Ghana gets on board Great Green Wall Initiative for sustainable land management

A national stakeholder consultation has taken off for Ghana to join the Great Green Wall Initiative, a project with the goal of halting land degradation and desertification in Africa.

Experts from the African Union Commission will engage interest groups in Ghana, including the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on modalities for the country to get on board.

Since 2007, twelve African countries have been involved in the implementation of the project to green the continent. These countries embark on projects to plant millions of trees in addition to implementing other related projects to avert desertification and land degradation.

The initiative has adopted the rural development approach where community members are sensitized to plant trees, manage them and practice agriculture on rehabilitated lands to secure their livelihoods.

“This programme came to build the resilience of the communities in the drylands of Africa to climate change and the impacts of climate change,” said Dr. Elvis Paul Tangem, Coordinator of the Great Green Wall Initiative at the African Union Commission.

According to him, climate change adaptation and mitigation have been at the heart of the implementation of Great Green Wall initiative.

More than 50 million hectares of land will be restored in ten years of implementation, which will help sequester an estimated 250 million tons of carbon.

In Ghana, the three regions of the north will benefit from the project which will impact on policy at the national level, Dr. Tangem told 3news.com on the sidelines of the 15^th TerrAfrica Executive Committee (TAEC) Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.

The World Bank has already bumped close to $4.5billion into the project, which serves as an international platform for implementation of Sustainable Water and Land Management (SWLM) activities, with focus on the drylands of Africa.

The metaphoric Great Green Wall will provide sustainable alternatives for millions of young people considering migrating from poverty-stricken areas in Africa’s Sahel region.

Ghana has already been benefiting from the World Bank’s $1.1billion Sahel and West Africa Program in support of the Great Green Wall.

Meanwhile, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are expected to replace Nigeria and Togo on the TerrAfrica Executive Committee.

The TerrAfrica programme currently gives support to 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in policy and investments needed to address land degradation and desertification.

In Ghana, the programme has provided the opportunity to implement SLWM projects in local communities.

 By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Ghana shelves proposed coal power plant, but campaigners raise issues

The government of Ghana has rejected the proposed $1.5 billion coal project to be established in the Ekumfi Aboano District in the country’s central region.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) and Shenzhen Energy Group have been pushing to get a 700MW coal plant up and running from April 2017.

But contrary to public announcements, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mahama Ayariga, says the country has yet to grant permit for the construction of the coal plant.

“Having gone to deposit our instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement, we will not come back home and be permitting coal plants,” the Minister asserted.

Anti-coal campaigners should be relieved with government’s new position; but they are demanding a Presidential decree to formally and publicly cancel the ambitious coal project and any future fossil fuel plans. 

“Coal has severe health and environmental consequences so much so that developed nations are shying away from it.  Our message is clear: the government should refrain from the coal fallacy once and for all and instead redirect its focus on renewable energy sources,” said Chibeze Ezekiel, 350.org Ghana anti-coal campaigner.

High-level officials struggled to justify the proposed coal plant when it came about in 2013, during the country's worst energy crises. 

The coal power project was intended to contribute to addressing the power generation shortfall in Ghana to meet domestic and industrial demands.

But opposition to the coal option described the proposal as the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Anti-coal campaigners argued for the protection of the environment without compromising on the health of the people and the integrity of the ecosystems.    

The coal plant would have contradicted Ghana’s ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change last August in the pursuit of sustainable development and attaining clean energy goals in line with Ghana’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (GH-INDC). 

The Paris agreement, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, comes into effect in November, just before the Conference of Parties (COP22) taking place in Marrakesh, Morocco.

“There is no future in fossil fuel investments. The world urgently needs a just transition to 100% renewable energy with universal access across the globe,” said Landry Nintereste, 350Africa Regional Team Leader. “The African continent is well positioned to take the lead, refuse energy models that aggravate climate chaos and compromises it renewable development path”.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Girls not Brides Ghana calls for bill on early and forced marriages

An average one out of four girls will be married off before their 18th birthday in Ghana.

These child brides are often unable to effectively negotiate safe sex, leaving them vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies.

“Child marriage affects the girl socially, economically, health wise and psychologically,” said Mrs. Aba Oppong, Chairperson of Girls Not Brides Ghana, a global partnership of civil society organizations committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfill their potential.

The key objective is to work with government and other stakeholders to develop a joint strategy to end child marriage.

The group joined the international community to mark the 2016 International Day of the Girl Child day with a call for “a world free of discrimination for young women and girls”.

Reports indicate that more than 700 million women are married as children – below age 18 – and some 250 million also married off before age 15 worldwide.

The situation is not different in Ghana. The UNFPA Child Marriages Profiles in Ghana and Demographic Health Survey–DHS 2008 indicates that the prevalence rate in the Upper East Region stands at 50%, Upper West 39%, Northern region 36% and Brong Ahafo 33%. Central region has 28%, Ashanti 23%, Eastern region 18%, Western Region 18% and Greater Accra 11%.

This year’s theme focuses on ‘Adolescent Girls and the Sustainable Development Goals”, which sets a range of international targets, including gender equality, to be achieved by 2030.

“Ending child marriage requires strategies for girls' empowerment, change in social and cultural norms, legal reform, and policy action,” said Mrs. Aba in a statement.

Ghana’s Criminal Code 1960 Act 29 makes it illegal to force a person by duress to get married to another person against that person’s consent. The Children’s Act of Ghana 1998 (Act 560) also states that no person shall force a child to be betrothed; to be subject of a dowry transaction; or to be married. It also states that the minimum age of marriage of whatever kind shall be 18 years.

However, little has been done to stop child marriage in the past.

Girls not Brides Ghana has commended the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection for the launch of a youth policy with child marriage as one of the components as well as the development of Ghana’s strategy to end child marriage.

“We still call on the Ministry to initiate a bill on early and forced marriage through Parliament to be passed into law. The bill should also address its effect on health, education, community and the economy since there is no provision in the children act which provides for nullification of child marriage,” said the group.

It also says urgent actions are needed to scale and prevent thousands of teenage girls being forced into marriage in the next decade.

“To stop child marriage, policies and programs must educate communities, raise awareness, engage local and religious leaders, involve parents, and empower girls through education and employment,” concluded the statement.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Ghana sets pace in Sustainable Land and Water Management practices

A Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM) project in Ghana’s northern savanna zone is contributing to enhanced food security and increased climate resilience of the beneficiary communities.

The World Bank’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) has in the past five years offered a grant of close to $30million to scale-up SLWM interventions to support forest fringe communities.

With focus on root and tuber cultivation, the SLWM interventions are helping to expand an original 6,000 hectares to 15,000 hectares.

“The farmers are truly involved in adopting sustainable land and water management practices, banding, terracing and provides options for alternative livelihoods in the dry seasons,” observed Gayatri Kanungo, Senior Environmental Specialist at the World Bank Group and Manager of the TerrAfrica Leveraging Fund.

The TerrAfrica Leveraging Fund provides a flexible financing mechanism to support activities under the TerrAfrica programme that have the potential for scaling up sustainable land and water management in SSA countries.

Over the decade, the Fund has supported several countries in leveraging and designing innovative interventions in SLWM.

Support was provided for the development of the Ghana Strategic Investment Framework which helped integrate all planned SLM activities for investment generation.

The country has used the Framework to implement landscape approaches of bringing the sectors together under a sustainable land management committees led by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.

The TerrAfrica programme currently gives support to 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in policy and investments needed to address land degradation and desertification.

In Ghana, the programme has provided the opportunity to implement SLWM projects which bring together the sectors of forests, agricultural lands and protected area biological corridors.

Projects are community-driven, considering the option of looking at various land users are impacting and generating benefits for the communities in the Northern Savanah, which are characterized by vulnerability, low climate resilience, and high poverty.

According to Gayatri Kanungo, Ghana’s successful implementation of best practices in SLWM is becoming a showcase model to be replicated in other African countries.

TerrAfrica has however transformed from sustainable land management to landscapes management, which provides the means to make both the ecosystem and livelihoods of the people resilient.

“At the end of the day, it’s about supporting the livelihoods of African communities.… It’s about building the resilient capacity of African people both in terms of coping with change in weather patterns and economic resilience,” said Estherine Fotabong, the NEPAD Agency’s Director of Programme.

Project priorities under the TerrAfrica program are aligned with Ghana’s vision of modernizing its agricultural sector to improve food security in an environmentally sustainable manner with a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly in the most fragile ecosystems.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

African climate experts discuss implications of implementing Paris Agreement

The Sixth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA–VI) has kicked off in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, with climate experts, government representatives and civil society organizations examining how implementation of the Paris Agreement will impact the continent.

The agreement is an accord within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), seeking for reduction of emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, adaptation and mitigation of the impact of climate change, and financing of those activities.

“The Paris Agreement heralds bold steps towards de-carbonizing the global economy and reducing dependency on fossil fuels,” said James Murombedzi, the Officer in Charge at the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC).

He however said “there are contentious nuances of the agreement that must be unpacked in the context of Africa’s development priorities, particularly in regard to the means of implementation which were binding provisions of the Kyoto Protocol and currently only non-binding decisions in the Paris Agreement.” 

The Paris Agreement on climate change is set to come into effect before the end of the year, with over 80 countries already having ratified the pact, which aims at limiting the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue more ambitious efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in this century.

For one week, the participants in the Addis Ababa conference will be reviewing the accord so as to provide a contextual analysis of what is at stake for Africa and what the Agreement offers, prior to COP22 in Marrakesh, Morocco 7-18 November 2016, thereby contributing to strategic orientation for African countries in moving forward with the implementation of the Agreement.

The basis of the Paris Agreement is the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) submitted by all parties in the lead up to COP21as their national contributions to limiting global greenhouse gas emissions. INDCs became Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) subsequent to COP21 in Paris.

The main theme of CCDA–VI, organized under the auspices of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) programme, is “The Paris Agreement on climate change: What next for Africa?”

The experts observed that implementation of the agreement has significant implications for Africa as the continent that will be most severely impacted by the adverse impacts of weather variability and climate change.

It was further observed that the continent is already experiencing climate-induced impacts, such as frequent and prolonged droughts and floods, as well as environmental degradation that make livelihoods difficult for rural and urban communities.

Increasing migration on the continent is therefore both triggered and amplified by climate change.

Source: PAMACC News

Growing food the sustainable smart way to beat climate change

World Food Day 2016 has the global message: “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.” This echoes weather-related disasters hitting vulnerable farmers, fishers and pastoralists in Africa.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, growing food in a sustainable way means adopting practices that produce more with less in the same area of land whilst using natural resources wisely.

It also means reducing food losses before the final product or retail stage through a number of initiatives including better harvesting, storage, packing, transport, infrastructure, market mechanisms, as well as institutional and legal frameworks.

Most agricultural systems south of the Sahara are climate dependent, with more than 95 percent of farmed land growing crops from rain-fed agriculture. The African countries are already suffering from food insecurity due to low productivity because of degraded soils, droughts, floods and a lack of effective water management, among other factors.

But efforts are underway on the continent to encourage and upscale climate smart agriculture. 

Participants from the recently-ended 2^nd Africa Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Alliance Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, visited two farms that are using climate smart agricultural techniques and are yielding positive results.

Albert Waweru, a retiree from the police force, is an urban farmer from Kasalani sub-county in Nairobi, whose farm employs climate smart measures and sees him rewarded with a sustainable income from the proceeds of his 1.75 acre plot.

Waweru practices zero-tillage mixed farming on his modest land upon which he has vegetable greenhouses and livestock. 

He has invested in a rain water harvesting system and has a number of storage tanks that have been installed underground in order to save on space. 

“For me to keep good animals I needed water 24hours so that my animals do not starve… I needed to think smarter. I decided to do water harvesting; any drop of rain that comes, I harvest,” he said.

Waweru’s 50 cows produce an impressive 290 litres of milk per day which he sells to schools and hospitals. The milk sales have been very successful to the extent that he is now unable to meet all the demands.

At the back of his plot, Waweru makes manure from his animals’ dung and bio-waste that is covered while being processed in order to reduce gas emissions. This too is a lucrative business as he is never short of customers for the manure.

The other animals on his farm are goats and chickens which also add to his income. Waweru informed the visitors that he would like to embark on biogas generation that he also wishes to sell to his neighbours for their daily power needs.

“The income sustains me and my family; nothing goes waste, whatever come I turn it into money,” said the retired police officer.

Participants from the Africa CSA Alliance Forum also visited a State farm on the outskirts of Nairobi that hatches fingerlings for sale to fish farmers. 

The Samaki Tu farm, whose Swahili name means ‘Fish Only’ produces catfish and tilapia fingerlings – the catfish hatcheries use artificial propagation in greenhouses that are not climate dependent. Moreover, when temperatures rise, the fish breed even faster.

Samaki Tu farm is one of the Kenyan government initiatives set up to meet the high demand for fish, most of which used to come from Lake Victoria which has been overfished.  With fish stocks around the world having gone down in the last decade, aquaculture is the smart route to take.

In Ghana, the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is implementing the Aquaponics-based Food System (AFS), which combines crop production with fish, poultry and small ruminant rearing.

The researchers explain the emerging venture of producing worms for composting, known as vermiculture, is a sound economic and environmental activity essential to produce organic crops that help to mitigate the changing climate.

The Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance is spearheading implementation of the African Union Vision to reach 25 million farm households practicing CSA by 2025 (Vision 25x25).

The ability of farmers to apply new technologies and innovations is an important determinant of CSA adoption, acknowledged Mrs Estherine Fotabong, the NEPAD Agency’s Director of Programme.

“New technologies and innovations are costly and sometimes complicated to apply; so farmers must either have the resources, receive subsidies or are given incentives to adopt them. Availability of markets, especially for value added products can spur investment in new CSA technologies and innovations and therefore promote adoption,” she said.

The 2^nd Africa CSA Alliance Forum commended the AU’s NEPAD Agency and partners for commitment to the vision but emphasised the need for a consolidated knowledge base on CSA technologies, practices, and initiatives, whilst special attention is given to smallholder youth and women farmers.

As the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change is set to enter into force, just in time for the next climate change conference (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, the FAO is calling on countries to address food and agriculture in their climate action plans and invest more in rural development.

The global goal for achieving Zero Hunger is 2030 – an ambitious goal and one that cannot be reached without addressing climate change.

 

It is therefore critical to expose many more farmers and others in the agricultural value chain to walk the path of Albert Waweru in climate-smart agricultural ventures.

“By strengthening the resilience of smallholder farmers, we can guarantee food security for the planet’s increasingly hungry global population and also reduce emissions,” said the Organization is a statement to commemorate World Food Day 2016.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Africa needs capacity to enjoy the beauty of Paris climate agreement

This November, the first truly global landmark climate agreement will enter into force with the framework to reduce emissions and tackle rising temperatures planet-wide.

UN Secretary-General has stated that the strong international support for the Paris Agreement is a testament to the urgency for action, and reflects the consensus of governments that robust global cooperation, grounded in national action, is essential to meet the climate challenge.

But the work of implementing the agreement still lay ahead and most critical to implementation of the Paris Agreement is funding of climate mitigation and adaptation activities.

“The beauty of the Paris Agreement on climate change is contingent upon funding and therefore those who pledge must ensure that the money is released”, observed Dr. Albert Ahenkan, Coordinator, University of Ghana Graduate Program on Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

In Ghana, the agricultural and food economy are already under threat as local farmers reel under the severity of the weather.

The country’s climate change policy has clear plans on how to support farmers and other sectors of the economy to be climate-resilient.

Ghana’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), submitted to the United Nations, safeguards developmental gains from the impacts of climate change and builds a climate resilient economy.

A projected $22.6 billion is needed in investments from domestic and international public and private sources to finance its climate mitigation and adaptation actions.

According to experts, implementation of the Paris Agreement will increase the window of funding opportunities for climate adaptation and technology transfer.

But there are questions regarding how to access the funds to undertake climate change programmes.

Participants at the 2^nd African Climate-Smart Agricultural Alliance Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, deliberated on the theme “From Agreement to Action: Implementing African INDCs for Growth and Resilience in Agriculture”.

The Forum recommended that the NEPAD Agency and the African Union, working with other partners, fast track and expand support towards implementation of the nationally determined contributions and national agricultural investment plans.

But according to Dr. Ahenkan, “until we develop capacity, we will not be able to access funding. We have to build capacity of our institutions to be able to respond to calls for proposal; to be able to write very good proposals to be able to secure funding”.

The NEPAD Climate Fund has supported 22 projects in 18 African countries since its establishment in 2014 – each project could attract up to 200,000 Euros.

Coordinator of the Fund, Kwame Ababio, has acknowledged that access to finance is difficult for African countries largely due to capacity challenges in developing bankable proposals that prioritize the needs of individual farmers and other vulnerable groups.

He however says there are arrangements to support African countries with capacity building to access international financing for climate change activities, especially with climate-smart agriculture.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

African farmers need transformative adaptation to climate change

Many African smallholder farmers and farm communities experience low crop and animal yields but are unaware that this is partly as a result of climate change.

In countries like Ghana, many are not aware of what to do to remedy the situation of erratic rainfall, drought and other unfavorable weather conditions.

Agriculture across the continent needs to undergo a significant transformation to meet the multiple challenges of climate change, food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty and environmental degradation.

A proposed means of achieving such improvements is increased use of a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approach which emphasizes the use of farming techniques that: increase yields, reduce vulnerability to climate change, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Mrs Estherine Fotabong, the NEPAD Agency’s Director of Programme, says the ability of farmers to apply new technologies and innovations is an important determinant of CSA adoption.

“Transformative adaptation needs to not only be at larger scale with new innovations, bold enough to take political steps that may not be easy or quick but also transformative adaptation needs to be integrated fully into the big agriculture questions that will really transform Africa’s agriculture,” she said.

The decision of African Union to set up an African Climate Smart Agriculture Coordination Platform is a means to pursue the vision to have at least 25 million farm households more practicing Climate Smart Agriculture by 2025.

The 2^nd Africa CSA Alliance Forum holding in Nairobi, Kenya, is focused on addressing major hindrances limiting the adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices among smallholder farmers.

Under the theme “From Agreement to Action: Implementing African INDCs for Growth and Resilience in Agriculture”, the Forum is looking at the INDCs transitioning to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with key implications for Africa’s development, especially agriculture.

The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) represent country-level programmes for climate action presented to the UNFCCC ahead of the COP21 climate talks in December 2015, which produced the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.

Dr Abebe Haile Gabriel, FAO Deputy Regional Representative for Africa, has maintained that countries need support in their INDCs, through which the plight of climate smart agriculture came to light.

The plight of smallholder farmers was also brought to the fore with a call to promote climate smart agriculture success stories and award them opportunities to sustainably adopt climate smart practices.

Mrs Fotabong stressed that knowledge-sharing is key in agriculture and rural transformation, through which indigenous knowledge should not be ignored.

“Communities should be fully capacitated in the various areas of crop management, community mobilisation and empowerment, disaster preparedness and have access to robust technologies and information such as new crop varieties that are drought and disease tolerant,” she emphasized.

This she said should be the collective effort of government, private sector, NGOs, civil society and donors to ensure communities have greater ability to cope and adapt to climate change and extreme weather events and thus achieve rural livelihoods and food security.

Climate Change can no longer be treated as just an environmental challenge but as a holistic sustainable development challenge that impacts on natural systems, physical and social infrastructure and key economic sectors, said Willy Bett of Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

“The overarching climate change-related challenge in agriculture is to sustainably increase food supply to accommodate a rapidly growing population while preserving a safe operating space for humanity by avoiding drastic environmental damage,” he said.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh, in Nairobi-Kenya

Farmers embark on journey to demand investment in ecological farming

Thirty smallholder farmers from four counties in Kenya – Kiambu, Meru, Machakos and Makueni – have set off from Thika on a 4-day resilience journey that will see them engage leaders and Kenyans on the ideal agricultural system that they envision for the country and the continent.

The farmers will make stops in Machakos, Makueni and Nairobi counties with a clear message ahead of World Food Day, as they exhibit produce, share knowledge and share seeds to their counterparts.

“We, as farmers and consumers from around Kenya, call upon the Government of Kenya and International aid donors to listen to our demands, to move away from conventional agriculture and support ecological farming. Conventional agriculture has failed us and will continue to do so as climate change worsens….” reads in part a demand letter written by Kenyan smallholder farmers to the local governments of Kenya and International Aid Donors in Kenya.

The farmers say they have decided to support each other because they have not received sufficient support from authorities and donors. Instead a lot of support has gone into industrial agriculture – a fatally flawed agricultural model that places farmers in a cycle of debt as well as reliance on harmful and expensive chemicals and seeds.

With support from The Kenya Biodiversity Coalition (KBioC), Greenpeace Africa, the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN), the Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) and the Kenya Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (KSSF), the farmers will use this resilience journey to showcase and prove the benefits of ecological farming.

Ecological farming not only supports local farmer’s livelihoods, it also, “enhances their economic empowerment and is conscious of environmental stability and builds community resilience to adverse effects of climate change,” says Martin Muriuki, Executive Director, Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE).

The farmers are sure that the solution to address hunger in Kenya lies within the country’s borders. With the right support, they can feed Kenyans with healthy, nutritious food that is grown ecologically.

Ecological farming is not a new practice; it combines local farmers’ knowledge with the most recent scientific knowledge to create new technologies and practices that increase yields without negatively impacting the environment and some of our smallholder farmers are already practising it by building on the traditional agriculture methods based on local landraces and knowledge.

“The farmers’ appeal comes at a very critical time, the current food system is broken, the environment is damaged and the current industrial agricultural model has left thousands hungry and dependant on technologies that are unable to withstand weather shocks and lined the pockets of a few corporates,” states Greenpeace Africa’s senior Food for Life campaign manager, Nokutula Mhene.

The effects of climate change are starting to bite; the Kenya meteorological services have warned that La Niña is near meaning that many parts of Kenya will experience depressed rains in 2016.

There is an urgent need to support smallholder family farmers to practice ecological farming through access to irrigation and access to affordable organic inputs and protection of local farmers against middlemen exploitation. The future, states Anne Maina from KBioC, “is in practicing agroecology and not synthetic chemical driven farming.”

Ecological farming is a bouquet of techniques to produce environmentally-sustainable and healthy food for local people. It is a proven “agricultural production method that has at its core resilience, equitability, food sovereignty, and environmental sustainability. We call upon Governments and Donors to put in place mechanisms that allow for a paradigm shift towards ecological farming,” says Greenpeace Africa’s Executive Director, Njeri Kabeberi.

At the end of the journey, the farmers will hand over a letter to International aid agencies in Nairobi. The letter will outline priority areas in the agricultural sector that agencies should invest into.

Landmark Climate Change Agreement to Enter into Force in November

The world’s first truly global landmark climate agreement can officially enter into force in the first week of November 2016, with European countries joining the ratification.

For the first time in history, global leaders have the framework to reduce emissions and tackle rising temperatures planet-wide.

“This is a momentous occasion,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the latest instruments of ratification were accepted in deposit. “What once seemed unthinkable, is now unstoppable.

Strong international support for the Paris Agreement entering into force is a testament to the urgency for action, and reflects the consensus of governments that robust global cooperation, grounded in national action, is essential to meet the climate challenge.”

But he cautioned that the work of implementing the agreement still lay ahead.

“Now we must move from words to deeds and put Paris into action. We need all hands on deck – every part of society must be mobilized to reduce emissions and help communities adapt to inevitable climate impacts.”

The Paris Agreement was adopted in Paris, France at the UN climate conference in December 2015.

The Agreement provides that it shall enter into force 30 days after 55 countries, representing 55 percent of global emissions, have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance or accession with the Secretary-General. So far, 73 countries and the European Union have joined the Agreement, exceeding the 55 percent threshold for of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“The speed at which countries have made the Paris’s Agreement’s entry into force possible is unprecedented in recent experience of international agreements and is a powerful confirmation of the importance nations attach to combating climate change and realizing the multitude of opportunities inherent in the Paris Agreement,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Agreement will now enter into force in time for the Marrakech Climate Conference (COP 22) in Morocco on 6 November, where countries will convene the first Meeting of the Parties to the Agreement.

“Above all, entry into force bodes well for the urgent, accelerated implementation of climate action that is now needed to realize a better, more secure world and to support also the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals,” Ms. Espinosa said.

“It also brings a renewed urgency to the many issues governments are advancing to ensure full implementation of the Agreement. This includes development of a rule book to operationalize the agreement and how international cooperation and much bigger flows of finance can speed up and scale up national climate action plans,” she added.

Consequences of Entry into Force

Entry into force triggers a variety of important consequences, including launch of the Agreement’s governing body, known as the CMA. In the parlance of the UN climate change process this stands for the Conference of the Parties to the Convention serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.

Given that the count-down to entry into force has now been formally triggered, the CMA will take place at the upcoming annual UN climate conference, known as COP22, in Marrakesh, Morocco from November 7-18.

Moreover, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) – national climate action plans - of Parties which have joined or subsequently join the Agreement transform into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which can always be resubmitted as more ambitious plans at any point. A key feature of the Agreement is that these plans can be strengthened at any time but not weakened.

“Climate action by countries, companies, investors and cities, regions, territories and states has continued unabated since Paris and the full implementation of the agreement will ensure that this collective effort will continue to double and redouble until a sustainable future is secured,” said Ms Espinosa.

Governments will also be obligated to take action to achieve the temperature goals enshrined in the Agreement – keeping the average global temperature rise from pre-industrial times below 2 degrees C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees.

The fact that somewhere around one degree of this rise has already happened and global greenhouse gas emissions have not yet peaked underlines the urgency of implementing the Paris Agreement in full.

Another key milestone will be the successful conclusion of negotiations to develop the Paris Agreement’s implementation rule book. Completion of what is, in effect, a global blueprint for reporting and accounting for climate action, need to be completed as soon as possible.

Countries are also not starting from scratch. The many successful models and mechanisms for international climate cooperation set up under the UNFCCC over the past two decades, including the Kyoto Protocol, have built up a deep level of experience and knowledge on how this can be done effectively.

It is the completed rule book that will make the Agreement work and that will make it fully implementable, setting out the detailed requirements under which countries and other actors will openly report and account for the climate action they are taking in a way which promotes trust and confidence across nations to boost their own comprehensive response to the challenge of climate change.

Another key issue is to ensure that the $100 billion, pledged by developed countries to developing ones, is truly building in the run up to 2020 and that even larger sums are being leveraged from investors, banks and the private sector that can build towards the $5 to $7 trillion needed to support a world-wide transformation.

Securing a world which is safer from the extreme climate change that would undermine any attempt at future sustainable development will still take decades of rising action and constant improvement.

“The entry into force of the Paris Agreement is more than a step on the road. It is an extraordinary political achievement which has opened the door to a fundamental shift in the way the world sees, prepares for and acts on climate change through stronger action at all levels of government, business, investment and civil society,” said Ms Espinosa.

Energy commission pushes for private sector investments in solar energy

Chairman of the Energy Commission, Dr. Kwame Ampofo, says Ghana will not need external funding to harness its renewable energy resources if private sector participation in the industry is expanded.

According to him, the country is on the right track in generating power from renewable energy, especially solar, starting that creating an enabling environment will promote private sector investments to sustain the sector.

“Without international help, we’re still making strides; therefore let’s look inward into ourselves, what resources we can get and open up the industry for private participation,” he said.

The abundance of solar energy in Africa has a huge potential and its use is growing fast. Solar is clean and produces no air, thermal and water pollution and can help reduce greenhouse gases that threaten the irreversible climate change for the planet.

A major concern, however, is about the costs and doubts over efficiency of extraction – solar inverters and panels are expensive but research and innovation can help find cheaper sources of materials to replace silicon wafers to bring down cost.

The Chemistry Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is involved in collaborative research to get alternative energy from the sun.

Other energy sources like biomass energy derive their origins from the sun, hence materials chemistry plays an important role in the development of the solar energy sector.

The University hosted an international conference on materials chemistry organized by the Pan African Chemistry Network (PACN) on the theme “Renewable and Sustainable Energy from the African Hot Sun: Can Material Chemistry Help to Deliver?”.

Provost of the College of Science at the KNUST, Prof. Mrs. Ibok Oduro, stressed on the utilization of solar energy as a source of renewable energy.

“All countries and economies stand to gain by understanding solar energy’s potential to fill a very large part of total energy needs economically, in a secure and sustainable manner in the future,” she said.

The Energy Commission estimates that the county receives sunshine duration of 1,800 to 3,000 house per annum, making it a friendly environment for solar energy to flourish.

But about 80percent of communities in Ghana are connected to the national electricity grid which sources its energy mainly from hydro and thermal.

Vice-Chancellor of the KNUST, Prof. Kwesi Obiri Danso noted that “hydro sources are becoming unreliable because of changing trends in climatic conditions. Thermal sources are becoming increasingly expensive because they depend on petroleum whose price is erratic and unreliable. Getting sustainable source of electricity will require depending on a reliable and inexhaustible source of energy. One of these sources is solar energy”.

Prof. Johannes Awudza, Chairman of conference organizing committee, said the outcomes will help find solutions to challenges in developing solar energy.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Poorest countries call for new initiative on renewable energy and energy efficiency

Ministers and Heads of Delegation from the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group have welcomed a new initiative designed to scale up renewable energy and energy efficiency for the world's poorest and least developed countries.

The new initiative, called the "LDC Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative (REEEI) for Sustainable Development", is to be launched at the next UN climate change conference to be held in Marrakech this November.

"This Initiative is a bold, collaborative effort by the LDCs to drive the global charge towards clean, renewable energy future. It will enable LDCs to leapfrog fossil fuel based energy by providing modern, clean, resilient energy systems that will generate prosperity and safeguard our futures," said the Chair of the LDC Group, Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu.

Mr. Mpanu-Mpanu presented the Initiative to LDC Ministers and Heads of Delegation, which was met by broad support.

"The adoption of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals are propelling the world towards a phase of global action and implementation. The LDC REEEI is an important part of this process, providing concrete action to address climate change while empowering the world's most vulnerable communities," he said.

"Most of the world's 1.3bn energy-starved people live in LDCs. The LDC REEEI will ensure no LDC is left behind by strengthening the capacity of African LDCs to take advantage of the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, while providing similar support structures for Asian and other LDCs."

The Ministerial meeting was one of a number of discussions held during the gathering of LDC negotiators in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, in preparation for COP22. The meeting provided an important opportunity for the LDCs to share knowledge and expertise and to further elaborate their common needs and interests in the lead up to the negotiations.

The endorsement of LDC Ministers and Heads of Delegation builds on international support for the Initiative during the May UNFCCC negotiations in Bonn, Germany, where leaders of key negotiating blocs called for global action on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Mr. Mpanu-Mpanu also presented the Initiative at a High-Level event at the UN Headquarters in New York City on 21 September.

"As we head towards COP22 in Marrakech, the LDC REEEI is an opportunity for our developed country partners to fulfil their support responsibilities under the Paris Agreement and is a key example of the actions that can and must be taken to achieve the important goals we all set in Paris," he said.

At the meeting, LDC Ministers also noted the tremendous amount of work to be done to agree upon a comprehensive rulebook for the implementation of the Paris Agreement in preparation for the entry into force and operationalization of the Agreement, and recognised the need to capitalize on mounting political will amongst all countries to take ambitious action on climate change.

Transport-deficient students and rural workers to get free bamboo bike

Raheena Abdul-Azeez is a junior high school student in the Asokore Mampong municipality of the Ashanti region who commutes a long distance from home to access education.

She spends at least an hour daily to go to school and same period to return home after classes; a routine that impacts adversely on her academic performance.

Raheena is among the first set of 30 students, education and health workers benefiting from an intervention by the African Bicycle Contribution Foundation (ABCF), a US-based non-profit corporation, distributing free Ghanaian-made bamboo bikes.

“I’m happy because the bicycle will help me to come to school early and if I come to school early, I’ll find some time to study,” said an elated Raheena.

The ABCF is passionate about empowering people in need and and has a mission to generate funding to underwrite the distribution of bicycles to needy students, families and transport-dependent smallholder farmers, health workers and others on the African continent.

In Ghana, the Foundation has made a commitment to finance the free distribution of 2,500 bicycles in its first five years of operation.

“The free distribution of these sturdy, world-class, bamboo bikes to under-resourced populations in Ghana is just the first stage of our Foundation's program,” said A. Bruce Crawley, chairman of ABCF. “In addition, we want to orchestrate technology-facilitated, inter-continental workshops and seminars between students and entrepreneurs in Ghana and their counterparts in the U.S”.

 

Two multi-stakeholder bicycle distribution events have been held in Kumasi and Accra, which attracted former President John Agyekum Kuffour, representatives of embassies and ministers of state.

The ABCF was represented by Executive Director, Patricia Marshall Harris and ABCF board member, Florence Torson-Hart, a Ghanaian-born senior financial advisor with Merrill Lynch in the U.S.

“Support of this kind is seen as a major driver of equitable social development and gender mainstreaming, while narrowing the wide economic gap,” said Mr. Kuffuor.

The events were hosted by Bright Generation Community Foundation (BGCF) and the Ghana Bamboo Bike Initiative (GBBI), a Kumasi-based manufacturer of the “EcoRide” bamboo bicycles.

Other partners include Values For Life, The Respect Alliance, VillageBicycle Project and the U.S.-Ghana Chamber of Commerce.

According to Bernice Dapaah, CEO and founder of GBBI, the partnership will not only help meet the transportation needs of rural economies, but create jobs and sustain livelihoods.

“We’re so happy because when they buy the bicycles from us, we’re going to create a lot of employment for the youth; the more we’re able to sell, the more we’re able to produce and we’re also happy that the bicycles that they’re buying are being donated to school children who walk miles to go to school,” he stated.

The Foundation also wants to facilitate the establishment of new trade channels in the U.S to expand the company’s size and workforce, and its capacity for export around the world.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Tackling Inequality Vital to Ending Extreme Poverty by 2030

A new World Bank study on poverty and shared prosperity says that extreme poverty worldwide continues to fall despite the lethargic state of the global economy. But it warns that given projected growth trends, reducing high inequality may be a necessary component to reaching the world’s goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.  

According to the inaugural edition of Poverty and Shared Prosperity—a new series that will report on the latest and most accurate estimates and trends in global poverty and shared prosperity annually—nearly 800 million people lived on less than US $ 1.90 a day in 2013. That is around 100 million fewer extremely poor people than in 2012.

Progress on extreme poverty was driven mainly by East Asia and Pacific, especially China and Indonesia, and by India. Half of the world’s extreme poor now live in Sub-Saharan Africa, and another third live in South Asia.

In 60 out of the 83 countries covered by the new report to track shared prosperity, average incomes went up for people living in the bottom 40 percent of their countries between 2008 and 2013, despite the financial crisis. Importantly, these countries represent 67 percent of the world’s population.

“It’s remarkable that countries have continued to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity at a time when the global economy is underperforming—but still far too many people live with far too little,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “Unless we can resume faster global growth and reduce inequality, we risk missing our World Bank target of ending extreme poverty by 2030. The message is clear: to end poverty, we must make growth work for the poorest, and one of the surest ways to do that is to reduce high inequality, especially in those countries where many poor people live.”

Taking on Inequality

Contrary to popular belief, inequality between all people in the world has declined consistently since 1990. And even within-country inequality has been falling in many places since 2008—for every country that saw a substantial increase in inequality during this time period, two others saw a similar decrease. Inequality is still far too high, however, and important concerns remain around the concentration of wealth among those at the top of the income distribution.

Noting “no room for complacency” the reports finds that in 34 of 83 countries monitored, income gaps widened as incomes grew faster among the wealthiest 60 percent of people than among the bottom 40. And in 23 countries, the bottom 40 saw their incomes actually decline during these years: not just relative to wealthier members of society, but in absolute terms.

By studying a group of countries including Brazil, Cambodia, Mali, Peru, and Tanzania, which have reduced inequality significantly over recent years, and examining a wide body of available evidence, Bank researchers identified the following six high-impact strategies: policies with a proven track record of building poor people’s earnings, improving their access to essential services, and improving their long-term development prospects, without damaging growth.

These policies work best when paired with strong growth, good macroeconomic management, and well-functioning labor markets that create jobs and enable the poorest to take advantage of those opportunities.

Early childhood development and nutrition: these measures help children during their first 1,000 days of life, as nutritional deficiencies and cognitive underdevelopment during this period can lead to learning delays and lower educational achievement later in life.

Universal health coverage: Bringing coverage to those excluded from affordable and timely health care reduces inequality while at the same time increasing people’s capacity to learn, work, and progress.   

Universal access to quality education: school enrollments have grown across the globe, and the focus must shift from simply getting children into school towards ensuring that every child, everywhere benefits from a quality education. Education for all children must prioritize universal learning, knowledge, and skills development, as well as teacher quality. 

Cash transfers to poor families: These programs provide poor families with basic incomes, enabling them to keep children in school and allowing mothers to access basic health care. They can also help families buy things like seeds, fertilizer, or livestock, and cope with drought, floods, pandemics, economic crises, or other potentially devastating shocks. They have been shown to considerably reduce poverty and create opportunity for parents and children alike.   

Rural infrastructure- especially roads and electrification: Building rural roads reduces transportation costs, connects rural farmers to markets to sell their goods, allows workers to move more freely, and promotes access to schools and health care clinics. Electrification in rural communities in Guatemala and South Africa, for example, has helped increase women’s employment. Electricity also makes small home-based businesses more viable and productive, which is particularly of use in poor, rural communities.

Progressive taxation: Fair, progressive taxes can fund government policies and programs needed to level the playing field and transfer resources to the poorest, and tax systems can be designed to decrease inequality while at the same time keeping efficiency costs low.

“Some of these measures can rapidly affect income inequality. Others deliver benefits more gradually. None is a miracle cure,” said Kim. “But all are supported by strong evidence, and many are within the financial and technical reach of countries. Adopting the same policies doesn’t mean that all countries will get the same results, but the policies we’ve identified have worked repeatedly in different settings around the world”.