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Upper West – August 13–17, 2018: The Head of Local Government Service, Ing. Dr. Nana Ato Arthur and a team from the Office of the Head of the Local Government Service (OHLGS) have paid working visits to and interacted with staff of the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) and the eleven (11) District Assemblies in the Upper West Region. The sequence of the visit were to Sissala East Municipal, Sissala West and Lambussie District Assemblies. The others were Nandom, Lawra, Jirapa, Wa East, Daffiama Bussie Issa, Nadwoli, Wa West Districts and Wa Municipal Assemblies.

The working visits kicked-off with a courtesy call on the Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Alhassan Sulemana and his Deputy, Amidu Issahaku Chinia at the RCC during which the Head of Service indicated that the tour forms part of a strategy to better position the Service to achieve its mandate of a “world class decentralized and client-oriented Service”. The Regional Minister recounted some challenges and the efforts being made for the delivery of improved services by the District Assemblies.

Addressing staff at the various Assemblies, Dr. Arthur emphasized his vision for the Service anchored on five thematic areas namely: building capacities of staff; sharing of best practices among Assemblies; improving revenue mobilization including the use of IT; sanitation management; and professionalism. He called for collaboration and team work to achieve the mandate of the Service. He said localizing development is the greatest way to foster people’s development hence a professional’s conference will be organized in September, 2018 to deliberate on how to deepen the relevance and importance of Local Governance in the country. The open forum brought to light teething issues that affect working conditions which were addressed accordingly.

The Municipal and District Chief Executives were elated and commended the Head of Service for the visits as it will boost the morale of staff in the performance of their duties. They outlined strategies and measures initiated for the realization of the goals of the various Assemblies including achieving Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in the area of sanitation across the Region.

The OHLGS team that accompanied the Head of Service included the Acting Chief Director, Mr James Oppong Mensah, Director for Policy, Planning, Budget, Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr. Gregory Addah and other senior staff.

The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Hon. Issahaku Chinnia Amidu, on Wednesday admonished the various assemblies in the Upper West Region for their continued low turnouts to important meetings organized to help change the fortunes of the region. According to him, his two  years working as the  Deputy Regional Minister at the Regional Coordinating Council, he has observed that most of the District Assemblies in the Region are doing a lot of disservice to the region.

Hon. Chinnia said this, when he was addressing participants at the Regional Review and Operational Planning meeting held at the Regional Library complex by GIZ. He added that there is no commitment shown by most of the Assemblies to serve the purpose of its establishment nor its vision. The planning meeting that was supposed to start at 8:30am ended up commencing at 10:00am with only few Assemblies represented at the meeting.

Whiles calling on staff of the Assemblies to remain committed and resolute in the discharge of their duties at work, he called on Municipal and District Chief Executives (MDCEs) across the Assemblies to develop the habit of motivating and inspiring the technocrats at the various Assemblies and make them feel important and part of issues ongoing at the Assemblies. He said, when workers are recognized at their work place and also motivated, they would always give out their best at work.

He noted that the political heads can never succeed without the technocrats and for that matter should be carried along in other to achieve the developmental agenda of the region.

Delivering an address on behalf of the Regional Minister, Hon. Chinnia thanked the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and GIZ for the various roles they played in the implementation of the program in the region. He indicated that the program seeks to support MMDAs improve their internal generated funds through property rates and business operating permits. He added that the programme will support Planning, budgeting and improve cooperation amongst Decentralized actors at national, regional and district levels.

According to the Deputy Minister, over a year of implementation of the program in the region, it has chalked some successes but much still need to be done. He said through the program, members of the Municipal and District Planning Coordinating Unit were trained on the new guidelines for the preparation of the MTDPs in all the four MMDAs.

He added that refresher workshops were organized on Fee Fixing Resolution in Kumasi for some key Assembly staff and another three refresher trainings organized for Physical planning officers in Tamale and Kumasi through the program. He said, over Twenty thousand (20,000) properties were fully digitized in Wa township whiles 12,000 properties were fully digitized in Lawra Township.

He noted that it was his expectation that this year, all activities developed during the meeting would be implemented by the various MMDAs as their own and captured in their Annual Action Plan. He added that MMDAs should take note that GIZ-SFDR would support activities that would emanate from the operational planning meeting and not the entire activities of the Annual Action Plan of Assemblies.

Hon Chinnia used the opportunity to appeal to GIZ-SFDR to review its regulations to enable MMDAs get the needed support (funds, logistics and technical) on time and on regular basis to help speed up the implementation this year’s programmes. He said the cumbersome procedures in assessing funds slows the implementation of the program and this results in funds not been utilized and therefore defeating the objectives of the program.

The Zonal Coordinator for GIZ, Mr. Simon Manu reiterated his disappointment in the Assemblies for not showing up for the meeting as compared to other regions.

“I am not too happy because of the attendance”, he stated.

He said though he is sad about the turnouts, he hopes that the programme will be successful and among the best in the country.

Mr. Simon Manu called on the people of the region and the assemblies to take the work plans of GIZ serious especial ways to improve their internal generated funds to do good things for their respective districts.

Upper West Deputy Regional Minister presented 5 tricycles, 1 grinding mill and cash support to 7 CBOs in the region following a successful capacity building training. This is a collaboration between the RCC, KOICA and ACDEP. More CBOs will benefit from similar packages in the coming days. Many thanks to the Korean government for helping to build our people’s capacity and further supporting them with working materials with the ultimate aim of reducing poverty in our region.

The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Hon Hamidu Issahaku Chinnia, has ignited a debate on names given to children in the country. He called on parents to consider giving their children traditional names instead of only Islamic or Christian names.

Speaking at the 2018 edition of the Upper West Regional Art and Cultural Festival on Wednesday 15^th November 2018, Hon. Chinnia argued that traditional names given to children will help give them an identity regarding their culture which Christian or Islamic names cannot.

He urged traditional rulers to mobilize their people in maintaining their culture as religion and modernization were fast eroding the Ghanaian culture saying: “as custodians of our culture you must take center stage in trying to mobilize our people in maintaining our culture and tradition because modernization and religion is fast eroding our culture” He mentioned that a time will come when our children will not know about their culture. We must work in maintaining our culture else it will be a big disaster.

Touching on naming of children, Mr. Chinnia said the only way people in the region are able to identify their people is through their names. He therefore appealed to parents to consider giving them traditional names stressing that; “we now find a lot of people bearing Christian and Muslim names without local name. One means by which we can identify our people as Dagaabas, as Waalas, as Sissalas and all other tribes in the region is the traditional names we give to all of them. So let me appeal to all of us to give our kids local names so that we can identify them in accordance with our tradition”.

The Deputy Regional Minister also expressed concern at the penchant of parents to teach their children only English Language at the detriment of their mother tongues. He therefore appealed to parents to teach their kids their language by saying;” we have to keep emphasizing our local languages. These days most of us teach our children English Language in the house, in the school, everywhere because of modernization. Don’t let us do that at the expense of our local languages so that these kids grow up and they can’t speak their local language”.

He further urged the elderly to involve their children in the performance of traditional activities in order that they grow up with it.

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Stakeholders on the need to achieve ending open defecation in the Upper West Region last week launched the Regional League Table on the Open Defecation Free for the region at SEM-B lodge in Wa.

The gathering hosted Traditional Rulers, MMDCEs, Coordinating Directors, Environmental Health Officers and other champions of ODF.

The league is supported by UNICEF and other implementation agencies and covers all eleven districts in the region. Nandom, Wa west and Daffiama/Bussie/IssaI Assemblies are the top three while Sissala East, Jirapa and Wa Assemblies at the bottom of the table.

On the table, it was disclosed that out of the total of 1,167 communities in the region by 1^st November this year, only 531 of them had attained ODF status. This represent 45.5 percent of the total population.

The ceremony also created the opportunity for best practice to be shared amongst the various Assemblies to better achieve the desired target for an ODF region.

This feat may however be the biggest challenge to succeed as five assemblies could not make a 50 percent coverage with the Nadowli and Wa Assemblies scoring just 19 percent at the bottom of the scorecard.

Of about a total population of 689,160 only 23,137 Household Latrines serve the huge number of people in the region with only 148,902 living in ODF communities, and scored 21.6 percent of the total population.

The Deputy Regional Minister Hon Amidu Chinnia who represented the Regional Minister at the meeting, noted that the ODF league is aimed at improving transparency and accountability in the regional development through sanitation and improvement made where targeted support is needed.

He noted that issues of sanitation deserve utmost attention as commitment to duty and change of attitudes towards work by major stakeholders is very important in achieving a total ODF in the region.

Participants at the gathering were encouraged to emulate best ODF practice in achieving an ODF status from the districts that performed better on the league table.

Participants however called on the Assemblies to give the field officers the enabling environment to operate to achieve the national targets in our localities.

Some personalities and Assemblies also received some motivation in the form of rewords for their contributions to the successes chalked so far in ODF in the region.

The Upper West Regional Minister, Hon. Alhaji Alhassan Suleiman has sent a strong message to trouble shooters in the region that the law will catch up with them if they dare foment any kind of trouble in the region. Speaking at the 30^th edition of the annual Kakube Festival of the Nandom Traditional Area on Sunday 25^th December 2018, Alhaji Suleiman said the security agencies in the region are putting in place measures to ensure that crime is brought to the barest minimum in order to attract investors into the area.

He expressed joy at the rate at which crimes, such as armed robbery were reducing in the area and praised the residents for the marked improvement.

“Last year my theme was peace and coexistence in the region. We were all worried about the spate of armed robbery that was rampant in our region at the time. We appealed to all of us to put in extra efforts in curbing that menace. I am happy to observe that during the course of the period, the spate of armed robbery and other incidents of misbehavior has gone down in the region and I wish to commend all of us for the roles we played in maintaining the status qou” he added

“I want to ask all of us not to relent but keep up the fight. We at the RCC will be taking it a step higher. We have already started mechanisms in getting all of us to stay peacefully in the region to go about our duties in peace and tranquility”, he added.

Touching on cross-border crime, the Regional Minister revealed that the Regional Security Council is working closely with their Burkinabe counterparts to clamp down on criminal elements operating in both countries.

According to him, the two partners recently held a joint meeting to discuss ways of tackling crime.

He noted that, last week he was in the capital of the South West Region of Burkina Faso to discuss how we can co-exist peacefully within the regions. He reiterated the need to end all acts that are detrimental to the peace of the region. He warned that they will not relent in their efforts to enforce law and order.

The Kakube festival is celebrated annually to thank the gods for a bumper harvest and also to unite the people for development. This year’s grand durbar was attended by the Vice President His Excellency Dr, Mahamudu Bawumia and other senior members of government including the Minister of Interior, Hon. Ambrose Dery who is also the Member of Parliament of the Nandom Constituency.

Vice President throws another challenge to NDC.

Barely three months after throwing a challenge to the opposition NDC to mention any social intervention policy they implemented during their eight year stay in power, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu  Bawumia has thrown another one to the opposition party.

Dr. Bawumia who was speaking at the 30^th edition of the annual Kakube festival of the Nandom Traditional Area on Sunday 25^th November 2018, indicated that his checks has shown that for the 8 years the NDC ruled the country, not a single road project was completed in the Upper West Region.

He   challenged the NDC to show one road they completed in the Upper West Region during their eight years in office.

” When I asked them to give me one social intervention programme they did in 8 years, they are still searching for it. They are still searching for the one social intervention so I will give them an easier question since they said they did infrastructure. I am saying roads. Show me one major road you completed in the Upper West Region in 8 years of government. It’s a simple question and we will wait for the answer”, he quizzed.

He indicated that the major problem of the three regions of the north is absence of all year road motorable in the area and said though there has been efforts to improve on the situation, there is still more to be done.

Touching on what government is doing to improve on the lives of the citizenry, the Vice President said the various policies being introduced is part of the agenda of moving Ghana beyond aid and also making life easier for the citizenry.

Some of these policies according to him, the Free Senior High School programme is helping free up money for parents of beneficiaries to invest in other areas which will in turn make their lives better and that the Nation Builders’ Corps is a measure to ensure that graduates from tertiary institutions who hitherto had nothing doing are engaged.

Dr. Bawumia further intimated that, the Planting for Food and Jobs has seen more food being produced across the country. According to him this development will ensure that the country does not import things such as maize and other food items from other countries.

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The Upper West Deputy Regional Minister, Hon Amidu Chinia Issahaku has hinted that government is in the process of recruiting over three thousand permanent agriculture extension officers. Out of the three thousand to be recruited half of the number would be recruited by the Local Government Service and the remaining half would be recruited by the Ministry of Agriculture to educate farmers on new methods of farming and agronomic practices. The Deputy Minister made this remark at the second Upper West Post Harvest losses forum in Wa on Tuesday 29^th January, 2019.

Speaking on food security in the region, he indicated that, Government has made food security a priority in Ghana and this has informed government’s Planting for Food and Jobs Campaign which was successfully implemented in the last two farming seasons. He added that, under the One  District, One Warehouse initiative, government has commenced the construction of a number of warehouses in the region to help store farm produce and manage post-harvest losses. He said seven Warehouses were under construction in the Upper West Region.

He noted that, in spite of the efforts above, post-harvest losses continue to be a major challenge for farmers across the country, especially the Upper West Region.  He therefore called on all gathered to put all hands on deck in the fight against post-harvest losses.

Highlighting on methods of reducing post-harvest losses, Hon Chinia indicated that, our roads need to be worked on since bad roads contributed to post-harvest losses. He elaborated that farmers find it difficult moving their farm produces from rural areas to the market centers or the urban areas in order to sell their produce. Secondly, the roads are so bad that it is sometimes very difficult to get trucks to carry the farm produce. When they even get the trucks, the cost of transportation increases and eventually affects the profit margin of the farmers as explained by the Deputy Minister. Hon. Chinia however indicated the commitment of Government in fixing most of the roads in the region.

He explained that when the government of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa took over as President of this country, the previous government took a loan from UBA against the road fund and that for the last two years, the road fund that comes into the accounts goes to service principal of the loan and the interest. He said steps were being taken to offset the loan so that the road fund which is the major source fund for roads in Ghana can be available to tackle the road networks in Ghana.

Hon. Chinnia added that, Government through the European Union is implementing a project which is affecting all the districts in the region called Market Oriented Project (MOAP). He said the project is to address the poor nature of our roads, irrigation, issues of warehouses, farmer’s orientation and also issues of climate change. He said all these were steps taken to enhance productivity and prevent post-harvest losses in agriculture.

According to the Country Program Manager of SNV Mr Eric Banye, the voice for change program is an evidence based advocacy programme being implemented by SNV Netherlands Development Organization in partnership with the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The funding is for a period of five years spanning 2016 to 2020 and is being implemented in six countries namely, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Indonesia, Honduras and Burkina Faso.

He added that, the Ghana program is focused on three themes. Food and Nutrition Security; Renewable Energy; and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

The Upper West Regional Minister, Hon. Alhaji Sulemana on Tuesday 28^th November 2018 directed all assemblies in the region to submit their yearly reports to the Upper West Regional Coordinating council by 7^th December. This directive was given at the Regional Coordinating Council a meeting which involved the assemblies, departmental heads and other stakeholders.

Hon Alhassan Sulemana used the occasion to thank Regional House of Chiefs and other stakeholders for their commitment towards the realization of autonomy of Wa campus of the University for Development Studies. According to him, the President of the Republic of Ghana on 10^th November 2018 announced that Cabinet had granted approval for the autonomy of the Wa campus of the UDS awaiting Parliamentary approval.

He also acknowledged the tremendous contributions of REGSEC, Regional Heads of Department and development partners such as UNICEF, CIDA, USAID, the Northern Ghana Governance Authority, KOICA, JICA, GIZ, the Civil Society Organizations, and the Media among others in the governance of the Region. He reiterated that the management of the region does not lie solely in the hands of the Regional Minister and the central administration. “We have all been positioned with our various mandate to contribute to the development of the region. It is only with concerted effort that we can succeed” he added.

He indicated that more than fifty percent of our people depend on agriculture for their livelihood. This simply means that when the farmer is better off, then living conditions would have improved. He said government is committed to improving the agricultural sector and that massive injection of funds into the sector in the past years has seen increased in land sizes for cultivation this year. He added that the Planting for Food and Jobs Program was on course and by next year government will introduce agricultural machineries to facilitate the mechanization of the sector.

Touching on decentralization, he indicated that the effectiveness of the MMDAs as planning and semi-autonomous authorities depends largely on their ability to generate resources locally. “What pertains currently is that the MMDAs depends so much on central government and other external transfers to function.” He added. He stressed that the internally generated funds were inadequate to be used for any developmental activities, not even enough for their day to day administrative functions. He lamented that reports from the RCC monitoring team indicate that the IGFs were below Ten Percent of the total funds received by the Municipal and District Assemblies which is quite worrisome.

According to him, the non- functionality of the various towns/Area council and Unit Committee have an effect on revenue mobilization. He said this lower level structures have a significant role to play in the revenue and other resource mobilization drive and other functions of the assembly. He therefore tasked all MMDCEs to ensure that these structures are properly constituted, well equipped and resourced to help the assemblies perform their mandate.

Touching on education, the Hon. Regional Minister indicated that education is the bedrock of development and that there can be no sustainable human development without quality, inclusive and equitable education. He said the President’s vision to build Ghana beyond Aid can be achieved through providing the future generation of this country access to quality secondary education.

“These are some of the indicators that informed the bold and courageous implementation of the Free SHS programme ahead of most of our other flagship programs” he added.

Speaking on issues on sanitation, he said insanitary practices such as choked gutters, indiscriminate disposal of waste, Open Defecation sometimes due to lack of household toilets, especially in our urban areas still stares us in the face. He indicated that Sanitation, as often stated is shared, responsibility “What are we as stakeholders doing to reverse this negative attitude? he quizzed. He said assemblies must invoke the powers bestowed on them to pass and implement sanitation bye laws.

Hon. Alhassan Sulemana, in response to some comments by the Regional Director of Education on the falling standards of education in the Region, hinted his desires to quickly call on UNICEF to intervene on the mater. “We will discuss our issues of education challenges with UNICEF and try to impress upon them to extend their support to all districts in the region,” he noted.

He also announced that stakeholders would be consulted in collaboration with the Regional House of Chiefs and MMDCEs to look into reducing, to the barest minimum issues of land and chieftaincy disputes and other conflicts related issues.

Hon. Sulemana Alhassan called on the Forestry Commission to fight rosewood salvaging in the region. He noted that the menace was a detriment to the future generations and should be fiercely dealt with.

“We want to say that, you need to go the extra mile to support the region. We are talking about whatever inheritance we live for generations yet unborn so we would need your expertise” he noted.

The Ag. UW Regional Minister, Amidu Chinnia Issahaku has directed Municipal and District Chief Executives and Coordinating Directors in the Upper West Region to play active roles in the development of the Region and the country as a whole.

He made this known at the signing of the performance contracts between MDCEs and MDCDs on Monday 26^th March, 2018 at the Regional Coordinating Council. He emphasized that the activities of the District Assemblies must improve upon the lives of the people.

Hon. Chinnia noted that citizens want their conditions improved and therefore urged the District Assemblies to be innovative and creative to trigger the needed development in their respective areas.

He further urged all MDCEs and MDCDs to practice open door administration through team work, dedication, hard work, commitment and innovation.

According to him, the Local Government Service was established by the local Governance Act 936 of 2016 to secure effective administration and management of Local Government in the country. The signing of performance contract is to improve service delivery in the District Assemblies.

He therefore called on the MDCEs to release funds for the execution of the planned activities in the contract. He stressed that, they may be punitive measures for District Assemblies that fail to achieve the targets of the contract.

The Minister added that the contract has key performance areas that must be achieved and that there would be a mid – year evaluation of the contracts followed by an end of year assessment. He further added that the key performance areas are part of the mandates of the District Assemblies as contained in the Local Governance Act 936, (2016) and therefore delivery on the contract was a direct means of checking the performance of Districts. He noted that the performance contract will   ensure efficient and effective service delivery at the grassroots level.

The Smallholder Agricultural Mechanization Project (SAMP) is a project which seeks to improve the incomes and agricultural productivity of 15,000 smallholder farmers in the Upper West Region through increased access to mechanization services of simple and affordable machinery that will also not disturb the soil structure.

Addressing participants at the launch of the project in Wa on Thursday 5^th April, 2018, the Ag. Upper West Regional Minister Hon. Amidu Chinnia Issahaku said that smallholder farmers are the main producers of the world’s food and they will have to increase production up to 100% by 2050 if we want production to be in tandem with feeding the growing population.

He mentioned that as part of efforts aimed at creating an enabling environment for increased agricultural production and productivity, Government has subsidized fertilizer prices for farmers by half of its original market price, made available improved seeds and also initiated moves to build warehouses in every region to store produce after harvest to prevent post- harvest losses.

He added that the buffer stock company has been revived to provide ready market for farm produce.

He however appealed to the project implementers to ensure the effective participation of the rural farmers in the implementation process so that their rich experiences and know how will feed into the future of the project.

The Ag. Regional Minister cautioned that the rural farmers’ expertise should not be underestimated because they have adopted strategies to withstand all challenges and difficulties over the years. Hon. Chinnia Issahaku later commended Agro Africa and the project partners for this laudable initiative and appealed to farmers to take advantage of the benefits of this project in the Region.

On his part, the Programme Officer for Financial Inclusion for Smallholder Farmers in Africa Project (FISFAP) and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Mr. Paa Kwasi Awuku – Darko said the overall goal of FISFAP is to reduce food insecurity and increase the income of over 700,000 smallholder farmers in Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania by 2020 through enhanced access to affordable and appropriate financial and non – financial services. He mentioned that in Ghana, FISFAP will directly impact 200,000 smallholder farmers.

Mr. Darko added that mechanized ploughing has become necessary in many places under the current farming systems when animal traction is not an option. Tractor service market has quietly started to develop and tractor owners are often relatively medium and larger farmers that also provide hiring services to smallholder farmers.

Mr. Darko further added that AGRA through the MasterCard Foundation has supported Agro Africa and Tro Tro Tractor to develop a pool of 350 tractor service operators to offer hiring services for Agricultural Machinery through an innovative technology platform Tro Tro Tractor Limited for 15,000 smallholder farmers in the Upper West Region.