Australian High Commission launches 24 Direct Aid projects
The Australian High Commission in Ghana hosted an event to launch 24 development projects receiving funding under the 2016-17 round of its Direct Aid Programme (DAP), a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency has indicated. The statement said the event, held at the residence of the Australian High Commissioner in Accra, doubled as a training session for grant recipients.
Mr Andrew Barnes, the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana congratulated participants selected to receive funding through the highly competitive DAP, which provided small grants for development projects in a range of sectors including extractives, sanitation, education, and women’s economic empowerment.
Mr Barnes who spoke about the High Commission’s commitment to supporting “the provision of many life-transforming interventions for some of society’s most vulnerable people, notably, people with disabilities, women and children” through the DAP.
He said the Australian High Commission’s DAP programme had funded a diverse range of successful projects. “The reason these projects have been so successful over the years is that they are organic, home-grown initiatives, implemented by local organisations.”
Mr Barnes noted that DAP’s success had seen it grow. “Our DAP budget has increased steadily over the years and is now worth over 1 million Australian dollars [approximately 3.5 million Ghana cedis]”, he said.
The DAP is a development assistance programme funded from Australia’s aid budget and administered by Australian diplomatic missions around the world.
Since the High Commission in Ghana started the programme in 2004, hundreds of communities in the High Commission’s nine countries of accreditation (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo) have benefited from high-quality initiatives funded by the DAP and implemented by local development organisations.
Source: GNA