Millennium Village would transform lives of people – Prof. Sachs

The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) would greatly transform the living conditions of the beneficiary communities through major interventions it would bring to the agriculture, health, education, road construction and water and sanitation sectors.

Professor Jeffery Sachs, a renowned development expert and Director of the Earth Institute of Columbia University said the Project would among other things include training programmes for the youth in the communities to become nurses and training of farmers to help them increase  food production.

Professor Sachs said this when he interacted with the chiefs and peoples of Kpasenkpe and Kunkua, two communities which are beneficiaries of the Project in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region  at the weekend.

The interaction with the chiefs and people was to give them the opportunity to offer their views and suggestions and also define their priorities on development issues they wanted to see addressed.

The MVP, which would begin on a pilot basis would cover portions of the West Mamprusi District in the Northern Region and the Builsa District of the Upper East Region and would benefit 30,000 people.

Professor Sachs who led  a 24 member delegation to the communities said under the Project, schools in the communities would also be improved upon and provided with computers linked to the internet to enable them to communicate and share knowledge with their counterpart’s in the advanced countries.

Professor John Nabila, President of the National House of Chiefs and Paramount Chief of the Wulugu traditional Area, appealed to Professor Sachs to include the construction of the Kpansenkpe Bridge to the Project to link the area to the “overseas” areas, which are major food producing centres.

He said the early start of the Project would bring jobs to the communities and help prevent the youth from migrating to the south in search of non-existent jobs.

He commended Professor Sachs for his special interest in Ghana and gave the assurance that he and his people would cooperate to ensure the success of the project.

Source: GNA