My Ghana Electronic Desk

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE African countries attending the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, have asked development partner countries to fulfill outstanding promises made to the continent in earlier fora. The delegates from Africa, listed some of the promises not made good as yet, as: making aid flows predictable, untied from onerous conditions and requirements to purchase development partner goods and services, and delivered in a coordinated way, aligned with country systems and processes. Attending the Busan consultations are over 3,000 policy-makers, academia and stakeholders from African countries and regional institutions as well as development partners, towards a common front in shifting the paradigm from Aid Effectiveness (AE) to Development Effectiveness (DE).  According to a press statement issued by the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, the African stakeholders’ message to Busan is that “although Aid is one of the sources for financing Af

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Joseph Siaw Agyepong being congratulated by the Asantehene Otumfuo osei Tutu II after the doctorate degree was conferred on him. The Chief Executive Officer of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Mr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), at a special Congregation in Kumasi, which also coincided with the 60 th anniversary celebration of the University. A citation accompanying the honour read by Prof. Samuel Afrane, Provost of the College of Arts and Social Sciences, described Mr. Agyepong as a distinguished statesman who has made phenomenal contributions to environmental sanitation and higher education in the country. Prof. Afrane further said that through ingenuity, sterling leadership, business acumen and entrepreneurship, Mr. Agyepong has transformed the sanitation and waste management landscape of Ghana and other African Countries where Zoomlion has subsidiaries such

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Ashanti Regional Manager for Zoomlion Mr. Gyekye Darko Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has as part of the company’s effort to drive the message of good environmental sanitation deep down the heart and mind of every single Ghanaian in Ghana, rolled out series of community-based environmental sanitation durbars aimed at bringing all stakeholders in the community together to brainstorm about how to push forward the “Clean Ghana” agenda together as a people. The programme, which kicked off Saturday, 29 th October, 2011 at Mamponteng in the Kwabre East District of the Ashanti Region, had the Akyeamehene of the town, Nana Oppong Bretuo chairing the durbar, with Mr. Richard Amoaning, Ashanti Regional Environmental Health Officer delivering a lecture on a wide range of environmental sanitation issues. Speaking to a fairly large crowd made up of all classes of people in the Mamponteng Township including school children, traders, Assembly Members as well as Zoomlion s

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Food security and climate change, currently two of the world’s most nagging issues, are the focus of a new system suggested by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) for food production. The recommendation is contained in a book published Tuesday, November 22, 2011 by IIED, titled Virtuous Circles: Values, systems and sustainability. Authors of the book who call for circular systems that mimic natural cycles to produce food, energy, materials and clean water, state that the global food system’s dependence on fossil fuels that contribute to local pollution and global warming is just one example of an unsustainable system. The book also shows how the linear systems that shape the world are flawed, as they assume a limitless supply of resources and a limitless capacity for the environment to absorb waste and pollution. According to   co-author and principal researcher at IIED, Dr. Michel Pimbert, “Circular economy models that reintegr

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Youth Enterprises and Skills Development Centre (YESDEC), is set to facilitate the creation of more small-scale businesses and employment avenues for youth in the Volta Region of Ghana, with the introduction of its employment programme this month. YESDEC is a private sector initiative, which aims at partnering with the public sector to provide a solution to the unemployment situation in Ghana. The programme is in collaboration with the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and has the principal aim of helping the youth between the ages of 18 to 45 who have acquired skills but lack equipment to set up and successfully manage their own businesses. In an interview with the National Coordinator of the programme, Miss Mavis Yamoah, she disclosed that the Centre will register and train beneficiaries in various trade modules such as Beauty Care, Sewing, Soap Making, Grasscutter Rearing, Farming and Fish Farming, Snail Rearing, Computer Repa

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Government of Ghana , through the Ministry of Finance will on Monday November 21 st hold a National Conference with its development partners to review the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) strategy and also explore mechanisms to raise both short and long-term funding for the authority. According to a statement issued on November 18, 2011, t he conference is expected to agree on the next steps for joint action in targeting development programmes and resources for the deprived areas of the Savannah zone and others meriting priority treatment. It said t his is in furtherance of plans set out in the 2012 budget announced by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffour on Wednesday November 16 th to resource the authority and further boost its full implementation. The one-day conference is expected to discuss SADA’s agenda and priorities for accelerated growth in the Northern Savannah; private sector as a vehicle for transformation in the SA