Bolgatanga MCE, Rex Asanga (right) and Upper East MoFA Director unveil the project
THE CANADIAN Feed The Children Organisation (CFTC), through some local partners, is to implement a three-year project to impart knowledge and empower rural women to embark on various economic activities.
The organisation has since launched the Sustainable Development, Human Rights, Inclusion and Equality (SHINE) in the Upper East Region where some districts have been selected as beneficiaries.
The initiative, according to Augustine N-Yokuni, Country Representative, seeks to enhance women and girls’ empowerment through the implementation of sustainable agriculture and agribusiness-related activities.
Speaking at the project launch in Bolgatanga, Mr. N-Yokuni noted that the SHINE project was built on Global Affairs Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) which recognised gender equality as the best way to build a more peaceful, inclusive and a prosperous world.
“The new dimension of this project is the business incubation and its prospects in the lives of women and girls in Northern Ghana. We need long-lasting women empowerment now and for the future – an empowerment that enhances access to productive resources for sustained production, increases value chain development and increases marketing and business skills, particularly, among women,” he noted.
The Canadian Feed The Children has been in operation in five countries including Bolivia, Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda. In Ghana, it is working with indigenous people in communities to support women in the Northern, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West regions.
The Country Director said, “The African Agribusiness Incubation Network (AAIN) is a technical partner in business incubation which is a key component of the project. The project location is in the Upper East Region. Through local partners, Canadian Feed The Children (CFTC) delivers development programmes that have a positive, meaningful and sustained impact on children’s lives and build the resiliency of their families and communities.”
He added, “In Ghana, CFTC works through three local organisations namely Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS), Trade Aid Integrated (TAI), and Tumu Deanery Rural Integrated Development Programme (TUDRIDEP) which implement long-term programs and projects in Northern, Savannah, Upper East, and Upper West regions. In 2022, CFTC received 2 million Canadian dollars funding from Global Affairs Canada to implement the three-year project in Ethiopia and Ghana – 1 million Canadian dollars each for Ethiopia and Ghana. In Ghana, the SHINE project is being implemented in partnership with one of the local partners, Trade Aid Integrated in the Upper East Region.”
Some of the female participants as well as their Municipal and District Chief Executives were happy to be part of the project and called on all and sundry to support it to achieve its targets in the beneficiary communities.
Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, Rex Asanga also assured that the assembly will work closely with the implementors to enhance sustainable agriculture and agribusiness-related activities in the municipality.
FROM Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga