Accra, Dec. 05, - Ms Sharon L. Cromer, USAID Ghana Mission
Director, on Tuesday said Ghana can attain its vision of self-reliance faster
and more sustainably if it empowers its people, especially women and
particularly those in agriculture.
She noted that whilst President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo’s emphasis on Ghana realizing its full potential by
reducing its reliance on foreign assistance; the USAID Administrator’s position
is that the purpose of foreign assistance was to end the need for its existence
in the first place, through effective, accountable, and responsible country
systems.
Ms Cromer made the statements
during the opening of the USAID Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (FinGAP)
Women in Agribusiness Development Summit held in Accra.
She said women, who made up over
50 per cent of the country’s population, were an underutilized resource, who
faced various challenges, adding that progress could not be made when over half
of the country faced a range of economic and social challenges, such as lack of
access to lands, markets, agricultural technologies and inputs.
“At USAID, we believe women in
agriculture, if empowered, can help Ghana achieve the Beyond Aid vision faster
and more sustainably,” she noted, buttressing it with a quote by former UN
Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan: “there is no tool more effective than the
empowerment of women”.
She stated that fostering of a
broad-based inclusive economic growth meant unlocking everyone’s potential
including women and youth.
Ms Cromer also stressed the need
to access finance for women in agribusiness, adding that the USAID was working
with government and development partners, as well as private sector partners,
to improve access for women-led business to enable them expand their
operations.
Mr Fatih Ermis, Head of
Agricultural Service at Nestle Central and West Africa Region, delivering the
keynote address, said women, according to research by the Food and Agriculture
organization, made up nearly 43 per cent of the agriculture labour force in
developing countries, however, they were faced with some gender-specific challenges
that Nestle was making efforts to address.
He said Nestle had introduced
programmes like the Grains Quality Improvement Programme, Nestle Cereal Plan,
Cocoa Plan and Nescafe Plan to help farmers, including women to improve on
agronomic practices, and improve and increase yields.
In Ghana, the Nestle Grains
Quality Improvement project had been successful in helping a woman farmer;
Samata Alidu, to transform her maize production from four to five bags per acre
to 10 to 12 bags, using skills acquired from Nestle agronomists under the
project.
“Women empowerment is one of the
critical issues for the business and the stakeholders that have been identified
and included in a formal materiality process…empowering women, particularly
women farmers, to participate fully in society and the economy across the value
chain is how Nestle is committed to
address this issue,” he stated.
Mr Ermis also urged the
stakeholders to support women to impact their community by training in
nutrition and food safety.
Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, Minister
for Gender, Children and Social Protection, said government recognised the
important role of the agricultural sector in Ghana’s economy and thus had
increased the budgetary allocation to the Agric sector for 2018 to GH₵599 million, from GH₵572 million.
She called on women to take
advantage of the initiatives that government had put in place such as the
Planting for Food and Jobs, Youth in Agriculture Programme, One District One
Factory and the One Village One Dam programmes.
She noted that the Gender
Ministry was already working with over 24,000 women who served as caterers, and
several Ghanaian agribusinesses and farmers who supply the School Feeding
Programme with local rice, maize, beans, groundnuts, tomatoes and onions, among
others, and will increase the number by 30 percent next year.
Ms Djaba called on financial
sector players to increase their support for women in agribusiness, and
commended the USAID FinGAP for complementing government’s efforts to empower
women to become business leaders and industry players.
GNA
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