Grameen Ghana, a non-governmental organization working in the Northern Region of Ghana with support from SNV, a Dutch development partner, has began a programme to combat undernutrition and post-harvest losses in the the Nanumba South district
Grameen Ghana is already engaged in a similar programme in the Nanumba North Municipality and now wants to extend the programme to the district.
The programme, dubbed the V4C (voice for change) project is an advocacy evidence-based programme which seeks to present the evidence gathered on the field to policymakers to spark the required interventions.
Abdul Jalil Zakaria, the officer with SNV in charge of nutrition said to Citi News the NGO was committed to compelling the government to issues of nutrition seriously.
According to him, the agencies working to improve nutrition and related issues are all donor-funded and risk collapse if donors withdraw.
“At least if we are able to plan, budget and make allocations and even spend on nutrition, we are convinced that issues of nutrition would be addressed.”
The programme officer for Grameen Ghana, Enoch Kumah Njirib explained that this programme has been put in place to also reduce challenges the organization faced in the implementation of its project.
He cited the issue of data gathering as the biggest challenge they faced hence the collaboration with other stakeholders.
“We had constraints on data gathering, sometimes you start the project getting to a time you need some data to back your evidence and the data may not be readily available. You have to pursue the stakeholders to get some data. So now we have realised that there is the need to strengthen the collaboration between stakeholders to assist in giving out data.”
“It was difficult identifying people who are are into chemical selling, getting data on them and profiling them so that they could easily be reached when the need arises hence their involvement in the project start.”
The Nanumba South district pledged it’s support for Grameen Ghana for coming into the district and promised to complement the efforts of organization to address issues of nutrition and post-harvest losses in the district.
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By: Mohammed Aminu M. Alabira/citinewsroom.com/Ghana