old widow and smallholder maize farmer at Brehoma near Kobreso in the Ashanti Region, testifies to the impact of sales to Premium Foods. At first, she and other smallholder farmers in Brehoma dealt with some market women who often didn’t pay for the maize they bought.  This changed when Mr. Twum, the aggregator who supplies maize to Premium Foods, came on the scene. “He provides us with some farm inputs and pays immediately he buys from us. Before I met him, I struggled to pay my children’s school fees because payment from other buyers was irregular, so my three eldest children dropped out of school. But since he began buying my maize, I have enough money to pay school fees and so the last three have been able to complete senior high school. “ With the factory fully equipped for production, efforts are now underway to support the marketing of these products whilst improving the livelihoods of the most vulnerable to enable them to buy them to improve their nutritional status. Making locally produced specialized nutritious foods available and affordable to all in Ghana is an important step to prevent malnutrition and enhance the nation’s human capital.

The UN Resident Coordinator led a delegation of UN officials from UNICEF, UNDP and WHO.  They were accompanied by the Special Advisor of the President of the Republic of Ghana on Sustainable Development, Dr. Eugene Owusu. The Joint programme, “Fostering Reforestation, Environmental Sustainability and Tourism in the Okyeman Area (FOREST Okyeman): Accelerating the SDGs through a multi-stakeholder, community-based approach to sustainable livelihoods and wellbeing”, will build on existing initiatives of the Okyeman Environment Foundation in the region.  It will focus on environment, health and education with a strong livelihood and empowerment component. It will be jointly implemented by five UN agencies, namely UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, UNEP and UN Volunteer, together with the OEF. Supported by the UN Human Security Trust Fund with a grant of 1 million dollars, the implementing UN agencies will co-fund the programme with additional 1.3 million dollars. It is expected to benefit 1.3 million people particularly women and youth. In a passionate message on the environment, the King of the Royal Ofori Panin Palace of the Akyem Kingdom of Ghana, His Majesty, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin II reiterated the power and knowledge of local people and traditional leaders to drive their own agenda on the environment. He advised that “unless we come to understand that for sustainable development to be effective, the process and ownership, should be left with the local people.” Read the full special story here.

Several communities in Northern Ghana are pronounced flood prone, owing mainly to the low-lying nature of the area. Floods in this part of the country are perennial thereby increasing the vulnerability of the people in the area to infections, illness, loss of livelihoods, lack of farmlands and school closures.    Besides, access to poor water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services pose yet another key public health challenge for flood prone areas in Northern Ghana. With only about 10% of the population said to use improved sanitation facilities, and high cases of open defecation, the situation is worrisome. For the people, “issues of water and sanitation can be life threatening, especially when disaster occurs” says the Country Representative of the UNFPA, Mr. Niyi Ojuolape. Further buttressing the seriousness of the situation, Dr. Eric Moukoro, the Programme Manager, UN-Habitat , said “when it floods, the water washes the poor WASH facilities into the streams, rivers and un-elevated and poorly built hand-dug wells thereby contaminating the very source of their drinking water”, a situation that makes the people in the North susceptible to several health hazards. To address this daunting poor sanitation menace, and support the people to build resilient WASH facilities that can prevent vulnerability to natural disaster in the area, the United Nations in Ghana, represented by four agencies, namely, UN-Habitat, UNICEF, UNDP and WHO implemented the UN Water and Sanitation in Disaster Prone Communities Programme, (WASH in DPC) targeting 265 disaster prone communities in Northern Ghana. Through the programme, approximately 300,000 people in these communities, schools and healthcare facilities have received resilient water and sanitation infrastructure and thereby allowing for their social inclusion and universal access to water and sanitation and other essential services related to disaster management with early warning mechanisms by communities and Government bodies, including the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO). The 3-year programme was funded by Global Affairs (GAC), an endorsement of Canada’s aspiration “to foster an inclusive society where everyone’s needs are met” says Mr. Eric Chimsi, Development Officer at the Canadian High Commission. Recently, to officially close the WASH in DPC programme, the UN and implementing partners toured some beneficiary communities in the North to appreciate the extent of work and the impact of the facilities and services provided by the programme.  They also interacted with some residents, many of whom say the easy access to reliable water has made their lives easier and less stressful. Adisa Abdul Rhaman, a 28-year old mother of five says “I no longer rush home from work only to travel another distance to fetch water at the end of each day”. Beaming with smiles, Palabe Dorcas Kolan told us “Gone are the days when we used to fight at the stream over water.  These days, we do not fight.  All you have to do is bring your bucket to the water station, pay a little amount and fetch”. In Ward K, the UN and partners handed over two water stations and hand washing facilities to the people at a brief ceremony. They would serve the community and be fit for purpose in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is pleasing to note the inclusion of COVID-19 protocol behavioral change communication in the programme” says Mr. Chimsi. He further identified the strong coordination effort between the UN and implementing partners including the Government of Ghana which was significant for the successful implementation of the programme. He advised that lessons learnt from the implementation of the WASH in DPC should inform future WASH interventions.  Mr. Chimsi noted that the facility management system needs to be formalized to ensure the project is sustainable. Prior to the field visit, the UN team and partners met in the Northern regional capital, Tamale to reflect on the achievements made from the implementation of the Joint WASH in DPC programme.  The meeting brought together representatives of the GAC, the UN in Ghana, Civil Society Organisations and government officials from the regional levels. According to the Regional Environmental Health Director of the Savannah Region, Alhaji Adam Wahab, the WASH in DPC programme has imparted a lot of people and has heightened people’s understanding of the occurrence of flood and how to prepare for it even at the individual family level.  He explained that the Region has also benefited a lot from the programme in terms of the training received to be able to provide technical backstopping for ensuring the construction of WASH facilities that are resilient and can stand the test of time.  
 
   

The waste innovation challenge, which was organized under the Ghana Waste Recovery Platform, aimed to support young people in Ghana to develop innovative solutions for waste management towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). St. Catherine Senior High School, from Agbakope in the Volta Region, emerged winners of the competition and received $4,000 dollars to support their project, which seeks to empower students and teachers to manage domestically generated waste. Also, sewage from the students’ bathhouse will be connected to a receptacle and later used to irrigate the school garden and promote tree-planting projects in the school. Moreover, solid waste materials will be transferred from the school’s kitchen and compound into a compost pit to serve as manure, and this will be used to support the growth of plants in the school’s premises. First runner up, Obuasi Senior High Technical School was awarded 3,000 US dollars for the design of a working prototype of a solar powered contactless waste segregation bin to encourage reuse and recycling. With an innovative idea to build an automatic waste sorting bin to make separation of waste easier and enable efficient recycling, the Methodist Senior High School, the third winner, was awarded 2,000 US dollars. The young innovators excitedly received their awards with cheers and thanked UNDP and the Coca Cola Foundation for the support. “Winning this is a dream that has come true. We are now ready to implement this project and grateful for this opportunity”, said Essien Rita, one of the students from the St Catherine Senior High School. The Head of Environment and Climate Cluster at UNDP Ghana, Paolo Dalla Stella encouraged young people to play an active role in waste management. “Engaging young people in sustainable waste management will positively impacts their attitudes and behaviors, so they can adopt and promote environmentally friendly practices in their schools and homes,” he stated. The Innovative Solutions for Waste Management Challenge was a competition for second cycle schools and aimed to promote awareness on the challenges of waste, solutions for integrated waste management, segregation at source especially at the household level and how individuals, institutions, schools, corporations, government and civil society can get involved to promote sustainable waste management. The challenge received over 30 entries amongst which Aburi Girls’ Senior High School and Cape Coast Technical Institute emerged fourth and fifth respectively.