‘Effective policies weapons against hunger, poverty’

The high-level dialogue, which was organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Regional Office for Africa, was on the theme: “Two success stories in fighting hunger and food insecurity: Learning from Ghana and Brazil”.

It was attended by representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs), farmer groups, political parties, development partners, the government, students, members of the Diplomatic Corps, academia and United Nations agencies.

Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 on halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and attain and even surpass the 1996 World Food Summit goal of reducing by half the number of under-nourished people by 2015.

One of the policy interventions that led to the achievement of those goals was the Ghana School Feeding Programme launched by the Kufuor administration to provide nutritious food for schoolchildren in the country.

That policy helped to dramatically reduce the level of chronic hunger and malnutrition among a large number of children.

Under the leadership of Mr Lula da Silva, Brazil’s Zero Hunger Programme became one of the most successful food and nutritional security policies in the world.

These significant achievements by the two former Presidents in the fight against hunger and poverty earned them the coveted World Food Prize in 2011.

Mr Lula da Silva said it was important for African leaders to change the image of Africa as a continent of poor and hungry people.

He said with the right technology, management and commitment, Africa could even transform the savannah into fertile land for agricultural production.

The former Brazilian President said food security was the most important weapon African countries needed, adding, “If a country has atomic bomb or nuclear bomb but is without food, it will lose the war.”

Mr Lula da Silva said his commitment to reduce hunger and poverty and the development of a social inclusive government helped him to succeed as President.

He said the success of public policy depended on the serious registration of the poor to help track the financial assistance given to them by the government.

The lack of such a register, he said, resulted in a situation where money meant for the poor never got to them, as it was diverted by some government officials.

Mr Lula da Silva cited the introduction of a family stipend system under which the government gave money to families below the poverty line and the establishment of a credit line policy for the poor and small-holder farmers to help them access credit as some of the public policies adopted by his administration to reduce poverty and hunger.

He underscored the need for Ghana and Brazil to establish closer collaboration to learn from each other’s development initiatives.

For his part, Mr Kufuor said when he assumed office in 2001, the Ghanaian economy was in such a bad shape that the government was compelled to file for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative to ensure debt forgiveness and stabilisation of the economy.

Thereafter, he said, the government adopted a development strategy hinged on five pillars, including the modernisation and commercialisation of agriculture, which intervention led to Ghana’s all-time cocoa production record of 700,000 tonnes in 2007.

He said the establishment of the Ministry of Fisheries by his administration also ensured improvement in the fishing industry and helped increase fish production.

Mr Kufuor said his success stemmed from his commitment to good governance and determination to change things and improve the lot of Ghanaians.

He underscored the need for pragmatism, inspired leadership and inclusiveness to address the challenges of development.

He also cautioned against political discrimination in agriculture, adding that the government must pursue policies that would attract the youth into agriculture.

He urged the intelligentsia in the country to play a more active role in national development.

“It is time to translate the talk into action,” he said, and expressed the hope that Ghana would emulate the good deeds of Brazil to enhance the country’s economic development.

Contributing to the dialogue, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, identified committed leadership, the development of other sectors of the economy and transparency in governance as some of the key lessons derived from the Lula da Silva administration.

He said the social protection programmes adopted by the Kufuor administration were very good but they could have been better if they had been integrated into the larger economy.

The Chairman for the event, Professor Ayensu, expressed concern over the practice of new governments abandoning projects initiated by their predecessors.

“I find it very difficult to comprehend this. You cannot do that if you don’t confuse the national agenda with party manifesto,” he said.

He advised Ghanaians not to allow politics to becloud their commitment to the nation.

Story by Kofi Yeboah

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