Ghana could miss MDGs on hunger – Report

Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare

GHANA’s failure to halve poverty and reduce hunger in the three northern regions, as in the case of the other regions, could prevent the country from meeting the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG on hunger, a new report on the MDGs has showed.

The report which written by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the United Nations System in the country further found that the three regions accounted for more than 55 per cent of the nation’s poor as of 2006.

“On the contrary, only one out of every 10 poor people in Ghana comes from the Ashanti Region. Four regions – the Western, Central, Greater Accra and Eastern regions – account for less than 5 per cent each of national poverty while the Volta and Brong Ahafo regions contribute 6 per cent and 8 per cent respectively to national poverty,” the report which was published this month added.

It observed that although Ghana has over the years managed to halve extreme poverty from 36.5 per cent to 18.2 per cent between 1991 and 2006, “the three northern savannah regions and food crop farmers have not benefited from this.”

Poverty levels in these areas have ranged between 52 and 88 per cent – far higher than the national average of 18.2 per cent, the report said.

The findings would, among other things, constitute the subject of discussion at the 2012 Consultative Group Meeting and Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS) Annual Review which begins in Accra today to Wednesday.

The report which was published under the theme: ‘Achieving the MDGs with Equity in Ghana: Unmasking the Issues Behind the Averages’ looked at the country’s progress towards attaining the MDGs on or before the 2015 deadline.

The MDGS are a set of eight targets that was devised and adopted by the United Nations and majority of its member countries in 2000 as progress benchmarks for developing countries in the areas of poverty and hunger reduction, health, education, access to water among others.

Since their take-off in September 2000, various countries, their development partners and the UN in particular have often mooted development policies towards them as each country is tasked to meet all the eight goals by 2015.

With the 2015 deadline now inching closer, concerns are that the widening socio-economic gaps between Northern Ghana and rural farmers in general and the wealthy southern dwellers could derail the nation’s efforts at achieving the goals, especially in the area of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

“Ghana’s performance in eradicating poverty has been quite remarkable at the national level and urban areas,” the report stated.

It however said the socio-economic inequalities, poverty incidence and its depth across the 10 regions “are worrying.”

According to the report, the incidence of poverty in the three northern regions remained “very high and far above the national average.

Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Food and Agriculture

“The Northern Region managed to reduce upper poverty incidence from 63 per cent in 1991 to 52 per cent in 2006 while Upper East recorded an increase from 67 per cent to 70 per cent over the same period,” it said.

Although poverty incidence in the Upper West had declined from 88 per cent in 1991 to 84 per cent in 1999, the report found that the rate rose again to 88 per cent in 2006, thus raising concerns over the sustainability and depth of poverty reduction strategies in these areas.           

Given that poverty and hunger has rippling implications on the country’s ability to meet the other MDGs, the report recommended that strategies aimed at reducing poverty and hunger be tailored towards the areas lagging behind.

“The high incidence of poverty in the three northern regions and among food crop farmers at the national level and in rural areas should engage the attention of policy makers and relevant stakeholders.

“Strategies to further reduce poverty therefore need to account for geographical, gender and socio-economic disparities in poverty incidence,” it further recommended.