Locals reach out to help

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(Graphic by Steph Truong)

Last week, Peter Braid, MP for Kitchener-Waterloo, announced the initiation of a food security project by local organization the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), to support 20,000 families in northern Ghana.

โ€œThe project has three important objectives,โ€ Braid stated. โ€œFirst is to increase crop production, the second is to improve market access and the third is to enhance nutritional practice.โ€

This food security project is a six-year, $20-million project that will be administered by MEDA, which is an international, non-governmental organization based in Waterloo.

Helen Loftin, the director of womenโ€™s economic development at MEDA, explained that CIDA approached them a few years back with interest in the food security of women in northern Ghana. The project began in April of this year.

โ€œGhana as a country is doing okay [economically], in comparison to its African neighbours, except for the North, which has been left behind and is particularly poor,โ€ Loftin said.

The goal of the project, simply put, is about making familiesโ€™ food secure. More specifically, it aims to focus on the female demographic of northern Ghana because, as Loftin explained, โ€œWe focus on women because weโ€™ve come to realize that when you target women producers, when you target women as clients or beneficiaries of a project, the return on investment is quite huge. Women will optimize the resources in terms of re-investing in the family.โ€

Soybeans are the main crop in northern Ghana, so MEDA is focusing on that

โ€œIt has a nutritional part to it, so that the families, if they are consuming soy as part of their diet,โ€ said Loftin. โ€œThey are going to have access to all the good body requirements, like protein and nutrients.โ€

โ€œThis is very akin to what MEDA does,โ€ she added. โ€œThere is a shortage of soy, Ghana is a net importer of soy, so there is a real market demand for this product.โ€

MEDA is using market-based approaches to this project and plans on securing food for the surrounding families, by encouraging female farmers to engage in the market-based approach to farming.

โ€œWomen [will] become connected to market systems, they will be able to sell surplus and get profit from it, and that money of course will then help them purchase things they canโ€™t grow themselves,โ€

Loftin explained. โ€œItโ€™s essentially Business 101.โ€

Loftin went on to explain that the aim is to get the women to grow soy, boost the yields of it and have enough for their own familyโ€™s consumption, while improving their diet and marketing the surplus.

โ€œI donโ€™t expect that this project will raise them all out of poverty, but our programs are about alleviating poverty,โ€ she said. โ€œWe need to be realistic about what we can and cannot do.โ€

Regardless of the outcome, this project plays into one of the core mandates of CIDA.

โ€œThis project is part of the funding envelope that our government has set aside specifically to increase food security in the developing world,โ€ Braid said.

He explained that MEDA is an expert in market-based initiatives and in his view, the project is in the right hands.

โ€œIโ€™m very proud to have such an excellent, international NGO in my riding of Waterloo,โ€ he said.


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