Australia unveils new aid plan for Ghana
Ms Joanna Adamson, Australian High Commissioner on Thursday announced the funding of more direct poverty alleviation projects in Ghana and in seven other West African nations.
The Direct Aid Programme is designed to support direct, targeted interventions in communities affected by poverty, and a lack of access to basic services such as education and health, she said.
Ms Adamson made the announcement at the launch of the Australian High Commission’s Direct Aid Programme for 2013 to 2014 budget year.
The Aid Programme is aimed at reducing poverty through projects, which would provide services and opportunities to people particularly in agricultural production and skills development for sustainable income generation.
Ms Adamson said “from the Australian financial year, July 2013 to June 2014, the budget of the Direct Aid Programme is 300,000 Australian dollars or approximately GH¢600,000.00.
She said the High Commission had pursued a broad geographic spread for the programme, supporting projects in eight different countries, including Ghana.
Ms Adamson said due to the strong links with Ghana: “We have allocated approximately 100,000 Australian dollars or one third of the 300,000 Australian dollar budget to support projects.”
Giving the overview of the projects, the High Commissioner said it had funded three projects earlier this year, citing “Make Kpando Beautiful,” a daylong community clean-up of the town of Kpando in the Volta Region.
She said the second project was a Dyslexia Teacher Training course organised by the UNESCO National Commission and Dyslexia International in Winneba.
The third was the maiden Mental Health Conference, organised by the Mental Health Association of Ghana to enhance understanding of Mental Health issues and how to promote inclusive solutions, she said.
The programme is also supporting the West African Network for Peace building for the publication of Ghana’s election dispute manual in French for the Francophone countries in the sub-region.
The fifth project is the construction of the Disability Assessment and Support Centre in Tamale, the second phase of which began in 2012.
Ms Adamson said the High Commission had funded a computer laboratory at the Kokofu-Anhiaso Primary School in the Central Region, while eight of the 14 Direct Aid Programme projects were outside Ghana.
Some of the beneficiary countries are Cote D Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo and Mali.
Source: GNA