President Akufo-Addo has appealed to Ghana’s international development partners (IDPs), particularly those offering support in the agriculture sector, to consider aligning their agriculture sector development plans to the country’s national policies and strategies in the agriculture sector.
Addressing attendees of a presidential breakfast meeting organized by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to engage the country’s international development partners at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City on Thursday, 26 October 2023, President Akufo-Addo said government is concerned about the evidence of some nonalignment of the programmes of her international partners with the nation’s home-grown agriculture policies.
Before he made known his concerns about the nonalignment of international partner agency programmes with the country’s local policies, the President observed that “the second phase of the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), [which was launched recently] is poised to continue the transformation of Ghana’s agricultural landscape.
“We have shifted our approach from a subsidy policy to an input credit system that accommodates all participants in the agricultural value chain. This programme’s design places a strong emphasis on commercial agriculture with a cascading effect on all stakeholders from production to processing, distribution, and marketing.
“This comprehensive approach will stimulate economic activities within the sector, general employment, support industrialization, boost exports, increase incomes, foster rural development, and propel overall economic growth” President Akufo-Addo stated in his address.
“Inspite of the productive collaboration that has taken place between government and friends of Ghana over the years, a matter of concern has been at times, the misalignment of priorities between the policies of certainty international development agencies and national policies and strategies.
“Government is concerned by this because projects designed by foreign governments to support Ghana’s agriculture should naturally align with government’s priorities. Any deviation from this can amount to misdirected investments in the country” President Akufo-Addo said.
Pressing need
To this end, President Akufo-Addo said there is a pressing need for the country’s well-meaning international development partners to align their agenda with government’s own plans in order to minimize duplication and eliminate the lack of knowledge of government of projects by international development agencies.
“We should consciously adopt a coherent approach that promotes collaboration. Dialogues like the one we are having today are essential and should be a regular occurrence providing an avenue to discuss challenges, successes and ensure increased collaboration in the execution of current and future agricultural development plans in Ghana” President Akufo-Addo remarked.
Ready for partnership
Minister for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong in his address, noted that the ministry considers the country’s international development partners in the agriculture sector a very important partnership. He told the development partners present at the meeting that the doors of government and the Ministry are wide open to them and their partners.
“Let us work together to ensure cost-effective use of funds and resource allocation to achieve our common development objectives. Let’s work together to align our programmes for effectiveness” Bryan Acheampong said.
“To this end, we will share with policy link the number of investment areas for alignment and support by development partners under the Planting for Food and Jobs phase two” the Food and Agriculture Minister added.
Development partners
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has several international development partners. Among them are; African Development Bank (AfDB), Agence français de dévelopment (AFD – France), Alliance for Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Engineers Without Borders (EWB), EMBRAPA and Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO).
Other partners of the ministry are; German Development Cooperation (GIZ-KfW), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Science (JIRCAS), Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank (WB) and World Food Programme (WFP).
Source: Asaase radio