Newsletter JULY 2021
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NewsLetter JULY 2021 HIGHLIGHTS UN provides independent monitoring young people’s businesses support to Ghana’s 2021 Population Supporting the national COVID-19 and Housing Census. UN supports the establishment of a response is core to our development Coordinated Mechanism on the Safety efforts. Youth Innovation for Sustainable De- of Journalists. velopment Challenge gives a boost to United Nations in Ghana - April - June 2021 COVID-19 RESPONSE Supporting the national COVID-19 response: Core to UN’s development efforts management, logistics, data the fight against the pandem- Ghana received its sec- management and operation- ic. Through the efforts of the ond batch of the AstraZen- al plans, field support super- United Nations Development eca COVID-19 vaccine from vision, and communications Programme (UNDP), medical the COVAX facility on 7th May and demand creation activities. supplies from the West African 2021. With this delivery of Health Organisation (WAHO) 350,000 doses, many Ghana- UNICEF conducted three sur- have been delivered. Funded by ians who received their first veys on knowledge, attitudes the German Government (BMZ), dose were assured of their and practices around COVID-19 the European Union, the Econom- second jab. The UN Children’s vaccination through telephone ic Community of West African Fund (UNICEF) facilitated their interviews and mobile interactive States (ECOWAS) and WAHO, safe transport from the Dem- voice responses across different these set of supplies, the second ocratic Republic of Congo. key groups. Per the survey, key bulk supplies to ECOWAS mem- concerns on vaccine hesitancy ber states, was procured by GIZ Since the launch of the vac- are around safety, efficacy and and UNDP. They form part of a cination campaign in March knowledge gaps on vaccination. $50 million support facility to this year, the UN in Ghana, led The Children’s Fund is contribut- ECOWAS to enhance the region- by the World Health Organisa- ing to address these challenges. al fight against the COVID-19 tion (WHO) and UNICEF, have pandemic. [Read more] supported authorities to train Ensuring the availability of health workers on vaccine medical supplies is critical to Meanwhile, results from a The 9-month project, ehich Government respond to the $3.28 million World Bank fund- ended in April 2021, aimed to needs of food-insecure popula- ed joint project implemented by support the Government of tions, and responding to issues the UN in Ghana and the Inter- Ghana to close critical gaps in of Sexual and Gender-Based national Federation of the Red the COVID–19 response. The Violence and reaching the vul- Cross and Red Crescent, demon- joint project focused on the nerable with services even at strate a progressive outlook with healthcare system, enhancing the heat of the pandemic. Read considerable positive impact of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene the project report which sums the COVID-19 response efforts. (WASH), conducting a food se- up the impact of the project. curity assessment to enable 2 United Nations in Ghana COVID-19 RESPONSE UNESCO and ECOWAS have sponding to the pandemic. The video messages are supported the launch of a new produced by the Creative Arts musical campaign to curb the The campaign consists of the Council and feature well-known spread of the COVID-19 pan- release of a song, a music video, Ghanaian personalities such demic in the sub-region. The and video messages featuring as Stonebwoy, Kuami Eugene, joint initiative is spearheaded selected musicians of MUSI- Kidi, Daughters of Glorious Je- by the National Commission GA including IOM Ambassador, sus and Doreen Avio. The short on Culture (NCC), the Musi- Kofi Kinaata. The songs are in video messages have been cians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) different Ghanaian languages aired on radio and television and the Creative Arts Coun- with the message encourag- stations and shared online on cil, and aims at strengthen- ing Ghanaians to continue ad- social media. Read more and ing national capacities in re- hering to COVID-19 protocol. watch the music video here. 3 United Nations in Ghana COVID-19 RESPONSE Through the instrumentality of UNAIDS Ghana, three implementing partners have signed a memoran- dum of understanding to strengthen community engagement in COVID-19 response. They are the Millen- nium Promise Alliance (MPA), the Network of People Living with HIV (NAP+1), and the Young Health Advo- cates Ghana (YHAG). The agreement is under the Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing (PACT) in Africa. It is part of a broader collaboration between UNAIDS and the Africa Centre for Disease Control of the African Union to support Ministries of Health of African countries in their fight against the pandemic. 4 United Nations in Ghana SHARED ECONOMY Empowering young Ghanaians to be innovative and to find their niche business, thanks to the YISD On the economic front, the Challenge, he has built incuba- UNDP is strengthening partner- tors for five clients, with his lat- ship to support young entrepre- est and biggest client in Accra. neurs to be innovative, unleash their potentials and to find their Prince and Sampare Owu- niche. su Banahene are also scaling up their tiger nut drink and bis- Through its Youth Inno- cuit production business. They vation for Sustainable De- have been able to increase their velopment (YISD) Chal- production capacity of 100 bot- lenge, supported by the tles of tiger nut milk drinks per National Youth Authority (NYA), month to 8000 bottles, and we focus on some beneficiaries. tiger nut biscuit from 100 to 4000 packs. Their factory, built Felix Appiah Nyarko has from locally fabricated technol- turned his innovative snail rear- ogy, won them the YISD grant. ing ideas into a profitable and en- vironmentally friendly business The improved production by migrating his snail rearing has also led to an expand- from recycled car tyres and local- ed customer-base, with reg- ly-made-boxes into greenhouses ular supplies to Tarkwa, Ku- built from nets, pipes and rubber masi, Accra and Cape Coast. as foundation. Today, Felix has built 16 greenhouses in Accra, Enoch Keitu and Edmund Amu thanks to a grant award he re- are Certified Medical Herbalists. ceived from the YISD Challenge. They have scaled up their Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) ap- Iddrisu Alhassan Kobga proved herbal medicine produc- has also transformed his inno- tion facility - Kenoch HG Herbal. vative 200-capacity recycled fridge incubator into 3000 ca- With a standard production pacity, making it possible for line, Kenoch HG Herbal has an him to serve over 100 clients, increased production capac- who incubate their eggs at a ity from 25 bottles of herbal lower cost of Ghc1 per egg. medicine per production batch to 2000 bottles. They also cur- In addition, Alhassan trains rently operate two clinics, em- farmers on how to cater for ploying 13 workers. The compa- their guinea keets with organic ny’s certified products include feed and locally made vaccines. Kenoch Bakta Fight Mixture He also prepares and sells or- which is produced to strengthen ganic feed and builds incuba- the body immunity to help fight tors for farmers who want their bacterial and fungal infections. own space, for a fee. In less than a year of his formalized 5 United Nations in Ghana SHARED ECONOMY The Challenge, held under the Ghana Youth- Connekt platform, aimed to support young people in Ghana to develop and test innovative ideas to- wards the achievement of the Sustainable Devel- opment Goals (SDGs). Recipients of the award grant, 16 young Ghanaian innovators, also ben- efited from business development, incubation, coaching and mentorship programme which was offered in partnership with the Ashesi Design Lab. Grassroot stakeholders sensitized to improve access to Green Climate Fund The exercise is to engage key stakehold- Human activities such as cutting down of for- ers, sensitize and disseminate information on ests, improper waste disposal, use of fertilizers, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) processes in se- burning of coal and petroleum products and gas lected local languages (Dagbani, Ewe, Ga and (fossil fuels), continue to have a brunt on the envi- Twi) in pilot districts in Ashanti, Volta, Northern ronment. These are leading to changes in average and Greater Accra regions of Ghana. The aim weather conditions such as temperature and rain- is to improve the understanding on the GCF’s fall, affecting natural resources and livelihoods. funding process to enhance stakeholder en- gagement and direct access to the fund, to ac- Community engagement and sensitization is celerate climate actions in Ghana. [Read more] recognized as critical to the global response to climate change. In this regard, the National Des- Meanwhile, over 35,000 cocoa farmers ignated Authority (NDA), which is the Econom- (38% females) and about 2,750 extension train- ic Strategy and Research Division (ESRD) at the ers in the country have received training on Ministry of Finance, in partnership with the UNDP, sustainable natural resource and ecosystem under the Green Climate Fund Readiness Support, management practices. This is to prepare the is carrying out outreach at the sub-national level. farmers to adopt climate resilient production practices to mitigate the adverse effects of 6 United Nations in Ghana SHARED ECONOMY climate change, especially on cocoa production. The factory is a direct result of the strategic grant of US$34,100 (GHS180,000) provided by The joint intervention between the Ghana Cocoa UNDP/GEF-SGP to support and expand innovative