sada strategy january 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Savannah Accelerated Development Authority
SADA (A Sustainable Development Initiative for the Northern Savannah)
Strategy and Work plan (2010 – 2030)
MAIN DOCUMENT
Revised December 2010
Funding for this effort was generously provided by DfID-Ghana
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACRONYMS ................................................................................................................................... VI
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ IX
PART 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 1
STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
NORTHERN SAVANNAH............................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................................................ 1
INTRODUCTION AND SITUATION ANALYSIS ....................................................................... 1
1.1 Poverty in Northern Ghana ........................................................................................................ 1
1.2 The Situation Analysis ............................................................................................................... 4
1.2.1 Natural Resource Base ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Agriculture ..................................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2.2 Water Resources ................................................................................................................................................... 9
1.2.3 Mineral Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 11
1.2.4 Energy................................................................................................................................................................. 12
1.3 Private Sector Development .................................................................................................... 12
1.3.1 The Investment Climate ...................................................................................................................................... 12
1.3.2 Industrial and Manufacturing Activities ............................................................................................................. 13
1.3.3 Tourism ............................................................................................................................................................... 13
1.4 Human Resource Development ............................................................................................... 14
1.4.1 Education ............................................................................................................................................................ 14
1.4.2 Health ................................................................................................................................................................. 16
1.5 Risks and Vulnerability ........................................................................................................... 17
1.5.2 Trans-Border Health Risks and Vulnerabilities ................................................................................................. 19
1.5.3 Risks associated with inadequate development of housing infrastructure .......................................................... 19
1.5.4 Human-induced Shocks, Cycles and Trends ....................................................................................................... 20
1.5.5 Limited investment in agricultural infrastructure ............................................................................................... 20
1.5.6 Risks associated with inadequate development of housing infrastru .................................................................. 21
CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................. 22
STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS FOR SUSTAINALBE DEVELOPMENT OF NORTHERN
SAVANNAH ..................................................................................................................................... 22
2.1 Overview and Framework ....................................................................................................... 22
2.1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 22
2.1.2 Components ........................................................................................................................................................ 22
2.2 Northern Savannah Development Strategy ............................................................................. 23
2.3 Overall Framework .................................................................................................................. 24
2.3.1 Advantages ......................................................................................................................................................... 26
2.3.2 Disadvantages .................................................................................................................................................... 26
2.4 Rehabilitation and Adaptation ................................................................................................. 28
CHAPTER THREE ......................................................................................................................... 30
MODERNIZATION OF AGRICULTURE .................................................................................. 30
3.1 Strategic Direction for Modernising Agriculture in Northern Ghana ..................................... 30
3.2 Entry points of the strategy ...................................................................................................... 31
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3.3 Preconditions for modernisation .............................................................................................. 32
3.3.1 Paradigm shifts ................................................................................................................................................... 33
3.3.2 Build assets of the poor ...................................................................................................................................... 34
3.3.3 Increase productivity of all stakeholders along the value chain ......................................................................... 35
3.3.4 Competitiveness in Access to Markets ................................................................................................................ 37
3.3.5 Promoting Commodities of Competitive Advantages ......................................................................................... 40
Rice ........................................................................................................................................ 40
Other Staple crops ................................................................................................................. 41
Tree Crops (Mango and others) ............................................................................................ 41
Integration of crop and small ruminant livestock .................................................................. 42
Guinea Fowl development ..................................................................................................... 42
3.4 Instruments for Delivering Agriculture Modernisation Strategies .......................................... 43
3.4.1 Relations with Public Sector ............................................................................................................................... 43
3.4.2 Legal and regulatory framework for agriculture modernisation strategy .......................................................... 43
CHAPTER FOUR ........................................................................................................................... 44
NON-FARM INVESTMENT AND BUSINESS (PRIVATE SECTOR) DEVELOPMENT .... 44
4.0 Strategic Objectives ................................................................................................................. 44
4.1 Repositioning Northern Ghana as Common Economic Zone in Savannah/Sahel ................... 44
4.1.1 Proposed Strategies for Promoting the North as a Competitive Economic Zone ............................................... 46
4.2 Expanding the Scope and Numbers of Private Firms/Investments in the North ..................... 49
4.2.1 Value Added Agriculture .................................................................................................................................... 49
High value fresh produce sub sector ...................................................................................... 50
Canned products .................................................................................................................... 50
Rice Milling ........................................................................................................................... 51
Textiles .................................................................................................................................. 51
Oil Seed ................................................................................................................................. 52
4.2.2 Tourism ............................................................................................................................................................... 52
4.2.3 Mineral Exploration and Exploitation ................................................................................................................ 54
4.2.4 Metal Manufacturing and Fabrication ............................................................................................................... 54
4.2.5 Transport and Logistics Management ................................................................................................................ 54
4.2.6 Knowledge Services ............................................................................................................................................ 55
4.2.7 Life Sciences ....................................................................................................................................................... 55
4.3 Empowering the People to participate in the “New” Economy .............................................. 56
4.3.1 Human Resource and Business Skills Development ........................................................................................... 56
4.3.2 Indigenous MSE Development ............................................................................................................................ 57
4.3.3 Financial, Fiscal and Regulatory Incentives ...................................................................................................... 58
4.4 Immediate and Short-Term Implementation Steps .................................................................. 58
CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................................. 60
BUILDING CAPACITIES FOR RESILIENCE AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN A
FORESTED NORTH ...................................................................................................................... 60
5.1: Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 60
5.1.1 The Context of Vulnerability ............................................................................................................................... 60
5.1.2: Implications of the context for the creation of a forested north ........................................................................ 60
5.2: Providing a Framework for Disaster Preparedness and Response ......................................... 61
5.2.1: Improving Early Warning and Disaster Risk Recognition ................................................................................ 61
5.2.2: Institutionalizing More Effective Disaster Relief Response Mechanisms .......................................................... 61
5.2.3: Building of strategic funding mechanism for disaster response ........................................................................ 61
5.3 Improving Disaster Risk Reduction and Response Capacities ................................................ 63
5.3.1: Promote Agricultural Sector Risk Reduction .................................................................................................... 63
5.3.2: Promoting Appropriate Housing and Infrastructure Development ................................................................... 63
5.4 Sustaining Improved Housing and Shelter Development ........................................................ 65
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5.4.1: Stimulate the set up of rural housing development enterprises ......................................................................... 65
5.4.2: Support Access to Business Development Services ........................................................................................... 66
5.4.3: Facilitate Access to Financial Services for Housing Schemes .......................................................................... 66
5.4.4: Upgrade Technical Skills of Artisans ................................................................................................................ 66
5.4.5: Support research on housing development ........................................................................................................ 66
5.5 Improving Water Resource Management for Sustainable Development ................................ 66
5.6 Sustainable Livelihoods and Enhanced Disaster Risk Reduction ........................................... 68
5.6.1: Enhancing Food and Livelihood Securities ....................................................................................................... 68
5.6.2: Rebuilding Social Safety Nets for the Vulnerable ............................................................................................. 69
5.6.3: Assuring Human Safety and Security ................................................................................................................ 69
CHAPTER SIX ................................................................................................................................ 71
FOOD, LIVELIHOOD SECURITY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION ........................................ 71
6.1 Protecting Vulnerable Populations .......................................................................................... 71
6.1.1 Upholding the Rights and Entitlement of the poor to basic needs ...................................................................... 71
ii). Quick Launch Community Resilience and Livelihoods Rebuilding Initiatives ................ 72
iii). Increasing the Availability of and Access to Food and Water .......................................... 72
6.2 Building the Foundations for Economic Growth through Food Security for All .................... 73
6.2.1 Increasing access to food.................................................................................................................................... 73
6.2.2 Improving food utilization and healthy lifestyles ................................................................................................ 74
6.3 Transitioning the Poor into mainstream productive economy ................................................. 74
6.3.1 Supporting Risk minimization strategies ............................................................................................................ 74
6.3.2 Asset accumulation, diversification and improved management ........................................................................ 75
PART II ............................................................................................................................................ 77
ENHANCING THE PRE-CONDITIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN
NORTHERN GHANA .................................................................................................................... 77
CHAPTER SEVEN ......................................................................................................................... 77
STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT ............................................................. 77
7.0: Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 77
7.1 Transport Infrastructure ........................................................................................................... 77
7.1.1 Objective 1: Positioning the North as a Competitive Economic Zone ................................................................ 77
7.1.2 Objective 2: Opening Up and Facilitating Economic Activities ......................................................................... 79
7.1.3 Objective 3: Facilitating Trade between the North and South ........................................................................... 81
7.1.4 Special Production Zones ................................................................................................................................... 82
7.2 Human and Environmental Interactions in Northern Ghana ................................................... 82
7.2.1 Development Programme for the Upper West Region ........................................................................................ 83
7.2.2 Development Programme for the Upper East Region ........................................................................................ 84
7.2.3 Development Programme for the Northern Region ............................................................................................ 84
7.3 Energy Production and Use in the North ................................................................................. 85
7.3.1 Strategic Objective 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 85
7.3.2 Renewable Energy — Policy Objectives ............................................................................................................. 86
7.3.3 Petroleum — Policy Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 86
7.3.4 Electricity — Policy Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 87
7.3.5 Energy Efficiency and Conservation – Policy Objectives and Strategy ............................................................. 87
7.3.6 Strategic Objective 2 .......................................................................................................................................... 87
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CHAPTER EIGHT .......................................................................................................................... 88
EDUCATION AND HEALTH FOR HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT .......................... 88
8.1 Education and Health Strategies .............................................................................................. 88
8.1.1 Promoting High Quality Human Resource Development ................................................................................... 88
8.1.2 Changing the Composition of Education ............................................................................................................ 89
8.1.3 Improving Health and Well-being of Northerners .............................................................................................. 89
CHAPTER NINE ............................................................................................................................. 92
PEACE AND SECURITY .............................................................................................................. 92
9.1 Assuring Human Safety and Security ...................................................................................... 92
9.2 Strategies for Peace-Building and Conflict Mitigation ........................................................... 92
9.2.1 From Security to Peace-building ........................................................................................................................ 93
9.2.2 From Emergency Response to Early Warning .................................................................................................... 93
9.2.3 Strengthening Traditional Leadership ................................................................................................................ 94
9.2.4 From Short-Term to Long-Term — Reaping Peace Dividends .......................................................................... 94
CHAPTER TEN............................................................................................................................... 95
MAINSTREAMING GENDER IN THE NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE ...... 95
10.1 Introduction and Background ................................................................................................ 95
10.2 Broad Objectives on Gender .................................................................................................. 95
10.2.1 Objective One: Improve Technology and create value-addition in Women’s Activities ................................... 95
10.2.2 Objective 2: Increase Women’s participation in and benefits from the process of economic development ..... 96
10.2.3 Objective 3: Identify potential new areas of economic activities for women .................................................... 96
10.2.4 Engendering the Northern Savannah Development Initiative .......................................................................... 96
PART III ........................................................................................................................................... 97
GOVERNANCE, INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS, FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT,
STRATEGIC RESULTS, MONITORING & EVALUATION................................................... 97
CHAPTER ELEVEN ...................................................................................................................... 97
INSTITUTIONAL DIMENSIONS AND GOVERNANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY ..................................................................................................................................... 97
11.1 Regional Development Focus within National Development Planning ................................ 97
11.1.1 The Missing Middle in Regional Development Planning and Implementation ................................................. 98
11.1.2 Recognizing Regional Inequalities within National Planning .......................................................................... 98
11.2 Case for a Legal Institution to Coordinate Accelerated Development in the North .............. 99
11.3 SADA Governance Arrangements .................................................................................. 100
11.3.1 Board of Directors ....................................................................................................... 100
11.3.2 Stakeholder Coordinating Committee .................................................................................................... 100
11.4 SADA Institutional Arrangements .................................................................................. 101
11.4.1 Secretariat .............................................................................................................................................. 101
11.4.2 Functional Units under the Secretariat .................................................................................................. 101
11.4.3 SADA Organizational Structure (proposed) ........................................................................................... 102
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CHAPTER TWELVE FINANCING THE NORTHERN SAVANNAH DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY ................................................................................................................................... 103
12.1 Areas of Investment Requirements ...................................................................................... 103
13.2 Sources of Financial Contributions ..................................................................................... 103
12.2.2 Other Sources ................................................................................................................................................. 104
12.2.3 Participants .................................................................................................................................................... 104
12.2.4 Development Partners .................................................................................................................................... 104
12.2.5 District Assemblies ......................................................................................................................................... 104
12.2.6 Miscellaneous Sources.................................................................................................................................... 105
12.3 Financial Management Arrangements ................................................................................. 105
CHAPTER THIRTEEN STRATEGIC RESULTS FRAMEWORK, MONITORING &
EVALUATION .............................................................................................................................. 106
13.1 Development Objective and Key Indicators ........................................................................ 106
13.2 Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability .................................................................... 109
13.3 Indicators for Change ...................................................................................................... 109
13.1.1 Outcome-level Indicators................................................................................................................................ 109
13.2 Accountability to Citizens ................................................................................................... 111
13.3 Accountability to Parliament ............................................................................................... 111
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 112
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................ 114
Appendix I: Appendix Tables ...................................................................................................... 114
Appendix Table A1. Choice of commodities and spatial distribution ......................................... 114
Appendix Table A2: Summary of Costs ...................................................................................... 115
Appendix Table A3. Crop budgets of selected staple crops ..................................................... 116
APPENDIX II: The Design and Operation of the Voucher System ............................................ 120
Appendix III: Model for Operationalizing the Accelerated Food Production Initiatives ............ 122
Implementation Plan .................................................................................................................... 124
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ACRONYMS
AESL Architectural and Engineering Services Limited APR Annual Progress Monitoring Report BRRI Building and Road Research Institute CAPs Community Action Plans CDD Community Driven Development CEC Community Enterprise Development Centre CEPA Centre for Policy Analysis CEPS Customs Excise and Preventive Service CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CIFS Community Initiated Food Security CHP Community Health Post CRC Citizens Report Card CSC Community Score Card CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research CSM Cerebrospinal Meningitis CSOs Civil Society Organizations DACF District Assemblies Common Fund DANIDA Danish International Development Agency DFID Department for International Development (United Kingdom) DISCAP District Capacity Building Project DISEC District Security Committee DPs Development Partners DWAP District-wide Assistance Project ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States EDIF Export Development and Investment Fund EFA Education for All FAO Food and Agricultural Organization FBOs Farm-Based Organizations FCUBE Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education GEDAP Ghana Energy Development and Access Project GEF Global Environment Facility GEPC Ghana Export Promotion Council GES Ghana Education Service GETFund Ghana Education Trust Fund GHS Ghana Health Service GIDA Ghana Irrigation Development Authority GIPC Ghana Investment Promotion Centre GLSS V Ghana Living Standards Survey (Fifth Round Report) GoG Government of Ghana GPI Gender Parity Index GPRS I Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy GPRS II Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy GRATIS Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology and Industry Service GSS Ghana Statistical Service GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Zusammenarbeit (German Technical Cooperation) GWCL Ghana Water Company Limited HR Human Resources ICA Investment Climate Assessment ICT Information and Communication Technology IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development
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IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute IRS Internal Revenue Service IPA Institute for Policy Alternative ISODEC Integrated Social Development Centre ITFC Integrated Tamale Fruit Company ITTU Industrial Technology Transfer Unit JICA Japanese International Cooperation Agency KACE Kenyan Agricultural Commodity Exchange LAP Land Administration Project LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MCA Millennium Challenge Account MDAs Ministries Departments and Agencies MDGs Millennium Development Goals MiDA Millennium Development Authority MOFA Ministry of Food and Agriculture MOFEP Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning MMDAs Metropolitan Municipal District Assemblies MMR Maternal Mortality Rate MMW4P Making Markets Work for the Poor MSE Micro and Small Enterprise NADMO National Disaster Management Organization NBSSI National Board for Small-Scale Industries NDPC National Development Planning Commission NER Net Enrolment Ratio NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development NES National Electrification Scheme NGO Non-governmental Organization NHIS National Health Insurance Scheme NORD Northern Ghana Development Fund NORRIP Northern Region Integrated Development Project NR Northern Region NSDI Northern Savannah Development Initiative NSDFund Northern Savannah Development Fund NSDS Northern Savannah Development Strategy NYEP National Youth Employment Programme OPD Out Patients Department QUIPS Quality Improvement in Primary Schools R&D Research and Development RCCs Regional Coordinating Councils REGSEC Regional Security Committee RGD Registrar Generals’ Department RPCUs Regional Planning and Coordinating Units SADA Savannah Accelerated Development Authority SARI Savannah Agricultural Research Institute SHEP Self-Help Electrification Programme SLM Sustainable Land Management SPI Sustainable Peace Initiative SRID Statistics Research and Information Directorate of MOFA SSBs Soil Stabilized Blocks TIRP Trade and Investment Reform Programme
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TIPCEE Trade and Investment Programme for a Competitive Export Economy TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training UDS University of Development Studies UER Upper East Region UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNICEF United Nations Children and Education Fund USAID United States Agency for International Development UWADEP Upper West Agricultural Development Project UWR Upper West Region VCF Venture Capital Fund VRA Volta River Authority WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organization WRI Water Research Institute WSD Whole School Development
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY1
There is a visible developmental gap between Northern and Southern Ghana, with the North registering significantly higher levels of poverty than the Southern export economy. Bridging this developmental gap has been a long-stated goal of most post-independence Governments of Ghana. The approach has nearly always been distributionist to address imbalances in education, health and social welfare services. In this strategy, a growth and sustainable development approach is adopted to both increase incomes among the poorest and transform the northern Ghanaian economy and society into a regional nexus of increased productivity of food and a buffer against persistent droughts and sporadic floods. A Paradigm-shift Using the vision of a “Forested North and Green North”, this strategy defines the parameters of a major paradigm-shift in stimulating economic growth and sustainable development by ensuring that small-holder families and poor farmers develop a long-term stake in agriculture by inter-cropping with economic trees. The trees, moreover, provide a protective buffer against floods, serve to renew soils and enhance environmental regeneration. Gravitating around a forested north are complementary investments in roads, energy and water resources, education and health. These investments will enhance the pre-conditions and improve the skills and competencies to manage an integrated economy oriented towards improving productivity, trade and investments in a sustainable manner. Principles A number of principles inspired the preparation of this long-term strategy for Northern Ghana’s development. These include:
• Government commitment, demonstrated by a decisive policy directive from the President of Ghana, contained in the 2008 Budget Statement and Economic Policy. In this document, Government of Ghana mandated the preparation of a long-term strategy to reverse decades of neglect of the north, and to set the path for sustainable development. Correspondingly, the 2008 Budget Statement proposed the establishment of the Northern Ghana Development Fund, with an amount of GHC25 million as seed capital for that fund. Since then there has been a change in government in Ghana. The new government remained so committed to accelerated development in the Northern Savannah, it has extended the coverage to the entire Northern Savannah Ecological Belt. A new law, SADA Act 805, 2010 has been passed; the strategy to target the Northern Savannah as a special development area has been incorporated in Ghana’s Medium-term Development plan prepared by the NDPC; and high-level discussions are underway for sustainable funding of SADA.
• Stakeholder Engagement and mandate, reflected in systematic engagement of key stakeholders, including Chiefs, Private sector leaders, Regional Ministers, District Chief Executives, Civil Society Organizations, Members of Parliament, and Development Partners. These stakeholders gave guidance at the beginning of the strategy formulation; reviewed and commented on various versions of the strategy; and participated in key decisions at critical milestones of policy formulation and legislative processes for SADA.
• Harmonization with existing plans and programmes demonstrated by several rounds of consultations with Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government, research
1 This report was prepared by a team consisting of Charles D. Jebuni (Team Leader, CEPA); Sulley Gariba (Director, IPA and
Development Specialist); Ramatu M. Alhassan (Agricultural Economist); Augustine Adongo (Private Sector Specialist); Hippolyt Pul (Livelihood Security and Social Protection Specialist); James Dassah (regional Economic Planning Officer, UWR); Sagido Issaka (Regional Economic Planning Officer, UER); and Gregory Addah (Regional Economic Planning Officer, NR).
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institutions, the private sector and the National Development Planning Commission’s process of preparing the Medium-term Development Plan for Ghana.
Approach In preparing this long-term strategy for development of Northern Savannah, four considerations were paramount (a) representativeness of the technical team leading the process; (b) technical consultations in defining the broad strategy; (c) stakeholder consultations to refine priorities for strategic investments, roles and responsibilities of key actors; and (d) engaging Government and Parliament to establish the legal framework for both the strategy and the associated Savannah Accelerated Development Authority. The technical group of Ghanaian development specialists was established by two leading institutions — the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the Institute for Policy Alternatives (IPA). The expertise in the team reflects the professional endowments of the three regions. The technical team also included the three Regional Economic Planning Officers, representing the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) of the three regions. The team worked through a series of retreats, involving technical working sessions with key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) focusing on Northern Ghana development issues. The Strategy Vision: The strategy is based on the concept of a “Forested North and Green North” where agricultural production is modernized and oriented towards a larger market embracing the Sahelian countries, including northern Cote d’Ivoire and Togo. It is premised on the fact that the north has substantial growth potential in agriculture, tourism, and mining. The best way to address the chronic poverty and the development gap is through economic growth utilizing the north’s most abundant resources. Economic growth is also the most efficient means to address poverty and induce long-term adaptation to climate changes while maintaining the dignity of people in the north. The Northern Savannah Development Initiative is therefore aimed at developing a diversified and resilient economic zone in the North. Goal: The goal is to double per capita incomes of northern Ghanaians and reduce the incidence of poverty to 20 percent within 20 years in the Northern Savannah Ecological Belt. What is Different in the Northern Development Initiative? This Strategy is a very ambitious coordinated effort towards achieving a Forested North over a period of 20 years. There are six unique features of this development initiative that are different from previous efforts.
1. Development of a Comprehensive Regional Strategy that operates within a national development framework. At the national level, a seven-year development plan is underway, creating the incentives and enabling conditions for Ghana to become a middle-income country. At the regional level, Northern Savannah Development Initiative (SADA) is to provide direct opportunities for communities, private sector and civil society to gain needed inputs in order to transform the natural resources into sustained incomes and assets. In this sense, it is our belief that the development of a poverty-prone area must be public sector-led, private sector-based and facilitated by civil society which has a long tradition of development facilitation in the area. In this sense, the state not only provides incentives, but also encourages economic and social transformation through long-term capital and an input delivery system.
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2. A model for the modernization of agriculture that starts from generating a market impetus
as the main catalyst for stimulating farmers to produce, with improved technology and timely inputs. By this strategy, farmers do not wait to find markets after they have produced; rather the market defines their production targets and quality. This strategy is also mindful of food security requirements, especially in the most vulnerable areas.
3. A major effort in development of infrastructure in a strategic manner. We propose a
circular road network that connects the three Northern regions of Upper West, Upper East, Northern, Regions, such that the large production plains that lie in-between the regions are opened-up for brisk farming and economic activities. This road network will be accompanied by an appropriate irrigation and water resources infrastructure, especially drip-irrigation which can be owned by small-holder farmers to facilitate cultivation of cereals, fruits and vegetables all year-round.
4. Strong linkage between Northern Ghana consisting of the three northern regions and
contiguous districts in the northern parts of the Brong Ahafo and Volta regions, and the Sahelian countries — Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Northern Ivory Coast — to open-up a truly regional market for goods and services, with Northern Ghana serving as the supply and industrial hub.
5. A vigorous private sector initiative that strengthens existing private operators, as well as
attract new investments in the manufacturing, processing, transport and tourist services in the North of Ghana. From the nature reserves of Mole and Bui, the Hippo sanctuary of Wechau, the Crocodile ponds of Paga, Northern Ghana captures the nature heart-beat of Ghana.
6. Support for Civil Society Organizations and NGOs that have long sustained livelihoods
and provided a base for mobilizing citizens to engage actively in development throughout the three (3) regions and the districts contiguous to them.
Elements of the strategy address the three fundamental objectives for commissioning the work (a) reducing poverty, (b) adaptation to climate change, thereby reducing the frequent occurrence of floods and droughts (c) building the human capital, economic infrastructure, investment and private sector base to manage social, economic and ecological transformation in northern Ghana.
• Our pro-poor growth model is based on modernizing agriculture sequentially, using initially Northern Ghana’s most abundant factors — land and sunshine — and less of purchased inputs. The strategy further takes into consideration the fragility of the soils, the short rainy seasons, and the vagaries of the weather associated with climate change. Growth must be gender balanced by recognizing the disadvantaged position of women in the North.
• The framework for long-term adaptation to floods and droughts is premised on the belief that economic growth provides the means by which individual households can accumulate the wealth and assets which they rely on during periods of disaster and other contingencies. Creating the economic base through growth for individuals to provide for themselves will enhance their dignity. In terms of displacement and destruction of property, the evidence shows that the poor were the most affected. Poverty implied that the type of building materials used and the foundation laid were weak and therefore vulnerable to floods. At the same time, the type of economic activities near rivers and water bodies has to change to provide some protection. Planting of tree crops along the banks of rivers will provide some protection. This should be done outside the distance that the Volta River
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Authority (VRA) will recommend. Indeed, our strategy of tree crops could more easily start in these areas where water pumps can be used to provide irrigation, until the needed reversals in climate kick-in over the long-term, as a result of the emergence of a forested North.
For rehabilitation, particularly housing construction, to be sustainable one needs to train artisans in the chosen technologies to provide the relevant services. While creating employment in the areas, this strategy also provides the relevant skills that may be applied in other areas. It also provides a basis for increased non-farm economic activities. Housing types and designs must be consistent with traditional structures so that no changes in cultural and social behaviour and adaptation may be required. In other words, the strategy is to maintain the advantages of the traditional house type and therefore social and cultural relations. Modernized agriculture The agricultural modernisation strategy provides multiple entry points to allow for inclusive growth and poverty reduction. The six entry points of the strategy are:
1) A marketing-based out-grower system that defines the shape of existing and expanded
markets. This will propel the emergence of a growing private sector capable of engaging
producers in a manner that responds to client and market demand.
2) Tree crop production as a source of steady flow of incomes to empower the poor to build
their assets and enhance their capacity to invest in farm and non-farm production activities.
Farmers will have the option of intercropping the tree crops with groundnut, cowpea, or
soybean in the first three to five years of tree crop establishment as part of the transitional
food and livelihood security strategy and for intensifying the use of land. The output of
groundnut and soybean will feed vegetable oil mills.
3) Selected staple crop production systems for productivity improvement to increase northern
Ghana’s competitiveness as a supply source for the sub-regional market. This recognises
that not all smallholders will have the capacity to go into tree crops and will continue to rely
on staple crops for sustenance and means of income. Crops will be selected on the basis of
current demand and potential to generate agro-industrial activity.
4) Horticulture production to diversify into export agriculture which has been a source of
growth and significant poverty reduction among farmers in southern Ghana. This will be a
good avenue for targeting women and the youth.
5) Semi-intensive production of small ruminants, pigs and guinea fowl also to diversify farm
income sources and provide income opportunities for land scarce parts of the north.
6) Agro-processing as a reliable source of demand for agricultural raw materials to drive value
chains, while targeting women because processing is an activity women are normally
engaged in.
Private Sector Investment and Development There are three strategic objectives to be accomplished in this segment of the SADA.
• Repositioning northern Ghana as a competitive economic zone in the Savannah/Sahel region2 of West Africa.
2 Defined to include Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, northern Cote D’Ivoire, Northern Togo, Northern Benin, and beyond.
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• Expanding the scope and numbers of private sector firms and entrepreneurs investing in value-addition in the north. In particular, the promotion of export and marketing of high-value fruits and vegetables will expand the number, scope and diversity of agriculture-related investment initiatives.
• Empowering people in the north to participate effectively in the “new economy” through training, entrepreneurship development and the provision of business development services in general. These will include the establishment of a Venture Capital Facility for Northern Ghana, the creation of a Northern Ghana Investment Risk instrument.
Livelihood Security, Social Protection and Peace Modicums of special initiatives are required to enable poor households step out of their poverty traps and step up to the challenges of rebuilding their livelihoods. These bridge-over initiatives will include:
• Pro-poor initiatives that create synergies between growth and social protection to ensure sustainable and inclusive development in the north. These include (a) financial and capacity-building facilities for the poor to build community and private assets; (b) food assistance during periods of food insecurity and emergencies; (c) improved seeds and economic tree seedlings to begin the process of inter-cropping towards a forested north.
• Peace initiatives that combine conflict mediation with institutional support for traditional authorities and governmental institutions to work cooperatively towards sustained peace. The Northern Peace Initiative currently coordinated by the three Regional Coordination Councils (RCCs) provides a useful framework and is being implemented progressively. In the SADA, two approaches are adopted to tackle conflict mitigation and peace-building:
o The first is build capacities and deepen the collective efforts by organized CSOs and government in increasing awareness and building consensus among key stakeholders. This will include transforming the institutional mix for addressing conflict from a “security” approach to “peace-building” efforts.
o The second is a more sustained long-term effort to bring about human security through rapid social and economic development, thereby reducing poverty and minimizing the tensions that are associated with deepening poverty, marginalization and exclusion of the most vulnerable in the major decisions that affect their livelihoods.
Post-flood rehabilitation The types and factors of vulnerability that afflict the people of northern Ghana are largely related to climate. However, the conditions of widespread poverty in the north exacerbate the impact of these vulnerabilities, when they occur. A two-prong approach is proposed under the SADA (a) short term initiatives that enable affected households to rebuild lost assets and livelihoods and (b) long term economic growth initiatives that enable disaster prone communities to develop increased resilience and more robust mechanisms for mitigating the impact of disasters in the future. Programmatically, the SADA proposes two efforts in this regard:
• Flood Mitigation, which will address four aspects of flooding in the White and Black Volta River Basins: (i) catchment management; (ii) identification and preparation of mid catchment multipurpose structural flood protection options and their implementation;3 iii)
3 The GoG has already called for the mobilization of the Field Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces to intervene in the
flood areas of northern Ghana to implement any possible dredging of the river basins and install flood protection dykes.
xiv
immediate floodplain management options; and (iv) establishment of a flood early warning system.4
• Drought Prevention, which will address major efforts in growing economic tress on farms, as well as the protection of existing tree cover in the North by (a) fire-prevention, through community-level volunteers and the Fire Service; (b) undertaking major tree-pruning and disease-prevention exercises, annually, in a manner similar to cocoa spraying exercises and the creation of diversions and wells along the rivers.
Pre-conditions for sustainable development Infrastructural inadequacies in road, transportation and communications networks, water resources, as well as energy imply heavy initial investment and reduced profitability in undertaking economic activities. Limited human capital, especially the level and quality of education and skills development and the debilitating effect that poor health facilities have on human capital formation, create problems in terms of attracting economic activities and retaining labour. Poor health facilities are a disincentive to investors. Perceptions of instability and conflict reduce the risk-adjusted returns to investment and divert resources to other uses. For the programme of economic and social transformation to succeed, the SADA proposes a series of coordinated investment to eliminate infrastructural constraints, improve the human capital base, and create the economic conditions necessary to attract, retain, and increase the profitability of investments. These include:
• A focus on strategic infrastructure — roads, improved water resources, energy • Alignment of basic social infrastructure in education and health with the human resource
implication of the sustainable development and growth focus • Priority in establishing peace-building and conflict mitigation strategies to create the
enabling environment for investments Water Resources SADA strategy for improving the water resources management reflects both our needs for synergy, at the River Basin level, and the specific needs of the three regions:
• Upper West — presence of Black Volta River and its tributaries in the region allows for ample exploration of the options such as pumping from the river and bunding with improved drainage
• Existing dams and dugouts created and/or rehabilitated during UWADEP create opportunity for water productivity increase interventions.
• Upper East — White Volta River was considered for pumping from the river and bunding with improved drainage options; Road network options for the culverts and bridges with small retention reservoirs are suitable for the region, but these options are yet to be explored and actively carried out.
• Northern Region — downstream portions of White Volta River were considered for pumping from the river and bunding with improved drainage options
Energy To enhance the efficient and equitable supply of energy to support and sustain the fragile economy and ecology of the North. Policy may be guided by the following principles:
• Least cost principle to provide economic and reliable energy supplies that are dependable; 4 Both the World Bank and the UNDP (OCHA) have been working at various levels in supporting GoG to prepare and enhance
capacity for such an Early Warning System and Strategic Plan.
xv
• Diversification of our primary sources of energy recognizing the drought-like nature of the North;
• Assuring energy security through the development of local and indigenous resources; • Energy efficiency and conservation awareness creation; • Promotion and development of renewal energy technologies such as biomass, solar and
wind. Education and Health Strategies Our approach in addressing the issues of education and health, so that they play a critical role in the transformation of the North proposes that:
• Increase the role of the private sector and faith-based organizations in the provision of education and health services in the north.
• The state and other development partners provide grants to support the development of educational infrastructure managed by NGOs, faith-based organizations as well as the private sector, especially those operating in rural areas.
• Provide incentive schemes for health and education workers that accept posting to rural schools.
Managing for Development Results The NDI proposes six main results, and these are further defined as components of the strategy:
1. Community-Driven Development actions that will stimulate the modernization of agriculture development and competitiveness of small holders, notably women, through improved technology, promoting efficiency for the domestic and export market. By combining economic trees with cereals, legumes, vegetables and fruits, the northern farmer will double their incomes, create more jobs, protect the environment and end prolonged droughts and sudden floods. This CDD effort will further empower men and women to transform their production orientation towards an expanded market demand; to sustain food security and livelihood activities and reduce their vulnerability to drought and flooding
2. Private Sector Development initiatives that would stimulate investment and business
development in northern Ghana in a manner that would change the mind-set and stimulate the creation of high value jobs and increased incomes. It will further stimulate the growth of investors and business entrepreneurs capable of providing the impetus for sustained value-added production and services in the northern, savannah sector, oriented towards a Sahelian market.
3. Investments in strategically-targeted economic and social infrastructure that will
relieve critical development constraints and create the pre-conditions for accelerated development and open up production zones for increased production and transit into the expanded markets in Sahel states north of northern Ghana. These would also include social infrastructure, such as education, health and social welfare to complement the economic ones. These investments will be targeted initially at a series of inter-connected infrastructure of roads, energy, water resources, health and education in a manner that reinforces alternative production and market access, while reducing the incidence of droughts and floods.
4. Food, Livelihood Security and Peace Initiative focusing on improved access to food,
sustainable livelihoods, as well as safety-nets investments, targeted initially at the most vulnerable areas and those severely affected by the floods of 2007 and 2008.
xvi
Concurrently, a peace initiative which is already underway in the three regions will be enhanced. Empowering marginalized and vulnerable women and men to participate actively in the social and economic recovery process, in peace-building and gaining assets and improved incomes through this process.
5. Flood Mitigation and Environmental Renewal focusing on improved water resources
management and disaster preparedness, in order to mitigate the perennial floods and droughts in the north.
6. Institutional Capacity Building to enhance strategic planning, fund mobilization and
management and to support a rigorous, independent monitoring and evaluation of the developmental impacts to reduce regional inequalities and show progress towards accelerated development.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability The M&E strategy accompanying the SADA proposes:
1. Results-oriented M&E Capacity-building among key stakeholders associated with the SADA. Through their engagement in the determination of the strategic results framework for the SADA and the establishment of a credible baseline prior to the start-up of the initiative, stakeholders will be informed and engaged in demanding accountability.
2. Systematic monitoring of output-level results in a manner that links resources with changing attitudes and practices associated with the notion of a paradigm-shift in the way development is planned and implemented.
3. Stakeholders are empowered and engaged in the processes of monitoring and evaluation, through the use of both formal, rigorous tools for M&E, as well as participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches.
4. Both upward and down accountability systems enhanced to enable citizens of the north and representative leaders (District Assemblies, Traditional Authorities, Parliament and the Government of Ghana) to demand accountability and those managing SADA to render accountability in a transparent and timely manner.
1
PART 1
STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NORTHERN SAVANNAH
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION AND SITUATION ANALYSIS The strategy for accelerated development of the Northern Savannah (SADA)5 constitutes a key part of attempts being made by the Government of Ghana and other stakeholders to address the continuing high incidence and concentration of poverty in the Savannah Ecological Belt of Ghana. These efforts also reflect the general desire to confront and bridge the development gap between the northern and southern parts of the country.
1.1 Poverty in Northern Ghana
Ghana has made considerable progress in poverty reduction. From a level of 51.7 percent of the population being described as poor on the basis of the headcount in 1991/92, poverty declined to 39.5 percent in 1998/99 and further to 28.5 percent in 2005/06. In terms of the hardcore poor, poverty in Ghana declined from 36.2 percent in 1991/92 to 26.8 percent in 1998/99 and further to 18.2 percent in 2005/06. The decline in poverty has, however, not been equally spread geographically. There continue to be higher incidences of poverty in the rural areas and in particular the rural savannah ecological belt. The contribution of rural savannah has been increasing. From about 33 percent in 1991/92, the contribution of Rural Savannah increased to 37 percent in 1998/99 and has increased further to about 50 percent in 2005/06. This is partly because the reduction in poverty occurred largely as a result of economic growth which in turn has been driven by a number of key factors that Northern Ghana has benefited less from6. The poor in Ghana, therefore, continue to be concentrated in the Northern Savannah Ecological Belt. Out of 18.2 percent of the total population that live in extreme poverty, 53.7 percent live in Northern Ghana, which has only about 17.2 percent of the total Ghanaian population. In Panel (a) and (b) of Figure 1.1, the proportion of the population living under poverty is reported. As seen, the North has much higher levels of poverty than any other region. In terms of ecological belts, poverty in the rural savannah belt has been higher than any other ecological belt over the period 1991/92 to 2005/06. Moreover, as shown in Panel (b) of Figure 1.1, the reduction in poverty is much slower over the period in the rural savannah belt than in the rural Southern Ghana. Within Northern Ghana there is a wide and increasing disparity between the rural and urban areas. Extreme poverty in the urban savannah belt stood at 27 percent in 1991/92, declining to 18.3 percent in 2005/06. In the rural savannah belt extreme poverty reduced from a level of 57.5 percent in 1991/92 to 45.2 percent in 2005/06.
5 Northern Savannah as referred to in this Strategy study consists of the Sudan and Guinea Savannah and excludes the derived
(transitional) Coastal Savannah. The political space by the Northern Savannah includes the Upper West, Upper East, Northern, administrative regions, as well as northern parts of the Volta and Brong-Ahafo regions. 6 The key factors responsible for the economic growth and poverty reduction include: i) greater openness both through exports and
imports; ii) increased public spending financed largely by aid; iii) significant increases in wholesale and retail trade; and iv) increased receipts of remittances from abroad.
2
Moreover, poverty is highest among farmers, especially food crop farmers. Nationally, 46 percent of the poor are from households whose main activity is food crop cultivation. Poverty in the North, especially among food crop farmers, is further compounded by a short unimodal rainy season that is prone simultaneously to droughts and floods. Figure 1.1: Poverty and Extreme Poverty Trends in Ghana by Region
(a): Proportion of Regional Population Living in Poverty in 2006
23 2226
23 2226 26
40
47
55
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Wes
tern
Cen
tral
Gra
ter
Acc
ra
Vo
lta
Eas
tern
Ash
anti
Bro
ng
Ah
afo
No
rth
ern
Up
per
Eas
t
Up
per
Wes
t% o
f T
ota
l P
op
ula
tio
n
(b): Poverty Incidence by Region
60
44
26
5748
41
65 63 67
88
27
48
5
3844
2836
69
88 84
18 2012
31
1520
30
52
70
88
0
20
40
60
80
100
Wes
tern
Cen
tral
Gra
ter
Acc
ra
Vo
lta
Eas
tern
Ash
anti
Bro
ng
Ah
afo
No
rth
ern
Up
per
Eas
t
Up
per
Wes
t
1991/92 1998/99 2005/06
Source: Based on data from Ghana Statistical Service — Patterns and Trends of Poverty in Ghana, 1991-2006 (Tables A1.1, p.36 and A1.5, p.40)
3
Figure 1.2: Poverty Incidence in Ghana's Ecological Belts, 1991/92 — 2005/06
(a): Poverty Incidence by Ecological Belts in Ghana
2328 26
38
53
62
73
52
4
31
18
43 46
38
70
40
116 7
2824
28
60
29
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80A
ccra
Urb
anC
oas
tal
Urb
anF
ore
st
Urb
anS
avan
nah
Ru
ral
Co
asta
l
Ru
ral
Fo
rest
Ru
ral
Sav
ann
ah
Gh
ana
1991/92 1998/99 2005/06
(b) Poverty Profiles in Rural Ecological Zones of Ghana, 1991-2006
32.828.5
45.9
59.3
45.4
11.5
14.6
21.1
57.5
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1991/92 1998/99 2005/06
% o
f T
ota
l P
op
ula
tio
n
Rural Coastal Rural Forest Rural Savannah
Source: Based on data from Ghana Statistical Service — Patterns and Trends of Poverty in Ghana, 1991-2006 (Table A1.5 and A1.6, p. 40-41)
4
1.2 The Situation Analysis
For purposes of strategic analysis, the current situation in the three northern savannah ecological belt can be described in terms of resource endowments (agriculture, water, mineral resources and energy); private sector development including industry and manufacturing; and human resource development including education and health. The description of the current situation in the northern regions also covers risks and vulnerability.
1.2.1 Natural Resource Base
Agriculture The state of agriculture in the three northern regions is characterised by a number of factors including the availability of land; comparative advantage in the production of particular crops; untapped potential for livestock production; and a developing trend towards commercialisation. Land
The Northern Savannah of Ghana comprise of about 100,000 square kilometres, which is more than 40 percent of national land area and 65 percent of the savannah vegetation. Total agricultural land is 6.1 million hectares of which cultivated land area between 2001 and 2007 was 1.54 million hectares. A significant proportion of arable land has soils with poor physical properties and low content of organic matter. Relatively good soils are ground water laterites which tend to be limited in depth by hard pan. Soils are highly susceptible to erosion because of the thin vegetative coverage and torrential nature of poorly distributed rainfall. There is limited use of soil management practices (e.g. use of fertilisers, water management, mulching). This has resulted, under these poor conditions, in low productivity in both crops and livestock. However, Northern Savannah has a wealth of under-utilised well endowed land to support an intensified agriculture modernisation programme. These include a network of river basins with highly fertile valleys (e.g. the oncho-freed basins of the Volta and Sissili rivers, the Fumbisi valley, Nasia, Tamne, Katanga, Naboggu, and Soo valleys). These areas can become major agricultural production zones for different crops. Agricultural in the National Context
Table 1.1 presents the contribution of various agro-ecological zones to national output of agricultural commodities. It reflects the comparative advantage of the north in terms of agriculture production. The commodities in which northern Ghana has a comparative advantage in production are: i. Cereals — rice, sorghum and millet; ii. Roots and tubers — yam and cassava iii. Legumes — groundnuts, cowpea, and soybean; and iv. Livestock. With adequate water management, horticultural commodities, including tomato, okra, chilli, mango, cashew, water melon and sweet melon can also be produced competitively. The north is the home of the shea tree, which can be developed into a major oils and fats industry with benefits to rural women (who are currently at the heart of the shea industry as nut collectors and processors), shea-nut merchants and the country at large.
5
Table 1.1: Agricultural Structural and Regional Contribution in Ghana
Contribution to National Total
Coast Forest Southern Savannah
Northern Savannah Total
Cereals 13.2 24.5 28.3 34.0 100.0
Maize 22.2 32.9 30.6 14.3 100.0
Rice 13.4 43.9 5.0 37.7 100.0
Sorghum and millet 0.1 1.5 37.7 60.7 100.0
Roots 3.8 31.8 32.6 31.8 100.0
Cassava 4.1 25.2 45.3 25.4 100.0
Yams 2.8 32.3 25.2 39.6 100.0
Cocoyam 8.2 60.4 17.2 14.2 100.0
Other staples 8.9 29.9 31.6 29.6 100.0
Cowpea 0.5 9.9 10.4 79.2 100.0
Soybean 10.6 24.8 64.6 100.0
Plantains 13.2 54.2 25.1 7.6 100.0
Groundnuts 7.7 9.5 7.2 75.6 100.0
Fruit (domestic) 8.8 36.5 8.7 46.0 100.0
Vegetables (domestic) 8.5 25.7 44.5 21.3 100.0
Non-traditional exports 30.4 33.9 25.1 10.6 100.0
Cocoa 2.6 68.9 28.5 0.0 100.0
Livestock 12.1 35.1 14.2 38.6 100.0
Chicken broiler 19.2 40.0 36.4 4.5 100.0
Eggs and layers 37.0 39.0 5.0 19.0 100.0
Beef 7.1 16.3 6.4 70.2 100.0
Sheep and goat meat 12.7 39.5 11.8 36.0 100.0
Other meats 3.7 41.5 24.4 30.5 100.0
Forestry 1.0 68.6 29.1 1.4 100.0
Fishing 61.5 10.7 24.4 3.4 100.0
Source: Breisinger et al. (2008).
Land allocation to the main staple crops in recent years is presented in Tables 1.2 – 1.4; the dominant crops vary by region. The Northern region has the most diversified production system with groundnut, sorghum, yam and maize taking 52 percent of the land cultivated, compared to the Upper East and Upper West where groundnut and sorghum alone account for 62 percent and 53 percent of the land cultivated respectively.
Table 1.2 Crop Area in Northern Region (2005-2007)* Year Maize Rice Millet Sorghum Cassava Yam Groundnut Cowpea Soybean
2005 79,000
(13) 43,900
(7) 53,000
(8) 89,000
(14) 52,600
(8) 80,800
(13) 136,800
(22) 64,000
(10) 32,700
(5)
2006 85,600
(13) 45,800
(7) 57,300
(9) 93,600
(14) 55,400
(8) 88,900
(13) 145,900
(22) 59,400
(9) 37,700
(6)
2007 72,073 (0.15)
30,209 (0.06)
42,199 (0.09)
66,926 (0.13)
54,940 (0.11)
78,296 (0.16)
84,694 (0.17)
36,236 (0.07)
30,190 (0.06)
2008 77351 (13)
43312 (7)
53308 (9)
74682 (12)
57678 (10)
98379 (16)
110948 (18)
53078 (9)
34424 (6)
Figures in parentheses are percentage allocation of land to the crop
6
Table 1.3: Crop Area in Upper East Region (2005-2007)*
Year Maize Rice Millet Sorghum Groundnut Cowpea Sweet potato Soybean
2005 13,396 (3.0)
15,698 (3.5)
75,032 (16.6)
117,052 (26.0)
162,930 (36.1)
57,050 (12.7)
8,580 (1.9)
1,221 (0.3)
2006
14,355 (3.0)
16,396 (3.5)
81,116 (17.2)
122,809 (26.1)
173,792 (36.9)
52,930 (11.2)
8,471 (1.8)
1,411 (0.3)
2007 17,382
(0.06) 16,462
(0.05) 60,751 (0.20)
59,280 (0.20) 0
98,476 (0.33)
45,577 (0.15)
3,423 (0.01)
2008 23763
(7) 26934
(8) 65342 (19)
96602 (28)
73150 (21)
46907 (14) NA
13517 (4)
Figures in parentheses are percentage allocation of land to crop
Table 1.4: Crop Area in Upper West Region (2005-2008)*
Year Maize Rice Millet Sorghum Yam Groundnut Cowpea Soybean
2005 34,300
(9) 3,500
(1) 56,900
(15) 93,700
(24) 18,800
(5) 109,500
(28) 58,900 (0.5)
11,100 (3)
2006 36,700 (9.1)
3,700 (0.9)
61,600 (15.2)
98,400 (24.3)
20,600 (5.1)
116,800 (28.8)
54,700 (13.5)
12,900 (3.2)
2007 35,716 (0.09)
3,596 (0.01)
59,757 (0.16)
76,995 (0.20)
20,917 (0.05)
114,906 (0.30)
56,990 (0.15)
13,188 (0.03)
2008 38438
(9) 3745 (1)
63581 (15)
100253 (24)
29432 (5)
122996 (29)
61285 (14)
13883 (3)
Figures in parentheses are percentage allocation of land to crop
Table 1.5 presents an analysis of the growth performance of commodities in the northern savannah compared to the average performance of the country. Production of maize, millet and sorghum recorded negative growth over the period 1992-2005. Area planted to maize and yield of the crop both suffered declines. For millet and sorghum, the source of decline in output is yield. Although yam and cowpea recorded positive growth in production levels, this was due more to expansion in crop area because these crops also suffered from negative yield growths. Therefore the long-term pattern of crop production performance in northern Ghana has been expansion in land area to compensate for declining yields. The cases of yam and cowpea are particularly illustrative. Yam output in the northern savannah grew by nearly 2 percent, but yields declined at 2.3 percent per year while land expanded at 4.3 percent per year. With the northern savannah contributing the largest share to yam production, the trends in the yam production parameters in that zone are magnified at the national level. A growth strategy for crops should therefore focus on attaining a sustainable balance between production intensification and limited expansion of land area. Table 1.5: Average annual growth in production, yield and land (1992-2005)
Crop Output Yield Land Crop Output Yield Land
Maize (national) 3.9 0.8 3.2 Yam (National) 4.8 -4.1 9.3
N. Savannah -0.6 -0.4 -0.3 N. Savannah 1.9 -2.3 4.3
Rice (National) 5.9 2.1 3.7 Cassava (National) 5.4 -0.8 6.2
N. Savannah 4.8 1.9 2.9 N. Savannah 13.9 2.8 10.9
Millet -1.7 -2.1 0.5 Cowpea (National) 10.6 0.0 10.6
N. Savannah 10.0 -0.4 10.5
Sorghum (National) -0.7 -1.3 0.6 Groundnuts (National) 11.8 0.9 10.9
N. Savannah -0.8 -1.3 0.5 N. Savannah 11.8 0.9 10.9 Source: Breisinger et al. (2008)
7
Cotton used to be a major cash crop in all regions of Northern Ghana. The cotton industry has suffered decline since the late 1990s because of managerial problems, undeveloped seed sector, low yields, and declining world prices. The Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) has taken the lead in addressing the seed problem with the introduction of a new cotton variety. The other major cash crop is shea. The shea value chain, like all the other crops produced, is driven by a production entry-point, and not a marketing one. Rural women who engage in the collection and primary processing of nuts, and processing of crude shea butter persist in the use of traditional, labour-intensive technology for butter extraction, and consequently produce low yields. Under this strategy, a market-driven impetus is needed to propel a transformation of product-mix, quality, improved technology and marketing. Interventions are required to improve the productivity of rural women in the value chain and facilitate their participation in remunerative markets for crude shea butter. Livestock Northern Ghana contributes 39 percent to national livestock numbers, 70 percent of beef cattle, and 36 percent of sheep and goats. Although generally higher than the rest of the country, livestock numbers per household are modest (Table 1.6). The numbers are for only households that raise livestock. The data does not indicate the proportion of households that own livestock. Results of a survey in the Upper West Region in 2007 (Table 1.7) show that the percentage of the sample households owning livestock ranges from a low of 43 percent for pigs, to over 80 percent for goats and domestic fowls. This means that the benefits of interventions for the improvement of small ruminants will be broad based or inclusive.
Table 1.6: Estimated Livestock Numbers per Household by Ecological Zones
Livestock type Sudan
Savannah Guinea
Savannah Derived Savannah
(Transitional) Forest Coastal
Savannah Cattle 12 10 9 Negligible 6
Sheep 11 12 4 6 6
Goats 15 9 11 6 7
Pigs 9 8 9 9 7
Guinea Fowl 16 12 10 Negligible 12
Domestic Fowl 20 22 18 12 15 Source: Computations from MOFA Livestock Growth Study Field Survey (2007/2008) and several other studies in the various ecological zones
Table 1.7: Percentage of Households Owning Livestock in the Upper West Region
Livestock type Wa West Wa East Nadowli Sissala
East Sissala West
Jirapa-Lambussie Lawra Total
N = 80 N = 50 N = 74 N = 53 N = 27 N = 92 N = 79 N = 455
Cattle 33.8 58.0 71.6 45.3 96.3 83.7 49.4 60.4
Sheep 58.8 36.0 60.8 49.1 77.8 70.7 55.7 58.5
Goat 80.0 64.0 97.3 56.6 100.0 100.0 96.2 86.4
Pig 31.3 10.0 60.8 3.8 7.4 67.4 68.4 42.9
Donkey 1.3 0.0 0.0 26.4 44.4 14.1 1.3 9.0
Chicken 77.5 50.0 94.6 50.9 100.0 94.6 93.7 81.8
Guinea-fowl 38.8 8.0 77.0 32.1 70.4 76.1 68.4 55.4
Turkey 5.0 2.0 1.4 0.0 7.4 7.6 5.1 4.2
Duck 3.8 2.0 4.1 7.5 7.4 3.3 7.6 4.8
Source: Veterinary Services Directorate, MOFA (2008). PATTEC Socioeconomic Baseline Survey, Project Coordination Unit, Pong Tamale.
8
Commercialization
Other aspects of agriculture in Northern Ghana are the degree of commercialisation and market access7. Average land holdings range from 2.7 hectares in Upper West to 5.6 hectares in the Northern Region. Average size of smallholdings has grown over the decade 1998-2006. This is consistent with the trend of land expansion driving output growth. Existing data suggest that commercialisation is not necessarily limited to commercial producers. Data on smallholder characteristics from the Report of the Fifth Round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 5) show that many smallholders sell produce. However, sorghum and millet are subsistence crops with about 14 percent of farmers who have less than one (1) hectare selling the crops compared to 50 percent and 56 percent of small-scale farmers who sold groundnuts and beans respectively. Surprisingly, many smallholder rice producers do not sell the crop implying that rice, a crop with such high commercial potential is produced for subsistence by these farmers. Other Potentials, Opportunities, Constraints and Challenges The following are other potentials, opportunities, constraints and challenges that may be considered as part of the current agricultural situation in the Northern Savannah Ecological Belt. Potentials
Low population density in many parts, especially in the northern region: The population density in the three northern regions ranges from a low of 25 persons per square kilometre in the Northern Region to 31.2 persons per square kilometre in the Upper West and as high as 104 persons per square kilometre in the Upper East region. The generally low population density implies that the potential to increase production through land expansion exists (except perhaps in the Upper East Region) even if such expansion is to be carried out cautiously. As already indicated this is coupled with several tracts of lowland and fertile inland valleys that are currently under-exploited for agriculture. Similarly proper management of existing and the development of new irrigation facilities can support increased production. Agricultural growth through intensification is also possible because of the widening gap between potential yields and achieved yields. That is productivity limits have not been reached. The agro-ecology, in general, supports a wide range of arable crops; and the flat or gently undulating nature of the land is suitable for mechanised farming. In some instances, however, bullock and donkey power may be more appropriate than tractor for land preparation due to fragile soils. Livestock thrives well in the savannahs of the north and most households own livestock which can be improved; people are culturally accustomed to guinea fowl and small ruminant rearing. The Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) has competent staff for fulfilling not only crop production but the general mandate of expanding and helping to modernise the north’s agriculture.
Opportunities
The opportunities that characterise the current situation in the Northern Savannah, especially with respect to agriculture include the following: � There is a national recognition of agriculture as the vehicle for growth and poverty reduction in
northern Ghana.
7 The description of smallholder production is based on 2005/2006 GLSS survey and reported by Chamberlain (2007) for IFPRI’s
Ghana Strategy Support Programme.
9
� Planned rehabilitation of Tono and Vea irrigation infrastructure and the construction of the Bui dam will improve water use efficiency.
� Technology for micro irrigation schemes is available. � Demand for major Ghanaian staple crops is likely to increase as a result of the rising world food
prices and curtailment of exports. Inland valleys can be managed for the production of rice and other crops.
� Northern Ghana is also well situated for trade with Ghana’s northern neighbours because of proximity, better physical climate for production and similarities in food culture.
� Existence of a large agribusiness firm in horticulture industry, Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC) as a nucleus for development of markets, can rally entry of others for agricultural production in general, and is a source of knowledge for developing support services for agribusiness.
� Significant donor support in terms of agricultural development projects. The projects will offer lessons for further interventions and add to the funding basket for the food and agriculture sector in northern Ghana.
Constraints The following may be considered as constraints when the current situation of the agriculture in the three northern regions is looked at critically: � Inadequate use of soil management technologies and practices. � Inadequate land for increased agricultural production in places like the Upper East region. � Use of traditional and labor intensive tools limits land and labour productivity and growth. � Inadequate supply of improved seed/ planting material and breeds of livestock. � Low crop yields and low livestock productivity due to low rates of adoption of improved
technologies. � Limited value addition in the agricultural commodity value chains. Challenges The following may be considered as challenges that characterised the current agricultural situation in the north: � Low population density in much of the north implies low returns to investment in infrastructure
development. � Predominance of smallholders pose challenges to cost effective post-harvest coordination and
thereby limits competitiveness. � Land tenure system does not favour contiguous crop fields for supply of services � High poverty levels and incidence of food insecurity may have to be reduced as a precondition
for growth. � High cost of inputs of improved technologies (e.g. escalating fuel prices & fertilizers affects
running of water pump machines for irrigation). � Poor water supply systems limit agro-processing. � Undeveloped agribusiness/private sector to drive production of smallholders. � Limited distribution network for inputs. � Poor rainfall distribution � Poor transport and communication infrastructure limits access to input and output markets.
1.2.2 Water Resources
Rainfall occurs in one season and the total annual precipitation is 1,000–1,100 millimetres. The growing period is 150-160 days in the Sudan savannah zone and 180-200 days in the Guinea savannah. In spite of the poor rainfall pattern, Northern Ghana is well endowed with water
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resources, even though the amount of water available from season to season as well as from year to year is very variable. Three main river systems drain Northern Ghana (see map below), out of which the Volta River System drains almost the entire northern part of the country. However, the runoff coefficient is high and consequently annual river recharge is low in the Volta Basin. On average, 9 percent of rainfall becomes river discharge. For the Black Volta catchments where much of Northern Ghana resides, it is only 4.9 percent, for the White Volta it is 7.1 percent and for the Oti 13.5 percent due to the steeper terrain in north-eastern Ghana. This indicates the high sensitivity of runoff with respect to rainfall and implies that relatively small changes in annual precipitation can cause large changes in river flow (Obeng-Asiedu, 2004). In addition to the river systems, there are significant groundwater resources in the North (see Table 1.8). For instance, over 5 000 boreholes have been drilled in Northern Ghana since the mid-1970s in the rural areas to provide portable water to communities. About 58 percent of the total number of boreholes was successful, therefore offering an indication that the groundwater could serve a variety of uses (irrigation, livestock requirements and domestic use). At present, however, falling groundwater levels have been observed in some areas, questioning the sustainability of these practices and requiring thorough groundwater investigations to support future groundwater developments.
Table 1.8: Main Sources of Domestic Water Supply in N. Ghana
Region
Main source of water supply Number
of localities
Pipe borne
Rain water Borehole Well
Dam, pond, lake
Dug-out
River, stream, canal Spring
Not stated
Northern 3,566
74
6
93
555
675
348
1,729
23
63
Upper West 1,192
24
2
745
51
56
104
188
4
18
Upper East 2,161 35
0
1,424
338
56
83
175
25
25
Source: Gyau-Boakye and Dapaah-Siakwan, 1999) – we need more recent data from CWSA and current sources
There is significant potential for irrigation development in the three northern regions given the combination of river systems and groundwater resources. Map 1.1 spotlights currently built, ongoing and potential GIDA irrigated sited in Northern Ghana. In addition there has been expansion of community level dams for irrigation in recent years through Government of Ghana and IFAD agriculture development projects. The reservoir that will be created through the Bui dam will provide additional source of water for irrigation. By comparison, total irrigation potential in Ghana has been estimated at 1.9 million ha (FAO, 2007). Another estimate of potential gives 0.7 million ha for small-scale irrigated sawah rice farming (bunding, levelling, and puddling fields for irrigated rice cultivation) in inland valley watersheds and by including the floodplains this potential may reach 1 million ha. Both unused water and land resources are considerable, and some projections indicate that only about 22 percent of the available water resources will be used by 2020 (FAO, 2007).
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Map 1.1: Currently built, on-going and potential GIDA irrigated sites in Northern Ghana.
1.2.3 Mineral Resources
Table 1.9 profiles a number of mineral resources in the northern regions. A number of mining and exploration firms are already actively engaged in either exploration or exploitation of these resources. Table 1.9: Profile of Opportunities in the Mining Sector
UPPER WEST UPPER EAST NORTHERN Gold: Available along Birimian’s Wa-Lawra gold mineralization belt running north-south from the north of Tuna to Hamile. Exploration currently ongoing in the Nadowli area where 516,00 ounces of gold has been delineated. (Azumah Resources Ltd. listed on Australian Stock Exchange, January 2006) is aiming at 1
million ounces
Gold: Birimian’s Nagodi gold mineralization belt also running from Wiasi in the southwest to Bongo in the northeast. The exploration works ongoing are;
Sandema area conducted by RandGold Resources Ltd.(one of the 4 largest gold producing companies in Africa)
Birimian greenstone belt on the borders between Northern and Upper East Regions by Gyata Exploration which is the exploration arm of the Goldfields Ghana Ltd. and subsidiary of Goldfields South Africa – the 2nd largest gold producer in Africa.
General: The Birimian’s Bole Belt, Bui Belt and Maluwe Basin are endowed with minerals. Ongoing Ghana Mapping Project (MSSP) to provide insight into mineral potential north & south of Bole
Iron: Tumu area has a village called Pudo which has titanium and iron reserve estimated at 4.5 million tonnes.
Granite: The Bongo granite within the Birimian is a raw material base for quarrying.
Manganese: i. Kapili Hill deposit : probable reserves of
3 million tonnes of high-grade and 1million tonnes of low grade ore
ii. Kalimbi Hill deposits: resource is estimated to be 6.2 -6.5 million tonnes at the above grade @ 14.3%.
iii. Three Hill deposits: reserves of the ore mass, is 2.4 to 2.6 million tonnes with average manganese content of 30.45%.
iv. Seripe deposit: manganese content is 13.44% & total amount of mineralization 850,000 - 900,000 tonnes. (Kesse, 1985).
Iron Ore: Shieni Hills (Zabzugu-Tatale): total estimated reserves of iron ore is 1,270 million metric tonnes.
Barite and Brine: Daboya and environs (partial investigation and suitable)
Limestone: exploration presently being conducted by Savacem Company Ltd. in the Buipe area.
Source: Based on work and presentation by Yakubu Iddrisu Chief Consultant – GEOMAN CONSULT
(Source: GIDA, 2006)
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1.2.4 Energy
The energy-economy of Northern Ghana is predominantly wood fuel based, with firewood and charcoal consumption accounting for about 93 percent of total energy consumption. Electricity and petroleum products consumption account for 5 and 2 percent. Per capita energy consumption is low but is expected to rise if expected investments materialize in line with the development objectives of the government. In Northern Ghana, the household sector is the largest consumer of energy. This sector uses charcoal and firewood for cooking with modest amounts of electricity, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for lighting and cooking. While wood fuels would continue to provide the main base for meeting the bulk of the Northern Ghana’s energy needs, its future supply will be constrained by the deforestation environment and ecological damage, evidenced by worsening deforestation in Brong-Ahafo and desertification in the North, and shifting agricultural practices that lead to degradation of soils. By virtue of its location, Northern Ghana is well endowed with solar energy resources. Even though Ghana’s solar energy resource is substantial, the development of this important resource continues to be marginalized. Financing of solar programmes has been woefully inadequate. In 1998 Ghana experienced a serious energy crisis due to shortfall in electricity supply from our hydro resources. This situation caused some socio-economic disruptions including a drag in the national economy. As a measure to prevent recurrence of the energy crisis, other alternative sources of energy specifically renewable energy (green energy) were introduced into the existing energy generation mix. With regard to the electricity sub-sector, the industry has reformed, and the power system has been unbundled, with the creation of the Ghana Grid Company Limited, to create open access to the transmission grid in order to attract private investments and to facilitate competition.
1.3 Private Sector Development
1.3.1 The Investment Climate
A recently concluded (but yet unpublished) Ghana Investment Climate Assessment (ICA), which included a survey of manufacturing firms, provides some important objective insights into the current situation in Northern Ghana with regard to private sector development. The critical conclusions include the following: � The North ranks worst in the country against 4 out every 5 in terms of access to finance
indicators; � The North has, on average, the smallest firms in a country that is increasingly dependent for
income and growth on smaller firms. The North also has one of the largest informal sectors; � Skills levels in firms are lowest relative to the rest of the country. This may well be a reflection
of an outstanding need to more effectively link public training to private sector needs; � Female ownership of businesses is higher relative to the rest of the country — entirely the
reverse to the situation of Northern and Southern Nigeria. This also partly explains the smaller firm size and lower levels of firm formality in the North;
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� Infrastructure gaps are shown to be greater in power and water — possibly reflecting capital intensity disparities and/or the considerably greater focus that donor investment has had in the water sector in the North; and
� Corruption is shown to be a much less significant problem in Tamale versus the rest of the country. The situation in Tamale may be taken as indicative of the current situation in all of the three northern regions.
The ICA points out that public support services are similarly limited and makes the following conclusions: � While Ghana has been making some significant and laudable strides in improving “doing
business” indicators, there is a dearth of basic government services — registration, licensing, market information in the North. Such services are key for the government to provide; these services are centralized in Accra.
� Additionally, with the exception of the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology and Industry
Services (GRATIS) — a quasi-government entity which receives limited subvention mostly salaries but has a mandate to be self-sustaining — there is very little in terms of business development services, including ICT;
� The state of municipal development is relatively low. Municipal development is key and needs
to be developed further — not just in terms of infrastructure services but also more broadly branding and advocacy for business; and
� Public-private partnerships are required, particularly in business development services to
complement improved government service delivery.
1.3.2 Industrial and Manufacturing Activities
Industrial and manufacturing activities in Northern Ghana collapsed following the adoption of the economic reforms in the 1980s. Following the import-substitution industrialization after independence, several manufacturing establishments related to agriculture were established in Northern Ghana. Rice mills, oil processing, cotton ginning, tomato and fruits and meat processing factories were established through public investments. These were distributed across the two regions of the North — Northern and Upper regions — at the time. However, following the poor economic performance in Ghana in the 1970s and early 1980s, with the corresponding collapse in domestic demand and the institution of divestiture of publicly-owned production enterprises, these factories collapsed. Factories were divested either as pieces of equipment that were removed or the enterprises were allowed to collapse. Basically, only one oil mill was divested as an ongoing activity. There are, however, emerging modern processing activities in oil and sheabutter processing, fruit processing and a tottering tomato factory. Most other processing activities are done by women for the local market.
1.3.3 Tourism
Northern Ghana contains what could be Ghana’s single biggest tourist attraction, the Mole Game reserve, which has seen rising visitor numbers. However, to date this substantial park has remained largely undeveloped, and the Bui Reserve even more so. The Wildlife Division now has well presented ambitious plans to develop the park through private investment and is awaiting expressions of interest. Its plans also include creating strong links with communities around the Mole Reserve, which has been structurally disadvantaged because of access to the reserve.
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The geographical location, history and culture of the North provide opportunities for slave heritage tourism, eco- and cultural tourism, and francophone tourism in neighboring countries. The main challenges include:
i). the need to make critical public investments to open up the game parks for foreign and local tourists;
ii). the need to develop hotel and restaurant services outside Tamale; iii). providing information and advertising, including a website for the tourist facilities; and iv). the need to develop and market the various tourist attractions. District assemblies have
identified the relevant tourist sites in their districts but these remain undeveloped.
1.4 Human Resource Development
1.4.1 Education
In the immediate post-independence period, the government tried to reduce the imbalance in education between the northern territories (largely the Northern Savannah ecological belt) and the rest of the country through the introduction of the fee-free education for the north. However, investments have not been sustained by successive governments, leading to a continued lagging of the north in the quantity and quality of educational services. Since the mid 1980s, the government embarked on a series of educational reforms designed to reduce the number of years of basic education and to make education more functional, preparing its products for the job market. However, due to a number of implementation bottlenecks relating to the inadequacy of school infrastructure, trained teachers, especially in rural areas, as well as, the heaviness of the curriculum, the outcome has been less than desired (Oxfam, 2005). To remedy this, the Government of Ghana has since the 1990s, subscribed to several global policy initiatives, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the accompanying Education for All (EFA) initiative, which seeks to accelerate the achievement of gender parity in access to education by 2005 and achieve gender equality by 2015. To translate policy into action, a number of programs have been developed and ran in the past. For instance, in accordance with the Education for All, and in fulfilment of a constitutional obligation,8 the government instituted the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) program as a sector-wide initiative for promoting access to good quality education for all school-going children by 20059. The FCUBE program was, therefore, designed to:
(a) improve the teaching and learning process and outcome; (b) enhance efficiency of basic education management; (c) achieve better access and participation; and (d) help establish a financially sustainable education sector.
To achieve these objectives, the government put in place the Whole School Development (WSD) program with funding support of its development partners (Republic of Ghana, 1992).
8 See Article 38(2) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana
9 Ministry of Education, Science and Sports available at http://www.edughana.net/fcube.htm
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Figure 1.3: Net Enrolment Rates and Gender Parity Achievements by Location (a) Trends in Net Enrolment Rates in Basic Schools by Location
0
20
40
60
80
100
1991/91 1998/99 2005/06
Accra
Urban Coastal
Urban Forest
Urban Savannah
Rural Coastal
Rural Forest
Rural Savannah
(b): Gender Parity Achievements for Three Northern Regions, 2001/02-2004/05
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05
Northern Region Upper East Upper West
Sources: Based on data from GSS— Patterns and Trends of Poverty in Ghana, 2007 and MoESS, Education Sector Report 2005
The program enjoyed considerable support from the donor community either through funding of national budget components targeted to education or through direct design and implementation of projects and program, such as the Quality Improvement in Primary Schools Program (QUIPS) of the USAID, among others. However, despite considerable donor support for the program to ensure its success, government was unable to guarantee free education for all pupils enrolled in the school system. Efficiency and effectiveness of policy implementation has been mixed. The Government’s Education Strategic Plan 2003-2015 was therefore developed to guide education sector development. The plan runs concurrent with, and supports the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, providing “… the framework by which Ghana meets its commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on education — namely, Gender Parity in primary schooling by 2005 and Universal Primary Completion by 2015. A new education reform, with accompanying legislation has been adopted and took effect from September 2007. Government has introduced a pilot school feeding program in fulfilment of its commitments under the NEPAD initiatives, and to remove the financial barrier created by levies government has introduced the Capitation Grant Scheme that would provide an amount of three Ghana cedis (GHC¢3.00) per child to cover the additional levies that parents would otherwise have had to pay. Available evidence suggests that school enrolment rates have increased considerably over the last 15 years. Overall, net enrolment in all schools increased by 10.7 percentage points from 74.1
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percent in 1991/92 to 84.8 percent in 2005/06, with rural and urban areas gaining 10.6 and 10.4 percentage points in net enrolments over the same period. In the Rural Savannah Ecological Belt, net enrolment rate declined between 1998/99 and 2005/06 (Panel (a) of Figure 1.3). In spite of the drop in enrolment rates, there was considerable improvement in achieving gender parity in the three northern regions (Panel (b) of Figure 1.3). The Upper West Region consistently achieved a gender parity index of 1 or greater for the period 2001-2005. The Upper East Region recorded consistent improvements and a higher rate than the national average. Even the Northern region, which has a gender parity index below the national average, recorded increased GPI from 0.75 in 2001/02 to 0.84 in 2005.
1.4.2 Health
The health sector has been the focus of several policy initiatives over the last ten years. With the introduction of the national Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), making health affordable to the population, and recently the free health care for pregnant women, the health sector has witnessed a number of policy reforms. It has also seen major investments intended to improve the quality of health care delivery, bringing them closer to the people, especially the poor. However, policy, investment and geographical distribution outcomes may not always coincide with intentions. Since 1998, the under-five mortality rate nationally has remained at 110 per 1,000 live births while infant mortality rates increased from 61 per 1,000 live births in 1998 to 65 per 1,000 live births in 2005 and 71 per 1,000 live births in 2006. Table 1.10: Maternal Mortality Rates and Ten Top Diseases Causing Death in Upper West Region in 2007
MATERNAL MORTALITY STATISTICS Top Ten Diseases at OPD Attendance
Maternal
Deaths MMR/100,000
Births Top Ten Diseases % of Total
Region/District 2007 2007 Malaria 38%
Upper East Region 29 158 Acute Respiratory Infection 13%
Jirapa-Lambussie 5 147 Skin Disease and Ulcers 10%
Lawra 10 402 Acute Eye Infection 5%
Nadowli 1 40 Diarrhoea 5%
Sissala East 3 173 Hypertension 4%
Sissala East - - Pneumonia 3%
Wa East - - Rheumatism 3%
Wa Municipal 9 224 Acute Ear Infection 2%
Wa West 1 56 Road Traffic Accident 2%
All Others 15% Sources: Ghana Health Service, Regional Directorate (Upper West Region)
Regional health reviews show that the three Northern regions may be doing worse than the national average. In the Upper West Region (UWR) for instance, the under-five mortality rate is 191 per 1000 births, infant mortality is 114 per 1,000 births, while maternal mortality rate was 158 per 100,000 in 2007 (see Table 1.10).
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Table 1.11: Human Resource Situation of Selected Health Personnel in Upper West Region, 2005-2007
Actual Actual Target Actual
2005 2006 2007 2007
Number of Doctors 11 11 25 17
Population to Doctor Ratio 1:57,027 1:57,996 1:50,000 1:54,066
Number of Nurses 467 544 1,379 691
Population to Nurse Ratio 1:1,343 1:1,173 0 1:1,044
Number of Management Positions (deputies, Directors, DDHS) 12 18 18 18
Management Position Filled by Qualified Personnel 1 6 18 5
Number of Community Resident Nurses (CHOs) 22 24 42 42
Number of Pharmacists 6 11 13 8
Source: Ghana Health Service, Regional Directorate, Upper West Region
Environmentally preventable diseases such as malaria, acute respiratory infections, and diarrhoea dominate the causes of out-patient department (OPD) attendance, reflecting the role of poverty in the causes of morbidity and mortality. Maternal mortality rate (MMR) per 100,000 live births stood at 158 per 100,000 in 2007 in the Upper West Region. It exceeded 400 per 100,000 live births in some districts like Lawra (see Table 1.10). The main driving force behind these poor regional and/or district statistics is inadequate human resource base. As Table 1.11 shows, the populations of doctor and nurses ratios are high. These result in high nurse to patients’ ratios, causing overworking of health personnel with dire consequences for patients. Table 1.12: Number of Health Facilities and Personnel/Patient Ratios in the Upper West Region
Number of Health Doctor/Patient Nurse/Patient
Region/District Facilities Ratio Ratio
Upper West Region 112 1:54,066 1:1,044
Jirapa-Lambussie 20 1: 109,069 1:1,314
Lawra 16 1:49,243 1:1,763
Nadowli 27 1:22,627 1:1,427
Sissala East 9 1:50,916 1:2,122
Sissala East 5 1:44,475 1:2,616
Wa East 11 n/a 1:4,317
Wa Municipal 13 1:28,013 1:1,345
Wa West 11 n/a 1:4,215 Source: Ghana Health Service, Regional Directorate, Upper West Region
Inadequate infrastructural facilities in terms of hospitals, clinics, and CHPS compounds rank next as a driver of poor health delivery (see Table 1.12).
1.5 Risks and Vulnerability
Much of the poverty in the north is risk and vulnerability induced. This exposure to risks and vulnerabilities are determined by a number of factors, ranging from natural, social, and human made causes. These include the following:
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� Climate induced risks and vulnerabilities: More than 80 percent of the population of northern
Ghana depends on unimodal rain fed agriculture for their food, income and livelihoods. Therefore, incidents of droughts and floods have multiple effects on the coping strategies of the people. With global warming, it is expected that the frequency of the incidence of both droughts and floods will increase.
� Vulnerabilities associated with limited opportunities for off farm and non-farm economic
activities: The North remains dependent on food crop farming with very little opportunity for non-farm activities. The share of household income deriving from non-farm activities remains significantly lower than the rest of the country and is the lowest in the most food-insecure region (Upper East). For seven to eight months in the year, the majority of the agricultural population in Northern Ghana have no alternative or complementary means of securing their livelihoods, as infrastructure to support off season agricultural activities are underdeveloped or non-existent. Although women usually engage in micro-agro processing initiatives such as the production of seed oils (sheabutter, groundnut oil), and handicrafts, the markets for these products are small, underdeveloped, and therefore provide only small margins that limit business growth and development. The livestock sector that holds a promise for providing alternative sources of income is also largely underdeveloped due to limited investments in the sector. Consequently, opportunities for supplementing food and income from the rain-fed subsistent farming activities during the long dry season are limited.
� Weakening Traditional Safety Nets and Increased Vulnerabilities: Mutual support initiatives and remittances from friends and family members living outside the community once served as an important source of supplementary food, income, and livelihood support to the families in the north. However, due to social and economic pressures, this traditional safety net mechanism has been weakened, thereby increasing exposure of the poor, especially women, the young, and the aged to greater and increasingly more protracted poverty induced vulnerabilities. Incidentally, the risk exposure of these subcategories of the population to poverty induced vulnerability is greater because they face considerable cultural and institutional obstacles in gaining access to productive resources such as land, credit, and other support services for their farm and off-farm income generation ventures.
The persistence of risks and the exacerbation of vulnerability in northern Ghana also derive from an intricate network of causal factors that, in many cases, have their roots in both historical and contemporary failures of national development policies related to the north. Central to these are the following: 1.5.1 Limited Investment in Human Capital Development
The most important asset of the north for its development is its human resources. Unfortunately, the quality and potential of this human resource base has remained largely underdeveloped and untapped due to the limited investment in the provision of access to good quality education at all levels since the colonial era. At independence, the north was 100 years behind the rest of the country in terms of educational development. Fifty years after independence, the north still lags behind the rest of the country in terms of educational development, even though the people of the north embraced education as the ladder for social mobility out of poverty, despite the late start and the current limitations of the educational sector.
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1.5.2 Trans-Border Health Risks and Vulnerabilities
Much of northern Ghana also shares common borders with neighbouring countries. Consequently, the outbreak of communicable diseases in one country rapidly spread into the surrounding communities in Ghana as “the entire region is characterized by uncontrolled cross-border movements, which facilitate the spread of communicable diseases.”10 For instance in 2007, a new strain of more deadly bacteria for Cerebrospinal Meningitis was reported to have found its way into northern Ghana from neighbouring Burkina Faso, where the strain is known to have developed. The re-emergence of polio in recent times was also traced to migrants from northern Nigeria. 1.5.3 Risks associated with inadequate development of housing infrastructure: The traditional architecture of northern Ghana consists mainly of round huts with thatch roofs. In some parts of the Upper East and West Regions, the architecture supports a multi-functionality of the housing structures. For instance, the round huts are often interspaced with rectangular earth-filled flat roofs that serve the dual purpose of providing extra aerial space for drying farm produce or open air sleeping during the hot dry seasons. In some cases, the flat roof structures have allowed for the construction of second storeys to maximise space utilization. Traditionally, the walls of the houses are plastered with various locally available materials such as cow dug and the bark of the dawadawa tree, among others, to provide water proofing against the rains. In the Upper East, this exterior protection is aesthetically done with various designs and colours. The interior of the houses is similarly plastered. While the exterior plastering serves both aesthetic and functional purposes (i.e. providing a water-resistant shield to the mud walls), interior decorations are usually solely for aesthetic purposes.
In the main, this traditional architecture has stood the test of time in many places, with houses needing little or no maintenance once built. They have also proven to be best suited for the geo-climatic conditions of the north, as earthen walls and roof, as well as, the thatch roof moderate extreme temperature variations between seasons and from day time to the night. Hence, the architecture provides cooler rooms in the hot season and warmer ones during the cold harmattan season. Compared to metal roofed structures or concrete walled ones, room temperature variation between day and night in the mud and thatch houses is minimal. The circular structures of the round huts and the conical shape of their thatch roofs have also proven to be important windbreaks that minimise the risk of damage to houses during rain storms.
Despite the robustness and utility of the traditional architecture, traditional houses face major challenges in withstanding the onset of heavy and sustained rains as witnessed in 2007. For instance, houses that collapsed during the flood were due to two primary types of structural failures. First, because of the absence or weak foundations, exterior walls of the houses that were exposed to sustained rains lost their structural integrity, as the mud foundations were soaked. In some cases, the earthen flat roofs caved in after sustained saturation of the soil on top of the roof and failure of the supporting timber structures. In general, houses and structures in low-lying areas were more prone to failure than those in relatively higher areas that were not seriously flooded. Also, houses and structures with water-resistant plastering were far less likely to collapse than those without plastering11.
10 World Health Organisation “West Africa Health Sector Needs Assessment” available at
http://www.who.int/hac/about/donorinfo/wafrica.pdf 11
As indicated above, plastering of exterior and interior walls is done using a variety of locally-available materials such as cow
dung, dawadawa seed pods, etc., as well as other materials such as cement and coal tar depending on availability and affordability in the local markets.
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1.5.4 Human-induced Shocks, Cycles and Trends
Risks and vulnerability in the north are often exacerbated by the increased human induced disasters such as conflicts. In deed, Northern Ghana has been home to most of the violent intra and interethnic conflicts in Ghana. In the main, chieftaincy succession and land ownership disputes have been mutually reinforcing causal factors. In the play out however, ethnicity, politics, and religion are often used as the mobilizing factors for the various factions at war.
Irrespective of their sources, violent conflicts have led to massive displacement of people, loss of life and property and the creation of a general sense of insecurity that discourage investments in the north. In addition they have diverted resources away from development projects into peace and security operations.
In addition to conflicts, indiscriminate burning of bushes, especially in the dry, windy season has constituted a major source of disaster for most communities. Apart from causing destruction of houses, food items, and even human life, the uncontrolled bushfires do considerable damage to the ecosystem, making soils more fragile and baked so that they cannot support sudden downpour of rains. The destruction of natural reserves and games have also affected the north’s ability to develop viable ecotourism potentials that can create jobs and increase incomes of houses living in the precincts of the Mole and the Gbelle national parks, among others.
1.5.5 Limited investment in agricultural infrastructure
Food and income vulnerabilities in northern Ghana are accentuated by the limited investment in the development of agricultural infrastructure in the north. Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, lying to the much drier north of the country are known to produce more home-grown cereals and vegetables than Ghana, largely due to their investment in the development of basic infrastructure for in and off season farming. This has been made possible by the development and/or adaptation of low cost appropriate technologies to enhance agricultural production. In deed, GPRS II notes that “the example of Burkina Faso shows that simpler and cheaper technologies for the harvesting and use of rain water endowments could yield Ghana immense benefits in agricultural productivity and poverty reduction”12. Incidentally, the limited investment in the construction of dams, dugouts and the judicious management of watersheds is not only negatively impacting on the ability of the north to produce food for home consumption and the market, it also creates the situation where the poor management of water resources have contributed to increased risks and vulnerabilities due to weather-induced disasters. For instance, the high rates of surface run offs of rain water during the short rainy season not only washes off the top of the already fragile and exhausted soils; the flash floods associated with the sudden and heavy downpours constantly destroy life and property of communities caught in their pathways. This affects the short and long term livelihood securities of communities lying within the drainage paths of major rivers such as the Volta Rivers. The dwindling agricultural production and productivity for food and cash crop in Northern Ghana is due to the over dependence on rain-fed agricultural, coupled with dwindling soil fertility and outmoded agricultural practices (slash and burn techniques, shifting cultivation, etc). These local factors have been exacerbated by ineffective agricultural policies that have led to high cost of inputs, inefficient agricultural market systems; and inadequate investments in infrastructure support systems for the agricultural sector.
12 GPRS II document, p.25
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1.5.6 Risks associated with inadequate development of housing infrastructure
Collapsed or burned houses are a consequence of human-made and natural disasters such as floods, bushfires, and conflicts. The nature and structural defects of the housing infrastructure in the north as a result of the type and quality of the construction materials as well as the way the construction is carried out have been mentioned earlier. The shortcomings are pointers that improving the housing needs of the north in the short and long term as part of disaster risk reduction must be hinged on the following design and/or material adaptations:
a) Preservation of traditional architecture in the design of houses to ensure the sustenance of
the multi-functionality of the housing infrastructure; b) the development and/or improvement of appropriate housing materials, using locally
available materials as much as possible, while preserving the multi-functionality of the designs and keeping the costs of building within the reach of the people;
c) Improving the design and materials used for substructure or foundation construction to ensure that that the structural integrity of the houses are improved; and
d) Improving the ventilation and lighting systems in the houses through the positioning and use of wider doors and windows that allow for air circulation.
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CHAPTER TWO
STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS FOR SUSTAINALBE DEVELOPMENT OF NORTHERN SAVANNAH
2.1 Overview and Framework
2.1.1 Introduction
In the immediate aftermath of the floods in 2007, the urgent call for action on Northern Ghana Development led to the establishment of a specialist team to prepare a comprehensive development strategy and action plan to be considered by Government, private sector investors and development partners. The new government that took over in 2009 re-emphasized the importance of the strategy to bridge the gap between the Northern and Southern Ghana. It, however, expanded the scope of the strategy to cover districts contiguous to the Northern Region covering the Northern Savannah ecological belt. 2.1.2 Components: The strategy contains seven main components:
1. Actions that will stimulate the modernization of agriculture development and competitiveness of small holders, notably women, through improved technology, promoting efficiency for the domestic and export market.
2. Initiatives that would stimulate investment and business development in northern Ghana in a manner that would change the mind-set and stimulate the creation of high value jobs and increased incomes.
3. Initiatives that would link post drought and post-flood rehabilitation with the infrastructure requirements for long-term development
Vision of a Forested and Green North The vision is to develop a healthy and diversified
economy based on the concept of a “Forested North,
”where food crops and vegetables are inter-cropped
with economic tress that are resilient to weather
changes, sustain a stable environment, and creating
a permanent stake in land for poor people. One of the most effective ways to catalyze development efforts is to find a locally recognizable metaphor; an image that can take a series of complex interactions and make them comprehensible to all players. In preparing this strategy and work plan for a Sustainable Development Initiative for Northern Ghana, stakeholders see themselves embedded in the culturally appropriate metaphor of a Forested North. This metaphor recalls years gone by when trees provided the cover for several legendry spiritual groves; when trees and fodder provided the basis for food and healing herbs; when the animals – domestic and wild displayed diversity; and when the water resources were nourished and sustained by abundant trees in combination. The SADA rests on four pillars:
1. Building on core competence of majority of the
people by modernizing agriculture in a manner
that responds pro-actively to a growing market,
as well as ensuring food security and sustained
livelihoods
2. Stimulating investments in value-added
processing, light-industrial activities and services
oriented towards a regional market spanning the
Sahel (including southern Ghana)
3. Re-orienting and investing in social and
economic infrastructure in a manner that
reinforces the integration between agricultural
modernization that is oriented towards an
expanded regional market
4. Addressing the residual economic and ecological
crises which are causing prolonged droughts and
floods by accelerating rehabilitation efforts and
boosting the capacities of the poorest sections to
build assets and gain incomes in a manner that
allows them to be active players in the process of
socio-economic transformation being initiated by
SADA.
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4. Investments in strategically-targeted economic and social infrastructure that will relieve critical development constraints and create the pre-conditions for accelerated development and open up production zones for increased production and transit into the expanded markets in Sahel states north of northern Ghana. These would also include social infrastructure, such education, health and social welfare to complement the economic ones.
5. Special focus on food and income security as well as safety-nets investments, targeted initially at the most vulnerable areas and those severely affected by the floods of 2007.
6. Actions focused on environmental renewal, improved water resources management and disaster preparedness, in order to mitigate the floods and droughts in the north.
2.2 Northern Savannah Development Strategy
There is no formal national economic framework for addressing regional inequality in Ghana. Presently, the practice for addressing regional inequalities and development is based on a combination of macroeconomic and sector-wide policies undertaken at the national level. The underlying economic rationale is based on the efficiency of the price mechanism and the ability of economic agents to respond (supply optimism). These policies are expected to create incentives and an enabling environment. Economic agents are expected to respond to these incentives. Regional differences are dealt with as implementation issues to be addressed by the regional offices of the different sectors. In the immediate past paradigm of projectized aid, specific donors constructed projects to address regional inequalities; in extreme cases transfers were used to compensate for such disparities, sometimes supplemented by District Assembly common fund allocations.13 The widening development gap between the North and the South of Ghana is a critique of the status quo. While the overall national economic policy framework is important for regional development, it must recognize important variations. Differences in historical development and geography imply that the binding constraints to development may differ widely across regions or ecological belts. The availability of infrastructure and human capital vary markedly. The ability to recognize and respond to nationally created incentives varies widely. Uncertainty and the risks associated with economic activities and therefore the risk-adjusted returns may vary across regions or ecological belts. For societies with very high levels of poverty, this approach cannot cause the necessary economic transformation. Indeed, this could result in increasing regional inequality as market forces are known to work in favour of growth points. Moreover, sustainability issues are not addressed in this framework. Even though the transformation of poor societies can be private sector-based, it must of necessity be public sector-led. Moreover, programmes and projects must be sustained for a considerable period of time in order to induce the necessary changes in perception, technology, and culture. Transforming the north must therefore involve paradigm shifts in a number of directions.
13 Using a Canadian Grant mechanism, the GoG implemented the District-wide Assistance Project (DWAP) and the Community
Initiated Food Security (CIFS) to make financial transfers to districts in Northern Ghana, through the District Assembly Common Fund mechanism (DACF). These inspired a country-wide initiative of the District Development Fund, which now applies to all Districts in Ghana.
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The purpose of this document is to prepare an action plan for the accelerated development of the north using existing studies and analysis to bridge the North-South gap in development. It is also to provide policy measures that will state the conditions that will enable the poor to avert or mitigate the effects of vagaries of weather with little or no recourse to external sources. It also discusses programmes and strategies for addressing some of the immediate needs of the most affected households. This chapter provides an overview of the policies, plans and strategies presented in the rest of the document. This framework is developed to form the basis of action plans to accelerate the pace of development in the North and to provide a basis for long-term adaptation to variations in rainfall. The underlying framework is based on the premise that economic growth is the most effective means of addressing socio-economic inequality and poverty, and sustainable adaptation to changes in rainfall patterns. It is also based on the fact that the North has untapped growth potential. This means that the long-term solution to the twin problems of economic backwardness and droughts and floods cannot be based on transfers by the state or individual non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It must be based on empowering people to do for themselves what is required. It is based on respect for the dignity of the individual. Thus, empowerment may involve changes in economic activities taking into consideration the most abundant factors as well as preserving the environment and minimizing the effects of variation in weather. There may be a need for handouts as a transitional phase, but the main adaptation must be through economic activities and growth.
2.3 Overall Framework
Addressing regional inequality in development can be done through a growth strategy or a distributionist strategy. The policy implications of the two strategies can be very different. For purposes of poverty reduction and wealth creation, the growth strategy seems to be the most cost-effective approach. Moreover, the Department for International Development study on Northern Ghana, (DFID 2005), argues that discussions of regional inequality must be based on growth. It was demonstrated that Northern Ghana has growth potential in several areas, including agriculture, mining, and tourism. However, the broadest growth with wider implications may occur in agriculture, even though mining and tourism also have high levels of growth potentials. The challenge is to realize this growth potential and reduce poverty on a sustainable basis. Realizing this growth potential involves identifying an appropriate growth strategy involving a series of interrelated investments and interventions by both the private and public sectors, as well as Ghana’s development partners (the donor community) to relieve certain constraints. The evidence from both Burkina Faso and Ghana is that farmers engaged in food crop farming unrelated to international trade constitute the largest proportion of the poor. To address the issue of poverty reduction and reducing the gap between Northern Ghana and the rest of the country simultaneously, the development strategy in Northern Ghana has to be based on international trade. In other words the development strategy must be export-led. It must be noted that export orientation does not exclude efficient import substitution or production of domestically competitive goods to serve the local markets, especially in situations where conglomeration effects may be present.
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Elements of the strategy must be based on modernizing agriculture sequentially, using initially Northern Ghana’s most abundant factors — land and sunshine — and less of purchased inputs. It must also take into consideration the fragility of the soils, the short rainy seasons, and the vagaries of the weather. Such a programme, which requires massive resource investments, must be comprehensive but implemented sequentially. It must also provide multiple entry points and involve a paradigm shift in several ways:
a) the orientation of economic activities; b) the philosophical approach to policy measures and intervention in poor societies; c) change from sector-wide planning to ecological zones; and d) adaptability to the environment.
Figure 2.1: Framework of Accelerated Development in Northern Savannah
Rapid and Sustainable Development
Strategic Infrastructure: Roads, Irrigation, Education,
& HR, Health
Improving Non-Farm Economic
Activities
Modernization of Agriculture
Increasing Productivity Without Declining
Incomes
Competitive Smallholder Farmers’
Activities
Marketing Product-Mix and Technology
Rural-Urban Non-Farm Economic Activities
Agro-processing Services Tourism and
Small-scale Mining
Competitiveness
• Reduce poverty to at most 20%
• Double per capita incomes in 20-year timeframe
Opens-up Market-based demand and incentives
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The framework that provides the basis of recommendations in this report is indicated in the scheme/model in Figure 2.1. As indicated in Figure 2.1, the objective of the programme is to provide for the rapid and sustainable development of the North. This involves the development of a healthy and diversified economy based on the North’s most abundant resources. The emerging economy must be resilient to weather changes, environmentally friendly, pro-poor, and gender sensitive. Achievement of this objective should result in doubling per capita incomes and reducing poverty to at most 20 percent over the next twenty (20) years. The vision of a “Forested and Green North” implies economic transformation is woven around Afforestation using economic trees (perennials) that provide the opportunity for exporting and that also provide the basis for secondary and tertiary processing along the value chain. Such a strategy also provides the cash with which farmers may modernize their agricultural activities in a sustainable way using purchased inputs. Studies suggest that when farmers’ incomes increase, they tend to purchase improved inputs for their farms (TechnoServe). This also includes construction of high-value short-term seasonal vegetables and fruits produced all-year round, using irrigation for a “green north” in the short to medium-term.
2.3.1 Advantages
There are several advantages of this approach. 1) there is a niche for organic mango, cashew and shea butter; 2) provides a certain minimum income for food security irrespective of rainfall; 3) environmentally friendly both in terms of weather and soils; 4) provides the cash basis for modernizing agriculture; 5) low levels of maintenance; 6) provides a basis for the third phase in the value chain — higher value-added activities in the
form of processing either in the form of drying or manufacturing activities.
2.3.2 Disadvantages
1) Perennials may represent a permanent occupation of the land and therefore acquisition of land could be a problem. To overcome this challenge, the Regional House of Chiefs must be involved even at this stage.
2) No accumulated knowledge and cultural practice in perennials. MOFA extension officers and the private sector operators can provide the relevant knowledge.
As can be seen in the framework, the first element in the strategy is to modernize agriculture. Modernizing peasant agriculture may involve the adoption of increased use of biological, chemical and mechanical technologies for farming as well as harvesting and post-harvesting activities. However, since farmers cannot afford these technologies, the strategy is to provide them the means to acquire them on a sustainable basis by relying less on purchased inputs initially. As incomes increase, farmers may acquire these technologies to modernize the rest of their agricultural activities. Modernizing agriculture must also involve increased productivity as well as incomes of farmers. There is the tendency for increased agricultural productivity to lead to declines in farmers’ incomes as prices fall because of the low elasticities of demand for these products. Avoiding this dilemma may involve:
a) change in the product mix, or diversification;
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b) expansion in markets (domestic, regional and export) to increase elasticity; and c) processing and value addition more generally.
The strategy outlined in the subsequent chapters involves all these elements. The small-scale household farmers’ activities are the target of this strategy. The objective is to make the smallholder farmers activities competitive. Figure 2.2: Framework for Agricultural Modernization
The traditional, often used framework for agricultural modernization proceeds from production to processing and distribution involving domestic or export markets (see Figure 2.2). The inputs required for increased productivity are then identified, while the markets for produced items are seen as the final step in the so-called productivity-driven “value-chain” as depicted in Figure 2.2. Products and production levels are determined by some criteria other than requirements for the modernization of agriculture and the resulting multipliers. It also ignores issues of poverty related to the ability of farmers to respond in a sustainable way. In this strategy, we start by looking at the competitive advantage of the ecological belt. We then examine the strategy that will empower farmers to modernize their agricultural activities in a sustainable way. This involves identifying strategic entry points. We then incorporate the survival strategies of smallholder farm households involving diversification. The strategy is to break out of this survival chain that biases farmers to subsistence. We use a market-based out-grower system to induce innovations and technological changes (see box) While the concept of a “Forested North” drives this programme, most tree crops will take about four years to mature. Farmers cannot wait for this number of years. The strategy is to intercrop amongst the trees some leguminous crops such as soyabeans, cowpeas and groundnuts that
Production Processing Distribution/
Marketing Domestic Markets
Export Markets
Market vs. Production-driven Transformation Our strategy for innovations and technologies also
involves changes in the product mix involves market-
based out-grower system. This is different from the
production-based out-grower strategy currently in
widespread use. In the market-based out-grower system,
marketing firms or processing companies research and
define the market for a variety of commodities with
known consumers in the domestic and external market.
These firms are then assisted to support farmers by
sourcing the right inputs in a timely manner, introducing
techniques and technologies, procuring and using the
right research and information and providing extension
services.
The firms retrieve their costs when the products are
purchased, often by the commercial firms and their allies
in the market chain. This system ensures that farmers,
many of them small-holders, have ready markets for their
produce; maintain a level of quality which is guaranteed
by the market-driven institutions; increased incomes
assured by purchases made; and sustainability by the on-
going relations between the firms and out-growers.
Similar systems are currently operating in the Central
and Western Regions of Ghana, where market-based and
processing firms are driving innovations and increased
productivity in the rubber plantations and in oil-palm.
Financing of market-based value-chain is already
leading small-holder farms to build assets, improve
productivity and adopt improved, modernized production
technologies.
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will produce annual income. These crops have substantial domestic and export markets. Moreover, these crops are acceptable for purposes of organic farming. They are also nitrogen fixing and do not require chemical nutritional supplements. Improving the competitiveness of smallholder agriculture must involve, in addition to improved cultural practices, improved infrastructure, and technologies to reduce transactions costs and ensure the profitability of their activities. As indicated in Figure 2.2, improved infrastructure, whether in the form of roads, irrigation, or energy, is a necessary condition for the success of agricultural and non-agricultural transformation in the North. Any programme of increasing agricultural productivity must have a substantial element of market. Indeed, the two should be programmed simultaneously. For once farmers are frustrated in marketing a particular product, they may reject not only that product but other interventions as well. While we have argued that this programme must be public sector-led, the marketing and management must be private sector-based. We recognize the extent of competitiveness for horticultural products in international markets. Available evidence suggests that there is a window of opportunity for West Africa during the three-month period when South American exports decline. Moreover, processing can increase the marketability of these products. Our strategy is to actively engage with private sector firms skilled in animating client-based markets in Ghana and abroad to stimulate production responses oriented to existing and expanded markets.14 In addition to agriculture the DFID (2005) study also recognizes the growth potential in mining and tourism. While very rapid growth can be achieved with substantial multipliers in these two sectors, the benefits may be localized. In addition, the possibility of agglomeration effects through manufacturing activities was also recognized. Moreover, farm households need to diversify their source of income both within agriculture and non-agricultural activities. In terms of non-agricultural economic activities, our framework seeks to exploit the linkage between agriculture and manufacturing. The initial basis of the linkage will be the processing of horticultural products and oil seeds. The processing of mango and cashew, for example, will not only be urban-based but may also have substantial rural elements. Rural level solar drying of mango for exports, the processing of cashew, as well as improved traditional methods for processing shea-butter can form the basis of non-farm income. One must however be mindful of the environmental effects of the waste disposal. In terms of the oil seed industry, the processing of sheanuts, soya beans and groundnuts would be for both the domestic and export markets.15 The development of these activities should lead to some agglomeration effects, generating other manufacturing activities both for the domestic and export markets, particularly the Sahelian countries.
2.4 Rehabilitation and Adaptation
The framework for long-term adaptation to floods and droughts is premised on the assumption that economic growth provides the means by which individual households can accumulate the wealth and assets which they rely on during periods of disaster and other contingencies. Creating the
14 A number of private sector companies have expressed interest and taken part in deliberations of the technical team. 15 The concept of market is expanded to incorporate the economic zone embracing Northern Ghana, and the Sahelian countries
including Burkina Faso, Northern Cote d’Ivoire and Togo.
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economic base through growth for individuals to provide for themselves will be consistent with their dignity. In terms of displacement and destruction of property, the evidence shows that the poor were the most affected. Poverty implied that the type of building materials used and the foundations laid were weak and therefore vulnerable to floods. At the same time, the type of economic activities near rivers and water bodies has to change to provide some protection. Planting of tree crops along the banks of rivers will provide some protection. This should be done outside the distance that the Volta River Board (VRA) will recommend. Indeed, our strategy of tree crops could more easily start in these areas where water pumps can be used to provide irrigation. For rehabilitation, particularly housing construction, to be sustainable one needs to train artisans in the chosen technologies to provide the relevant services. While creating employment in the areas, this strategy also provides the relevant skills that may be applied in other areas. It also provides a basis for increased non-farm economic activities. Housing types and designs must be consistent with traditional structures so that no changes in cultural and social behaviour and adaptation may be required. In other words, the strategy is to maintain the advantages of the traditional house type and therefore social and cultural relations.
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CHAPTER THREE
MODERNIZATION OF AGRICULTURE
A modernised agriculture seeks to transform the subsistence oriented smallholder farmer and processor into one that is producing and selling more to the market without compromising household food security. The SADA strategy
recognises that food insecure farm households, due to their higher vulnerability to market imperfections, tend to give significant priority to food crops in the allocation of their productive resources. The strategy therefore underscores the importance of food security as a pre-requisite for agricultural modernisation for poor and vulnerable households.
A transformed smallholder producer will also be expected to live on a well-planned and managed farm, adopts new and proven technology, and manages farm activities in a manner that does not degrade the environment. Similarly a transformed smallholder agriculture system will be structured in a way that reduces transactions costs in all aspects through access to information and well coordinated production systems.
3.1 Strategic Direction for Modernising Agriculture in Northern Ghana
Modernization of agriculture is the king-pin for Ghana’s export-led growth as contained in the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II). The new medium to long-term plan anchors Ghana’s industrialisation on modernisation of agriculture. The purpose of agricultural modernisation in the plan “is to make agriculture more competitive both on the domestic and global markets through the use of innovative and appropriate modern technologies.”16 The Northern Development Initiative adds two significant dimensions by introducing a market-induced system of incentives for the innovations required to make producers competitive in order to acquire sustained incomes; and operating within a long-term vision of a ‘forested north’, which infuses environmental sustainability into a market-driven productivity enhancement. Alignment of the SADA agricultural modernisation strategy to the national medium to long-term plan is demonstrated below.
16 National Development Planning Commission (2008), Draft of the Long-Term Development Plan (Seven-Year Development Plan
2008–2015), Volume 1: Towards a Development Policy Framework, page 88
Modernizing Agriculture is an imperative The underlying goal of the agricultural modernisation strategy of the Northern Savannah Development Initiative is poverty reduction through growth of the agricultural sector. This is to be achieved through a transformation of agriculture from a largely subsistence orientation to a commercial one. The strategy is also designed to contribute to the overall vision of a ‘Forested North’ for the SADA. The SADA realises that significant reduction in poverty in northern Ghana and a narrowing of the development gap between the north and south can only be achieved through expanded trade, both domestic and international. The pre-requisite for that trade is access to and successful participation in domestic and international markets and this in turn requires a high level of competitiveness. The most relevant aspects of competitiveness in international trade, and indeed domestic agro-industry as a destination market, are price (lower costs), large volumes supplied on a regular basis, and consistency in quality of produce. Therefore producing for markets, especially international markets, requires a level of sophistication in technology and organisation/coordination that cannot be found in the traditional production systems.
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3.2 Entry points of the strategy
The agricultural modernisation strategy provides six entry points to allow for inclusive growth and poverty reduction as follows:
1) A marketing-based out-grower system that defines the shape of existing and expanded
markets. This will propel the emergence of a growing private sector capable of engaging
producers in a manner that responds to client and market demand.
2) Tree crop production as a source of steady flow of incomes to empower the poor to build
their assets and enhance their capacity to invest in farm and non-farm production activities.
Farmers will have the option of intercropping the tree crops with groundnut, cowpea, or
soybean in the first three to five years of tree crop establishment as part of the transitional
food and livelihood security strategy and for intensifying the use of land. The output of
groundnut and soybean will feed vegetable oil mills.
3) Selected staple crop production systems for productivity improvement to increase
competitiveness of the Northern Savannah ecological belt as a supply source for the sub-
regional market. This recognises that not all smallholders will have the capacity to go into
tree crops and will continue to rely on staple crops for sustenance and means of income.
Crops will be selected on the basis of importance in household food consumption basket,
current demand outside the household, including the potential to generate agro-industrial
activity.
4) Horticulture production to diversify into export agriculture which has been a source of
growth and significant poverty reduction among farmers in southern Ghana. This will be a
good avenue for targeting women and the youth.
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5) Semi-intensive production of small ruminants, pigs and guinea fowl also to diversify farm
income sources and provide income opportunities for land scarce parts of the north.
6) Agro-processing as a reliable source of demand for agricultural raw materials to drive value
chains and agro-industrial development. Again, agro-processing will be an avenue to target
women because processing is an activity women are normally engaged in.
3.3 Preconditions for modernisation
Agricultural modernisation requires a re-orientation of producers, production systems, and institutions towards the market. It also requires new knowledge and skills especially for the application of science and technology. The following strategies are therefore needed to facilitate a competitive market-oriented agriculture.
i) Traditional and local government authorities, as well as individual land owners will be
engaged to convert fallow land to capital thereby improve the availability of and access to
contiguous land to enhance coordination of production activities and related support
services.
ii) Partnerships will be developed with existing private sector expertise in (international)
market oriented agricultural production to attract investment. This will require specific
incentives that will attract private sector actors (agribusiness) into northern Ghana, and
demonstrate the investment potentials for private sector (agribusiness and producer
organisations).
iii) Accelerated development of strategic infrastructure and services including road and other
transport and market infrastructure, energy, communication and water will be pursued. In
particular, market infrastructure for horticulture produce marketing, such as pack houses
with cold storage for bulking and storage of produce, and plant and equipment for bulk-
breaking and packaging of produce for local, regional, and export markets will be provided.
The availability of these infrastructures is crucial for the development of the highly
perishable horticulture produce.
Main driver of the strategy is horticulture focusing on tree crop production for a ‘forested’ north in the long-term, but including short-season vegetables and fruits produced all year round under irrigation for a ‘green north’ in the short to medium term. The strategy also pursues the revival of
Dilemma for Modernization -- High adoption of modern inputs, yet low yields There is abundant evidence that farmers in Northern Ghana are adopting use of modern farm inputs,
yet yields are comparatively lower for similar ecological zones. A little over 40% of farmers in the
three northern regions use fertiliser compared to the average of 13% for the other seven regions.
Similarly, the percentage of farmers in the northern savannah buying seed is 23-40% compared to the
average of 15% for the rest of the country. That a greater proportion of farmers in the north than in the
south use fertiliser and purchase seed suggests a greater need for these inputs in the north, and reflects
a response to declining crop yields in that zone. Access to these inputs is through markets; therefore the
condition of market access affects the ability of farmers to intensify their production systems. Yet a
good proportion of northern Ghana is characterised as low access low population density development
domain with a limited number of high access areas clustered around major towns1. Improvement in
transport and communication infrastructure is therefore critical to development of agriculture in
northern Ghana.
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Northern Savannah’s rice industry on the basis of a growing national demand, rising international prices and availability of land suitable for rice production. Oil seeds are promoted as a basis for farm-industry linkage and exports and as entry point for women.
3.3.1 Paradigm shifts
Although the SADA agricultural modernisation strategy is aligned to the strategy in the national medium to long-term plan, the following represent key paradigm shifts from the norm. The paradigm shifts are based on the nature of agriculture in Ghana, and an understanding of the requirements for modernising smallholder agriculture. Before elaborating on the paradigm shifts, we present the justification for the shifts choice of
i) Building assets of the poor as a pre-condition for their participation in agriculture
modernisation process. This is demonstrated in the illustration of the alignment of the
northern strategy to the national plan.
ii) Focusing on production clusters to reduce transactions costs, create scale economies for
service providers (e.g. extension, research, mechanisation) and commodity brokers; and
facilitate the engagement of smallholders to produce for markets (domestic agro-
industry, sub-regional and wider international markets). For example a focus and
concentrate strategy will be adopted for the revival of the rice industry and the
production of vegetables (traditional and export) in potential areas such as the Fumbisi,
Katanga and Tamde valleys.
iii) Private sector participation in service delivery will be in the context of specific value chains
in which the private sector have interest either as lead firms in production or marketing.
This way they will be linking needs of the industry to the delivery of services. The
paradigm shift is a commodity based extension and service delivery instead of
generalised extension agent of the public sector.
The paradigm shifts are justified by the following analysis of the requirements for modernising smallholder agriculture. Smallholders and commercial agriculture and modernisation
The designation of smallholders across the world is contextual however as Chamberlin (2007) notes, holding size is the most common indicator and is most time qualified by access to resources and vulnerability to risks. Using the GLSS data, Chamberlin estimates that average land holding at the household level three hectares nationally and four hectares in the northern Savannah. Within the savannah zone, less that 20 percent of farmers have more than 5 hectares. The focus on smallholders is therefore because they are what we have, and the recognition that the large scale commercial farming as observed in the horticulture industry cannot be easily replicated. Even these farms still depend on smallholders smoothen their supplies. Therefore the debate over the productivity of smallholders relative to large scale farmers does not arise. Besides the evidence on the inverse relationship between farm size and productivity continues to be mixed; whether a positive or inverse relation exists depends on methodology and context i.e. soil fertility, type of crop, type of technology, and policy environment (Dorward, 1999, Machaya, 2007; Mahesh, 2000; and Cornia, 1985). Even for the same data and study on Zambia, the relationship between farm size is positive if farm size is exogenous and inverse if the variable is endogenous (Ayal, 2005).
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Chamberlain’s characterisation of smallholders in Ghana also shows that cash crops are less prevalent in smallholdings than the larger ones. It is therefore not surprising that the data also reveals that commercialisation (defined as market participation for sale of produce) and we might add for the purchase of agro-inputs, is generally less among the very small smallholders than among larger smallholders, especially in the savannah zone. Therefore resource allocation is oriented more towards food security than for the market even though some produce is sold. These characteristics raise a number of issues in the effort to modernise smallholder agriculture. First, farmers must meet be assured of their food supplies before they embark on risk taking to modernise their production systems. Secondly, modernised agriculture revolves around markets in which quantities, flows and quality matter. Therefore orientation towards food security means that farmers do not plan for these market requirements. Thirdly, where farmers have been sensitised to produce for the market, the structure of the production systems poses severe coordination and service delivery constraints in linking them to markets whether domestic, industry or exports. So even if smallholders are efficient and evidence in the rice farming systems of Northern Ghana suggests that some are (Abdulai and Huffman, 2000 and Seidu et al., 2004), they are not properly suited to supplying the needs of markets (processing, exports) where economies of scale exist. Therefore the strategy for the modernisation of agriculture proposes conglomeration of land into production enclaves (not necessarily contiguous), to ease this scale bottleneck. Where the land resource exists, efforts at acquiring contiguous land will be pursued. The strategy recognises that for tree crops and other horticulture crops, as well as production systems that require development of land (i.e. for surface water management) scale matters because of intensive investment equipment and infrastructure. Therefore nucleus farmers will be attracted to lead the value chains in such circumstances. The challenge will be to overcome the land tenure constraints.
3.3.2 Build assets of the poor
Modernisation of agriculture requires commercial orientation, adoption of productivity enhancing technologies and associated inputs, and effective coordination of supply chains. The poor lack capacity to participate in modernisation. Due to their vulnerability, they are highly risk-averse especially in getting into new production ventures. The objective of building their assets is to support the poor to engage in more lucrative production that provides a steady source of income. Stable and regular incomes will enable the poor to build their assets, and in the long-term empower them to invest in agricultural modernisation. Strategies
The strategies for this objective are two-fold. The first adopts a social protection angle whereby the extreme poor will be targeted with grants for food and inputs for minimum production of food. The food grants are necessary in parts of the Upper East region where, because of degraded lands, people suffer from chronic food insecurity. This strategy is well elaborated in Chapter 6. The second strategy is to support smallholders to plant at least one acre of a tree crop e.g. mango. They will be supported with seedlings and some part of establishment costs. Partnership will be forged with private agribusinesses of the type of the Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC) to link farmers to technical assistance, and input and output markets. Following the example of ITFC, farmers will also be supported with seed to intercrop legumes with the tree crops. The legumes will fix nitrogen and provide income before the trees begin to bear fruit. This strategy is consistent with farmers’ own strategy of growing legumes as cash crops.
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3.3.3 Increase productivity of all stakeholders along the value chain
Strategy 1: Increase the application of science and technology in production systems.
The national policy and strategy for improving production technology includes the development and promotion of improved crop varieties and livestock breeds, and targeting technology development to priority commodities, through competitive research grant scheme. Agriculture in northern Ghana will benefit from the national initiatives, but in addition, the research system (SARI and Universities) will be re-oriented to be partners in production clusters and lead in the development of innovation systems. This will be a shift from the linear research-extension-farmer linkage of technology transfer to an endogenous responsive system that is driven by the needs of the market. While research will largely remain a public good, integration of research system into production clusters will open windows of opportunity for private sector participation in the technology development and dissemination process. For example in a mentoring system, mentors being the lead firms will search for technology and engage research to adapt technology to their needs. Such an integrated system also creates room for close monitoring through use of ICT. For example using SMS messaging to inform farmers (and monitor them) about the timing of cultural practices that are critical for meeting quality standards. The extension of the technologies will also be conducted within the framework of particular value chains by the specialist extension officers. Although initially the value chains will rely on the public sector extension system, it is expected that as the value chains mature, extension will gradually transit to the private sector. In a value chain development and production cluster context, the more skilful and enterprising farmers will be engaged to deliver extension to other farmers and monitor application of production protocols. To realise the long-term vision of a ‘forested north’, SADA will support the development of research and extension capacity in tree crops through scholarships and targeted extension training and research grants. As part of the research agenda, research establishment will be challenged to develop a research programme for the development of indigenous crops/products such as Akee Apple, shea, and various oilseeds, legumes and herbs. In line with the principle of value chain development, such research will start with an identification of markets for products. The programme will also be flexible enough to assist any private sector entity that identifies a market for any of the traditional commodities and approaches research for technical assistance. In the area of food security, there is precedence of World Vision supporting the introduction of fonio in parts of Northern region. More of such involvement will be sought and harnessed. That flexibility will create space for private sector to contribute to the funding of agricultural research. Strategy 2: Enhance management skills of agricultural producers
Agricultural producers are defined to include farmers and processors and all others along the value chain. Their training is envisaged to be provided within the context of an integrated cluster system. Incentives in the form of mentoring grants will be provided to interested farm agribusinesses to mentor interested youth and smallholder farmers. Farmer based organisations (FBOs) will be developed as a strategy for improving access of smallholders to technology, financial services, and product and input markets. FBO training will encompass both group dynamics and empowering them to seek information, services, as well as opportunities for their members. Development of farmer based organisations will be facilitated on the basis of commodities with strong local roots. Civil Society Organisations in agriculture tend to have competencies in farmer group development and will be partnered to deliver such services.
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Strategy 3: Effective land and water management
Soils of the region are fragile. Even the land surplus areas of the Northern region have soils that are deficient in organic matter and nitrogen. Rivers are drying up due to inappropriate farming practices especially along river beds. The poor condition of soils has been due to a combination of extensive use of land with little application of soil nutrients leading to soil mining. Intensification of production with sustainable environmental management is needed for the attainment of the vision of a ‘forested north’. Agricultural modernisation will therefore encompass intensive production and sustainable use and management of the land and water resources. A national strategy for sustainable land management (SLM) has been developed and it deals with issues of policy, knowledge generation, promotion of adoption of SLM practices (e.g. terracing, mulching, ploughing across contours, ridging, and application of combination organic and inorganic fertilisers), incentives and coordination of institutions involved in the SLM. The present strategy will focus on providing information and appropriate incentives to increase adoption of SLM practices, and coordinating the activities of organisations involved in promotion of SLM at the local level. SLM practices will be mainstreamed in the development of commodity value chains so that removal of barriers such as tenure insecurity, limited access to credit will also benefit farmers wishing to apply SLM practices. Incentives to support SLM adoption will include:
� Grant elements in the purchase of SLM inputs, including assistance to develop structures such as terraces, ridges and bunds.
� Supply of tree seedlings to protect watersheds and as border crops. � Removal of barriers to adoption of SLM practices.
Global Environment Facility (GEF) project in Ghana is to pilot mechanisms for payment for environmental services. Lessons from this pilot will no doubt inform further direction for this strategy. The principles of this strategy will be applied in the context of the integrated production and innovation systems described above for research, and backed by conditional incentives. The advantage of promoting SLM in the context of production enclaves is that it provides scale economies for practices such as terracing and bunding. Strategy 4: Increase access to inputs and capital
The cluster production approach will provide the scale to stimulate private sector interest in delivering inputs to farmers. The present limitation on farmers’ access to inputs has both supply and demand side aspects. Demand for inputs such as improved seed and agro-chemicals by smallholders is low because of high cost, limited access to credit, and absence of water management either through irrigation or rain water harvesting which increases the risk of crop failure. On the supply side, because of poor transport infrastructure, input distribution systems are not extensive and often end at the regional capital. Access to inputs, especially by smallholders, in remote production areas is therefore costly. It is expected that both demand and supply of inputs will improve in the context of production enclaves and value chain clusters. Production enclaves concentrate farmers in space and therefore create the critical mass of demand that makes input supply cost effective. Participation in value chains that are well monitored to ensure the application of production protocols needed to meet market requirements implies that there will be demand for the required inputs. In principle, links will be forged with input suppliers as part of the value chains. Incentives will also be created in the supply of inputs with grant component through the state. For example the recent fertiliser subsidies
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channelled through private importers and dealers, while creating an assured demand for fertiliser, did not distort the market. Seed growers will be supported to produce improved seed for rice, sorghum and legumes, in active collaboration with research institutions, such as SARI and potential users, such as the Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC). The national capacity for seed maize production will support maize production in the north. Tree seedling nurseries will be established by the public sector initially while regulations are developed for such nurseries. Then as demand grows and the nursery operations become profitable, the nurseries will be transferred to private operators. Seeds for export vegetables and others like tomato and okra, as well as rice will continue to be imported from reliable sources and research will be supported to conduct trials for selection and adaptation to local environment. Strategy 5: Improve access to irrigation and water management technologies for all year round
production
Horticulture production (fruit trees and vegetables) for exports and domestic agro-industry is a key entry point in the agriculture strategy of the SADA and requires management of water for year round production. Semi-intensive livestock management likewise requires availability of water on regular basis. The strategy will focus on strengthening the informal irrigation and water management system and will promote the integration of fish culture into irrigation and water management schemes. The irrigation policy of Ghana focuses on the provision and management of irrigation infrastructure and production systems. The strategy proposed for the SADA aims to harness capacity of existing facilities and lowland water management capacity, and expand capacity with new facilities in a logical sequence. Financing plans, with possible grants for poor smallholders, recognises that the high initial poverty level of producers is a limitation to access to irrigation and water management facilities.
3.3.4 Competitiveness in Access to Markets
Strategy 1: Improve access to market information and market services
The scope of markets being accessed extends beyond the local village markets to southern Ghana and the West Africa sub-region. This scope of market expansion is necessary if prices are not to collapse from the expected increase in productivity and production. Accessing and participating in lucrative markets requires information about where the markets are and what the markets want. Information gathering and processing by public sector organisations exist; it is the delivery of this information in a usable form and on a timely basis that needs to be improved. There are presently private sector initiatives in the packaging and delivery of market information (e.g. SEND Foundation and Trade Net partnership in use of ICT to deliver agricultural market information). The challenge in this area is creating the critical mass of users of the information for the viability of service providers. What is needed is a broker that sensitises smallholders on the benefits of the services. Presently, such brokerages are civil society organisations (e.g. SEND); SADA can provide incentives for the involvement of more of such organisations in market information and service delivery. FBOs will also be oriented to access market information and conduct market intelligence for their members.
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Strategy 2: Link smallholders up with lead firms
The strategy is to identify successful lead firms with access to relevant markets (export and domestic agro-industry) and grow new ones to pull commodity value chains. Support provided to farmers in on-going initiatives by Trade and Investment for Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE) for the production of new crops includes technical and financial assistance, and accessing quality seed. SADA will model its support along similar lines to scale up TIPCEE’s interventions. The aim is to empower farmers with needed skills and technology to diversify production especially during the dry season. Initially, the focus will be on irrigation schemes and areas where smallholders can use small irrigation equipment. Various forms of contract farming are normally used to engage smallholders in export production. Lead firms will be allowed to establish relationships with smallholders that are most appropriate for them and for the growth and development of their partners in the value chains. However, SADA will promote those relationships that facilitate mentoring of the youth and enterprising smallholders in export or improved commercially oriented farming. It is proposed to provide mentoring grants to kick-start this link. As noted earlier in the section on application of science and technology in agriculture, research will be driven by the needs of stakeholders in commodity value chains. Research establishment will therefore be attracted into value chains through commissioned research grants. Research will include technical as well as socio-economic research. The strategy will require specific incentives to attract private sector actors (agribusiness) into the northern savannah belt. A key aspect of present initiatives is the developmental role that lead firms play in training, seeking and disseminating market information, and absorbing marketing risk. Therefore absorption of the related costs and risk by the state will be one of the incentives to attract lead firms. For example, certification costs will be borne by the state until producers have developed their financial and technical capacity to do so. Strategy 3: Improve infrastructure for post-production management
Post-harvest handling includes storage and processing. Agro-processing is the avenue for agro-industrial development. The facilities for these activities need to be upgraded and expanded to match the expected increase in production. The horticulture development component of the strategy requires infrastructure for primary processing of fresh produce (washing, packing, cold storage). Therefore SADA will facilitate the provision of pack houses within 3 hours of production areas. Furthermore, in areas with poor transport infrastructure, SADA will facilitate the establishment of processing plants to break bulk and improve shell-life. Such activity will create employment for the youth especially young girls. The West Africa sub-region will be the target market for processed products such as fruit products, flours (e.g. maize, cowpea) and vegetable oils. Storage
Community level storage will be promoted so that it can be linked to financial services. The storage cocoon is the technology presently being promoted by MOFA for the storage of grains (cereals and legumes) and it is suitable for community level storage. The post-harvest unit of MOFA can assist with storage technologies for yam. SADA can facilitate training on primary processing of grains for storage, and management during storage. The Women in Agriculture Directorate of MOFA will assist with improving household level storage especially for women’s crops.
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Community level storage infrastructure will be provided in partnership with FBOs to empower farmers store for food security or price speculation. A system of community warehousing will be developed to allow farmers use receipts for commodities in store as security for credit. Community storage will also be used to add value to produce through grading and stringent application of good management practices to protect produce in store. Finally, commodity storage will be facilitated to link farmers to markets through broadcasting of market information about the commodities in store, including quantities available, grades, and prices. It is expected that availability of such information on bulked produce will reduce transactions costs for both farmer and trader and improve upon marketing efficiency. This will create opportunity for brokerage services to develop into a Northern Agricultural Commodity Exchange that links farmers to buyers across Ghana and the West Africa sub-region. Pack houses with cold chain infrastructure will be established in strategic locations (within 3 hours of production centres) to support production of freshly marketed produce such as fruits, vegetables and green maize. Agro-processing
Agro-processing is a private sector activity. The problems which processing enterprises often face are the inadequacy of raw materials in quality and quantity, and irregularity of supplies due to the seasonal nature of production. The concept of production enclaves will facilitate assembly of produce for agro-industries. Also, the quality of produce will be enhanced because the enclaves will also be linked to services. Since output will be increased and quality of storage enhanced, regularity of supplies will also be improved. Furthermore, profitable agro-industries can invest in stocking of raw materials. However, cottage industries will be encouraged to undertake primary processing, with the products sold to larger agro-industries. Women parboiling paddy for Nasia Rice mills is an example of such a linkage. Presently, cassava and rice are the commodities with commercial level of processing. Groundnut, soyabean and shea-nuts are also important for the processing of vegetable oil. In addition, there is a high demand for flour products in northern Ghana and Ghana’s northern neighbours. The development of a flour processing industry will be facilitated to take advantage of this market. SADA should demonstrate the business opportunities inherent in this latent market and industry to attract private sector interests. Existing agro-processing infrastructure or facilities that can be used to support the present strategy are in Appendix Table 2. Immediate action will be to assess condition and capacity utilisation of the existing plants and support them to upgrade and utilise any excess capacity. For example a 2006 report on the rice sector identified obsolete technology of existing rice mills. SADA will identify the right technology and support upgrading of mills that can be rehabilitated. Although storage and processing are private sector activities, the state will be expected to lead with the provision of infrastructure of public goods nature (e.g. rural roads, water and energy infrastructure). SADA will support investors to access additional investment funds, especially in cases where the prospective investor demonstrates that they are willing to play a developmental role. Models of public private partnership in the building, operation and management of key infrastructure will also be considered. SADA will support the development of local skills in pack house operations (installation, operation and management), storage logistics management, and Agricultural Commodity Exchange Trade developed from the grass-roots based on the model of the Kenyan Agriculture Commodity Exchange (KACE).
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3.3.5 Promoting Commodities of Competitive Advantages
The choice of priority commodities is based on the overall national development strategy, as well as needs of the northern savannah belt. The priority commodities for food security in the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy are maize, rice, cassava, yam and cowpea. These are complemented with income diversification commodities which every region will select according to its comparative advantage. In the SADA strategy, the priority commodities, based on the five entry points are horticulture crops, including tree crops (e.g. mango, value added shea nut, and traditional and export vegetables), rice, legumes (groundnut, cowpea and soybean), and small livestock (sheep, goats, pigs) and, guinea fowl. Appendix 1 summarises the commodity distribution, lead agribusiness firms that are likely to drive the value chains of each commodity, and the institutional backing. Strategies for developing value chains of the priority commodities are presented below. Rice
Rice production will be consolidated on selected lowlands with water harvesting techniques. A total estimated area of about 219,000 hectares is available for rice production. This includes 196,000 of lowlands, 18,000 hectares of upland and 5,000 of irrigated land. The lowlands will be the entry point for the production of rice. In the Northern region, a total of 178,000hectares are available in the Gushiegu/Karaga, East Gonja, Tolon/Kumbungu and Yendi districts. The Upper East region has about 2,500 hectares in the Naaga, Tamde, Chuchukga, Gbefembilsisi, Fumbisi and Wiesi valleys alone. It is estimated that at least 1,000 hectares of lowland rice production capacity can be developed in the Upper West region. Assuming that fifty percent of these lands will be developed in the short term, about 95,000 hectares of land will be developed for rice production by at most 95,000 households. In addition, the current production of 18,000 hectares of upland rice and 5,000 of irrigated rice will be sustained for another 20,000 households. The major works required on rain-fed fields is bunds for water harvesting and control. Block farming will be promoted in large valleys and farmers will be supported with a package of inputs and complementary services. Inputs and services (including mechanisation for land preparation and harvesting, primary and secondary processing) will be provided by the private sector with state support for the acquisition of seed, fertiliser and water in the case of irrigation. The choice of block farming is to increase effectiveness of coordination of logistics for service delivery and hence reduction of transactions costs for all stakeholders. Therefore the same principle will be applied to the production enclaves of other commodities. The private sector will be permitted to bring in rice seed for testing and adaptation to local production systems, based on the quality preferences of the different population segments (urban, rural). The average annual output from the total land area is 44,600 metric tons of paddy or 268,000 metric tons of milled rice. The paddy production will be at a cost of GH¢55.13 million excluding land development costs for lowlands and irrigation. About GH¢14.7 million (27% of total cost) is for seed, fertiliser and water for which farmers will be supported in the form of loans and grants. Minimum cost of developing the lowlands will be GH¢95 million. Appendix table 3 presents costs
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and expected rice output (paddy and milled). At most, three varieties of rice will be promoted according to their suitability for the lowland rainfed, or irrigated production as well as Ghanaian market preferences. Crop budgets for irrigated and rain-fed rice systems estimate return of investments of between 14-25 percent for irrigated system and 19-24 percent for rain-fed system17. Given that cost of credit is accounted for, these returns are fairly good and can be improved with better agronomic practices. Milling
An annual milling capacity of at least 267,000 metric tons of paddy will be required. Paddy will be fed to the Nasia and Tono irrigation rice mills as the lead agro-industrial market and supplemented with the small mills at the community level. Establishment of additional small mills by the private sector should be encouraged. To extend project activities to the thousands of rural women engaged in rice processing, these women will be supported through their producer organisations to improve the quality of their produce and upscale production levels. The possibility of these women supplying Nasia Rice Mills with parboiled paddy for further processing will be assessed. Best practice sites will be facilitated using rice industry GAPs and GMPs developed by Food Research Institute. The concept of best practice sites is to facilitate groups of farmers, women engaged in parboiling, millers and traders to adopt GAPs and GMPs and to link up in a well-functioning value chain. The role of SADA will be to facilitate the delivery of inputs and services through the private sector. Other Staple crops
About 308,000 very poor households will be targeted for assistance to produce a cereal (maize, sorghum, millet) and a legume (cowpea, groundnut, soyabean) of their choice. It is expected that other farmers will benefit from the blanket support to crop producers. The estimates of these for 2009 are presented in Appendix Table 6. The average annual support for the production of a cereal and a legume for poor household will be GH¢53 million. The level of assistance will be the cost of improved seed and fertilisers as well as enhanced access to extension services. Productivity of the staple crops can be increased with appropriate agronomic practices, including proper spacing of crops in the field, timely weeding and application of fertilisers and pesticides in the field. Research has developed production protocols for each of these crops it is their adoption that is a problem. The reasons for low adoption are low awareness about the protocols and low access to inputs (agro-chemicals and labour) often because of high costs. Therefore SADA will focus on improving access to extension services and supporting farmers to acquire the needed inputs. It is expected that the problem of financial access to inputs will be solved as households diversify into tree crops that provide a steady flow of income, thereby allowing for a phasing out of the interventions for input acquisition. Tree Crops (Mango and others)
The goal of the tree crop programme is to reach nearly all farm households with support for tree crop production. Presently ITFC supports 2,000 farmers to produce 2,000 acres (816 hectares) of
17 JICA and MOFA (2006): The Study on the Promotion of Domestic Rice in the Republic of Ghana. Nippon Koei Co. Ltd
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mango. The aim is to replicate viable aspects of ITFC production in the northern region as well as Upper East and Upper West regions (with mango or viable alternative tree crops) with outgrowers, pack houses and processing plants. Therefore an additional 500 outgrowers per district doing 500 acres will be targeted initially. Over the twenty-year period, 60 percent rural households will be targeted. The state will provide support in the form of seedlings, and some component of irrigation. Estimated costs, using mango as standard, are presented in Appendix Table 4. The annual value of state support is estimated at US$1.4 million. Based on estimates from ITFC outgrower mango production, returns of US$150 per acre from the third year to US$2,500 in the thirteenth year and this is held steady for another eight years. Including intercropping with leguminous plants will increase the returns substantially. Integration of crop and small ruminant livestock
As the situation analysis of agriculture shows, most farmers who grow crops also raise livestock and rely on the latter to finance purchases of food and farm inputs. However, the complementary benefits of livestock rearing and crop production are probably not optimised because of limited integration of crops and livestock in the farming system. Crop-livestock integration is difficult because of the extensive nature of livestock production systems. Therefore the strategy proposes a semi-intensive system of livestock rearing involving some housing, systematic feeding, watering and health care. This will allow the collection of manure for field crops and the feeding of crop residue to livestock. The success of the integration will depend on the development of a market supply and demand for livestock feed, fodder banks and livestock services in general. Producer groups will be sensitised about the opportunities for servicing the system. Production enclaves will become the source of mobilising plant material for feeding livestock, thereby increasing the viability of commercial production of feed (baling of groundnut vines, maize stocks, rice straw and bran from milling). Watering points for livestock will then be provided in communities either as a public good or on some cost sharing arrangement between communities or private individuals on the one hand, and the public sector (local and/or central government). Dug-outs for watering livestock will be required; at a cost of US$50,000 per facility; total cost will be US$5 million for at least 20 communities per year over a five year-period. Since higher productivity of livestock will be a necessary incentive for farmers to adopt integrated crop and livestock production systems, this strategy will include a component to introduce improved breeds to farmers. Smallholders will be supported with breeding animals on loan to be repaid in kind, for revolving support to other farmers. SADA will facilitate access of farmers to improved breeds from the breeding stations. Guinea Fowl development
The guinea fowl is a delicacy of northern Ghana; this preference is gradually spreading to the rest of the country. Guinea fowls are reared as an alternative livelihood activity to diversify farmers’ incomes. The main constraints in the guinea fowl value chain are high mortality of the chicks and highly fragmented market outlets. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has recently
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completed a strategic plan for Guinea-fowl development, with assistance from GTZ. The SADA endorses the active participation of community-based stakeholders in the guinea-fowl value chain and will facilitate the adoption of existing technology (incubators and brooders) to improve survival rates of the hatched chicks. Initially, FBOs will be targeted to acquire the technology for their members. This will reduce cost to individual farmers and still give them the flexibility to raise the fowl the traditional way. As with the market-based value-chain strategy, the guinea-fowl development strategy will also emphasize the use of market leaders, processing firms and end-users to stimulate demand and motivate technology adaptations. The resulting effect will be to demand changes in quality of production and processing in a manner that will increase market size of guinea-fowls from northern Ghana. This production system will produce guinea fowl on the scale that will support viable processing enterprises. Processors will be assisted to use good practices in meat processing with the appropriate equipment. They will be encouraged to establish distribution networks to supply consumers, restaurants, hotels, and institutions.
3.4 Instruments for Delivering Agriculture Modernisation Strategies
3.4.1 Relations with Public Sector
The strategies will be delivered within the framework of existing organisations and institutions. The organisations of interest are the research and training institutions and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The strategy requires special skills e.g. tree crop research and management, pack-house and storage and agro-processing plant management. The training will be promoted under special funding from the SADA. Agricultural extension agents are staff of the decentralised Local Government Service which is expected to be operational shortly. A comprehensive training programme will be developed in collaboration with the district authorities, to build the skills and competence of the staff according to the needs of the north. The agricultural extension agents have under-performed because they are often not adequately resourced and motivated to carry out their tasks. The SADA modernisation strategy will ensure a reversal of this situation with a carrot and stick approach. Extension agents will be trained and resourced to deliver services but will also be required to sign performance contracts to ensure value for money. A similar strategy will be applied in providing funding to research institutions and individual researchers.
3.4.2 Legal and regulatory framework for agriculture modernisation strategy
The following are minimal legal requirements to back the implementation of the strategy for the modernisation of agriculture. The seed law has to be passed to regulate operations of private sector seed nurseries. In the case of imports of seed from international research centers and seed markets, the passage of a common ECOWAS seed law will greatly facilitate the importation of material by both researchers and private sector. Regulations have to be developed for the operation of a warehousing receipt system and the commodity exchange. The case of the Kenyan Agriculture Commodity Exchange (KACE) will be studied for this purpose.
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CHAPTER FOUR
NON-FARM INVESTMENT AND BUSINESS (PRIVATE SECTOR) DEVELOPMENT
4.0 Strategic Objectives
The private sector development component of SADA is aimed at achieving three strategic objectives: i. Repositioning the northern savannah ecological zone as a competitive economic zone in the
Savannah/Sahel region18 of West Africa. This is to enable regions in the zone gain market size that is large enough (in terms of population and total effective demand or purchasing power) to support industry and enable them compete and grow their economies beyond their natural geographical confines and constraints by exploiting and taking advantage of bigger input and output market opportunities.
ii. Expanding the scope and numbers of private sector firms and entrepreneurs investing in value-
addition in the north. This will be achieved by actively soliciting a balanced mix of investments through targeted and purposeful investment attraction into identified industry sectors for which regions in the northern ecological zone (positioned together as a competitive economic zone) have comparative advantages that can be converted into sustainable sources of competitive advantage.
iii. Empowering people in the northern regions to participate effectively in the “new economy”
through human resource and business skills development; indigenous micro and small enterprise (MSE) development and financial, fiscal and regulatory incentives.
The three strategic objectives are set in the context of the current situation of private sector activity in the three northern regions which is characterised by: i. The “unattractiveness” of the northern economy and general business enabling environment,
including in particular the fragmented nature and apparent small size of both input and output markets;
ii. A low level of private enterprise activity and investments in the northern regions and a challenge of attracting investments due to the risks (perceived and real) and costs associated with doing business in these regions;
iii. An underdeveloped labour market, e.g. the lack and/or difficulty of attracting certain critical
human resources and types of skilled labour to the regions in the northern savannah ecological zone as well as a generally low level of entrepreneurial development.
The following sections outline specific strategies and broad actions that can be pursued to achieve the three strategic objectives.
4.1 Repositioning Northern Ghana as Common Economic Zone in Savannah/Sahel
Some proposed strategies for promoting and positioning the northern savannah ecological zone as a common and competitive economic zone in the Savannah/Sahel region of West Africa are shown in
18 Defined to include Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, northern Cote D’Ivoire, Northern Togo, Northern Benin, and beyond.
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Figure 4.1. Discussion of the strategies is preceded by a sketch of existing and/or potential strengths/weaknesses of the proposed economic zone for the purposes of attracting investment and fostering greater private enterprise activity. The proposed strategies do not directly address the strengths and weaknesses outlined in the sketch. The sketch is intended only to provide part of the basis for understanding the choice of strategies, initiatives, and interventions proposed. The sketch also highlights the competitive position of the northern economic zone vis-à-vis other existing or potential regions and/or economic zones and enclaves in the Savannah/Sahel region. Table 4.1: Sketch of Existing and Potential Strength and Weaknesses of the Northern
Competitive Economic Zone
Strengths Weaknesses
• Common culture and a shared experience of underdevelopment dating back to the colonial period. May provide a good basis for developing a common and shared vision of development for the regions.
• A rudimentary national road network that extends into much of the Sahel region – provides fairly good basis for development of sub regional road based haulage, transport, logistics management centres and similar investments.
• Watered by the Volta River and a number of other water bodies– with multiple opportunities investments in agribusiness and related knowledge and technology products through research and development (R&D). Some of the water bodies (e.g. the White Volta) hold prospects for investment in waterways transport; water related tourism and recreational facility development (e.g. bird watching and recreational fishing, water sports, etc on smaller water bodies such as the Tono Lake). There are good prospects also for the development of water resources for industrial uses; etc.
• Air transport connections – national airport in the Northern Region (Tamale) and good potential for regional airports development in Upper East (Bolgatanga) and Upper West (Wa) Regions. Provides basis also for development of air transport industry in support of other industries such as tourism and high value horticulture/agribusiness and related facilities/ancillary services, e.g. freight terminal services and high value horticulture processing facilities at the airport. Also can be leveraged to develop multi-modal transport (i.e. interconnected and networked air, waterways, road and rail) hub and spokes systems.
• Recreation – availability of a good number of sites (e.g. Mole National Park, water bodies, large tracts of land suitable for golf courses, horse riding, etc., and rice farms and mango orchards suitable for agri-tourism) with good potential for development to provide a broad range of recreational facilities and services.
• Availability of large tracts of land for development into agricultural, industrial and residential estates.
• Not a “one resource” economic zone – tourism and mineral exploration and exploitation (in addition to agriculture) provide good prospects for diversity.
• Availability of relatively good health facilities – a teaching hospital plus two regional hospitals, a number of district hospitals, a medical school at UDS, a health
• There is no shared vision of how the north should develop and, therefore, not enough well informed northern development “champions”.
• Highly traditional/conservative society with overriding attitude of negativity and high levels of resistance to change. Unless attitudinal change and paradigm shift take place it will be difficult (but not impossible) to build sufficient momentum to achieve socio-economic transformation.
• Ethnic conflicts and tensions (exacerbated by poverty and deprivation) creating a sense of insecurity and a poor perception and image of the three regions to industry and investment players.
• Low levels of entrepreneurship, business activity and investment. This tends to feed a perception of the North as “a lost cause”: a zone that is condemned to a long period of economic underdevelopment and marginalization and that can only survive on handouts (e.g. food aid) and remittances from elsewhere.
• Small population base – and low purchasing power (because of high unemployment and poverty levels) leading to markets that are too small and fragmented to attract major national and global industry and investment players.
• Out migration of educated/skilled people – with most not coming back after post-secondary school. This deprives the north of the intellectual resource base that can promote and foster “northern centric” development thinking and the needed skill base to attract strategically important types of investments and business activities. It also compounds the challenge of small and fragmented markets because the educated and skilled tend to be higher net-worth people with better purchasing power.
• Out migration of the youth – depriving the north of the general human resource base for industry and other business activities and further diminishing its market size and total purchasing power.
• A disconnected zone – in terms of infrastructure such as roads, power, communications, etc. Thus the notion of a Northern Economic Zone is currently only a conceptual construct which may remain so for as long as physically and geographically the three regions remain disconnected.
• No industry specific supporting infrastructure, e.g. serviced industrial parks. Even basic infrastructure such as electricity, water, telecommunication, road network, etc., is poor for purposes of industrial development. E.g. most of the available electrical power is “single phase” not suitable for industrial purposes which require “three phases”.
• Lack of and/or mixed land planning uses which has made it
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research centre in the Upper East (Navrongo). Provides basis for development of life (health) sciences cluster, e.g. combination of health research on and development of specialized rural and community health delivery services.
• Relatively low (affordable) cost of living – compared to other major towns in other parts of the Savannah/Sahel region and in Ghana. Provides basis for developing and promoting major towns in the regions into cosmopolitan lifestyle cities aimed at attracting talent, skill, expertise and high net-worth people from all over the Savannah/Sahel.
• Quality of education fairly good with presence of a number of good educational institutions and university campuses in all three regions – good educational investment prospects that can be developed targeting the attraction faculty and students from the entire Savannah/Sahel.
• Availability of fairly good communications connectivity and services throughout the three regions. Provides basis for investments in communications “hotspots” aimed at turning the economic zone into a communications hub for the Savannah/Sahel.
• Availability of state funding agencies such as the Export Development and Investment Fund, Venture Capital Fund and projects such as NRGP with resources that can be leveraged to support investment attraction and increase in enterprise activity.
difficult to coordinate physical development giving most towns and cities in the three regions a “poor” look.
• Over reliance on rain fed agriculture and uncertainty surrounding agricultural production because of poor climate and erratic weather conditions. Combined with low crop yields and agricultural productivity – due in part to continued use of outmoded technologies and agronomic practices, this undermines efforts to facilitate transition of smallholder farmers from subsistence agriculture to market oriented agriculture and the development and attraction of competitive agribusiness initiatives and investments.
• NGO capture with an anti-business tendency and/or outright hostility that downplays the relevance and importance of private sector investments and business development initiatives. Compounds image and perception of the North as a “lost cause” and undermines efforts to engender attitudinal change and paradigm shift.
4.1.1 Proposed Strategies for Promoting the North as a Competitive Economic Zone
Figure 4.1 spotlights some specific strategies that can be pursued at the meta, meso, macro and micro levels in order to achieve the strategic objective of promoting and positioning the three northern regions together as a competitive economic zone in the Savannah/Sahel region. Meta Level Strategies
The Meta level strategies focus on cross border initiatives, interventions, policies, etc., aimed at helping to promote the development of the Savannah/Sahel region into a target market for the Northern economic zone. For example, it is expected that strengthening and/or developing bilateral state-to-state protocols on trade and resource sharing (i.e., in addition to the ECOWAS treaty which provides for the free movement of goods, capital and people in the whole West African sub region), such as may exist to govern the sharing of water and other resources in the Volta Basin, can be leveraged to support the development the Savannah/Sahel market for the competitive economic zone in. The other Meta level strategies spotlighted in Figure 4.1: promotion of cross border inter-regional discussion platforms, establishment of city to city trade and business development protocols, the organization of common fairs and exhibitions (e.g. Savannah/Sahel Agriculture/Agribusiness Fair), and the development of cross border relations between Ghanaian business associations (particularly those based in the North) and counterpart associations in the other countries, can all be leveraged for the development of the larger Savannah/Sahel market in support of positioning the North as a competitive economic zone.
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Inter-regional discussions platforms
City/city trade & business dev’t protocols
Strengthen &/or develop state/state protocols on trade & resource sharing Common
Savannah/Sahel fairs & exhibitions
Private sector association relations & partnerships
Macro level
Meso level
Micro level
Declaration of North as a special planning zone
Dev’t of certain areas into multi-facility dev’t enclaves
Investment Climate Improvement Initiatives
Making markets work
Organization & strengthening
of associations
Indigenous SME dev’t
Financial, fiscal and regulatory incentives
Community enterprise dev’t
Promoting R&D
Attracting a balanced mix of investments
Skills dev’t
programme
Figure 4.1: Some Strategies for promoting the North as a competitive economic zone
The Macro Level Strategies
The macro level strategies are broad cross-cutting initiatives, interventions and policies that can help promote and/or strengthen the position of the three northern regions as a competitive zone in the Savannah/Sahel. For example, declaring the regions in the northern savannah ecological zone together as a special planning zone would provide a tremendous boost to positioning them as a common competitive economic zone in the Savannah/Sahel. Such a declaration will help to move the notion of an economic zone beyond a mere conceptual construct. The status of a special planning zone would facilitate a planned integration of the economies of the three regions beyond their current fragmented geographical confines and constraints. In addition to promoting and facilitating a planned integration of the northern regions, the policy thrust at the macro level should include improving the investment climate and making markets work, especially for the poor, in the three regions. Some policy and other initiatives/ interventions for improving the investment climate in support of promoting and positioning the three northern regions together as a competitive economic zone include the following: i. Improving and developing industry specific infrastructure from the simple and basic such as
water, energy and telecommunications to more strategic investments in facilities such as the cold chain (i.e. investments in a series of controlled temperature fresh produce facilities from farm to fork), upgrading the Tamale airport to support the development of tourism, agribusiness (e.g. fresh produce exports), hub and spokes logistics management, etc.
ii. Creating and/or improving a business friendly environment by, e.g. facilitating swift
registration of business start ups and investment processing. This can be achieved by fast-tracking the decentralization, strengthening and clustering of the services of state agencies such as the Registrar General’s Department, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC), Export
Meta level
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Development and Investment Fund (EDIF), etc., that facilitate business start ups, development and operations. In addition, particularly in the context of the three northern regions, it would be important to re-orient the mandate of the agencies and mind-set of their staff away from regulation and control to business facilitation.
iii. Improving the availability of land and tenure of security and other property rights for diverse
business purposes including agriculture, commercial property development and industrial use. This can be achieved by extending, fast-tracking and mainstreaming the implementation of the Land Administration Project (LAP) in the so-called Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) districts in the Northern Region. This will have to be coordinated with the managers of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) who have responsibility for piloting the LAP in the Northern Region.
iv. Making markets work and especially for the poor by addressing the constraints that prevent the
poor in particular from participating in economic activity, whether as producers (farmers, entrepreneurs), as employees or indeed as consumers. Some of examples of the constraints include unemployment or lack of access to key assets such as human, physical and financial capital and infrastructure constraints that block access to key input and output markets for the poor.
Meso Level Strategies
The Meso level strategies involve business associations, and community level initiatives for promoting the northern economy as a competitive economic zone in the Savannah/Sahel region. The specific strategies include developing certain areas, such the so-called “Overseas Areas” with proven huge untapped agriculture potential and resources, into multi-facility business development enclaves. This will involve the development of a range of industry specific infrastructure to facilitate the exploitation of identified resources. In the case of agriculture this will involve building a good feeder road network, appropriate irrigation systems, produce consolidation and processing centres, etc. For industry and other private enterprise activity it may require more ambitious and complex undertakings such as the establishment of complete industrial parks. Promoting, organizing, and strengthening business associations and chambers of commerce is another strategy at the meso level that can be pursued in order to promote and position the North as a competitive economic zone in the Savannah/Sahel. Business associations and chambers of commerce will have to be encouraged to play a more active role in business networking and development in general across the three regions. Other meso level strategies include community enterprise development and the promotion of research and development (R&D) as a public good. Micro Level Strategies
The micro (i.e. firm and enterprise) level strategies focus on promoting the establishment and operation of vibrant and efficient business firms and enterprises capable of competing effectively in the Savannah/Sahel region. The specific strategies include soliciting a balanced mix of investments through targeted and purposeful investment attraction into identified industry sectors and human resource and business skills development; indigenous micro and small enterprise (MSE) development and financial, fiscal and regulatory incentives. These are discussed in more detailed elsewhere as part of strategies for achieving the second and third strategic objectives respectively, i.e. expanding the scope and numbers of private sector firms and entrepreneurs investing in value-addition in the north and empowering people in the North to participate in the “new” economy.
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4.2 Expanding the Scope and Numbers of Private Firms/Investments in the North
Targeted investment attraction will be the principal strategy that will be pursued in order to achieve the strategic objective of expanding the scope and numbers of private firms and investments in the three northern regions. This will involve attracting investments and fostering private enterprise activity in selected industry sectors in which northern Ghana currently has comparative advantage and the potential to develop sustainable sources of competitive advantage. The targeted sectors will also be expected, as much as possible, to offer greater economic growth dividends, e.g. creation of decent and sustainable jobs, technology transfer and learning, leveraging catalytic development of “growth poles” that would become the spines around which wider investment and business development in the three northern regions can take place. The targeted investment attraction strategy will be coupled with and underpinned by cluster development and the value chain approach. Clusters can be conceptualized as self-reinforcing networks of not just firms but a range of other organizations — including research institutes, universities, financial bodies, and public sector agencies — all of which are characterized by high levels of competition and collaboration. The development of clusters is thus expected to enable the concentration of resources in the selected industry sectors thereby fostering and/or enhancing the creation and operations of vibrant, competitive and sustainable enterprises. The value chain approach coupled with other targeted enterprise development approaches such as Making Markets Work for the Poor (MMW4P) are intended to foster inclusive private sector development. This will involve exploring opportunities for involving, e.g. smallholder farmers and other asset poor sections of the northern community in enterprise activity by raising their levels of efficiency especially in economic activity in which they tend to have a natural comparative advantage over large scale enterprises. Seven industry sectors that may be targeted for investment attraction and enterprise development are briefly profiled below. The intention for profiling the seven sectors is to highlight the prospects of developing competitive clusters and value chains in the three northern regions and the value, therefore, of targeted investment attraction.
4.2.1 Value Added Agriculture
Value-added agriculture is a generic term often used to classify the production of semi processed and processed agricultural products (e.g. flour, oilseed products and canned products) and of unprocessed high value agricultural products (fresh fruit and vegetable exports). While it is less ambiguous to use the terms value added and high-value to distinguish the two subclasses of agricultural products, all such products are considered here as value-added agriculture, for simplicity and expediency. Value-added agriculture, as broadly defined, can be further broken, in the context of northern Ghana, into the following sub sectors: i. High value fresh produce (fruits and vegetables) ii. Canned products iii. Rice milling iv. Textiles v. Oil seed products In the context of northern Ghana, support services and livestock as shown in the text box below may be considered as part of value added agriculture.
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Support Services � Provision of agric mechanization services in
production areas � Provision of post harvest facilities including storage
and processing � Provision of agribusiness marketing and other
management services � Capacity building and training services including
extension services, standardization and certification, market intelligence research/services, and organizational development, (e.g. organizing small-holders into out-grower systems for production and marketing.)
Input Supply � Production (remixing and packaging) and distribution
of improved seeds, planting materials and agro-chemicals (fertilizer, pesticides, weedicides, etc)
� Supply of packaging material, brands and labels � Making state-of-the-art technical and scientific
knowledge accessible to SMES and farm businesses
Horticulture � Supply, installation and maintenance of farm, cold
chain and other production machinery and equipment � Post harvest and logistics management services
(packhouse operation and management, transport, packaging, cold vans)
� Minimally processed fruit and vegetables (fresh cut fruits and fruit mixes plus pre-packed vegetables, vegetable mixes and herbs)
Livestock � Production and distribution of veterinary drugs,
vaccines and chemicals, feed and feed ingredients � Establishment of hatcheries for day-old chicks/Keats � Development and management of breeding
programmes for high quality birds and animals � Cut and processed meat (including guinea fowl, beef,
etc.) � Animal hides/skins processing � Organized livestock markets/trade
Prospects for attracting investments into and fostering enterprise development in the various sub-sectors of value added agriculture include the following: High value fresh produce sub sector
i. Recent studies have revealed that Northern Ghana is better suited for the production of certain fruits and vegetables in comparison with current locations where these are produced in southern Ghana. Partly for this reason, USAID’s TIPCEE (Trade and Investment Programme for a Competitive Export Economy) is currently running trial production of a number of vegetable varieties and application of particular production technologies (such as drip irrigation) in parts of the Upper East and Northern Regions in collaboration with the private sector.
ii. The availability of large and growing export markets and a steadily developing national market (albeit small). The national market may have been boosted recently by the entry of Shoprite, the South Africa based supermarket.
iii. The opportunity to leverage the existing relatively better transport network and the potential to develop logistics hub and spokes centres in order to position certain parts of the three northern regions (e.g. Hamile/Wa, Paga/Bolgatanga, Pusiga/Bawku, Tamale, Buipe,) as product consolidation and export processing centres for the Savannah/Sahel region. These developments can further be leveraged to foster downstream processing e.g. minimally processed/pre-packed vegetable targeting the export and the emerging domestic and regional markets.
iv. The presence and operations of Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC). Currently, ITFC is engaged in the production of organic mango for export market based on a combination of its own estate plantation and out-grower production. It has plans for exporting processed products such as dried mango for which it has already ordered plant and machinery.
v. ITFC’s relative success with the use of the nucleus estate/out-grower scheme. This is a business model that offers opportunities for learning and replication with respect to investment attraction and enterprise development in the north.
Canned products
i. Large domestic market (including the extended markets of Sahelian West Africa) judged by the volume of imports of tomato puree and other products.
ii. Relatively competitive and well organized raw material (tomato) base underpinned by local
production know-how and irrigated dry season farming as well as the opportunity to leverage
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support from projects such as the Northern Rural Growth Project, to organize smallholder producers (who dominate the tomato production in sub sector) into farmer based organizations and out-grower schemes in order to enhance the competitiveness of production and supply of the tomato as raw material.
iii. The potential (with appropriate investments in supply chain and logistics management) to
extend the raw material sourcing origins to other parts of the Savannah/Sahel including in particular Burkina Faso which also has a relatively well developed tomato production base.
iv. The opportunity to leverage the potential of research and development (R&D) through a public
private partnership (including the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute and the University for Development Studies) to develop improved high yielding varieties that are also suitable for processing into puree.
v. The presence and operations of the Pwalugu (now Northern Star) Tomato factory near
Bolgatanga and lately, the interest shown by and the involvement of some Italian investors (who already operate a processing plant in Tema) in the ownership and management of the Pwalugu Factory.
Rice Milling
i. Relatively large domestic and regional (West Africa) markets that can support the development of a domestic competing (import substituting) industry. This may have been boosted by the recent shortage of rice and corresponding high prices in global markets.
ii. The availability of a relatively large raw material (paddy rice) base including in particular rice produced from the irrigated fields of Tono (near Navrongo) and Bolgatanga (near Tamale) and the low valley rice fields of Fumbisi, Gbedemblisi (in the “overseas” agriculture enclaves), etc. With the appropriate investments in supply chain and logistics management, the sourcing of raw material (paddy rice) can be extended (in line with the North’s position as a competitive economic zone in the Savannah/Sahel) as far as Office du Niger in Mali which is considered to be one of the largest irrigation schemes in Africa for the production of rice.
iii. The existence of the Nasia Rice Mill. The mill is understood to have the full complement of
appropriate plant and machinery. The mill is, however, currently not in operation and may require the attraction of a strategic investor with good knowledge of and strong industry links with the international rice markets and the global rice industry to re-start it. There are other smaller mills (in comparison with Nasia) in the three northern regions that can supplement the milling capacity of Nasia.
Textiles
i. The existence and operations of the Cotton Ginneries in Tamale and Bolgatanga. Ghana’s cotton production base may not be sufficient in quantity and quality terms to feed an internationally competitive textile industry in the North. However, the prospects become better if the potential industry is positioned and looked at in the context of the wider Savannah/Sahel region. This would extend both the industry’s raw material sourcing base and markets into not only neighbouring countries but further afield in West Africa.
ii. Potential for the growth and further development of the traditional artisanal fabric production
base that feeds, for instance, the smock making industry. Development of these prospects would, however, have to include product diversification and market development based, for instance, on work that was started in the late 1990s up to 2003 by Amex International, an
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American consulting firm that managed the implementation of a USAID programme that was known as TIRP (Trade and Investment Reform Programme, 1998-2004).
Oil Seed
i. A potentially good raw material base including groundnut, soya bean, shea nut and possibly the mango seed (a by-product of the mango cluster). Currently, the production of these crops in the three northern regions is done by smallholder farmers. This may create challenges that can undermine industry competitiveness. This can, however, be addressed by encouraging, promoting and supporting large scale production including schemes such as the nucleus estate/out grower schemes where appropriate, and attracting and/or developing the appropriate supply chain and logistics management investments to support sourcing of raw from further afield in the Savannah/Sahel region.
ii. Existing knowledge for the extraction and processing of vegetable oil. Most of the existing processing facilities in the three northern regions are, however, artisanal. There are, however, a number of medium scale processors such as Bosbel in Tamale who could be supported to play the lead firm role in the development of sector into a competitive cluster. It is also expected that the establishment of a large scale shea butter processing plant by a multinational company near Tamale would provide more impetus to the sector’s development in the three northern regions.
4.2.2 Tourism
Tourism is said to be the world’s largest industry, responsible for more than one in ten jobs globally. In many developing and transition economies, tourism has emerged as the dominant tool for economic growth. There were over 700 million international travellers in the year 2000 and there will be one billion by 2010, according to the World Tourism Organization. The industry was expected to have generated over US$5 trillion in economic activity and 245 million direct and indirect jobs world-wide in the year 2000. Tourism is also known to be a growth sector that creates lifelong jobs, including those at managerial levels and for women. Table 4.2 summarizes international tourist arrivals and receipts for Ghana for the three year period 2005 to 2007. Similarly, Table 4.3 summarizes domestic tourism data for 2007. Table 4.2: Ghana International Tourist Arrivals and Receipts
Year Arrivals Receipts (US$ mil) 2005 428,533 836.09
2006 497,129 986.80
2007 586,612 1,172.00
Given the size of the global industry and trends and developments in tourism at the national level (as reflected in Tables 4.2 and 4.3), the prospects are quite good for developing a competitive tourism sector in the three northern regions to compete in the Savannah/Sahel region. Table 4.4 highlights some tourism sub sectors that offer varying levels of opportunity and prospects in the three northern regions. The prospects include cross border tour packages that incorporate visits to other sites in the Savannah/Sahel thus enhancing the international tourism attraction of the three northern regions.
Source: Ghana Tourist Board
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Table 4.3: Domestic Tourism (Summary of 25 Tourist Sites 2007) Month Residents Non-residents Total Arrivals
January 11,695 6,648 18,343
February 15,973 5,683 21,656
March 27,781 6,884 34,665
April 17,136 5,107 22,243
May 14,412 4,713 19,125
June 18,804 6,391 25,195
July 30,796 12,159 42,955
August 21,240 11,585 32,825
September 12,904 4,175 17,079
October 16,521 5,275 21,796
November 16,978 5,271 22,249
December 17,922 6,719 24,641
SUB TOTAL 222,162 80,610 302,772 ANKASA 735 437 1,172
KAKUM CANOPY 80,711 32,843 113,614
TOTAL 303,668 113,890 417,558 Table 4.4: Highlights of Tourism sub-sectors for Northern Ghana
Product Definition of product Prospects Agri-tourism A set of activities that occur when people link travel with the
products, services, and experiences of agriculture. The product itself can be an "experience." Agri-tourism includes sub categories such as: � Agri-education: tourism related to teaching visitors about
agricultural production, how food and fibres are produced, rural values, and quality of life. It is building support for agriculture through educational experiences.
� Nature-based tourism: ranging from hunting and fishing (consumptive tourism) to bird watching, flower/tree/rock identification, hiking, rock climbing, or just being with nature (non consumptive tourism).
� Avitourism or bird watching: one of the fastest growing global nature-based tourism activities.
Good prospects based on availability of large tracts farms especially in the rainy season. ITFC’s and outgrowers’ mango plantations, the irrigated rice fields of Tono, Bontanga, etc, the irrigated vegetable farms of Tono, Vea, etc are particularly suited for this. Other dry season farming activities such as the river side irrigated maize farming in the Upper East Region are also suited for this. Some amount of avitourism already takes place in the three northern regions especially around large water bodies such as the Tono dam.
Eco-tourism Based on the packaged experience of scenic beauty and wildlife The prospects for developing and/or positioning the wildlife attractions in the North for this are quite good. This can be combined strategically with other cross Sahel nature-based tourism opportunities to develop a more comprehensive and attractive package.
Culture Tourism Packaged experience of cultural, social and political events such as festivals, indigenous fairs and exhibitions, etc.
There are a number of festivals and other cultural, social and traditional political events in the three regions and across the Sahel that can be repackaged and positioned to enhance the prospects of cultural tourism.
Adventure Tourism
Packaged wilderness and challenging environment This may require a lot more effort to develop. There is, however, enough wilderness and challenging environment in the north and across the Sahel, e.g. the Gambaga scarp, that can serve as a good platform for development
Sun & Sand Tourism
Based on beach or significant inland water Large clean inland water bodies such as the Tono dam combined with related opportunities such as water recreation (canoeing, wind surfing, recreational fishing, etc.) and health and fitness (spa waters and conducive environment) may serve as a platform for developing the sun and sand prospects especially targeted at landlocked origins in the Sahel. This can also be combined with “out-of-the-ordinary” conference and events hosting packages.
Source: Consultant’s adaptation based on desk research
Source: Ghana Tourist Board
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The domestic tourism market in Ghana is still quite undeveloped (see Table 4.3) partly because of low income levels, a weak culture of personal holidays and vacations and the attraction of metropolitan destinations, e.g. Europe and America, to the few Ghanaians in the middle and upper classes who go on vacation. There are, nonetheless, a few niche market opportunities such as “out-of-the-ordinary” conference/conventions that offer good prospects for development. These can be developed by targeting, for instance, the increasing number of conference organizers and church groups who may be attracted by the distance and “discovery experience” of the three northern regions. Agri-tourism, particularly agri-education (as highlighted in Text Box 2) may also offer very good prospects for niche marketing targeted at educational institutions. This can be combined with the “out-of-the-ordinary” package to enhance the offering and targeted specifically at schools in some southern parts of Ghana where children may never have seen life crops of the food they eat, e.g. rice.
4.2.3 Mineral Exploration and Exploitation
Prospects in the mining sector are good as shown by the activities of a number of firms that are already engaged in this enterprise in the North. The biggest determining factor in the global mining industry is the world market. If there is a real prospect that a mineral can be extracted for profit, it will be extracted. Currently, with high global demand and corresponding high prices for most minerals, the prospects of attracting investors to exploit and develop the mining opportunities in the North are encouraging.
4.2.4 Metal Manufacturing and Fabrication
Metal manufacturing and fabrication is another sector with strong and good prospects for development in the three northern regions. Current activities in the sector are predominantly artisanal. However, the knowledge base of the local artisanal industry coupled with the presence of GRATIS and its ITTUs and a number of polytechnic and technical institutes in the three regions provide a good basis for up scaling the current activity level. The development of sector can be boosted by opportunities to provide important goods, services and markets for other industries in the North and the larger Savannah/Sahel region. This may include products such as: � Ferrous and non-ferrous castings and forgings for simple automotive engine parts, basic
industrial machinery, valves and pipe fittings, etc. � Simple metal products such as pipes, tubes, structural components, doors, windows, shower
screens, cans, kegs and sheet metal products of various kinds.
� More complex metal products such as fasteners, valves, tap ware, fittings, door locks, builders’ hardware and hand tools.
4.2.5 Transport and Logistics Management
The transport and logistics management sector is currently dominated by micro and small scale operators of passenger and short haulage services. Nonetheless, the sector has good potential for development especially when aligned with emerging prospects in the agribusiness and tourism sectors. Air transport, for instance, has very good prospects for growth in the North with the expected development and growth of export oriented agribusiness.
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Similarly, expected development and growth in the tourism sector will have tremendous positive impact on air transport. In the same vein expected development and growth in the two sectors (i.e. agribusiness and tourism) will be ensured to the benefit not only of other means of transportation (e.g. specialized bus/haulage services) but indeed also of logistics management. There will, for instance, be the need to build, maintain and manage post harvest facilities such as pack houses and terminals at the airport as part of a general product or service line of logistics management.
4.2.6 Knowledge Services
Current knowledge services available in the North are limited to professional services including legal services, accounting and bookkeeping, architectural, engineering, technical services, and information and communication technology services. The potential knowledge services sector in the North can, however, be envisaged to include knowledge and know-how derived from and related to agriculture and agribusiness, mineral exploration and extractions, tourism development, etc. Other innovative products that can be targeted as part of the development of the sector include well-being and culture products. The development of these products can benefit particularly from the rollout of broadband networks which allow individuals and businesses to access all kinds of creative content such as audiovisual, games, cultural information, etc on and off site (i.e. away from home and the office). Both industry and markets in the North are currently small and fragmented as the industry in the North (as is the case with the knowledge services industry elsewhere in Ghana) is currently dominated by individual service providers and small businesses. Faculty at the University for Development Studies and the polytechnics as well as research teams at the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute, the Navrongo Health Research Centre, can be positioned (from the industry perspective) to work in close collaboration with the private sector to provide a good basis for developing the knowledge services sector into a competitive cluster capable of servicing local business needs and other regions of Ghana and the Savannah/Sahel.
4.2.7 Life Sciences
Life sciences may be broadly defined as including the scientific discipline of life and of living organisms. The term is, however, used here as a collective name for the medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries as well as medical technologies, clustered together due to their interdependence and the fuzzy borders between them. The life sciences sector has been identified for targeting partly because of the strategic importance of the health sector in attracting investors in general. A quality health care sector can be very important in helping the North attract and retain other job-creating businesses and industries. Industry in general looks for a very productive labour force. A productive labour force must be healthy. The development of the life sciences sector, particularly, health care, is therefore, expected, among other things, to yield dividends in the form of increased labour productivity. Currently, the life sciences sector in the North is dominated by the public health care system focused on servicing the needs of local residents. It, however, also has specialized regional services such as the Teaching Hospital at Tamale (with research facilities and mandate as a centre of research), the Navrongo Health Research Centre, laboratory and other technical services, etc. The scope of the sector can, therefore, be expanded through development to include innovative products and services such as the provision of customized solutions for diseases that are predominant in the Savannah/Sahel region, e.g. CSM. This will provide part of the basis for strategically repositioning
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the sector in the north to serve a larger client base drawn from across the entire Savannah/Sahel region and beyond.
4.3 Empowering the People to participate in the “New” Economy
Broadly, the proposed strategies and initiatives aimed at achieving the strategic objective of empowering people in the three northern regions to participate effectively in the “new” economy seek to address the challenge of: i. an underdeveloped labour market, particularly the lack and/or difficulty of attracting certain
critical human resources and types of skilled labour; and
ii. the generally low levels of entrepreneurial development in the three northern regions.
The specific strategies include: i. Human resource and business skills development ii. Indigenous MSE development iii. Financial, fiscal and regulatory incentives
4.3.1 Human Resource and Business Skills Development
Specific initiatives that can be pursued as part of human resource and business skills development include: i. The establishment of a Northern Skills Development Programme. The programme will be run
as a virtual school to be hosted by the University for Development Studies or any other reputable organization including the private sector and civil society organizations. The “mandate” of the school will include:
� Promotion of integrated technical skills, business management and entrepreneurship
development programmes into comprehensive skills development programmes. The skills development should be informed and underpinned as much as possible by the development needs of and opportunities (existing and potential) in the three northern regions.
� Design of appropriate training modules and delivery mechanism including formal and informal seminars and workshops. The training modules should include pro-poor skills and livelihood development programmes, e.g. training for competitive livelihood niche business development.
� Mobilisation of a virtual faculty drawn from practitioners in the private sector and civil society as well as academia.
� Design and organization of a training schedule and venues/locations that address and/or suit the needs of many classes of people as possible.
� Collaboration with other providers of technical skills, business management and entrepreneurship development training to improve the content and modes of delivery of their programmes.
� Collaboration with artisanal training programmes (e.g. apprenticeships) to help improve the technical content and entrepreneurial orientation of such programmes.
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ii. Allocation of a percentage of the proceeds of the GETFund to support the work of the Virtual
Skills Training School and other recognized programmes that deliver competent and appropriate skills development programmes.
iii. A northern Ghana tax deductible training allowance to encourage businesses and enterprises in the three northern regions to provide continuous skills upgrading and training programmes for their staff and to provide internship programmes for students reading relevant courses.
4.3.2 Indigenous MSE Development
Indigenous MSE development is critical not only for empowering people in the northern regions to participate in the new economy but more broadly also as a core part of the strategy for attracting investments to the North. Viable and competitive indigenous MSEs will be expected to serve as the anchor for attracting inward investments, e.g. through partnerships and joint ventures but also through participation in other strategic business arrangements such as outsourcing and subcontracting. The following are some of the specific initiatives that can be pursued to support the development of indigenous MSEs. i. The establishment of community enterprise development centres (CEC). The CEC will provide
a range of services aimed at fostering and facilitating the growth of indigenous MSEs. The services to be provided the CEC will include: � Business ideas screening and opportunity prospecting/validation
� Business plan development support, market testing, legal structuring and corporate
governance services.
� Assist in raising capital for projects (especially livelihood and micro projects) and provide the MSEs access to local and regional investors.
� Support to local companies in building expertise, innovating growing, creating new partnerships and reaching customers.
� Conduct regional research and analysis of macro and micro economic data on all aspects of business, legal, financial and demographic information in the North to assist with investment and expansion decisions.
� Assist the MSEs to build capacity by facilitating access a range of lucrative, sizeable, quality, strategically significant projects across all sectors.
ii. The establishment of competitive grants (or challenge funds) to support the development of innovative business ideas/projects for MSE development, particularly ideas/projects with potentially important “demonstrator” effects, e.g., demonstrating the viability of a market opportunity. The ideas can be developed by existing MSEs, MSE start ups or other organizations (e.g. private consultancies, NGO, researchers, etc) that support MSE development.
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4.3.3 Financial, Fiscal and Regulatory Incentives
The following proposed initiatives and interventions are aimed at enhancing the benefits and impact of financial, fiscal and regulatory incentives available to the business community and people in general in the three northern regions. i. A strategic re-think of existing national incentives and schemes including the broad range of tax
incentives intended to promote investment and business activities in underserved areas such as Northern Ghana. The strategic rethink should also involve “decentralizing” the availability of funds such as the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) and the Venture Capital Fund (VCF) the by e.g. opening up branches in the North to enable them deal with any particular and peculiar needs and requirements.
ii. The creation of a special Northern Ghana Risk Finance Instrument to help address the critical shortage of risk capital that has been reported by many as one of the major causes of low enterprise development in the three regions. The risk finance instrument will help to provide finance for investments that are perceived to be risky because of the peculiar circumstances of underdevelopment in the North. The key role of the risk finance instrument will be to give a kick-start to such investments to enable them look for and mobilize other required investment funds and resources.
iii. Concerted awareness creation and information sharing programmes on the availability of
financial, fiscal and regulatory incentives and how people can benefit from or take personal advantage of the incentives for business development and other endeavours.
4.4 Immediate and Short-Term Implementation Steps
The immediate and short term implementation steps outlined below are part of preliminary actions aimed at developing a Strategy Implementation/Action Plan. The Strategy Implementation/Action Plan is intended to translate, detail out and group the proposed strategies into key actions, activities, projects and programmes that should be pursued in order to achieve the stated strategic objectives. The key immediate and short term implementation steps include the following:
i. Stakeholder consultations to validate the strategic objectives and the specific strategies proposed for engendering and fostering increased enterprise activity, investments and private sector development in general in the three northern regions. It is proposed that the stakeholder groups include:
� A select small group of business leaders (e.g. two drawn from each of the three regions) to meet
for a one-day focus group discussion.
� A mini investors’ forum that will, among other things,
� Discuss the strategic importance and implication of positioning the three northern regions as a competitive economic zone in the Savannah/Sahel region.
� Share perspectives on attracting investments into underdeveloped regions such as the three
northern regions face and how such investments can be leveraged to foster economic growth and development.
� Provide input for the selection of industry sectors to be targeted for attracting the balanced
mix of investments into.
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ii. Establishment of Northern Private Sector Working Group to act as an informal grouping of key
development partners and other private sector development experts/specialists. Membership of the group will be drawn largely from the development partner (DP) community especially DPs with private sector programmes and/or programmes targeted at the northern regions. The functions of the Working Group will include:
� Serving as a platform for sharing ideas, perspectives and best practices on fostering
development in underdeveloped and deprived regions. � Advise on the preparation and implementation of Strategy Implementation/Action Plan.
� Serving as a platform for coordinating support and mobilising resources for the implementation
of the strategy.
� To explore, discuss and provide support to other programmes, cross cutting issues, and interventions that can help to foster increased private sector activity and development in general in the three northern regions.
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CHAPTER FIVE
BUILDING CAPACITIES FOR RESILIENCE AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN A FORESTED NORTH
5.1: Introduction
This chapter outlines strategies for institutionalizing capacities for disaster risk reduction and increasing the resilience of households in northern Ghana to disasters. It proposes ways to create relevant policy frameworks and institutional realignments that would support the aversion of future disasters or minimize their impact when they occur.
5.1.1 The Context of Vulnerability
The widespread poverty in the north characterised by chronic food and income insecurity; limited number, variation, and quality of household assets; and poor conditions of health of the population often magnify the effects of even minor disasters. As outlined in Section 1.5 of Chapter 1 of this Strategy the major sources of disaster risk exposures and vulnerabilities confronting people of the three northern regions are climate induced risks and vulnerabilities such as droughts and floods; poverty-induced vulnerabilities associated with limited opportunities for off farm and non-farm economic activities; and the weakening traditional safety nets and its impact on increased vulnerabilities. Reinforcing these sources of disaster risks and vulnerabilities in the north are a web of causal factors with roots in both historical and contemporary failures of national development policies related to the north. Key among these are the limited investment in human capital development in the north; inadequate development of physical infrastructure such as roads, housing, social service facilities (for education and health in particular), as well as inadequate investment in the development of water resource management infrastructure such as dams, dugouts, dykes, and bridges, among others. Within this context of generalised poverty, disaster risk exposures disaggregate along gender and age lines. In general, women, who are largely concentrated in the two ‘hotspots’ of poverty in Ghana, namely agriculture and the informal economy, “...form the majority of the poor”, and this is due to their limited access to productive resources as a result of social and cultural factors. By age, younger people are often subjected to the same cultural norms that deny access to productive resources to women. The aged are also at a disadvantage, especially when they have no relations to care for them. In some communities old women who have no family support systems and have to live alone are at a particular risk of being labelled as witches and therefore ostracised into camps.
5.1.2: Implications of the context for the creation of a forested north
The nexus of poverty and vulnerability in the north mandates fundamental shifts in the development paradigms for the north to adapt to its environment. The disaster response and risk reduction initiatives of the Northern Savannah Development Initiatives must aim to accomplish the following objectives: 1. Minimize the effects of disasters of all kinds, including droughts and floods, in affected
communities through the institutionalization of effective Disaster Preparedness and Response strategies.
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2. Institutionalize Disaster Risk Reduction strategies through the promotion of initiatives that reduce the occurrences and/or impact of disasters.
3. Building community resilience and response capacities to disasters through the promotion of enhanced livelihood adaptations mechanisms.
5.2: Providing a Framework for Disaster Preparedness and Response
Effective preparation for and rapid response to disasters is essential to reducing the vulnerability and cost of disasters to the populations, when they occur. In furtherance of this, the following strategies are recommended as part of a robust disaster preparedness and response mechanism for the north.
5.2.1: Improving Early Warning and Disaster Risk Recognition
As a first step to disaster risk reduction, communities in northern Ghana need to be better prepared and equipped to anticipate and respond to disasters. Accordingly, the Savannah Development Authority (SADA) will invest in building the capacities of communities to use indigenous knowledge and/or information from credible sources to anticipate disasters such as floods and droughts. Communities that are prone to floods will also be supported to develop appropriate mitigation and response mechanisms such as improved housing. Special attention will be put on building the capacities of community-based organisations in disaster response.
5.2.2: Institutionalizing More Effective Disaster Relief Response Mechanisms
The 2007 drought and flood disasters revealed considerable hesitance, inertia, and inaction in the disaster response mechanisms of the country in general and of organisations working in the north in particular, as the NADMO, donors and the NGO community struggled to mobilize resources to assess the extent of damage and plan their responses. The situation highlighted the inadequacy of prior disaster response preparedness and the limited coordination between such agencies before and during the disaster. The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) was particularly immobilised, being ill-equipped materially and in terms of human resources. District Assemblies and their respective coordinating mechanisms were equally disoriented, unable to effectively coordinate timely response to communities in their purview that were affected. The community solidarity networks that constituted the first line responders were equally taken aback by the shear magnitude of the disaster. Tried as they did, they were nonetheless ill-equipped to effectively handle the situation. Given the prediction that climate-induced disasters are set to increase in frequency, and possibly, in intensity as well, it is essential that the Northern Development Fund makes strategic investments in building local and regional capacities for disaster preparedness, prevention, response, and/or impact mitigation. As a first step, SADA will promote greater coordination among disaster preparedness and response organisations operating in the north in order to develop more rapid and coordinated response mechanisms. SADA will also work with stakeholder organisations to support capacity building for NADMO and other CSOs at the regional and district levels to enable them more rapidly respond to disasters.
5.2.3: Building of strategic funding mechanism for disaster response
Despite the fact that the north has frequently experienced one form of disaster or the other, the state and other actors have no strategic reserves of food and non-food items to provide immediate
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response to people in need. Every time there is a disaster, the government and NGO partners have to launch and wait for outcomes of appeals for funds before they can do anything. This slows down the response; and in many cases relief response come long after the worse moments are over. A review of the post disaster response in 2007 also suggests that the government, its development partners and NGOs were largely caught unaware of and unprepared to respond immediately to the needs of displaced people, their host, families, as well as, those who lost all or part of their means of livelihoods. This was exacerbated by the fact that most disaster support organisations tended to operate vertically, with little or no horizontal interactions within and between them. As a result, information and resource sharing prior to and during disasters are limited. To ensure that people afflicted by disasters get the minimum help they need as soon as possible, there is a need to establish a disaster response fund. Proceeds from the fund should be used to provide first line response to people in need in times of disaster while efforts are made to raise whatever extra funding is required. The criteria for accessing these funds will be drawn up and managed transparently to ensure equity and accountability in the management of the fund. The use of voucher systems for providing assistance to people in need will be encouraged as a means of putting the decision making power on what victims of disasters want to do in their own hands. This will entail the development of standard operating mechanisms for the use of vouchers to enable affected households in disaster situations to access essential food and non-food resources to cope with the immediate impact of disasters. Under no circumstances should the funds be used to buy and preposition food and non-food items of any kind in anticipation of disasters. This is because:
a) Disasters differ in nature, and so will be the response mechanisms. Items best suited for relief in one kind of disaster will not necessarily be well suited for interventions in another kind of disaster.
b) Lifespan of food and non items may out run the occurrence of the next disaster, rendering the investments in the purchase and storage of such items wasteful.
c) Logistics for the proper storage and management of both food and non food items are limited. High rates of damage and/or theft of stored items can therefore be expected. This will defeat the purpose of such investments.
d) Relief items are highly fungible and therefore subject to misapplication, misappropriation or other forms of inappropriate use of the funds.
Instead of building strategic reserves of food and non food items, the Executive Committee of the SADA shall:
i) Develop a network of credible suppliers from whom identifiable items may be rapidly procured for use in the event of disasters. To this extent, the SADA, in collaboration with NADMO and other development partners shall:
ii) Develop a basket of food and non-food items for rapid acquisition for different types of disasters experienced in the north. The items in the baskets shall be reviewed and updated annually to ensure currency of the list of items.
iii) Train staff of NADMO, NGOs, faith-based relief and development organisations and community level volunteers to enable them rapidly assess the extent of damage and needs in all disasters.
iv) Establish a rapid disaster reporting mechanisms from the community through to the national levels to allow for immediate response to the needs of those affected.
v) Establish a decision-making mechanism that allows management to quickly access the funds from the reserve account to meet the needs of the disaster victims.
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5.3 Improving Disaster Risk Reduction and Response Capacities
Experiences from the 2007 drought and flood disasters also mandate the institutionalization and mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction initiatives in the regular development agendas of the SADA and its partner institutions. To achieve this, the SADA will initiate and support the development of transformative interventions that not only reduce the risk exposures and vulnerabilities of households in the north to disasters in the future; the interventions will also provide the launching pad for stimulating economic growth, wealth creation, and the attainment of peace as the vehicles for realising the vision of a forested north. To ensure that regular development planning and management initiatives of state and non-state institutions all mainstream disaster risk reduction, SADA will work with all stakeholders to first map out disaster risk zones in the north. SADA will then work with the stakeholders living and/or operating in the identified zones to establish common protocols for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction initiatives in all development planning and management processes. Strategic interventions will include, but not limited to the following:
5.3.1: Promote Agricultural Sector Risk Reduction
To safeguard against risk of food insecurity due to droughts, the SADA will work with the Agricultural research stations to develop and propagate drought resistant varieties of local food and cash crops to mitigate the impact of droughts. Farmers cultivating in flood plains will also be supported with water management interventions, as detailed below, to enable them control and manage flood waters to enhance production and productivity.
5.3.2: Promoting Appropriate Housing and Infrastructure Development
Improving housing and shelter construction is central to averting and/or mitigating the impact of disasters such as floods. Hence, under SADA’s short, medium, and long term housing and shelter development strategy, SADA and partners will launch an Improved Rural Housing Development Initiative which will aim to promote the development of a structured and robust housing scheme that harnesses local human and material resources to provide structurally improved, culturally appropriate, and financially affordable housing in the north. Building on indigenous knowledge systems and architectural preferences, the strategy will seek to improve the quality of construction materials and techniques by making such improved knowledge and skills available and accessible to community members. This approach acknowledges, for instance, that although most communities in the north know the benefits of foundation construction and have traditionally been plastering their exterior walls to render them water-resistant, limited access to resources has become a major obstacle to the adoption of appropriate construction techniques that would protect their houses from weather induced disasters. This is because there has been limited research into and development of local building techniques and materials to improve their disaster risk reduction capabilities. On the contrary, housing policies have touted the use of cement, iron rods, and metal roofing sheets as the model materials for housing construction. But as these materials are largely beyond the financial reach of most communities in the north, most houses continue to be built using the traditional construction techniques that have proven to be inadequate in withstanding the effects of floods. To support the development of technologically improved, cost-effective, and culturally appropriate housing that are capable of withstanding all forms of disaster, the SADA will support the following community-based and community-managed initiatives that provide access to improved building materials and construction techniques:
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Support Local Capacity Development in construction and Disaster Risk Reduction: Building local capacity for improved housing is a key entry point to promoting disaster risk reduction, as well as, enabling households that lost all or part of their housing infrastructure during the 2007 floods to rebuild more flood-resistant houses. In line with this, SADA will sponsor a series of improved housing development training interventions that harness local human and material resources for the development of robust, environmentally sound, and culturally appropriate houses.
As part of the technical training exercises, trainees will support the construction of model homes for some of the most vulnerable households within their training zones. The aged, widows, orphans, and the sick who have no one to care for them will be the primary beneficiaries of the model homes. The training of local artisans will emphasis demonstration of improved construction techniques, including the use of appropriate foundations, aprons and plastering to protect the walls of buildings. Improved design and construction of thatch and flat roofs will also be emphasized. Block-fabrication and foundation construction support component
SADA will liaise with the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) train individuals within communities on fabrication of Soil-Stabilized Blocks (SSBs) or similar strong, water-resistant blocks with low cement content. NDA will then provide funding for the acquisition of the appropriate block-making machines such as RAM presses for the production of such improved blocks. The block production will be done at sites central to multiple communities to facilitate access by surrounding communities.
Provision of material support to needy household for rehabilitation of houses Although the improved bricks and block productions will be established and managed as commercial enterprises, SADA will use the voucher system to provide assistance to needy households to access these materials for the reconstruction of their collapsed houses as follows:
• 100% subsidy for the purchase of improved bricks will be provided to households that lost all their housing during the floods of 2007 and have not been able to rebuild.
• 50% subsidy will be provided to households that lost part of their housing only or those who have been able to rebuild part of their collapsed houses and are currently using such facilities as habitable structures
• Households in flood affected areas that experienced little or no damage to their houses will able to procure the improved construction materials at production cost in order to rebuild structurally improves houses against the next round of floods. In such cases, the SADA will absorb the difference between the cost price and market value of the bricks/blocks.
Vouchers will also be provided for the procurement of non-block materials such as roofing materials (corrugated metal sheets, thatch, or tiles), structural timber, and plastering materials such as cement and coal tar for the construction of the model houses. This is to enhance the water- and disaster-resistance of the model buildings
Organization of technical support for post disaster housing construction
To ensure that beneficiary households for the housing rehabilitation initiatives have access to appropriate technical support that ensures the proper use of the improved construction materials, SADA will liaise with appropriate agencies such as the Department of Rural Housing, the National Youth Employment Programme, NADMO, among others to organize trained artisans into work teams that will work with affected households in the reconstruction of their houses. SADA will provide vouchers to the beneficiary households for use in paying for the services of the work teams. Rates for work done will be pre-negotiated with the SADA and the work teams and beneficiary
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families will make payments only after the completion of the agreed construction assignments. The Local NADMO officers or District Assembly members will certify the completion of work to SADA before the vouchers paid to the construction teams are authorized for redemption at banks and other financial outlets accessible to the work teams. Co-opt the services of quality control agencies
To ensure quality control in the construction phase of the model homes, SADA will work with Department of Rural Housing, the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (AESL) and other public construction supervision institutions to develop standard guidelines for the construction of the model homes. Trained inspectors from these agencies will then be deployed to provide roving technical assistance and inspection of work during the construction phases. The on-site guidance and technical support will help reinforce best practices and quality control in the housing sector. Reports from the inspection teams will be evaluated to determine the quality of work of the construction teams before vouchers are honoured.
Establish Disaster Shelter Preparedness and Response Initiatives
As part of disaster risk reduction and preparedness initiatives, SADA will also work with District Assemblies to maintain and frequently upgrade the skills of trained disaster response teams of artisan who will be ready to rapidly deploy and build appropriate shelter for people in times of disaster, using locally available materials as much as possible. Promote Disaster Awareness and Risk Reduction Initiatives
SADA will also work with NADMO, NGOs, and other allied organizations to promote disaster risk reduction training in all districts of the north, but most especially in communities lying within disaster prone zones, especially the flood plains along the drainage routes of major rivers. The aim is to raise awareness on suitability of potential construction sites, water flow patterns, appropriate construction techniques to minimize impact of disasters, etc. Similarly, SADA will support for community mapping exercises to identify appropriate and inappropriate sites for construction. Information from such mapping exercise may also be used to negotiate any necessary shifting of households from one location to another, if possible.
5.4 Sustaining Improved Housing and Shelter Development
For the medium to long term development of appropriate housing infrastructure, SADA will develop and promote a coordinated shelter response strategy that builds on local capacities, resources, and knowledge systems to provide improved and affordable housing, especially in the rural areas. SADA will do this through the promotion of rural Housing Development Entrepreneurships initiatives among artisans and other stakeholders. Interventions to achieve this will include, but not limited to the following:
5.4.1: Stimulate the set up of rural housing development enterprises
Harness the human resource potentials of artisans and engineers trained from the vocational and technical schools, as well as, the engineering schools of the polytechnics and Universities to develop small and medium scale private sector led housing industry. Groups of artisans will be supported to set up business entities (cooperatives, partnerships, or limited liability companies) that specialize in specific domains of the value chain of housing development e.g. design and engineering services, materials development and marketing (making and selling of different types of bricks, blocks, and roofing materials), masonry, carpentry, etc. The interventions will also
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include the retraining and mainstreaming of existing artisans working as day labourers or sole proprietors to become more viable businesses capable of playing structured roles in the housing industry.
5.4.2: Support Access to Business Development Services
Provide business development and training services to support the development and management of viable commercial enterprises in the housing sector. This would include training in business management, accounting, and the establishment of simple but effective financial management systems, etc.
5.4.3: Facilitate Access to Financial Services for Housing Schemes
Establishment of a loans scheme with the participation of banks for the development and commercial production of appropriate building materials such as compressed sun-dried mud bricks, landcrete bricks, cut laterite stones, and sandcrete blocks with high percentage of local material content to make the affordable. The loans scheme will also provide start up and working capital to support the housing entrepreneurial activities of the construction enterprises.
5.4.4: Upgrade Technical Skills of Artisans
SADA will work with the vocational and technical schools as well as the polytechnics, universities and specialized institutions such as the BRRI and the Department of Rural Housing and Cottage Industries to provide regular skills improvement training to local artisans in the use of new or improved building materials and construction techniques. In this way, competency levels will be frequently upgraded to ensure that local artisans are able to deliver quality services to support the development objectives of the SADA.
5.4.5: Support research on housing development
The SADA will also promote research on the development and/or improvement of the quality and aesthetics in the use of local building material for housing and other infrastructure construction. In this respect, research into the improving the quality, aesthetics, and durability of materials used for the thatch roofs will be supported. Particular attention will be paid to the promotion of waterproofing techniques to extend the lifespan of thatch. Similarly, SADA will work with the BRRI and other building materials development institutes to promote the use of locally produced burned bricks, landcrete bricks, and pozzolana cement, among others to enhance the durability of housing while reducing the cost of construction, especially in the rural areas.
5.5 Improving Water Resource Management for Sustainable Development
The Northern Savannah Ecological Belt is blessed with the multiple drainage systems of the Volta Rivers. Unfortunately, the incidences of droughts and floods, as well as, the shortage of potable water in major settlements within reach of these drainage systems that the north experiences are directly attributable to the ineffective management of water resources within these watersheds for domestic and productive uses. First, poor planning and inadequate coordination between Ghana’s watershed management authorities and their counterparts in upstream countries responsible for water resource management along the same drainage systems increase the risks of damage to vulnerable communities in the pathways upstream water discharges. The impact of the 2007 floods
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in northern Ghana, for instance, was exacerbated by the spillage of excess water from the Barre hydroelectric dam in upstream Burkina Faso.19 Given the emerging trends of heavier than usual rains in the Sahel in recent times, putting in place an appropriate policy framework with community input will be essential.
Within Ghana, disconnected policies, disparate institutional responsibilities, and uncoordinated actions lead to the ineffective and competitive management of water resources. For instance, the Ghana Water Company and the Irrigation Development Authority, the Volta River Authority, and more recently the Bui Dam Authority, all of which use the same water bodies for their core businesses, are governed by different policy frameworks that are not coordinated. Besides, communities living along these rivers and their tributaries have little contact with these institutions to ensure a shared interest in the judicious and sustainable management of these water bodies for mutually beneficial purposes. As a result, communities farming along the banks of these rivers in desperate search for reliable cropping systems are creating silting of these rivers, which eventually increases flooding. Added to this is the limited investment in infrastructure for the development and management of surface water systems such as rivers, dams, and dugouts for domestic and productive uses. For instance, surface water sources fed by the same drainage systems that are the sources of the floods could constitute the major source of potable water for large settlements in northern Ghana, as well as serving as the means to manage surface water catchment to mitigate the effects of drought or floods. However, there is limited development of mechanisms for capturing, storing, and using surface water from these drainage systems, even for brief moments after the rains for domestic and productive uses. This constitutes a major obstacle to promoting more robust livelihood systems that would reduce vulnerability of communities within the catchment basins of these drainage systems to the vagaries of the climate. In brief, achieving the vision of a forested north will require sustainable management of water resources that enable crop, livestock, and other agricultural production to flourish. This will require: 5.5.1: Improvement in the management of watersheds of the main drainage systems This will include promoting initiatives for the protection and desilting of important drainage systems such as the Volta Rivers to preserve these drainage systems. To achieve this, SADA will work with institutions such as the Volta Basin Authority, the Water Resources Commission, the Global Water Initiative, the West Africa Water Institute, among others to learn what they are doing and to leverage their interventions for stimulating and sustaining enhanced community participation in the management of the Volta Basin watershed and associated resources for sustainable economic growth and the achievement of the vision of a forested north.
5.5.2: Promotion of different types of sustainable irrigation systems
Promote sustainable irrigation systems, especially small-scale, community-managed systems that support diversified uses. Use of off surface water drainage systems such as tube wells, dugouts, and boreholes where underground water resources exist. In addition, ensure more efficient and effective management of existing large-scale irrigation facilities (Bontanga, Tono, and Vea) in ways that provide opportunities for increased participation of a large number of poor people.
19 Although the authorities in Ghana were forewarned before the spillage, it is not clear what coordinated plans are in place to
ensure that both sides took the needed precautionary measures to minimize the impact of the spillage.
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Consider the promotion of water-harvesting technologies for domestic and productive uses. To improve the collection, management and usage of rainwater, the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority will support rainwater harvesting initiatives at the household, community, institutional levels through support for the identification, development, and deployment of simple but effect rain harvesting techniques. Special emphasis will be given to promoting the construction of cost-effective storage facilities for households, schools, health facilities and other community-managed water reservoirs. 5.5.3: Development and use of Wetlands
Develop and use of wetlands for agricultural and ecotourism purposes, as the opportunities arise. Such initiatives will be community-managed to ensure shared ownership and stakes in the preservation of the wetlands.
5.5.4: Reduce the impact of future floods through the promotion of watershed protection and management initiatives using the planting of trees and/or the protection of vegetative cover along the banks of main drainage systems in the north.
5.5.5: Promote the development and management of flood control systems through the construction of flood water diversion ducts and catchment reservoirs along flood plains to control surface run-offs and over spillage. This will entail sponsorship of studies that identify appropriate points where water diversion and containment should occur with minimal damage to existing livelihoods while providing opportunities for the re-use of the water for productive purposes. To this end, the SADA will also support research into means for managing flood waters. This will include support for the identification of flood trigger points along major water bodies for the construction of dykes and flood water diversion and catchment facilities, as means to minimizing the impacts of floods while ensuring that flood waters are captured and stored for productive community activities e.g. fish farming, dry season gardening, among other economic uses.
5.6 Sustainable Livelihoods and Enhanced Disaster Risk Reduction
For the medium to long term, the key to reducing the exposures and vulnerability of people in the north to disasters lies in the creation of sustainable livelihoods for the people. Central to this must be efforts to promote sustainable food security through the re-launch of agriculture as the entry point for increased food production and agro-industrial development. The initiatives must lead to the creation of the enabling environments for increased resilience and sustainable livelihoods of the people through the expansion and deepening of economic activities in the north. This should include possible changes in the types and/or scale of economic activities available to the north. Specific initiatives to increase community resilience and capacity to mitigate the impact of disasters in a forested north include the following:
5.6.1: Enhancing Food and Livelihood Securities
What needs to be done in the agricultural sector to bring northern Ghana closer to its vision of a forested north is captured in Chapter 3 of this plan. With respect to disaster risk reduction, however, suffice it to mention that the north needs to reduce the impact of chronic, seasonal, and transitory food insecurity on its citizens. Accordingly, the SADA needs to retool, intensify, and expand on the agricultural extension and support service delivery systems in ways that support the transformation of agriculture to restore the north to its position as the bread basket of the country, and indeed, in the West Africa sub-region.
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The small and medium scale farmers must harness the natural resource base of the north and the competitive advantage that the current global food crisis offer to produce for and capture markets in the Sahelian countries lying to the north of the country. This must be in addition to taking advantage of the sizeable local markets, including the one emerging from the planned expansion of the school feeding program based on the purchase of locally available food. To support this, the SADA must use tested models for agro-enterprise development to shift agricultural production away from it current subsistent approach to commercially viable enterprises. This will entail the acquisition and establishment of land banks in agricultural enclaves to encourage large scale production of crops that have high rates of return in their value chains. For the transformation of the agricultural sector to take effect, space must be created for increased private sector participation in the planning and delivery of agricultural extension services, especially in the rural areas. The successful example of the ITFC should be a guide. Services to be provided should include extension training and business development services for farmers. The adoption of pro bono service orientations for extension delivery should encourage the retooling of the extension delivery systems of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture away from a civil service orientation to a commercially oriented and/or performance based service. Accordingly, staff levels and remuneration packages for extension staff within the Ministries should be redesigned to be determined by proven records of successful extension service delivery in specified zones.
5.6.2: Rebuilding Social Safety Nets for the Vulnerable
The breakdown of traditional safety nets increases the vulnerability of the aged, orphans, widows, differently disabled persons, and other people without adequate family support mechanisms to increased poverty and deprivation. While the initiation of the Government’s LEAP project, as well as the Health Insurance scheme should offer some solace, these programs are not far reaching enough to cover the large number of people who find themselves in these categories. To ensure that the needs of all such people are covered as much as possible, the SADA will work with established institutions with safety net and welfare programs to strengthen their capacity to continue and/or expand on their outreach services. The welfare service delivery wings of faith-based organisations, as well as, private institutions such as the Shekhinah clinic in Tamale, will be targeted for special support.
5.6.3: Assuring Human Safety and Security
Recurrent conflicts in northern Ghana have been the major source of human-made disasters that have repeatedly caused considerable dislocation and displacement of people, as well as, destruction to live and property of already impoverished groups. Besides the disruption to the routine economic activities of the affected populations, the recurrence of conflicts is a major source of disincentive to investors whose capital inflows could have created jobs and opportunities for wealth for the population in the north. While several state and non-state agencies have invested considerable effort and resources in promoting peace in various parts of the north, much of this has not resulted in lasting solution largely because of the ephemeral and often uncoordinated, if not competitive approaches used by these agencies.
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Achieving the vision of a forested north, therefore, requires that conflict resolution, peace-building and human safety and security concerns have to be central to the functions of the SADA and its partners. In furtherance of this, the SADA will invest in the promotion of peace and human safety and security in the north through effective coordination of the activities of the various conflicts resolution and peace-building agencies operating in the north. This is to ensure that more concerted and complementary approaches are used in dealing with the triggers of violent conflicts.
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CHAPTER SIX
FOOD, LIVELIHOOD SECURITY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION
The process of achieving the vision of a “forested north” has to start with expanding economic opportunities for socio-economic growth. However a sizeable proportion of the residents of the north are vulnerable, subsisting within fragile ecosystems and presently excluded from the economic nexus poor. This strategy recognizes a confluence of historical and contemporary policy failures have perpetuated the conditions of risks, vulnerabilities, and poverty in the north that constrain the ability of citizens of the north to take advantage of economic opportunities that exist and those that might be created in the areas through alternative long-term development policies. A modicum of special initiatives is required to enable poor households step out of their poverty traps and step up to the challenges of rebuilding their livelihoods. These bridge-over initiatives are necessary for creating the enabling environments and capacities for the people of the north to participate actively in the development process. Enhanced food and income security of households are essential for reducing the exposure of households in the north to risks and vulnerabilities associated with their natural environment. To achieve this, a set of pro-poor initiatives that create synergies between growth and social
protection to ensure sustainable and inclusive development in the north are needed. First is a set of interventions designed to protect the rights of the most vulnerable households in the north to basic needs. Second set of interventions lay out what needs to be done to build solid foundations for the effective participation of the economically active poor in the growth and development processes. Third are interventions to help poor households in the north transition into mainstream economic activities.
6.1 Protecting Vulnerable Populations
This set of interventions are designed to ensure that population groups most at risk of being marginalized from the development process due to their current socio-economic circumstances are protected and given the opportunity to rebuild their individual and community assets for sustainable livelihoods. This must be done in ways that recognize and uphold the dignity of people through protection of the most vulnerable while creating the conditions for them to take control of their own livelihoods. Details of these initiatives are provided below.
6.1.1 Upholding the Rights and Entitlement of the poor to basic needs
Securing the rights of the most vulnerable population segments in the north to basic needs such as food, shelter, and medical care at all times is central to the SADA strategy of ensuring that all population groups have the opportunity to participate actively in the development process of the north. Accordingly, the SADA will support the following initiatives to ensure that vulnerable population groups, especially those most affected by disasters, such as the droughts and floods of 2007 are able to meet their basic needs and rebuild their assets for equitable participation in productive activities. This will be done through the following interventions: i). Direct Food & Nutrition Assistance to Most Vulnerable Population:
Presently, a sizeable proportion of the districts in the northern savannah belt are recipients of food aid at critical periods of the year. The joint assistance group that conducted a survey in 2007 after the droughts and sudden floods identified some of the most vulnerable districts and the extremely
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serious at-risk populations to reside in the flood plains, which are also susceptible to droughts. The set of initiatives under this programming area are designed to protect most vulnerable populations from want of basic needs in normal times and in times of emergencies. As a first step to achieving this, the SADA will support initiatives that improve the entitlements of poor and most vulnerable households to food and good nutrition. This will involve food distribution to most vulnerable indigent population groups (widows, orphans, sick, especially people living with HIV/AIDS, etc) either directly or through a voucher system. The aim is to increase the availability of food to the poor. ii). Quick Launch Community Resilience and Livelihoods Rebuilding Initiatives
This will seek to address the loss of seeds, inputs, financial assets, and access to productive resources resulting from the floods of 2007 and the aftermath of other disasters such as droughts, floods, or conflicts. The initiative will aim at stimulating the rebuilding of livelihoods and economic growth as the most viable ways to increasing community resilience, poverty reduction and wealth creation in the north. As part of the initiatives each household will receive vouchers to enable them procure inputs and services sufficient to cultivate one (1) acre of the crop of choice. The initiative will target support for local staples such as maize, sorghum, millet, and rice, as well as, lentils and pulses, such as cowpea, pigeon pea, and groundnuts that have high food and/or commercial value. Farmers, will, however, have the right to choose the mix of crops to invest in. Beneficiary farmers will supplement the vouchers and other production costs with their own resources. The model in Appendix III uses maize and cowpea to demonstrate how the scheme will be expected to work. Input requirements for different crops will be calculated as and when required. In response to the need to provide a short-term lifeline food support for 2007 Drought and Flood Victims, the SADA will collaborate with food and livelihood assistance agencies (WFP, UNICEF, UNDP) and other CSOs (CRS, CARE) to support 1,000 poorest and most vulnerable households in each of the 26 out of the 35 districts in the north that were affected by the droughts and floods in 2007. The intervention provides access to food to households that lost all or part of their farm produce and/or livestock during the 2007 cropping season. To achieve this, the SADA (possibly using resources from the NSDFund) will enable the relevant executing agencies to provide food vouchers to the affected families to enable them access food in the local markets. Each of the identified households will receive vouchers enough to purchase the equivalent of one bag of maize at going market prices. At the average price of GH¢60 per bag of maize, this intervention will therefore put GH¢1,560,000 directly into the hands of 6,500 poor families to enable them access food that would tide them over the most critical periods of the hunger season, namely June, July and August. This means that between the 1,000 most affected families covering an average of 6 people in each of the 26 districts targeted in this post disaster rehabilitation intervention, the program expects to cover at least 156,000 people. iii).Increasing the Availability of and Access to Food and Water
Increasing the availability of and access to food and water in the north will be achieved through interventions that support increased food production, processing, and marketing within the north and the promotion of initiatives that put money in the hands of families so that they can meet their food needs from the market, when their own production is insufficient. Most of these are detailed out in the agribusiness component of the Northern Savannah Development Strategy (NSDS). Increasing the availability of and access to food will, however, also involve promoting the development and institutionalization of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that support good nutritional practices in the utilization of food as well as healthy lifestyles.
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Though the value of the voucher is based on the price of maize, participating families may choose to purchase any combination of foods as they wish to maximize the value of the vouchers for their food needs. The design and operation of the voucher system, as well as, the criteria for selecting participants are fully described in Appendix II. iv). Strengthen Institutional Collaboration for Safety Net Programs:
To ensure adequate and sustained coverage of hard to reach areas in the provision of relief and/or welfare support to vulnerable population groups, the SADA would leverage existing social safety net programs of Civil Society organizations to reach out to the poor. This is in recognition that though they may not have the resources to operate, several NGOs, especially the faith-based ones have accumulated experience and credible networks for reaching out to very vulnerable population groups in hard to reach areas efficiently and effectively. The NSDFund will seek to leverage such capacities, in times of need, to ensure that relief support is delivered to those in need within the shortest possible time, and in a manner that is cost effective. For this reason, the NSDFund will maintain a data base of institutions that are capable of delivering such services, specifying their geographical areas of operation, their technical and logistics capacities, and staff strength among others. Such information will be updated annually to ensure currency and relevance at all times.
6.2 Building the Foundations for Economic Growth through Food Security for All
Chronic food insecurity, characterized by high rates of malnutrition, morbidity and mortality, especially among children has been the bane of development in the north. It is also a cause of permanent and seasonal out migration of the youth to the south in search of employment. Guaranteeing food security for the vulnerable of the north is, therefore, a necessary precondition for mobilizing them for effective participation in the accelerated economic growth initiatives envisaged in this plan. It is an essential first step for enabling poor households to bridge over into more sustainable conditions of food and livelihood security.
6.2.1 Increasing access to food
Initiatives under this category aim at increasing the purchasing power of poor households for food and essential services through the promotion of income generation activities that increase the financial resource base of poor household. To this end, the SADA will:
• Promote market-oriented all season gardening initiatives, among other initiatives. Under this, the SADA will work with communities to harness existing and potential water sources – hand-dug wells, dugouts, dams, rivers, marsh lands, etc for the promotion of selected crops for commercial production as local value chain analysis permit. To the extent possible, farmers’ cooperatives will be linked to produce marketing agencies and outlets within and outside the north to provide ready markets to farmers. Such agencies will be contracted to provide value-addition training and capacity building services to ensure that farmers are accessing the best markets available within and outside Ghana, as well as, getting the best possible returns on their produce.
• Promote Strategic Food Reserves Initiatives: to further enhance financial capacity of poor
households to access food throughout the year, SADA will support the development and effective management of strategic food reserves in selected production zones across the north. In particular, reserves of staple food crops such as sorghum, maize, rice, among others that can be stored easily in bulk storage facilities will be targeted for development. The initiative will contribute to inter-seasonal price stabilization for staple crops, thereby enhancing the capacity of poor households to access food all year round.
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6.2.2 Improving food utilization and healthy lifestyles
While food availability and access all year round are definitely a problem for the north, food insecurity, especially in urban areas, is partly structurally determined by the changing tastes and consumption habits that have steered people away from locally available and often nutritionally better foods to imported, and sometimes poor quality substitutes. To address this structural deficiency in access and utilization of food, the SADA will work with appropriate agencies to:
i). Intensify education of the population on healthy eating lifestyles, especially those that can be based on the consumption of local foods and diets. The Ghana Health Service (GHS) in particular and other health promotion institutions will be supported to develop creative ways to promote healthy lifestyles and eating habits.
ii). Research, validation, and promotion of healthy local diets: this is essential in supporting the
healthy lifestyle education initiatives above. According, SADA will work with Nutrition Department of the School of Health Sciences of the University for Development Studies (UDS), the Food and Drugs Board, and the Ghana Standards Board to research and propagate the nutritional properties of local foods, fruits, and diets. This will include the documentation and dissemination of culinary best practices that promote the adoption of indigenous menus for a healthy living.
6.3 Transitioning the Poor into mainstream productive economy
In addition to protecting the most vulnerable and supporting the economically active poor to build their foundations for participating actively in economic growth initiatives, there is the need to create enabling environments that encourage the poor to increase their investments in agricultural and non agricultural initiatives. Critical among these are initiatives that support risk minimization, as well as, growth-oriented asset accumulation and management for poor families.
6.3.1 Supporting Risk minimization strategies
Institutionalizing of Early Warning Systems: SADA will work with the Ghana Meteorological Services and other research stations to build their capacity for predicting climate-related disasters such as droughts and floods. A mechanism for disseminating the information through radio, TV, cell phones and other forms of communication would be established to ensure that communities take precautionary measures to avert the impact of the disasters.
Similarly, SADA will coordinate with the Ghana office of the West Africa Network for Peace Building (GHANEP) and other government and NGO agencies working in the areas of peace and security to strengthen existing early warning systems for conflicts in the north so that pre-emptive action can be taken to avert the outbreak of violence or minimise their effects, if they occur.
i). The establishment of a rapid disaster response fund: To ensure that people affected by major
disasters receive immediate support while the government and the donor community mobilise resources, it is proposed that a sum not exceeding 5 percent of annual budget for the implementation of the Northern Savannah Development Strategy be set aside in a disaster contingency fund. The fund will be used to respond to the immediate needs, such as food and
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shelter, of victims of natural and human made disasters. Disbursements will be done to agencies that have proven track record and the capacities to rapidly deliver such support in efficient and cost-effective ways.
ii). Leveraging existing social safety net programs of faith-based organizations to reach out to the poor: Though they may not have the resources to operate, several NGOs, especially the faith-based ones have accumulated experience and credible networks for reaching out to very vulnerable population groups in hard to reach areas efficiently and effectively. Such experiences and networks will be leveraged to ensure that relief support is delivered to those in need within the shortest possible time, and in a manner that is cost effective.
iii). Strengthening community resilience:
This will focus on the protection of vulnerable groups in the north through the development and institutionalization of the appropriate response mechanisms. The aim is to reduce the exposure of households to risks and vulnerabilities due to external shocks such as droughts and floods, cyclical events such as recurrent conflicts, and trends relating to rising fuel and food prices in the global market that have a negative impact on livelihoods in the north. The interventions would also involve institutionalizing safety net programming to lead to stabilizing and/or enhancing the income earning capacities of the communities in disaster prone areas in particular, and the north as a whole.
iv). Stimulating economic growth for the poor requires the adoption of innovative approaches and
technologies to increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness in production. However, as would be expected, the poor households in northern Ghana are averse to taking risks in the investment of their limited resources, especially since they are dependent on erratic rain-fed agriculture for their source of livelihoods. The SADA will adopt tested strategies and mechanisms for risk minimization.
To overcome this challenge, the SADA and other stakeholders will explore and support the development of crop insurance packages from regular insurance companies. In particular, packages that provide protection against floods, droughts, bushfires and other natural and/or human-made disasters that increase risks for large scale agricultural initiatives will be considered.
6.3.2 Asset accumulation, diversification and improved management
Effective participation in a growth-oriented economic process requires a strong asset base for households and communities. This is a necessary precondition for bringing them into the economic processes. To achieve this, the SADA will focus on two related initiatives at the individual and communal levels, as described below: i. Community Asset Protection and Development Initiatives
Interventions under this module will focus on the development of community capacities for improved management of communal resources for protective and productive purposes. Emphasis will be placed on interventions as follows:
• Community Resource Protection initiatives will include providing technical and material support to communities for developing and protecting watersheds and other communal water resources through increasing tree cover on the banks of water bodies such as rivers, dams, streams). These initiatives will enable communities help check siltation of water sources
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through soil erosion along the banks of the water sources and reduced water loss through evapo-transpiration. In the long run, improved vegetative cover along water course ways will contribute the creation of microclimates that would favour the production of different kinds of crops.
• Enhancing Productive Capacities of community Resources: SADA and partners will support initiatives that promote improved use of existing water resources for multiple productive uses such as: o Development and use of water resources for agricultural purposes such as irrigated
horticulture and food crop production; o Development of fish farming and other aqua culture techniques as sources of income o Development of pastures for livestock, which can be designed as pay as your animals graze
fields for livestock owners; o Development of ecotourism initiatives such as the Crocodile Ponds of Paga in the Upper
East Region and the hippopotamus sanctuary at Wechau in the Upper West Region, the Kintampo Waterfalls in the Brong Ahafo Region, among others.
ii. Promotion of household/personal asset accumulation initiatives.
Most communities in northern Ghana, especially those beyond regional and district capitals have very limited access to financial resources for their social and productive purposes. Unless something is done to change this situation, the participation of people in such areas in the economic growth processes will remain a mirage. To address this challenge, the SADA will aggressively pursue programs that increase access to financial services in the rural north. In particular, personal and household asset accumulation and development initiatives will be designed around the promotion of savings culture, especially in rural areas through:
• Enhancing the role of Rural and Community Banks in savings mobilization and in the provision of customized financial services that meet the needs and conditions of the poor.
• Promoting alternate savings mobilization initiatives for the unbankable majority, especially women — the SILC methodology.
• Promotion of Information, Education and Communication initiatives that help the poor to realign their investment prioritisation in ways that enable them to move away from social consumption investments to economic investments.
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PART II
ENHANCING THE PRE-CONDITIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHERN GHANA
CHAPTER SEVEN
STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
7.0: Introduction
The economic environment in the North is harsh for investment and profitability of economic activities. Infrastructural inadequacies in road, transportation and communications networks, water resources, as well as energy imply heavy initial investment and reduced profitability in undertaking economic activities. Limited human capital, especially the level and quality of education and skills development and the diminishing effect that poor health facilities have on human capital formation, create problems in terms of attracting economic activities and retaining labour. Poor health facilities are a disincentive to investors. Perceptions of instability and conflict reduce the risk-adjusted returns to investment and divert resources to other uses. For any programme of economic and social transformation to succeed, there must be coordinated investment to eliminate infrastructural constraints, improve the human capital base, and create the economic conditions necessary to attract, retain, and increase the profitability of investments as well as increase the equitable realization of benefits among all socio-economic categories. Such investments in infrastructural development must be strategic and purposeful and must anticipate the transformation programme in order to facilitate it. For this reason, Part II of the SADA examines the pre-conditions for sustainable development and inclusive socio-economic growth by outlining:
• A focus on strategic infrastructure – roads, improved water resources, energy • Alignment of basic social infrastructure in education and health with the human resource
implication of the sustainable development and growth focus • Priority in establishing peace-building and conflict mitigation strategies to create the
enabling environment for investments
7.1 Transport Infrastructure
The objectives of road infrastructural development include: a) positioning the North as a competitive economic zone to trade with the Sahelian countries; b) reduce transaction costs; c) connect various settlements to major markets within the North to facilitate economic activities; d) facilitate trade between the North and the South; and e) promote intra-regional trade in the North.
7.1.1 Objective 1: Positioning the North as a Competitive Economic Zone
While there is no shortage of the proposed road network and prioritization for the North, none considers the road network as an input into developing a competitive economic zone. Our concept of the Northern market extends the market of the North to include the Sahelian countries, Northern Togo and Northern La Cote d’Ivoire. The idea is to create an economic zone encompassing these
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countries and Northern Ghana. This expands the size of Northern Ghana market within which enterprises establish and compete. It also offers opportunities for Northern Ghana to develop a competitive economic zone within this broader zone.
Figure 7.1: Circular Road Network in Northern Ghana
Saboba
Yendi
Bawku Bongo
Wa
Tolon
Wechau
Tumu Sandema
Savelugu
Tamale
Damongo
Sawla
Walewale
Navrongo
Lawra
Bole
Nadowli
Bolgatanga
Kintampo
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Strategy The strategy is to prioritize the road network in Northern Ghana with priority given to what we refer to as the competitive zone. There are several master road networks for Ghana with priorities set. However, within the context of developing a competitive Northern Ghana economy there is a circular road network that must be tackled first. This network consists of the trunk roads and highways connecting Tamale through Fufulso to Wa, from Wa through Tumu to Navrongo, Bolgatanga, and back to Tamale. The North cannot develop as a competitive economic zone unless the circular road networks involved are done. This circular road facilitates intra-regional trade within the North, easing the movement of goods and persons from one region to the other. The parts of this circular road network which remain gravel roads are the Fufulso to Sawla of about 160 kilometres, the Wa-Tumu section of 135 kilometres, and the Tumu to Chirnaa section of about 80 kilometres. These sections have to have the first priority in the development of any road network for the North. This circular road network is marked out in Figure 7.1. This circular road network is to be complemented by the trunk roads/highways connecting Northern Ghana to Southern Ghana and the Sahelian countries. They consist of the western corridor, from Hamile through Wa-Bole and Techiman. This road links Ghana to the commercial centres of Burkina Faso, Bobo Diolasso. The central corridor runs from Paga, Tamale, to Techiman. This connects to Ouagadougou which is the national capital of Burkina Faso. Finally, there is the eastern corridor running from Bawku East, Gushiegu, Yendi, and Bimbilla to Nkwanta. All these road networks exist in different forms and have also been identified as part of the Trunk Road master Plan for Ghana. The argument here is to give greater priority than they have received so far as an input to creating a Northern Economic Zone for Ghana. The development of this road network should facilitate trade between the North (including the Sahel region) and South of Ghana. Most of the eastern corridor from Bawku East to Yendi and the western corridor from Nadowli through Nandom and then Hamile are gravel-surfaced. In terms of intra-ECOWAS trade and the broader Northern Economic Zone, these roads will rank second in priority. For the proposed road networks to have maximum economic benefits it must be multi-model transportation systems. This implies that in addition to roads certain activity nodes such as pack houses, markets, car services, etc. must be provided.
7.1.2 Objective 2: Opening Up and Facilitating Economic Activities
Poor road networks can render otherwise viable economic projects unviable. They hamper the realization of comparative advantage through their effects on transaction costs: a) time delays in the delivery of goods and services; b) damage to goods in transit with resultant quality deterioration; c) inadequate goods vehicles and poor road network imply higher transport costs in the movement
of goods, inputs, and persons; and d) inability to exploit the tourism potential of the North Poor road networks can deprive areas of potential competitive production as they have no access to markets. In general it is estimated that the effects of transport difficulties on trade of developing countries exceed the effects of tariffs.
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In Table 7.1 below, we reproduce the length and state of feeder roads by districts in the North. As indicated, almost all feeder roads in the North have either gravel or earth surfaces. These become impossible to traverse during rainy seasons. Apart from the poor state of the feeder roads, several areas have no access to markets. A similar pattern can be observed for Tain, Kintampo South, Kintampo North, Pru and Sene in the Brong Ahafo Region and Krachi West and Nkwanta in the Volta Region. Table 7.1: Road Statistics of Northern Ghana classified by condition mix and surface type
Total Length CONDITION MIX OF ROADS SURFACE TYPE OF ROAD
(kilometres) Good (km) Fair (km) Poor (km) Bitumen (km) Gravel (km) Earth (km)
Bawku East 606.56 258.20 216.93 131.43 4.40 352.63 249.53
Bawku West 279.42 187.83 68.44 23.15 10.00 220.44 48.98
Bole 591.57 165.22 260.94 165.41 - 347.03 244.54
Bolgatanga 431.80 284.50 90.02 57.28 2.28 296.43 133.09
Bongo 155.28 122.48 30.93 1.87 - 97.68 57.60
Builsa 360.20 239.09 78.41 42.70 - 232.96 127.24
East Gonja 833.09 427.40 348.31 57.39 - 509.42 291.67
East Mamprusi 293.49 71.39 184.61 37.48 - 160.59 132.90
Gushiegu Karaga 434.89 202.08 127.72 105.09 - 379.74 21.34
Jirapa Lambussie 558.90 434.00 79.80 45.10 - 491.30 67.60
Klassena Nankana 322.73 193.58 91.37 37.78 5.25 201.61 115.87
Lawra 238.30 148.50 78.60 11.20 - 210.00 28.30
Nadowli 549.68 205.58 129.25 214.85 - 477.48 72.20
Saboba Chereponi 393.62 144.09 195.47 54.06 - 199.89 193.72
Savelugu Nanton 375.05 36.28 152.72 186.05 - 268.22 106.83
Sissala 703.10 147.52 204.80 350.78 - 527.45 175.65
Tamale 225.43 98.87 93.06 28.50 - 162.14 63.30
Tolon Kumbungu 383.89 1.06 147.81 235.02 - 209.12 174.77
Wa 1,104.84 445.33 361.28 297.84 0.70 701.34 402.40
West Gonja 789.59 334.52 403.96 51.12 - 340.37 449.22
West Mamprusi 369.21 129.13 172.25 67.83 - 201.51 167.70
Yendi 727.74 172.24 424.08 131.41 - 234.70 493.04
Zabzugu Tatele 481.15 198.60 220.37 62.18 - 199.15 282.00
Source: Department of Feeder Roads, Ministry of Roads and Highways, Accra
Strategy The key strategy is to develop a feeder road network that connects settlements to major market centres. The major market centres in the three Northern regions are reproduced in Table 7.2 below.
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Table 7.2: Market Centres in the Three Northern Regions of Ghana Northern Region Upper East Region Upper West Region 1. Tamale 1. Bolgatanga 1. Wa
2. Tolon 2. Bawku 2. Lawra
3. Savelugu 3. Zebila 3. Tumu
4. Bimbilla 4. Sandema 4. Nandom
5. Saboba 5. Garu 5. Babile
6. Walewale 6. Navrongo 6. Wachau
7. Langbensi 7. Fumbisi 7. Wellembele
8. Gushiegu
9. Salaga
10. Kpandai
11. Bole
12. Nyoli Source: District and Regional Administration offices of Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions Note: All market centres are district capitals.
The strategy for road networks is to also connect these market centres. Doing this may require effective decentralization. Currently, decisions on feeder roads are made in Accra (DFID, 2005). Connecting and tapping the economic potential is usually incidental to these decisions. To be effective, decisions about feeder roads must be made at regional or district administration levels. Decisions must be based on connecting and facilitating economic activities.
7.1.3 Objective 3: Facilitating Trade between the North and South
The highway/trunk road network described earlier can facilitate trade between the North and the South. In addition to the road network, alternative transportation systems can be developed: a) Water Transport
Water transportation provides a much cheaper means of transportation compared with roads. Water transportation between the North and the South has been used before. These have been in the form of cargo ferries between Akosombo and Buipe and also passenger transport to Yapei, on the Yapei River, the Yapei Queen. However, due to high costs and the silting of the river bed, these systems have been abandoned. There is the need to revive these abandoned water transportation systems as an alternative means of transport. To be competitive, in terms of costs, some competition must be introduced instead of allowing the system to be dominated by state monopolies.
b) Railway Transport
The proposed National Railway Network covers most of the critical components of the economic zone discussed earlier. Here, one can only call for the prioritization of the development of the system.
As indicated earlier, there is no shortage of the prioritization of the roads to be developed in the North. Indeed, the Damongo-Fufulso trunk road has appeared in the last two Budget Statements of the Government of Ghana as deserving some priority attention but no work has been done on it to date. The main problem in developing the road network in the North is political commitment and generating the necessary resources. One can address the resource constraints holding back the development of roads in the North as follows:
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i The road network must be seen as an input into economic development and poverty alleviation;
ii Part of the road fund could be committed to the development of roads in the North, This will allow private sector financing of road development;
iii Public-private sector partnership could be used with state underwriting the risks due to low volumes of traffic initially;
iv One could seek donor support; and v The state can access external loans for that purpose.
7.1.4 Special Production Zones
In addition to the road network opening up and reducing the potential of rural inaccessible areas, it may also be used to stimulate and help in the realization of two special production zones in the North. These two special areas are the Fumbisi and Katanga valleys.
1. Fumbisi Valley Straddling the three regions of the North, this area was infested with tsetse flies, causing river blindness and was abandoned. The flies here seem to have been eradicated but inadequacy of the road network has held back the development of this area. Access to this area, particularly during the rainy season, was not easy thus the area was called the “overseas” area. Capable of producing competitively several cereals, the area is fertile and flat. With an area of ....... hectares, the area covers parts of the three Northern regions. The construction of a bridge across the river has created access through Walewale. However, to realize its potential, the road network has to be developed and the area properly drained. There is a need for a study and analysis of infrastructural requirements of the area in order to relieve the vast agricultural potential locked up in the area.
2. Katanga Valley
The Katanga Valley is located in the Northern Region around Salaga. It is a vast expanse of valley capable of producing rice and other cereals. The potential of this area is also locked up by inadequate road infrastructure.
As in the case of the Fumbisi Valley, there is a need for a study and analysis of the infrastructural requirements for converting the comparative advantage of the area into a competitive advantage.
7.2 Human and Environmental Interactions in Northern Ghana
The problems of water scarcity are said to be increasing due to global desertification and climate change (Mwanza, 2003), but issues involving inability to meet water demands can chiefly result from conflicting requirements or concerns over land and water use. Common problems among these are growing urbanization, resulting in the development of additional water supplies, the need to meet increased water requirements for dry season irrigation, and conflicts over private property and public rights regarding water allocations. Other issues can involve trans-basin water sharing, and demands by various groups, such as pastoralists, farmers, etc (Loucks and van Beek, 2005).
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Damage due to flooding events is also becoming increasingly common and this comes as a direct result of development of floodplains for agriculture: an environment that is vulnerable to floods. The increased economic value of the development on floodplains is evaluated against increased expenditure on flood damage reduction measures. When a flood exceeding the capacity of existing flood protection works occurs, damaging results emerge. This cycle of increasing flood damage and cost of protection is a result of the increasing floodplain development (Loucks and van Beek, 2005).
7.2.1 Development Programme for the Upper West Region
Presence of Black Volta River and its tributaries in the region allows for ample exploration of the options such as pumping from the river and bunding with improved drainage, and these were considered by the TCP/GHA/2908, for districts along water courses. Total area suitable for this type of water development is estimated to be about 1600ha in about 13 different communities of four districts. However, along the main road in the region, connecting regional capital to districts and to the Northern Region, presence of culverts and bridges has been used to create small retention reservoirs and build soil moisture for dry season activities, based on the experiences with these types of developments used in Burkina Faso. As technology is already introduced in the region, it is proposed that these retention structures can be actively promoted in the rest of the Region and used wherever feeder roads development is envisaged as add-on infrastructure. Indicative areas suitable for this type of intervention are presented in Appendix I. Existing dams and dugouts created and/or rehabilitated during UWADEP create opportunity for water productivity increase interventions. There were about 19 projects carried out during UWADEP intervention. Expansion of irrigable area, improved efficiency of water use and promotion of new crops with high commercial value are all options to be considered under the NRGP and other in coming developments. Detailed information on their present status is available from the UWADEP project documents alongside problems that require attention. Studies carried under the VIP of dams and dugout sites provide very good background information for possible new infrastructure, but new dams and dugouts locations should be carefully considered in the view of population density, availability of roads to convey produce to the markets and efficiency and productivity compared to other possible water development options, before decisions are taken. This is all the more important considering the fact that dams are by far the most expensive of all the interventions proposed for the water resources development. In some cases, wind pumps, already piloted in the Sissala West District under the CBRDP, may be an alternative, as their cost is lower, and they also can provide water for humans, livestock and small-scale irrigation, but they are new to the project area and there may be adoption problems associated with their implementation and other unforeseen difficulties.
Less densely populated areas in the western parts of the Region, such as Sissala East and West, and parts of the Lawra Districts, for example, are suitable for a variety of soil and water conservation interventions and cultivation on the receding moisture, but these opportunities have hardly been explored by other projects and could be an interesting area for the future work, combined with the promotion of the less utilised but marketable crops grown in the area. Soil and water interventions can be implemented with an emphasis on the use of animal power, to promote natural advantages of the area.
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7.2.2 Development Programme for the Upper East Region
White Volta River was considered for pumping from the river and bunding with improved drainage options, by the TCP/GHA/2908, with about 2200 ha as total area suitable for this type of irrigation, in all the districts along water courses (Garu/Timpani, Bolgatanga, Talensi/Nabdam and others). Successful examples of these interventions from the LACOSREP II can be emulated and scaled up under the new project, together with new crops introduction (fresh maize, garlic, etc.). Current water melon cultivation along the Volta River banks in the Bawku West District can also be scaled up and promoted as market opportunities exist and are already explored by the farmers.
Road network options for the culverts and bridges with small retention reservoirs are suitable for the region, but these options are yet to be explored and actively carried out. They can be used wherever feeder roads development is envisaged. Exact area and locations that can be irrigated in this manner can be determined during feasibility study phase of the project, but indicative areas suitable for this type of intervention are presented in Appendix I. Existing dams and dugouts created during LACOSREP I and II are above 70, with other numerous agencies also active in this region, creating dams and dugouts (ActionAid, Catholic Diocese, CBRDP, etc.). All these reservoirs show real need for water in an essentially dry region, and create opportunity for water productivity increase interventions of NRGP. Water efficiency can be increased through drip irrigation, tested in the area by the ICRISAT at the moment, and other options include change from open to close conveyance systems already piloted under the LACOSREP II and some NGO interventions. CBRDP has also piloted wind mill in the Bawku District, and training of farmers is underway. Well chosen sites for dams/dugouts development may reduce equity problems created by orientation towards rehabilitation of the existing infrastructure in the past interventions. Studies carried out during VIP project may serve towards site selection alongside feasibility studies to be undertaken in future. Water users associations in the Region are very capable on some existing dams/dugouts, but others are not very efficient. There are opportunities to increase capacity of even the best existing WUAs, as well as to copy examples of social protection of vulnerable groups from the Upper West Region. Some initiatives are already taken in this regard in the Bawku District.
Less exploited areas in the parts of the Builsa District, are suitable for rice farming using bunding and had been subject of the World Bank interventions in this regard in the past (ex. Fumbisi Valley). These areas may be options for the work in the area of soil and water interventions and supplementary irrigation.
7.2.3 Development Programme for the Northern Region
Downstream portions of White Volta River were considered for pumping from the river and bunding with improved drainage options, by the TCP/GHA/2908, with about 2800 ha as total area in Daboya, Adaayili, Lingbuisa Kukuo, Dalun Teplinayili, Nawuni communities of the Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/Kumbungu and Tamale Districts. However, pumping is already on-going along the banks of the Naboggu and Nasia rivers (tributaries of White Volta) on the small-scale and can be evaluated and scaled-up, after the feasibility studies have been carried out.
There are other waste areas of the Northern region where above interventions have good prospects, especially around Daka/Oti river. These are opportunities to be used by the NRGP as cost of these options is the lowest and developed areas can be of considerable size. Parts of the East, West and Central Gonja, Nanumba North and South as well as Yendi and Zabzugu/Tatale Districts all have areas suitable for the pumping and improved drainage options. Introduction of the fish-rice culture
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on the basis of the practices carried out in the Niger River flood plains in Mali may be another very new but viable option to be piloted in the parts of the White Volta plains (Savelugu/Nanton district, for example) where bunded rice culture is already in existence after the past interventions of the World Bank and the AFD and cost of additional infrastructure would be lower for this reason.
Road network options for the culverts and bridges with small retention reservoirs are suitable for the region, with some new roads being currently constructed by DANIDA and CBRDP, while the others are considered under the NRGP during the feasibility study phase. Add-on irrigation options can be considered for implementation for all these on-going projects.
Demand for dams and dugouts are very great in the Northern Region, which has not been subject to interventions such as UWADEP and LACOSREP in the past. There is one larger (Bontanga) and two smaller dams built by GIDA in the region (Libga and Golinga, Figure 3). Due to its convenient location, Golinga project has been subject to testing of drip irrigation experimental implementation by the ICRISAT and other studies by SARI and UDS, while UDS and Water Resources Institute (WRI) field station in Tamale, have also carried out a number of fish pond, agronomic, and other studies on both Bontanga and Golinga projects. NORPREP is the IFAD funded project currently implemented in the region, with plans for some infrastructure for irrigation. Millennium Challenge Account interventions in water resources development area are considered for the five of the districts, while CBRDP planned construction of about 12 dams in various parts of the region, based on the earlier studies by the VIP and current updates, as well as completion of some of the projects started under the VIP. Some dams/dugouts have been constructed by various NGOs (ActionAid) in different districts (ex. Saboba/Chereponi). Planned interventions of the NRGP also take cognisance of well chosen sites for dams/dugouts development to reduce water demand in the region. Good examples 0f water management are scarce, but can be found on some VIP implemented projects, such as Gung in the Tolon/Kumbungu District, which is a wind mill irrigation site.
Some parts of the Bole and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Districts as well as West Gonja are suitable for expansion of SWC practices, with consideration also given to relatively low population densities. Such opportunities also exist in the East Mamprusi and Bunkpurugu Yunyuo, noted for traditional SWC practices. ‘Overseas’ areas of the West Mamprusi District is another area very suitable for the SWC/rice farming interventions.
7.3 Energy Production and Use in the North
Although several policy objectives and directives have been issued in several forms and at different times in the history of Ghana, this is the first time that we are attempting to develop an energy strategy to address the peculiar problem of the North. The development of energy resources of the North is constrained by the following problems:
i). the sustainable provision and security of energy supply; and ii). the deteriorating environmental conditions and ecological damage evidenced by high rates
of deforestation and desertification.
7.3.1 Strategic Objective 1
To enhance the efficient and equitable supply of energy to support and sustain the fragile economy and ecology of the North.
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Policy may be guided by the following principles:
i. Least cost principle to provide economic and reliable energy supplies that are dependable; ii. Diversification of our primary sources of energy recognizing the drought-like nature of the
North; iii. Assuring energy security through the development of local and indigenous resources; iv. Energy efficiency and conservation awareness creation; and v. Promotion and development of renewal energy technologies such as biomass, solar and
wind.
7.3.2 Renewable Energy — Policy Objectives
• Promotion and development of renewable energy technologies and the utilization of indigenous materials; e.g. biomass & bio-fuels, solar, wind, mini/small hydro, etc
• Promotion of solar photovoltaic systems for off grid electrification to position the north as a
source of alternative energy into the national grid;
• Improvement in the production, conversion and use of wood fuels at all socio-economic sectors;
Policy Guidelines
a) Renewable energy resources should be promoted and developed by providing incentives for private investments. Biomass production should be encouraged through assistance in the development of community woodlots and non-food crops for bio-fuels; and capital subsidies are to be provided for wind power plants and mini/small hydro development: four (4) sites (Pwalugu, Kalpawn, Daboya and Koulbi) have been identified for hydro electric power development. Some capital subsidy would encourage private development of these sites.
b) The sparsely populated and dispersed nature of communities in the Northern Savannah
Ecological Belt, especially in Upper East and Upper West regions lends itself to the deployment of solar PV home systems. Communities should therefore be encouraged with subsidies to own solar PV home systems as envisage in the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP). This, which will be a one-time expenditure, will substitute for the subsidies that Government grants for SHEP.
c) Government should encourage the utilization of efficient technologies for the production of
charcoal; and encourage the manufacture of efficient and improved cook stoves for deployment in the country especially in the North.
7.3.3 Petroleum — Policy Objectives
a) To ensure that petroleum products are available and in reliable supply quantities b) Sustain supply and use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas
Policy Guidelines
a) The supply chain of petroleum products should be studied and improved
b) Availability of LPG should be sustained
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c) Ensure availability LPG equipment
d) Public education on LPG safety
7.3.4 Electricity — Policy Objectives
a) Continue the expansion of the electricity networks through the national electrification scheme (NES) and the Self Help Electrification Programme (SHEP). The construction of the Bui dam may reduce transmission costs of such expansion.
b) Government is not always able to provide upfront funds for investments as such appropriate
incentives should be provided to the private sector to invest in the electricity supply chain to improve availability and reliability.
c) User education on productive uses of electricity to increase output of small-scale and
cottage industries should be intensified.
7.3.5 Energy Efficiency and Conservation – Policy Objectives and Strategy
a) The objective here is to ensure that wastage of energy is minimized
b) Energy efficient technologies and appliances should be promoted through demonstration.
7.3.6 Strategic Objective 2
To position of the Northern Savannah Ecological Belt as a source of alternative energy to the national grid. The Northern Savannah Ecological Belt has the highest period of sunshine in Ghana. The topology is flat. These two factors create a comparative advantage for the North in terms of solar production. There is a need to provide incentives through the national energy framework to invest in solar energy production for the national grid in the North. Private and public sector partnership may be necessary to deal with the huge initial investment costs involved.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
EDUCATION AND HEALTH FOR HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
Both education and health are usually seen as basic needs and part of human rights. When poorly done, they can be the causes of poverty; but when strategically undertaken, education and health can catalyze accelerated and sustainable development. In this strategy, we see education and health as rights accessible by all citizens, and necessary for making the paradigm-shifts for socio-economic transformation. The development of human capital entails the intellectual capacity, skills, competencies, as well as the health and well-being of citizens. If economic development is effective, it must result in improved health and education system. Thus, education and health are both a cause and consequence of development. They form an important component of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as depicted below. Education and health, apart from being basic needs, are important elements in creating a conducive environment for increased production, investment and wealth creation:
1) The pace of technological change is rapid. Together with rapid changes in information and communication technologies (ICT), the creation of knowledge and the ability to adopt and adapt to these changes will become the basis for realizing the competitive advantage of areas and countries. Education provides the knowledge and skills for industrial activities and technological adaptation.
2) A good educational and health system creates the social environment for entrepreneurs outside the region who may be concerned about the education and health of their families.
3) Improvements in education could provide the basis for trade in services in the form of consumption abroad (mode 2) from the Sahelian countries.
4) Can increase transfers from migrants which is an important source of poverty alleviation and wealth creation. Education provides migrants with skills that should increase their earning power.
In addition to creating a conducive business environment, changes in the composition of education, emphasizing engineering and science-related subjects provide the human capital for increased productivity, adoption of technology and overall development.
8.1 Education and Health Strategies
Our approach in addressing the issues of education and health, so that they play a critical role in the transformation of the North is based on: 1) Development of education and health infrastructure facilities; 2) Training, attracting and retaining the relevant personnel; and 3) Changes in the composition of the educational mix as between arts, science and engineering
subjects.
8.1.1 Promoting High Quality Human Resource Development
To radically improve the quality of education in the North, the state must institutionalize reforms that support the following immediate and long-term retooling of the policies and management structure of educational service delivery:
� The state should provide incentives to increase the role of the private sector and faith-based organizations in the provision of education and health services in the north. This can be done through syndication of affordable loan schemes to support private sector schools, i.e.,
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schools owned and/or managed by organizations other than the Ghana Education Service (GES).
� The state and other development partners need to consider providing grants to support the
development of educational infrastructure managed by faith-based organizations or the private sector, especially those operating in rural areas. This is essential for promoting the quality of schools in the North as a means not only for providing quality education to children in this part of the country, but also as bait to attracting investors who want to find acceptable standards of education for their wards. With appropriate amendments to existing legislation, such grants could be funded from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
� Provide incentive schemes for teachers that accept posting to rural schools. This could
include: o Fast-tracking of the promotion of teachers who accept postings to rural areas, i.e.,
places outside regional and district capitals. This can be further graded to allow for shorter waiting times for teachers in remote areas.
o Provision of appropriate housing for teachers using models of improved and affordable housing schemes; and
o Provision of special cash allowances for teachers in very remote areas. Due to poverty and infrastructural limitations, efforts to promote access to quality education through alternative models such as the Presidential Special Initiative on Long Distance Learning, have failed to percolate to students in the North, especially those in rural areas without access to television services. Incidentally, harnessing information technology offers immense opportunities for bringing quality education to classrooms that have no regular access to trained teachers or teaching and earning materials.
8.1.2 Changing the Composition of Education
The subject of composition, especially at the polytechnics must change. The emphasis has to change to science and engineering course and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). This will increase the skills base of the educated in the North and make them useful for industrial and economic development of the North. The traditional pattern of education in the North from the colonial era was to produce administrative and secretarial staff to take up roles in the administration of the North. This has to change radically. One of the objectives of educational policy nationally, especially in the polytechnics, is to increase the ratio of Science and Engineering students to Art students. This is even more urgent in the North because of the current conditions which makes it difficult to attract and retain skilled labour from outside the zone. Policy measures may include:
o Re-equipping the polytechnics; o Introduction of scholarship schemes and awards for students who excel in Science and
Engineering and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET); o Emphasize programmes that will encourage industrial attachments for polytechnic and
TVET students; and o Introduction of non-classroom structured apprenticeship training programmes to raise public
awareness and interest on the importance of TVET.
8.1.3 Improving Health and Well-being of Northerners
Improving the quality of health care delivery is key to promoting health and well-being of people resident in the North, as well as providing important bait for attracting investors and their capital
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into the North. The one most important obstacle to providing high quality curative and preventive medical care in the North is the inability to attract and retain qualified medical personnel in the hospitals and clinics in the North. There is also the inadequate number of medical facilities and the distribution that limit access. Poverty and traditional values may also adversely affect utilization. Additional health facilities and training institutions need to be developed. Most district capitals do not have a properly functioning clinic. It will be necessary to increase the number of hospitals and clinics in the three northern regions. Nursing training schools need to be increased. In this respect there is a need for Nurses Training Institutions in Wa in the Upper West Region and a second one in the Northern Region. There is also a need for institutions training paramedical staff. Community Health Posts (CHP) component provide the cheapest ways to get to small communities and rural areas. While their role in maternal and child care is laudable, this must be reviewed to include personnel for diseases. As part of the paradigm shift in the provision of quality health care in the North, the SADA will:
� Support the development of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University for Development Studies (UDS) as an instrument for attracting and retaining specialized medical services to the north of the country. Along the lines of the decentralized structure of the UDS and its problem-based approaches to training health personnel, the strategy of the SADA and UDS would include attracting and positioning medical specialists in different regional and district hospitals to make them accessible to the rural communities. By bringing the training and practice of specialist medical services to the doorsteps of communities, this approach also provides a concrete platform for enhancing UDS’ community and problem-based approaches to the training of its medical students.
� The proposed programme of the UDS to allow District Assemblies (DAs) to sponsor some medical students every three years must be embraced as a means to increasing the number and retaining doctors in the three northern regions.
� Support the intensification of preventive health care service delivery. This will be done through support for the training, recruitment, and retention of the products of the School of Hygiene, the Community Health Nurses Training Colleges, and allied institution to ensure that rural areas have access to qualified preventive healthcare providers and hygiene education services.
� Support the identification and promotion of traditional healthy eating habits, well-being, and lifestyles. Particular attention will be paid to the identification and promotion of traditional diets that are known to be healthy. Education on harmful dietary practices, such as the excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages in certain areas, will also be intensified through intensive educational programmes to be run by the Ghana Health Services and allied institutions.
� Provide incentive schemes for medical personnel who accept posting to rural health facilities, particularly in the North, through:
o Fast-tracking of the promotion of medical personnel who accept postings to rural areas, i.e., places outside regional and district capitals. This can be further graded to allow for shorter waiting times for health and medical personnel in remote areas.
o Provision of appropriate housing for health and medical personnel using models of improved and affordable housing schemes; and
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o Provision of special cash allowances for health personnel and paramedics in very remote areas.
Private sector participation in the development and provision of health facilities can enhance access to quality health care. While some private clinics and especially maternity homes have emerged recently, they are urban-based and capacities are limited. There is a need to provide incentives for private sector establishments of hospitals and clinics that are moreover well-equipped. These together with well-equipped public medical facilities could act as a basis for exports based on consumption abroad (Mode 2) of the Sahelian countries.
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Peace-Keeping Efforts Take Resources away from Development
According to the Strategic Peace Initiative (SPI), Government is spending approximately 10 billion cedis annually in enhanced security agency activities in the North. Yet very few resources are spent on pre-empting conflict. This situation must change if we seek poverty reduction and good governance to prevail. The unproductive security costs and time inputs from political and traditional leadership are undermining all development efforts in the North – action is required.
CHAPTER NINE
PEACE AND SECURITY
Conflict in northern Ghana severely undermines efforts towards good governance, sustainable development and poverty reduction. Such events have resulted in heavy loss of life, political instability, delays in development activities, and skews development opportunities. In many respects, much of northern Ghana can be considered a conflict-prone area. One of the most important factors for any development strategy to work and result in sustainable development in the North is peace. The lack of peace or the perception of instability can affect investment and development in several ways: The persistent conflicts and lack of peace diverts attention away from economic and productive issues:
• Instability and perceptions of instability scare investors, increase the risks of doing business in the North, and reduces the risk-adjusted profitability of economic activities in the area; and
• The lack of peace locks up resources which could have been used for infrastructural development in peacekeeping operations.
9.1 Assuring Human Safety and Security
Recurrent conflicts in northern Ghana have been the major source of human-made disasters that have repeatedly caused considerable dislocation and displacement of people, as well as, destruction to lives and property of already impoverished groups. Besides the disruption to the routine economic activities of the affected populations, the recurrence of conflicts is a major source of disincentive to investors whose capital inflows could have created jobs and opportunities for wealth for the population in the north. While several state and non-state agencies have invested considerable effort and resources in promoting peace in various parts of the north, much of this has not resulted in lasting solution largely because of the ephemeral and often uncoordinated, if not competitive approaches used by these agencies. Achieving the vision of a forested north requires that conflict resolution, peace-building and human safety and security concerns have to be central to the Northern Savannah Development Strategy (NSDS).
9.2 Strategies for Peace-Building and Conflict Mitigation
Several initiatives have been launched across Northern Ghana to address the growing incidences of violent conflict. They include a myriad of efforts by organized civil society and NGOs, notably the Ghana Network for Peace-Building and faith-based organizations. More recently, the coalition of
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political, civic and traditional leaders have been involved in the Sustainable Peace Initiative (SPI) for Northern Ghana, involving a series of dialogue efforts facilitated by the Regional Coordinating Councils and the Houses of Chiefs of the three Northern Regions.20 In the SADA, two approaches are adopted to tackle conflict mitigation and peace-building: The first is build capacities and deepen the collective efforts by organized CSOs and government in increasing awareness and building consensus among key stakeholders. This will include transforming the institutional mix for addressing conflict from a “security” approach to “peace-building” efforts.
In this context, the SPI (Phase II which is currently underway) expects to achieve three main outcomes:
a) Outbreak of violent conflicts prevented in Northern Ghana (2008–2010) b) Public attitudes of using violent conflict as a problem solving mechanism begin to change. c) Capacity of key Peace and Conflict stakeholders is enhanced
The investment in the SPI will therefore need to be expanded to move beyond the pilot stage in its activities in order to expand to cover all the trouble-spots and deepen the engagement and strengthen traditional leadership to manage this process.
The second approach is a more sustained long-term effort to bring about human security through rapid social and economic development, thereby reducing poverty and minimizing the tensions that are associated with deepening poverty, marginalization and exclusion of the most vulnerable in the major decisions that affect their livelihoods.
9.2.1 From Security to Peace-building
A national Peace Council has been established to begin the process of transforming institutional arrangements for conflict management from a “security-based approach” to one of peace-building and conflict mitigation. Drawing from established institutions of local governance and traditional authorities, peace councils will need to be established in every district to complement the efforts of the current “District Security Committees”. The peace councils will also require capacity-building to enable them undertake sufficient diagnostics of latent and current conflict areas and issues and to develop strategies for mitigating these quickly.
9.2.2 From Emergency Response to Early Warning
The current arrangement of responding to conflicts is to invoke the powers of the District Security Committees (DISEC) and Regional Security Committees (REGSECs) as well as the security agencies to:
• Declare state of emergency in conflict areas; • Deploy troops; • Impose convenient settlements that are related to the cessations of hostilities, until the next
conflict arises.
20 Starting in October 2003, at the Mole V Summit, the political leadership of Northern Ghana and its Development Partners began
discussing mechanisms to support conflict management. There was a call to prepare a strategic action plan for conflict management in Northern Ghana. The Sustainable Peace Initiative (SPI) is the result of that process and has been supported by DfID, CIDA and USAID during Phase 1 (2006-07). Phase 2 of SPI has been approved by the Mole leadership and implementation has commenced.
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By this strategy of early-warning, a number of peace-building organizations are already at work in seeking to establish credible data-bases for building an early-warning system for conflict prevention. The expectation is to build these databases into an existing West Africa system for early-warning currently in place within the ECOWAS secretariat.
9.2.3 Strengthening Traditional Leadership
One of the unique dimensions of current peace-building efforts is to strengthen Traditional Authorities in a manner that enables them to establish strong, working relations with the current institutions of governance, notably, the local governance system. As participation and the rights of minorities gain increasing prominence under the new democratic and local governance systems, so are minority groups increasing their demand for increased participation in affairs of traditional governance. Chiefs and other traditional women leaders are increasing their awareness of the sensitivities of minority ethnic groups and those who previously did not have centralized leadership. The SPI is seeking to build capacities of traditional leaders to codify practices and enhance the capacity of Chiefs to be more sensitive to issues concerning identity, participation and engagement of minority groups in wider traditional governance systems. Under the SADA, such a capacity building effort will be endorsed and expanded to enable traditional authorities to establish a broader base of legitimacy and to address the needs of the vulnerable and the marginalized. Equally significant in this effort is the issue of gender considerations in traditional leadership. Many organizations of civil society, especially those working in areas of gender equity and women’s’ rights have advocated for more research and action on the role that women leaders play in traditional leadership. More resources and efforts will need to be devoted to women traditional leaders in order to mobilize the existing capacities and enhance the leadership role that women offer in both traditional and local governance.
9.2.4 From Short-Term to Long-Term — Reaping Peace Dividends
As part of the SADA’s development strategy, participants in catalytic development investments would need to be carefully selected to include persons and their organizations that have signed-up and worked actively as part of conflict prevention and peace-building networks. By this, community residents begin to reap the benefits of peace and conflict avoidance. They see their wealth and economic assets improving by participating in the creation of peaceful communities.
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CHAPTER TEN
MAINSTREAMING GENDER IN THE NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
10.1 Introduction and Background
The dominance of men over women in the northern parts of Ghana, in terms of access to and control of resources, and in decision making is overwhelming and any strategy that ignores this fact is bound to exacerbate gender inequalities and stifle development. Although the low access of women to land is what is often reported in development circles, women also have limited access to household labour, and indeed, it is the latter limitation that may be the cause of the land access problem. The level of illiteracy among women is much higher than it is among men; cultural norms about visibility and traditional gender roles imply heavy workloads on women. All of these impose time constraints on women and tend to limit their awareness about opportunities in general and participation in development programmes in particular.
10.2 Broad Objectives on Gender
There are therefore three broad objectives of the Northern Savannah Development Initiative (SADA) with respect to gender:
1. To improve technology and create value-addition in current economic activities undertaken by women;
2. Increase women’s participation in and benefits from the process of economic development; and
3. Identify potential new areas of economic activities in which women could be empowered
10.2.1 Objective One: Improve Technology and create value-addition in Women’s Activities
This is important to reduce the drudgery and work burden on women as a result of both the traditional value system and production process. It should also lead to value-addition in activities undertaken by women, create wealth and improve women welfare. This objective can be achieved through a number of strategies:
a) Identify the current main areas of women’s participation in the economy. In current relations, women in the North engage to a large extent in some limited agricultural activities — largely, horticultural and small ruminants, pigs and other livestock.
In addition, most agro-processing is undertaken by women. However, the markets for these are usually local, and value-addition is also very low. Women have strengths in the production of vegetables, oil seeds (groundnuts, shea and soybean) and processing of the latter. Therefore, the value chains of these commodities will be prioritized as entry points for targeting them.
b) SADA will facilitate the introduction of improved technologies into these activities;
c) SADA will collaborate with existing private marketing companies to provide improved
quality standards and marketing channels; SADA is in touch with some marketing companies in sheabutter making. The intent is to encourage such firms to provide women in
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the industry with the relevant technology that will produce the relevant quality of produce and also provide a market. SADA will collaborate with companies in other areas
10.2.2 Objective 2: Increase Women’s participation in and benefits from the process of economic
development
Strategies: The specific gender-related interventions will include the following: a) The strategy to empower FBOs and CBOs to demand services and to participate in local level
programming, planning and monitoring will be enhanced by targeting women to empower them and ensure that their needs are met.
b) Micro and small-scale enterprises operated by women will be supported to grow under the
indigenous micro- and small–scale enterprise (MSE) development strategy. c) Stakeholder consultations on further development of the strategy and future programming will
factor in the different needs of men and women. d) Social protection interventions will be designed to target the different needs of men and women.
10.2.3 Objective 3: Identify potential new areas of economic activities for women
SADA will coordinate and facilitate regional gender stakeholder workshops in the northern savannah belt to help identify some new potential areas for women’s entry into the new economy.
10.2.4 Engendering the Northern Savannah Development Initiative
To mainstream gender, it is proposed that all programming and planning are gender-focused and gender-responsive. This way, gender related issues will be mainstreamed systematically in the implementation of the strategy. In this respect the following principles will be pursued: a) Indicators of change process should show gender differentials, therefore all data on the target
population will be gender disaggregated for the purposes of planning and monitoring b) Gender parity will be sought in the facilitation of access to services by farmer-based and
community-based organizations. In the delivery of extension services, messages will be tailored to the needs of both men and women. Barriers limiting access of men and women to irrigation services and inputs will be reduced. Similarly, interventions on research, agro-processing, mechanization, and training will be sensitive to the needs of men and women.
c) Establish a technical committee on gender mainstreaming to audit programmes, plans and
monitoring tools and results. Because of the low sensitivity to gender issues, there is a need for a watchdog body to ensure that principles expressed in the strategy are actually carried through.
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PART III
GOVERNANCE, INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS, FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, STRATEGIC RESULTS, MONITORING & EVALUATION
CHAPTER ELEVEN
INSTITUTIONAL DIMENSIONS AND GOVERNANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Ghana’s development planning and implementation have continued to be characterized by a tension between decentralized intents and highly centralized reality. Since the introduction of the 1992 Constitution, renewed legal impetus has been given to decentralization as a political and administrative process of planning and organizing development, but these have still remained largely marginal to the overwhelming efforts devoted to centralized policy decision-making, resource allocation and determination of development priorities. This chapter of the SADA Strategy reinforces the urgent need for a paradigm-shift in the institutional arrangements and governance of regional development by proposing four main strategic objectives:
1. Creating and Strengthening SADA (institutions of the Authority) as a regional development coordination mechanism that promotes integrated development to bridge a development gap;
2. Establish and strengthen an institutionalized consultative mechanism that reflects different stakeholder interests and engagement in the development processes of the northern Savannah;
3. A GoG and Development Partners consultative mechanism within the overall framework of the Paris Declaration on Donor-harmonization to focus on extreme poverty and the MDGs; and,
4. A governance and accountability process that ensures public accountability through Parliament and citizen-based accountability through civil society.
As discussed in the development framework (chapter 1), several groups, including Government of Ghana (GoG), civil society, Development Partners, Members of Parliament have advocated for efforts to bridge the development gap between North and South. The NDPC draft proposal for a medium-term development plan for Ghana identifies this as a strategic objective and is awaiting the incorporation of the SADA into the overall plan. The specific proposals contained in this section of the strategy are therefore already part of the national development policy framework and they are being given added significance to enhance regional development dimensions and improved governance of regional balance in development planning, financing and implementation.
11.1 Regional Development Focus within National Development Planning
The establishment of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) as a body corporate under the 1992 Constitution provided an explicit legal basis for coordinated development planning, directly accountable to the Office of the President. The National Development Planning (System) Act 480 of 1994 and the Decentralization Act 462 further gave legal impetus to the functions of the NDPC, as well as strengthening the planning functions at decentralized levels in the District Assemblies. In all these legal instruments, regional development planning has been subsumed within an overarching national development planning process, based on the collation and harmonization of District plans. Presently, a vertically integrated approach prevails in the planning
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approach, beginning with the notional Community Action Plans (CAPs) being integrated into District Development Plans, which are furthermore integrated into regional plans and eventually into a national plan, directed by the NDPC. Existing in parallel, are vertically-integrated sector plans and programmes, which remain accountable primarily to sector Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). While the main resource envelop used in financing the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) remains the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), MDAs receive their budgetary allocations for sector programmes, projects and investments directly from the MOFEP through their MDAs. Thus efforts to undertake composite and integrated plans from District through Regional levels have remained largely exercises in aggregation, rather than prioritization, harmonization and integration. The result is a missing middle and conspicuous absence of regional development planning and implementation.
11.1.1 The Missing Middle in Regional Development Planning and Implementation
Ghana had a brief experience in regionalized development planning and management initiatives. In the mid-1970s, Regional Development Corporations were established to serve as the vehicles for planning, managing and delivering context specific development services to all parts of the country. In addition to having its development corporations, Northern Ghana has been the venue of several specialised development initiatives. The Upper Region Agricultural Development Project (URADEP) was initiated to stimulate agricultural production and productivity in what is now the Upper East and Upper West Regions. The Farmers’ Services Company Ltd, the marketing wing of URADEP, was designed to provide uptake and outlet market linkages, through the procurement, stocking, and sale of fertilizers and other farm inputs on the one hand, and the sale of produce by farmers on the other. The Northern Region Rural Integrated Development Project (NORRIP), on its part was set up to provide leadership and coordination services in the integrated development of the northern region. These initiatives were funded as stand-alone projects and lacked the Board to coordinate regional development planning that is integrated and cross regional. Moreover, they lacked the capacity for cross-sectoral implementation coordination. The interventions were designed and managed as projects, and therefore, had no institutional identities that enabled them to survive beyond their funding periods. These initiatives often relied heavily on narrow external donor support21, and therefore, had no resource base that could enable them go beyond the lifespan of donor funding cycles and interests. Moreover, as single, stand-alone projects, they tended to duplicate existing facilities and services, and in some cases, led to competition for scarce national resources.
11.1.2 Recognizing Regional Inequalities within National Planning
At the strategic level, two successive medium-term strategic plans, referred to as the Ghana Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies I & II were silent on regional development priorities, even though these were based on strong, regionally-disaggregated data on poverty trends. In its maiden effort to prepare a longer-term development plan for Ghana, the NDPC has recently introduced two new approaches to supplement the limitations of the vertical planning tradition – regional planning focus and spatial planning. For regional planning, an explicit objective has been defined to “bridge the development gap between the North and the South”. This strategic objective is complimented by procedures for elaborating spatial planning frameworks aimed at defining composite needs by location and the corresponding integration of spatial dimensions in infrastructure, facilities and land-use planning dimensions. Both of these innovations serve as a basis for the current effort to
21 URADEP and FASCOM were funded mainly by the World Bank, while CIDA and GTZ were the main funding agencies for
NORRIP.
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SADA Board & Stakeholder Coordinating
Council An institutional innovation that provides a
basis for cross-regional integrated planning,
on the basis of the Guinea-Savannah
ecological zone is possible and within the
current legal framework for planning. For
this shift to occur, current institutions that
are in place for regional planning and
coordination need to be strengthened and re-
oriented towards horizontal, more functional
development planning that adds value.
Further, the system of resource allocation to
these institutions will need to accommodate
the urgent needs for cross-sectoral
programming for development effectiveness
and accountability to citizens at the lowest
possible levels
prepare a special development strategy and action plan for Northern Ghana’s development. The institutional mechanisms to implement such a vision remain a challenge.
11.2 Case for a Legal Institution to Coordinate Accelerated Development in the North
The current institution for regional development planning, the Regional Planning and Coordinating Units (RPCUs) exist in every region of Ghana and perform their functions within the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs). Constrained by their political/administrative boundaries, a woeful lack of resources and ambiguities in their structure and relationships with the MOFEP, NDPC and MDAs (in particular the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and the Environment), the RPCUs has been struggling to redefine their identity and role for the last decade. In the three Northern Regions, these efforts have been more systematic since 2001, when coordinated activities among the three RPCUs were boosted by various initiatives of GoG, supported by various development partners.22 For nearly a decade (2001 to 2010), RPCUs in the three northern regions have established an informal consultative mechanism, bringing together the three RCCs and all MMDAs into regular annual reviews, at both the strategic and operational levels.23 While the strategic levels have been largely informal, they have been extremely successful.24 The operational level of coordination efforts through RPCUs has been less pronounced. Many initiatives are sporadic and sustained solely with donor funds;25 and there has been no sustained institutional mechanism to implement coordination efforts in data collection, analyses and feedback into policy and programming efforts. The consequence has been good outputs from regional reviews, but not many changes are occurring in the way things are being done. More significantly, such planning and coordination have remained at the level only of administrative boundaries of the Regions and Districts. The National Development Planning (System) Act 480 anticipated the need for more cross-regional, integrated planning and development management, beyond the administrative/political
22 The MLGRD and CIDA-funded District Capacity Building Project (DISCAP) provided opportunities for strengthening the role of
RPCUs and District Assemblies to enhance their planning, coordination and M&E functions. Danish support to District Assemblies in the Upper West Region reinforced a decentralized planning and development management system of the Assemblies, through their RPCU. The District-wide project (DWAP), funded by CIDA emphasized the use of national systems (through DACF) to allocate dedicated financial resources to all Districts in the three Northern Regions, in a manner that placed RPCUs in a pivotal coordinating role. 23 These consultations have resulted in what has been referred to as the Mole Series of leadership retreats, at the strategic level. At the operational levels, the RPCUs (with assistance from UNICEF) have established regional reviews of development performance to assess the status of key developmental indicators associated with the MDGs. NDPC has boosted these consultative processes by anchoring regional consultations on Medium-term Development Planning processes; Decentralized M&E capacity development and other aspects of planning requiring cross-district consultations. 24 The Mole retreats have been instrumental in bringing into strategic focus numerous developmental challenges and opportunities for Northern Ghana. It was credited with sensitizing GoG and donors about the resource gap implications for the North, as donors begun to pool resources into a Multi-donor Budget Support system. This has led to the establishment of a District-wide funding mechanism, known as DWAP; in the preparation of a possible District Development Fund (DDF), and in several measures to decentralize funding for poverty-targeted initiatives in the North. 25 UNICEF has been the leading supporter of regional reviews of development results through RPCUs; the now completed CIDA-funded DISCAP project also supported RPCUs directly to coordinate regional and district M&E reviews; while other sector-specific reviews of water and sanitation, health, agriculture, have been supported by various donors operating in the sectors, often not through the RPCUs.
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boundaries. Under section 12, the Act suggests that the President can, by executive instrument, designate any “contiguous area as a Joint Development Planning Area, if special physical or socio-economic characteristics necessitate it being considered a single unit for the purpose of development planning,” and mandates that a Joint Development Planning Board be constituted to, among other functions, “determine the economic, social, spatial and sectoral policies of the designated area as well as the mobilization of the human, physical and financial resources for the development of the area (Section 13 (3).”
11.3 SADA Governance Arrangements
11.3.1 Board of Directors
The governing body of SADA is a Board consisting of
(a) chairperson (b) one representative of the National Development Planning Commission; (c) One representative of traditional authorities in the programme area; (d) One representative of the Ministry of Finance not below the rank of a Director, (e) One representative of the civil society organizations in the programme areas
nominated by the Minister, (f) Three other with strong professional expertise nominated by the President, one
of whom is a woman, and (g) The Chief Executive of the Authority.
In line with common practice, the members of the Board are appointed by the President in accordance with Article 70 of the Constitution. The President shall in appointing a member of the Board have regard to the member’s integrity, knowledge, expertise and experience in matters relevant to the objects and functions of the Authority.
11.3.2 Stakeholder Coordinating Committee
The evolution of SADA was inspired and nurtured by a systematic group of stakeholders of development in the region. These were constituted into an informal network of meetings, involving regional and district leaders, NGOs and civil society, chiefs and religious leaders. Known as the Mole series of leadership retreats, this group functioned in a voluntary capacity for more than 10 years, from 2000 to 2010, until the SADA Act was passed by Parliament. Building on this strong, stakeholder base, the SADA ACT 805 of 2010 recognized a central role for stakeholders by designating a Stakeholder Coordinating Committee (SCC) to provide a “mechanism for effective stakeholder ownership of the policies and programmes of the Authority” and ensure effective cooperation among public sector agencies, the private sector as well as organizations of civil society concerned directly or indirectly with issues of social and economic development of the Northern Savannah Ecological zone. The Stakeholder Co-ordinating Committee comprises
(a) Regional Ministers in the participating regions, with each Regional Minister acting as a chairperson and convener on rotation;
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(b) one chief from each region in the Northern Savannah nominated by the Regional House of Chiefs’
(c) one person each from the Regional Economic Planning Units of the participating regions in the Northern Savannah Ecological zone;
(d) one representative from each region in the Northern Savannah from a non-governmental development organization nominated by a forum of non-governmental organizations in the region;
(e) one representative from each region in the North Savannah from the private sector nominated by the private sector forum in that region;
(f) three representatives from a District Assembly, one of whom is a presiding member, a planning officer and the other a District Chief Executive nominated by the regional grouping of District Assemblies in each region of the Northern Savannah;
(g) two persons representing northern Ghanaian opinion leaders resident in other parts of the country nominated by the forum of northern Ghanaians;
(h) one representative from each region in the north representing women’s groups nominated by a forum of women’s organizations;
(i) three persons representing the University for Development Studies, research and other tertiary educational institutions in the area nominated by the Minister; and,
(j) seven persons representing Members of Parliament, five of whom shall be from the programme area and two from other parts of the country.
The SADA law provides that representatives from other relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies may be co-opted to participate in the deliberations of the SCC as ex-officio members.
11.4 SADA Institutional Arrangements
11.4.1 Secretariat
The programmes of the Authority shall be managed by a permanent secretariat established in the programme area as may be determined by the Board. Other offices of the Authority may be established to enable ease of administration and management of the programmes of the Authority, including the maintenance of sound and credible links with MDAs and the central government machinery in Accra. The secretariat shall be headed by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who shall have the overall responsibility for implementing the decisions of the Board and the advise provided by the SCC on programming matters.
11.4.2 Functional Units under the Secretariat
In consonance with the SADA strategy, a number of functional units shall be created within the SADA secretariat. Two main ones are:
1. Programmes Unit 2. Investment/Resource Mobilization and Management Unit
Each of these units shall be headed by a Manager.
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11.4.3 SADA Organizational Structure (proposed)
Board of Directors
Stakeholder Coordinating Council
CEO
Director, Integrated Programs
Director, Monitoring & Evaluation
Coord. Agric. & Food Security
Mining & Natural
Resources
Environment, Human Dev & Infrastructure
Social Dev. & Gender
Planning &
Research
Industry & Services
Investment
Analyst Admin Services
Internal Auditor
Technical Advisory Services
Director, Finance & Resource
Mobilization
Director, Human Res, Corporate
Affairs & Admin
Corporate Affairs
Coordinator Admin Services
Accountant
Economic
Analyst
Impact Evaluation
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CHAPTER TWELVE FINANCING THE NORTHERN SAVANNAH DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
It is difficult at this stage to estimate the total budget or investment required for the effective implementation of the proposals in this strategy.
12.1 Areas of Investment Requirements
The strategy itself involves three realms of investments:
1. Category 1 Investments — Programme proposals that focus on strategic shifts required to work towards sustainable development, in the short, medium and long-run. These have been defined in the Strategic Results Framework, and further elaborated in the detailed action plans of the SADA.
2. Category 2 — Programmes and interventions that are on-going, currently being
implemented by Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), MMDAs, Private sector and Civil Society Organizations. In this category of projects, there may be a requirement to adjust their orientation towards the strategic directions proposed in the SADA. The costs of such adjustments may be borne by revenues of the SADA, shared by the projects, or borne entirely by the on-going projects.
3. Category 3 — Emergency Programmes involving rehabilitation activities and transition
activities intended to mitigate the effects of drought and floods; improve food security and livelihood protection in the most severely affected and among most vulnerable people in the North.
13.2 Sources of Financial Contributions
Under the law establishing SADA, several sources of funding were stipulated. These include: (a) moneys appropriated for the Authority by Parliament; (b) loans, loan guarantees and grants; (c) interest from investments made by the Authority; (d) rents and royalties accruing to the Authority from property of the Authority, including intellectual property; (e) fees and charges due to the Authority from services rendered by or through the Authority;
(f) donations and gifts; (g) seed money specifically allocated for the start-up of the Authority; (h) levies on non-petroleum imports as may be approved by Parliament; and (i) any other moneys that the Minister responsible for Finance may approve.
The government of Ghana has committed to lead a process of raising funds externally, both among development partners and private sector for components of SADA. This will be particularly important for the Afforestation programme. Similar facilities have been accessed for rubber in the Western Region and oil palm in the Central Region.
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Re-allocation may also be made from existing projects and programmes for certain components of the Northern Savannah Development Programme.
12.2.2 Other Sources
Existing public sector financial and business support schemes may be decentralized and encouraged to support the programme. The Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) scheme can provide loans to private business establishments. The three regions of the North are the lowest in terms of application and approval of loans under the EDIF.
12.2.3 Participants
The contribution of participants in the agricultural programme will be largely through provision of land and labour. In the case of ITFC, a bag of maize or its equivalent is demanded from each participant as commitment. This, we think, may be too high for poor households/families even though the principle is acceptable. We propose half a bag of maize or its equivalent as commitment on the part of poor households. Labour for planting, weeding, other maintenance and harvesting is expected to be provided by farmers.
For non-farm business activities, twenty percent (20%) of the investment cost may be required from firms, individuals, or business establishments. Loans may be provided for the rest of the costs, depending on the viability of the project.
12.2.4 Development Partners
Development partners already have a number of projects operating in the three northern regions. The matrix is provided in the appendices. In addition to those which were not based on an acceptable development strategy for the North, development partners may buy into SADA. This may involve additional money for financing components of SADA. Development partners may also reallocate some funds from or realign existing national programmes to SADA, either by earmarking their existing contributions to Ghana’s General Budget Support (known as the multi-donor budget support system) of provide additional components to MDBS (similar to the District Development Funding mechanism). Existing private sector support schemes in business development and agriculture may be important targets of this re-allocation. New facilities, such as those being designed by the DANISH support to private sector may adopt a proactive allocation for special private sector development in Northern Ghana.
Development partners may also support the Central Government to access concessional loans for the Northern Development Programme. Already, the World Bank and China are providing loans for the rehabilitation of the central corridor road network from Paga through Tamale to Techiman.
12.2.5 District Assemblies
Sensitization of participants is expected to be a substantial component of the Northern Development Programme. District Assemblies can use ‘Assemblymen’ for this assignment without substantial increases in costs.
The National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) can also be used both for sensitization and employment in certain aspects of the programme. This will require, however, that the NYEP be effectively controlled by the districts in the three northern regions and not determined in Accra.
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All District Assemblies have tractors for hire. These could be used for the initial preparation of the land at reduced costs and debited to the Northern Savannah Development Fund (NSDFund).
12.2.6 Miscellaneous Sources
Civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may also make a contribution through their current programmes by re-allocation of funds. Even though for several of them the programmes may be localized, this can be an important source of funding, particularly for the faith-based organizations.
12.3 Financial Management Arrangements
A robust financial management arrangement will be put in place to reflect the legal requirements that will be stipulated in the establishment of a Northern Ghana Development Fund by Parliament. Such stipulations will include:
• Consistency with the established country financial management systems • A transparent procurement system consistent with the National Procurement Act • Adequate and qualified financial management staff, including ample training and
remuneration for staff who manage the financial systems • An effective approach to management of institutional and fiduciary risks, that provide for
optimum oversight, both at the administrative levels and the political levels • The system shall be subject to both internal audits (as provided for in the Internal Audit
Act), and the external Audits of the Ghana Audit Service.
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN STRATEGIC RESULTS FRAMEWORK, MONITORING & EVALUATION
The initiatives and strategies outlined above need to be concretized in a results framework that defines more concrete actions to be undertaken in the short to medium-term (2011-2015). After this, there will be a review, to enable the launch of the second phase (2016 – 2020). This strategic results framework:
• presents the broad strategy of SADA, diagrammatically; and • outlines a results chain associated with this strategy.
13.1 Development Objective and Key Indicators
As outlined in the development framework in Chapter 1, the overall development objective of the SADA is to empower communities in northern savannah ecological belt to create wealth (particularly targeted at vulnerable people) within a sustained, peaceful environment. The specific strategic objectives therefore include:
• Managing and Financing Development in a Strategic Way: Empowering institutions in Northern Ghana to undertake planning, resource mobilization and development management in a manner that is strategic, focused on addressing regional inequalities and linked to the decentralized system of governance and accountability to citizens
• Agricultural Modernization: Empowering men and women to transform their production
orientation towards an expanded market demand; to sustain food security and livelihood activities and reduce their vulnerability to drought and flooding
• Private sector investment: Stimulating the growth of investors and business entrepreneurs
capable of providing the impetus for sustained value-added production and services in the northern savannah sector, oriented towards a Sahelian market
• Strategic Infrastructure: Investing in a series of inter-connected infrastructure of roads,
energy, water resources, health and education in a manner that reinforces alternative production and market access, while reducing the incidence of droughts and floods
• Social Protection for Economic Growth: Empowering marginalized and vulnerable
women and men to participate actively in the social and economic recovery process, in peace-building and gaining assets and improved incomes through this process
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Across all of these outcome results runs a strong commitment of the strategy to promote integration of the Northern Ghana economy and society into a national (Ghana) and Sahelian West Africa market. The following page presents the Results Chain for the SADA. This was developed and refined as part of the
planning process.
Improved planning, management, funding & coordination of regional growth & development of
Northern Ghana
SADA Strategic Results Framework
Rapid & sustainable development of Northern Savannah where poverty
level is less than 20%
Communities in Northern Ghana are empowered to create wealth (particularly
targeted at vulnerable people) within a sustained, peaceful environment.
Increased productivity, diversity & market size for agricultural produce
from northern Ghana
Increased private sector financial and human resource investments into value-addition to products and services from northern
Ghana
Improved alignment of socio-economic infrastructure to the production, marketing and environmental needs
of N. Ghana
Improved socio-economic equity and inclusion of vulnerable & marginalized people in northern Ghana’s growth & development processes
Objectives –
Level Results
(End-of-Project
Outcomes)
RESULTS 1000 RESULTS 2000 RESULTS 3000 RESULTS 4000 WBS 5000
Goal-Level Result
(Long-Term Impact)
Purpose-Level Result
(Long-Term Outcome)
NDB Social & Econ. Development
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SADA – RESULTS CHAIN
OUTCOMES
1. Improved planning, management, funding
& coordination of regional growth &
development of Northern Ghana.
2. Improved productivity, diversity and
market size of Northern Ghana
agricultural produce within Ghana and
West Africa
3. Increased financial and human resource
investments into value-addition to products
from the North
4. Improved alignment of socio-economic
infrastructure to the production, marketing
& environmental needs of Northern Ghana
5. Improved socio-economic equity &
inclusion of vulnerable & marginalized
people in Northern Ghana’s growth &
development processes
IMPACTS
Rapid & sustainable
Development of Northern
Ghana within a West
Africa market and society
OUTPUTS
1.1 Institutional capacity for Regional Development established & institutionalized
1.2 Regional economic and social development priorities systematically analyzed
1.3 Funding requirements for strategic investments defined, mobilized & managed in a sustainable manner
1.4 Policies, operational systems and strategies for managing coordinated initiatives in N. Ghana development formulated and implemented.
1.5 Peace-building & conflict prevention efforts mainstreamed in all dev. efforts
2.1 Assets of small-holder farmers (especially women) increased, and the sources of farm financing increased & diversified to include private sector
2.2 Increased numbers & level of demand by marketing agencies & end users of agricultural produce from the north
2.3 Improved utilization of modern technology and techniques & increased contact between farmers, extension & market agents in defining & enforcing quality
2.4 Improved crop mix to include annual crops and economic trees for income and environmental renewal.
2.5 Improved networking, collaboration & information-sharing among farmers, FBOs, extension agents and market agencies
3.1 Sources and size of financing development & investment in N. Ghana increased & diversified to include large & medium-size enterprises.
3.2 Improved quality & quantity of human resources trained specifically for emerging industries & services in the North.
3.3 Increased collaboration among investors and investment user-groups
4.1 A circular road network that connects viable production zones in three northern regions is operational
4.2 Water resources infrastructure (including farmer-owned drip-irrigation) that supports year-round cultivation, water conservation is operational.
4.3 Educational institutions in N. Ghana have established and are collaborating to implement a common strategy for improving skills oriented towards a West Africa market and society.
4.4 Health Delivery System, Food Security and Improved Livelihoods
5.1 Level of seasonal and chronic vulnerability to food insecurity reduced
5.2 Improved gender balance in resource allocation and ability to access opportunities provided by the SADA.
5.3 Previously marginalized groups, decentralized agencies & civil society participation in development efforts increased.
5.4
13.2 Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability
The SADA provides an overall development strategy for Northern Ghana, backed by a time-bound, set of strategic interventions to introduce a paradigm-shift in both the pre-conditions for development while initiating concrete actions to trigger medium to long-term economic growth and social transformation. In order to track the changes being introduced into northern Ghana as a result of the strategy, and to evaluate the long-term impacts of the strategy, an M&E strategy is being proposed from the outset. The M&E strategy has the following strategic objectives:
1. Results-oriented M&E Capacity is improved among key stakeholders associated with the SADA, through their engagement in the determination of the strategic results framework for the SADA and the establishment of a credible baseline prior to the start-up of the initiative.
2. Systematic monitoring of output-level results undertaken in a manner that links resources
with changing attitudes and practices associated with the notion of a paradigm-shift in the way development is planned and implemented.
3. Stakeholders are empowered and engaged in the processes of monitoring and evaluation,
through the use of both formal, rigorous tools for M&E, as well as participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches.
4. Both upward and down accountability systems enhanced to enable citizens of the North and
representative leaders (District Assemblies, Traditional Authorities, Parliament and the Government of Ghana) to demand accountability and those managing NDI to render accountability in a transparent and timely manner.
13.3 Indicators for Change
The process of defining indicators for tracking incremental changes and, eventually evaluating impacts will be conducted in a participatory manner. This involves four steps:
1. Defining outcome-level indicators as part of the strategic results framework 2. Participatory review of output-level indicators as part of stakeholder refinement of the
strategy and its programs 3. Use of “tentative indicators” to undertake baseline study 4. Validating all indicators – outcome-level, output-level, and process indicators during review
of baseline study.
13.1.1 Outcome-level Indicators
In the present strategic framework, only the outcome-level indicators will be proposed, as these are aligned to the strategic results. The paramount consideration here is to ascertain the extent of paradigm-shift in development thinking and practice; and correspondingly to assess the extent of developmental changes occurring towards sustainable development, increased incomes and reduced poverty in the north.
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Table: Aligning Strategic Objectives with Outcomes and Key Indicators
Strategic Objectives Outcomes – Development
Changes
Key Indicators
Managing and Financing Development in a Strategic Way: Empowering institutions in Northern Ghana to undertake planning, resource mobilization and development management in a manner that is strategic, focused on addressing regional inequalities and linked to the decentralized system of governance and accountability to citizens
Improved planning,
management,
funding &
coordination of
regional growth &
development of
Northern Ghana
• SADA established and functioning to coordinate a strategic focus to regional development in northern Ghana
• A development funding mechanism, the SADA Fund established, attracting financial resources from GoG and development partners and is managed in a sustainable manner
• Regional Planning & Coordinating Units of the three RCCs and District Assemblies strengthened to facilitate regional and local development as defined by the strategic plan
• Private sector operators and organized civil society are actively participating in major decisions about regional development priorities
• Citizens are actively demanding accountability for development results and service providers are responding to this demand in a timely manner
Agricultural Modernization: Empowering men and women to transform their production orientation towards an expanded market demand; to sustain food security and livelihood activities and reduce their vulnerability to drought and flooding
Increased
productivity,
diversity & market
size for
agricultural
produce from
northern Ghana
• Agriculture value-chain re-oriented towards responding to a sustained market demand
• Ratio of food crops to economic trees on an annual basis; number of women and men progressively adopting and practicing the ethos of a “forested north”
• Variety of crops in which northern Ghana has competitive advantages introduced and sustained
• Number of women and men, farmer-based associations whose production assets have improved – security of land tenure, basic irrigation assets, improved farm equipment – bullocks, tractors
• Number of women and men; commercial firms involved as specialized marketing companies providing advise to farmers and facilitating links to markets and improved technologies
Private Sector Development: Stimulating the growth of investors and business entrepreneurs capable of providing the impetus for sustained value-added production and services in the northern, savannah sector, oriented towards a Sahelian market
Increased private
sector financial
and human
resource
investments into
value-addition to
products and
services from
northern Ghana
• Number of women and men who have established industrial and investment services
• Extent of growth of business associations • Level of investment financing as measured by the
fiscal inflows in northern Ghana • Number and quantity of foreign direct investments
in northern Ghana as measured by data from the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre
Strategic Infrastructure: Investing in a series of inter-connected infrastructure of roads, energy, water resources, health and education in a manner that reinforces alternative production and market access, while reducing the incidence of droughts and floods
Improved
alignment of socio-
economic
infrastructure to
the production,
marketing and
environmental
needs of N. Ghana
• Length of roads improved as a direct consequence of the SADA
• Quantity and quality of land made more arable due to the SADA
• Size and scope of improved water resources oriented towards (a) production (b) conservation (c) flood management
• Percentage reduction of financial and human cost induced by average annual flooding in the three northern regions, and especially in the flood corridors of Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions (property damages, agricultural damages,
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resettlement costs, migration to other parts of Ghana – vulnerable children, women, migrating to hazardous locations in the cities)
Social Protection: Empowering marginalized and vulnerable women and men to participate actively in the social and economic recovery process, in peace-building and gaining assets and improved incomes through this process
Improved socio-
economic equity
and inclusion of
vulnerable &
marginalized
people in northern
Ghana’s growth &
development
processes
• Number of women and men considered stakeholders of the poor who are actively participating in decision-making at the community and district levels
• Percentage of community-based, women-oriented and youth investment activities rated satisfactory or better by participating communities
13.2 Accountability to Citizens
The SADA will be accountable to citizens through the use and active support for participatory monitoring and evaluation exercises. These exercises will involve annual use of Citizen Report Card (CRC) surveys and Community Score Card (CSC) to record the sentiments of citizens around key developmental outcomes. The results of these exercises will be used to elicit “accountability forums” at each District, to ensure that the public is duly informed of progress and remedial actions to be addressed in coming years of the NDSI.
13.3 Accountability to Parliament
As a strategic plan intended to transform the developmental processes, the SADA will produce an annual report comprising: a) monitoring of key performance indicators in the plan; b) results of participatory monitoring by citizens and c) results of external monitoring by the NDPC’s Annual Progress Monitoring Report (APR). These will be summarized for feed-back to Parliament, through the Office of the President. The relevant Parliamentary Committee with oversight for the NDSI will be invited to visit various sites and communities, to validate community monitoring results and build further legitimacy in assessing progress of the SADA.
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Accra International Press Centre, August 18, 2005; also available at http://www.isodec.org.gh/Papers/debateoncapitationgrant.PDF Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Ministry of Food and Agriculture (2006), Study on the Promotion of Domestic Rice in the Republic of Ghana, Nippon Koei Company Limited, Japan Mahesh R. (2000), “Farm Size – Productivity Relationship: Some evidence from Kerala”, Working
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APPENDICES
Appendix I: Appendix Tables
Appendix Table A1. Choice of commodities and spatial distribution
Commodity Strategic Importance Districts of concentration
Lead Agribusiness Institutional link
Rice Import substitution crop for Ghana
Lowlands Tolon-Kumbungu
ICOUR, Nasia Rice Mills, private rice merchant??
Ghana Rice Inter-professional Body; School feeding programme
Sorghum Potential for linkage to the brewery industry
Savannah Farmers Company; Breweries
Millet Main staple for food insecure
Maize A national staple with potential for national and regional trade
World Food programme School feeding programme
Yam Major staple and cash crop School feeding programme
Cassava Root crop generates forward linkage activities
School feeding programme
Groundnuts A cash crop for majority of farmers in all the regions; also commonly grown by women; young women earn income through harvesting of groundnuts
Bosbel, School feeding programme
Cowpea Food security crop; cash crop; important in soil management
School feeding programme World Food programme
Soybean Cash crop that can e linked to industry; source of nutrition products; important in soil management
Bosbel, World Food programme
Shea A means of livelihood for rural women across northern Ghana
Bosbel, ...
Tomato Major cash crop with a high demand; skills for production in Upper East
Northern Star??, Wa processing plant
School feeding programme
Mango A potential crop for income diversification
ITFC School feeding programme
Melon Income diversification and dry season employment
School feeding programme
Onion Income diversification and dry season employment
School feeding programme
Cotton The north’s cash crop. Ginning Companies
Small ruminants
A means of investment and a source of income for many households, and cross-financing crop production.
Restaurants, meet processor?
School feeding programme
Pigs ---ditto--- Restaurants, meat processor
School feeding programme
Guinea fowl ---ditto--- Restaurants, meat processor
School feeding programme
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Appendix Table A2: Summary of Costs
Activity Costs Expansion of rice production
� support to farmers
� Land development (one time)
� Promotion
� GH¢14 million per year
� GH¢14 million
� GH¢1million per year
Other staple crops (cereal and legume to extreme poor)
� Maize
� Legume (groundnut or cowpea)
� GH¢39.7 million per year
� GH¢13.4 million per year
Tree crop (mango) US$1.4 million per year for 5 years
3 Pack houses for horticulture produce US$1.5 million
Dug-outs of watering livestock US$5mill (US$1 Mill per year for 5 years)
Guinea fowl: Facilitation of acquisition of technology by FBOs and processors
No basis for estimating costs. But allow at least GH¢ 1 million for this activity.
Research & extension (includes training) Training (formal and mentoring for farmers) Other technical assistance (e.g. certification) Market promotion of commodities (e.g. rice, guinea fowl and other products that will be developed)
Some percentage of total SADA funds should be allocated to these activities
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Appendix Table A3. Crop budgets26 of selected staple crops Crop: COWPEA
Technology. . . IMPROVED
ITEM / ACTIVITY QTY OF RESOURCE UNIT COST (¢)
TOTAL COST (¢)
Per Acre
A. LABOR INPUT: Mandays unless otherwise stated Cost/manday/contract 1. Land Clearing (new land) dep.over 20 yrs) Contract 1200000 60000
2. Land preparation :
- ploughing 134000 134000
3. Planting 4 14000 56000
4. Weeding
-1st 6 21000 126000
-2nd 4 21000 84000 5. Application of agro-chemicals(spraying) 3 12000 36000
6. Harvesting 10 21000 210000
7. Drying 3 10000 30000
8. Shelling 4 10000 40000
9. Winnowing 2 10000 20000
10. Bagging 1 10000 10000
11. Transportation No. of unit(s) Unit cost
-Carting of produce (maxi bag) 4 2000 8000
Sub-Total (A) 754000
B. LAND RENT: per acre 150000 150000
C. VARIABLE INPUT No. of unit(s) Cost / unit
-improved seed, kg 9 7000 63000
-others(karate lit.) 1 80000 80000
Sub-Total (C) 143000
D. TOOLS & EQUIPMENT
-cutlass(depreciated over 2yrs) 1 32000 16000
-hoe (depreciated over 2yrs) 1 17000 8500
-sacks (depreciated over 2 seasons) 3 7000 10500
Sub-Total (D) 35000
E. TOTAL (A+B+C+D) 1082000
F. CONTIGENCY (5% of E) 54100
G. TOTAL (E+F) 1136100
H. INTEREST:
- Bank rate, 35% per annum for 4 months 132545
GRAND TOTAL 1268645
REVENUE
Yield / acre . . . (109 kg max bag) 4
Price(cedis)/unit of produce…. 450000
Gross Revenue 1800000
Net Revenue 531355
Return on Investment, % 41.88366
26 All budgets assume application of recommended practices and inputs.
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Crop : . . . MAIZE / SORGHUM
Technology . . . TRADITIONAL
ITEM / ACTIVITY QTY OF RESOURCE UNIT COST (¢)
TOTAL COST (¢)
Per Acre
A. LABOR INPUT: Mandays unless other wise stated Cost/manday/contract 1. Land Clearing (new land) dep.over 20 yrs) Contract 1200000 60000
2. Manual field clearing 8 12000 96000
3. Planting 2 10000 20000
4. Weeding :
-1st 6 12000 72000
-2nd 6 12000 72000
5. Harvesting 6 12000 72000
6. Dehusking / Shelling 2 10000 20000
7. Winnowing / Threshing 4 10000 40000
8. Drying 2 10000 20000
9. Bagging 2 10000 20000
10. Transportation No. of Unit(s) Unit cost
- carting of produce(maxi bags) 6 2000 12000
Sub - Total (A) 444000
B. LAND RENT: Per acre 60000 60000
C. VARIABLE INPUT No. of Unit(s) Unit cost
- improved seed, maize 4.5 7000 31500
- improved seed, sorghum, bowls 2 3000 6000
Sub - Total (C) 37500
D. TOOLS & EQUIPMENT
- cutlass (dpreciated over 2 yrs) 1 35000 17500
- hoe (depreciated over 2 yrs) 1 20000 10000
- sacks (depreciated over 2 seasons) 6 10000 30000
Sub - Total (D) 57500
E. TOTAL (A+B+C+D) 599000
F. Contigency (5% of E) 29950
G. TOTAL (E+F) 628950
H. Interest :
- Bank rate, 35% p.a for 6 mths 110066.3
GRAND TOTAL 739016.3
REVENUE MAIZE SORGHUM TOTAL
Yield / acre . . . (100 kg bags) 3 3
Price (cedis)/ unit of produce… 250000 250000
Gross Revenue 750000 750000 1500000
Net Revenue 760983.8
Return on Investment, % 102.9725
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Crop: YAM
Technology. . . IMPROVED
ITEM / ACTIVITY QTY OF RESOURCE UNIT COST (¢)
TOTAL COST (¢)
Per Acre
A. LABOR INPUT: Man days unless other wise stated Cost/man-day/contract 1. Land Clearing (new land) dep.over 20 yrs) Contract 1200000 60000
2. Land preparation :
- mounding 30 14000 420000
3. Planting 12 14000 168000
4. Staking 6 14000 84000
5. Weeding
-1st 6 21000 126000
-2nd 6 21000 126000
6. Harvesting 20 21000 420000
7. Transportation
-yam setts(500 tubers) 10 2000 20000
-Carting of produce (3000 tubers) 500000
Sub-Total (A) 1864000
B. LAND RENT: 150000 150000
C. VARIABLE INPUTS
-improved yam setts, pcs 500 2000 1000000
Sub-Total (C) 1000000
D. TOOLS & EQUIPMENT
-cutlass(depreciated over 2yrs) 1 32000 16000
-hoe (depreciated over 2yrs) 1 17000 8500
Sub-Total (D) 24500
E. TOTAL (A+B+C+D) 2888500
F. CONTIGENCY (5% of E) 144425
G. TOTAL (E+F) 3032925
H. INTEREST:
- Bank rate, 35% p.a 1061524
GRAND TOTAL 4094449
REVENUE
Yield / acre . . . (2.5 kg tuber) 3000
Price(cedis)/unit of produce…. 4000
Gross Revenue 12000000
Net Revenue 7905551
Return on Investment, % 193.0797
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Crop: GROUNDNUT
Technology. . . IMPROVED/MECHANIZED
ITEM / ACTIVITY QTY OF RESOURCE UNIT COST (¢)
TOTAL COST (¢)
Per Acre
A. LABOR INPUT: Man days unless otherwise stated Cost/man-day/contract
1. Clearing,(dep.over 20 yrs); Contract 1200000 60000
2. Land preparation :
- ploughing 1 210000 210000
3. Planting 4 10000 40000
4. Weeding
-1st 8 2100 16800
-2nd 6 21000 126000
6. Harvesting 12 12000 144000
7. Plucking 4 12000 48000
8. Drying 2 10000 20000
9. Shelling/winnowing 3
10. Bagging 1 10000 10000
11. Transportation 2000
- carting of produce (bag) 4.5 2000 9000
Sub-Total (A) 683800
B. LAND RENT: 60000 60000
C. VARIABLE INPUT
-improved seed, kg 10 8000 80000
Sub-Total (C) 80000
D. TOOLS & EQUIPMENT
-cutlass(depreciated over 2yrs) 1 35000 17500
-hoe (dep. over 2yrs) 1 20000 10000
-sacks (dep.over 2 seasons) 4 10000 20000
-basket (dep.over 2 seasons) 5 15000 37500
Sub-Total (D) 85000
E. TOTAL (A+B+C+D) 908800
F. CONTIGENCY (5% of E) 45440
G. TOTAL (E+F) 954240
H. INTEREST:
- Bank rate, 35% p.a for 4 mths 111328
GRAND TOTAL 1065568
REVENUE
Yield / acre . . . (84 kg maxi bags) 4.5
Price(cedis)/unit of produce…. 500000
Gross Revenue 2250000
Net Revenue 1184432
Return on Investment, % 111.155
Source: Statistics Research and Information Directorate, MOFA.
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APPENDIX II: The Design and Operation of the Voucher System
The NDF will use the vouchers systems for the allocation of cash resources to individuals and families in need of food and non-food items to tide them over in times of distress. Hence, the NDF shall avoid the use of cash distributions or the purchase, transportation, stocking, and/or distribution of food and non-food items, including fertilizers and other inputs to farmers or affected households. Instead, beneficiaries of NSDF post emergency support programs will receive and use vouchers to purchase their inputs directly from pre-designated local stockists at prevailing market prices. 1. Why the Preference for vouchers i. Vouchers are less fungible than cash and therefore ensure that beneficiaries will use them for
the intended purposes. ii. The use of vouchers facilitates the targeting of beneficiaries. iii. Vendors who receive vouchers in payment for their goods and services have to redeem them for
cash at designated points. This provides an added security in ensuring that resources are challenged to the people in need.
iv. The use of vouchers also helps to local capacity of vendors for service provision within the target communities. Monies spent by beneficiaries have more chances of supporting local economies.
v. The voucher system also puts the decision making on food and input acquisition in the hands of the participating farm families, enabling them to allocate their resources for as they best decide.
vi. Used for input agricultural input acquisition, the approach also reinforces the business orientation of agricultural sector development that will become the focus of subsequent agricultural sector interventions under the Northern Development Fund. In practice, the system will operate as follows:
2. Beneficiary Selection Criteria: The criteria for selecting the most affected households will be as follows:
• Households headed by females, widows, or young children below the age of 18 which also lost all their crops during the drought and/or floods will be the first priority.
• Households headed by able bodied male which also lost all or a sizeable portion of their crops during the droughts and/or floods
• Other households that lost livestock during the floods or droughts. Selection of the participation households will be carried out by community committees based on the local intelligence of the committee members. Based on public education programs, household that feel they have not been fairly treated in the selection process shall have the right to appeal to the assembly persons or district offices of the district assembly for redress. 3. Operation of the Voucher System:
i. Each family will receive a voucher adequate for the purchase of 100 kg of maize or its equivalence in other cereals and food crops such as gari, konkonte, for the three month period running from June through August 2008. This quantity of food is estimated to provide complementary feeding to tide the affected households over the hunger period and into the next harvests.
ii. Prospective vendors and beneficiaries participating in the scheme will be pre-identified and
trained in the purpose, importance, and procedures associated with the use of the vouchers. Vendors will be made to commit to not arbitrarily increasing the prices of their commodities to short-change the voucher holders. Vendors will also commit to not exchanging cash for the vouchers, to ensure that households actually buy food with the vouchers.
iii. Vendors will redeem vouchers from service points such as facilitating financial institutions
and/or NGOs designated by the Northern Development Fund which are present and
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operating in their locality. The following measure will be used to reduce transaction cost for vendors in trying to redeem their vouchers:
a) To ensure speed of payment, security of transactions, and reduced need for bulk cash transportation and management, selected financial institutions, especially Community/Rural Banks and Credit Unions will be encouraged to participate and provide financial services to the farmers and vendors in the program. To initiate this, the NDF secretariat will pre-screen and select a number of banks in each region/district to participate in the program. Care will be taken to ensure that these banks either have operational outlets within reach of the farmers and vendors in an operational area or are capable of providing such services intermittently using mobile banking services.
b) The participating banks will be required to issue E-wich cards to prospective vendors. Hence, prospective vendors will be required to register with at least one of the participating financial institutions.
c) Once they sell goods to project beneficiaries in exchange for the vouchers, vendors will
present the vouchers they have obtained from project beneficiaries to project managers in the facilitating financial institution or NGO in their locality for verification and instant payment. Once verified, the amount due to the vendor will be entered on the vendors’ E-swish card.
d) The security of payment through the e-swish mechanisms should also encourage the
financial institutions to provide credit facilities to Vendors to enable them pre-stock their merchandise. This will help stimulate interactions between the vendors and their banks, credit the necessary goodwill and working relationships to sustain the private sector participation in the interventions, as well as, eliminate the need for the NDF secretariat to give loans to the vendors to stock up their wares.
4. Operation of the Voucher System (Example in use for food relief)
i. Each family will receive a voucher adequate for the purchase of 100 kg of maize or its equivalence in other cereals and food crops such as gari, konkonte, for the three month period running from June through August 2008. This quantity of food is estimated to provide complementary feeding to tide the affected households over the hunger period and into the next harvests.
ii. Prospective vendors participating in the scheme will be pre-identified and trained in the
purpose, importance, and procedures associated with the use of the vouchers. They will be made to commit to not arbitrarily increasing the prices of their commodities to short-change the voucher holders. Vendors will also commit to not exchanging cash for the vouchers, to ensure that households actually buy food with the vouchers.
iii. Vendors will redeem vouchers from service points such as facilitating Banks and/or NGOs
designated by the Northern Development Fund which are present and operating in their locality. This is to reduce transaction cost for vendors in trying to redeem their vouchers.
5. Monitoring and evaluation: The NDF and implementing partners will adapt the forms and formats employed by CARE International and CRS for use in the administration of the vouchers programme. The detailed nature of the systems will enable the NDF to track and document the number of beneficiaries benefiting from implementation of the interventions.
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Appendix III: Model for Operationalizing the Accelerated Food Production Initiatives
This model uses an illustrative number of 13,000 households for the purposes of demonstrating how input requirements may be calculated. It also used base prices of inputs for 2008. Under the model, the Northern Development Fund will provide support to 13,000 most affected households. Each household will receive vouchers to enable them procure seeds and fertilizers or other inputs to cultivate one (1) acre of maize or cowpea, as they choose. The value of the voucher will enable the farmers to purchase essential but expensive inputs. Hence, participating farmers must be able and willing to supplement the production costs e.g. ploughing services, weeding, and other labour and inputs with other resources. Participating farm families will be selected, using the criteria and procedure outlined in Section 3.3 below. An overview of the locations, nature, and types of interventions are detailed below: 1. Locations for the Accelerated Food Production Initiatives: The locations of interventions will be determined in reference to the disaster zones. In this illustrative model, the rapid intervention will be carried out in 26 out of the 35 districts in the three northern regions that were most affected by the droughts and floods in 2007. The distribution of districts by region is indicated in Table III.1below Table III.1: Distribution of Districts by Region Northern Region Upper East Upper West
1. Saboba 2. Chereponi 3. Bunkpurugu-Nyunyoo 4. East Mamprusi 5. West Mamprusi 6. West Gonja 7. Central Gonja 8. Sawla-Kalba-Tuna 9. Tolon-Kumbungu 10. Savelugu-Nanton 11. Tamale Municipality
1. Builsa 2. Bawku West 3. Kassena-Nankani East 4. Kassena-Nankani West 5. Bolgatanga 6. Bongo 7. Talensi-Nabdam 8. Garune-Tempane
1. Wa East 2. Sisaala West 3. Sisaala East 4. Wa West 5. Lambusie 6. Nadawli 7. Lawra
2. Types of Interventions: This rapid response initiative proposes two strands of interventions to address both the immediate and medium term food and agricultural production needs of the communities affected by the droughts and floods in 2007. These are outlined as follows: a) Accelerated Cereal Production Initiatives: The cereal production component will disburse a total of GHC1,674,400 using vouchers to 13,000 poor farmers in the affected districts to enable them procure fertilizers and seeds for the cultivation of maize. Each district will have 500 participating farmers. Each farmer will receive GHC128.80 to buy two bags (100 kg) of NPK and 1 bag (50 kg) of Ammonia Sulphate for the cultivation of 1 acre of maize. The intervention will enable the participating farmers in the 26 districts to bring 13,000 acres of land under maize cultivation in the 2008 farming season. This would lead to the production of at least 10,400 metric tons of maize in the 26 districts during the 2008 cropping season.
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Table III.2: Structure of Inputs for Maize Production.
Farmers will be encouraged to use the Obatampa variety of maize because:
• It has a relatively short maturation period (3.5 months) compared to other local varieties.
• It has higher yields than other local varieties.
• It is more nutritious
• It has a higher resistance to drought than other varies. Table III.2 provides the basic structure of inputs for this component. b) Accelerated Legumes Production Initiative: Under the legumes support program, an additional 5,200 farmers will receive GH¢43.40 each to procure seeds and insecticides to enable them cultivate 5,200 acres of cowpea. This will lead to a production of 2,080 metric tonnes of cowpeas in the coming harvest season. Table III.3: Structure of Inputs For Cowpea Production.
Items Quantities
No. of Farmers 5,200.00
Field Size per Farmer (acres) 1.00
Perfectium (litre) 26.00
Karat (litres) 26.00
Seeds per acre (in kg) 291.20
Price of Perfectium per litre 390.00
Price karat per litre 390.00
Price of seeds per kg 31.20
QUANTITIES -
Total Acreage cultivated 5,200.00
Items Quantities
No. of Farmers 13,000.0
Field Size per Farmer (acres) 1.0
NPK Per acre (in kg) 100.0
Ammonia Per acre (in kg) 50.0
Seeds per acre (in kg) 9.0
Price of NPK per kg 21.9
Price of Ammonia per kg 16.2
Price of seeds per kg 1.5
QUANTITIES -
Total Acreage cultivated 13,000.0
Total NPK for district 1,300,000.0
Total Ammonia for district 650,000.0
Total Seeds (in kg) per district 117,000.0
VALUES -
Value of NPK for district 1,094,600.0
Value of Ammonia for district 404,300.0
Value of Seeds for district 175,500.0
Total Value of Vouchers for district 1,674,400.0
Value of vouchers per farmer in district 128.8
Yield per acre (in kg) 800.0
Total Output (in kg) 10,400,000.0
Repayments (in kg) 200.0
Total Repayments in kg 100,000.0
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Total Perfectium (in litres) 5,200.00
Total karat (in litres 5,200.00
Total Seeds (in kg) for all 26 districts 58,240.00
VALUES -
Value of Perfectium for all 26 districts 78,000.00
Value of Karat 78,000.00
Value of Seeds for all 26 districts 69,888.00
Total Value of Vouchers for all 26 district 225,888.00
Value of vouchers per farmer in each district 43.44
Estimated Yield per acre (in kg) 400.00
Estimated Total Output for all 26 districts 2,080,000.00
Repayments (in kg) 1,300.00
Total Repayments in kg 260,000.00
3. Implementation Plan
3.1 Participant Selection Criteria and Procedure:
Project management staff will work with village chiefs and development committee members to select the most vulnerable farmers, using the following criteria and procedures: i) Priority rating
1. Widows and/or orphans 2. Heads of female headed households 3. Old men and women – above 60 years of age 4. Heads of families that lost their crops on the farm 5. Households headed by young people (i.e. 25 years and under) 6. Ability to secure ancillary services – ploughing, weeding, harvesting, and related labour
services. 7. Demonstrated access to suitable farmland 8. Commitment to use inputs on the designated field and apply all recommended best
practices.
ii) Selection Procedure for participating farm families To ensure equity, transparency and non-discrimination on any grounds (ethnicity, faith, political affiliation, gender, age, etc) other than need, the following procedure shall be adopted for selecting the neediest for both the food and input supply components: 3.2 Selection of participating communities: The implementing agencies27 shall work with each district assembly to draw up a list of most affected communities based on the reports of NADMO, NGOs, the UN-led flood assessment exercise, and other stakeholders. Reports that were made at the height of or immediately after the drought and flood disasters (but not later than November 2007) shall be used. 3.3 Principles of Transparency and Equity in Program Implementation
In each selected community, a committee of not less than seven and not more than nine people shall be chosen from among the following categories of community members:.
1. Representative of the chief (1 person) 2. Assembly person for the area (1 person) 3. At least two women who are not assembly persons nor representatives of the chief
27 For the 2008 quick start, it is proposed that CARE International and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) be co-opted as the
implementation agencies, given their recent experience in implementing similar programs in selected districts in the north. In the future, other NGOs may be co-opted as they demonstrate experience and capacity to delivery on such programs.
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4. At least two persons who lost their houses or farms during the floods. One of these shall be a woman, preferably a female head of a household.
5. The Community Committee shall then draw up a list of most affected households that lost their livelihoods during the droughts or floods. The Committee will be directed to base their selection on need, using criteria outlined above in their selection process.
6. The committee shall present its list to a meeting of the village for validation. Once validated, the implementing partners will use the list as the basis for determining voucher allocations.
7. Any one farmer can only benefit from a voucher for only one crop type – either maize or cowpea, but not both.
3.4 Supporting Management Mechanisms Regional and District MoFA staff shall commit to ensuring that technical staff are assigned to support the maize and cowpea production initiatives in the targeted communities. The District Directorate of MoFA and the District Assemblies shall also liaise with extension staff of nongovernmental agricultural stations working in the districts to provide technical support. This is to ensure that there is at least one agricultural extension agent for every 100 farmers.
Staff of the implementing organisation(s) shall submit lists of beneficiaries to extension agents in the affected areas to enable them provide the needed special extension service delivery, as well as, monitoring and evaluation services for the farmers assigned to them. Several NGOs, including CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, and ActionAid have considerable expertise in using the vouchers systems for seeds and/or tools distribution. In many cases, they have worked with local government institutions and development agencies such as the district directorates of MoFA, the Agricultural Extension Stations of faith-based organisations, and Community-based organisations, among others. The NDF will co-opt the expertise of these organisations to support the organisation and management of the voucher programs in their respective districts of operation. 3.5 Enhancing Larger Community Stakes and Benefits from the interventions Each farmer will repay 2 maxi bags of maize or one (1) bag of cowpea to the community. The communities will use the food collected from the farmers to support communal feeding programs for children such as the school lunch program or community nutrition centres or both that cater for children from the community. The farmer contribution scheme is designed to increase community stakes and interests in supporting the selected farmers to maximize their outputs and make a positive contribution to the community.