Development Agenda

Africa’s poorest countries saw little to no progress on average in improving the quality of their policy and institutional frameworks in 2018, according to the World Bank’s annual Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) released yesterday July 31. The average CPIA score in Africa’s 38 International Development Association (IDA)-eligible countries in 2018 remained unchanged at 3.1 on a scale of ...

Three main coalitions on women’s rights and gender equality in Ghana, namely: The Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT); The Women’s Manifesto Coalition (WMC); and the Domestic Violence Coalition (DVC), have sounded an alarm bell on the rise of misogyny, ethnic sentiments, hate speech and incitement to hatred, in recent times made by some religious leaders and public figures. ...

ABANTU for Development, a women’s rights advocacy organization has urged Ghanaians to consider voting massively for women candidate in the upcoming district level election to be held in November 2019. Abantu is of the view that facilitating the election of more marginalized citizens, especially women into districts assemblies in the upcoming election 2019 will not only be fair and just ...

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance on Monday said that government has initiated the implementation of some projects under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP). This he said was aimed at accelerating the provision of basic infrastructure in rural and deprived communities. The projects included: 300 small earth dams to support all year round farming activities, 50 pre-fabricated warehouses ...

A non-governmental organisation, Challenging Heights, has said government’s effort in addressing human trafficking is unsatisfactory. To mark this year’s World Day against Human Trafficking, the organisation, which deals with the protection of the rights of children and focusing on their anti-trafficking efforts, wants government to put its foot down and enforce laws against child trafficking in the country. In a ...

An initiative to provide employable and livelihood empowerment skills to the youth in zongo communities was launched in Accra last Saturday. The enterprise, known as the Skills Project, aims at providing skills training in areas such as tailoring, bead-making, make-up, hairdressing, baking, auto mechanics and welding.   Over 100,000 out-of-school youth from the Zongos are expected to benefit from the ...

The Pan-African Festival (PANAFEST) and Emancipation 2019 kicked off in style in Cape Coast last Saturday, with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo describing the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a “barbaric episode” which must never be allowed to occur in any form. He said the celebration must give Africans the opportunity to say to one another that never again should African people ...

Ghana yesterday signed a grant agreement of €5,026,027 (GH¢31 million) with Germany for the construction of a community waste-to-energy project in the Ashanti Region. The 400-KW demonstration project, which will use a hybrid solar PV, biogas and a pyrolysis plant to generate electricity from domestic waste, will start on October 1, 2019 and be completed by November 30, 2023.   ...

The Founder and Leader of the International Justice Mission (IJM), the largest anti-slavery organisation in the world, Mr Gary A. Haugen, has stated that Ghana’s efforts at stemming the tide of child trafficking and dealing with the perpetrators are exemplary and yielding positive results. He observed that through proactive law enforcement, Ghana was making a huge difference in the fight ...

The annual ban on hunting, capturing and destroying of wild animals otherwise known as Close Season, instituted by the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission begins on August 1st and will end on 1st December, 2019.   The yearly ban is in conformity with the wildlife conservation regulation 1971, LI 685.   A statement signed and issued by the Executive ...