Samuel Boadi
INCOME FROM forests and other natural environments makes a significant contribution to the livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries, a six-year global study has revealed.
Documented for the first time on the role that the environment plays in poverty alleviation, the report, carried out by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), indicated that among those surveyed, forest income , on average, constitutes more than one fifth of total household income, while environmental income (forest and non-forest) makes up more than one fourth, according to the preliminary numbers that come out of the study’s global database.
“The results underscore the importance of sustainably managing forests and other natural environments in developing countries because they provide income to many of the world’s poorest people,” said Frances Seymour, Director General of CIFOR.
The size of environmental incomes, i.e. wood, game, plants, and other resources harvested from the wild, has until now been poorly documented, and is not obvious to most policymakers.
Many existing tools for assessing poverty and income – such as poverty reduction strategy plans, poverty surveys, the World Bank’s Living Standard Measurement Survey, and national income accounting systems – fall short of capturing the importance of the income from natural resources, so that its true value in the livelihoods of the world’s rural poor remains largely invisible.
The Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) study consists of data from more than 8,000 households from 60 sites in 24 countries. The results were released recently at the Royal Society in London.
“Earlier studies have emphasised the special importance of forest incomes to the poorest households. One surprising finding of this project is that, overall, forest reliance (defined as the share of forest income in total household income) apparently varies little with income levels. Hence, forest income is not just for the poor but for everyone at these sites,” said Arild Angelsen, PEN coordinator and Senior Associate of CIFOR, and professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Another surprising finding of the PEN study is that forests do not play a primary role as safety nets among the households in the survey. “Households respond to shocks mostly through other coping strategies, such as reduced consumption, temporary employment, or seeking external assistance. Forests also seem to have a less than expected role in terms of filling seasonal income gaps, e.g. between crop harvests, although they may serve a role as a seasonal gap filler at some of the research sites,” said Sven Wunder, Principal Scientist at CIFOR, who has also been leading the study.
Typically, all members of a household – men, women, and children – participate in the collection and processing of forest products. Contrary to what has been claimed, men bring as much or more forest products to the households as women, although there is a clear pattern of women being more involved in subsistence uses and men in cash-earning activities.
Firewood constitutes the single most important forest product, with about one fifth of forest income on average, followed by timber (10%).
Angelsen also said that more than a quarter of all households surveyed had cleared forest area for crops in the last year.
“We found a strong correlation between income and deforestation. Within each site, on average the top income quintile (richest 20 %) households deforest 30 percent more than the bottom quintile (poorest 20%). There is an even stronger tendency of higher forest clearing in the richer sites. If we look at this deforestation regionally, rates were considerably higher in studies in Latin America, which hold also some of the richer households in the sample. Overall, the results do not lend support to the hypothesis that poverty drives deforestation,” he said.
Each year, more than 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forests are lost globally, an area roughly the size of England.
The data collection involved a careful recording of all forest and environmental uses, as well as other major income sources. All income data were collected through four quarterly surveys to shorten recall periods and increase accuracy.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Africa Digital Week Launched
By Samuel Boadi
The Africa e-governance Academy (AfegA), in partnership with the African Institute for Development Informatics and Policy (AIDIP), the UNDP and the Ministry of Communications, has launched the Africa Digital Week.
The Africa Digital Week 2011, the first of its kind to be organized on the African continent in Accra from July 26 - 29, 2011, is themed: “My Dream for A Digital Africa”.
Richard Boateng, Executive Director, AIDIP, giving an overview of the Pearl Richards Foundation, a project set up to help bring interestingly unique ideas and concepts together and turn them into sustainable projects or business enterprises for development, emphasized the use of mobile phones globally as a much-used medium to get information about developments in their communities online.
Ama Dadson, Programme Coordinator, Africa e-governance Academy (AfegA), in a presentation, said for an e-governance programme to be sustainable, there was the need to engage or involve all stakeholders concerned. And these include Government, citizens, businesses and policy makers.
“There is the need for a holistic approach to e-governance at the national level and regional fronts and there is also the need for commitment and support at the highest levels of government”.
The concept and practice of innovation, driven by the application of information, knowledge, science and technology, she continued, has led to new ways and opportunities for businesses and governments to connect and interact with consumers and citizens so as to promote good governance and create socio-economic value.
“E-government allows government transparency. Government transparency is important because it allows the public to be informed about what the government is working on as well as the policies they are trying to implement.”
A policy dialogue for policymakers, academia and civic society will take place online from July 1 – 15, 2011 in Accra to explore electronic governance policies in Africa, especially with the advent of social media and mobile technologies.
Fredrick Ampiah, Partnerships Advisor, UNDP Ghana, applauded the initiative shown by AIDIP and AfegA and expressed gratitude to the media for their role in supporting e-governance through information sharing.
AfegA, an independent autonomous organization with no allegiance to any government or institutions, was established to create and transfer knowledge on e-governance.
It is co-funded by the UNDP and OSIWA (Open Society for West Africa) with a primary geographical focus on ECOWAS countries.
In the long-term, AfegA seeks to become the leading African institution in all aspects of e-governance.
AfegA is located in the Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC).
The Africa e-governance Academy (AfegA), in partnership with the African Institute for Development Informatics and Policy (AIDIP), the UNDP and the Ministry of Communications, has launched the Africa Digital Week.
The Africa Digital Week 2011, the first of its kind to be organized on the African continent in Accra from July 26 - 29, 2011, is themed: “My Dream for A Digital Africa”.
Richard Boateng, Executive Director, AIDIP, giving an overview of the Pearl Richards Foundation, a project set up to help bring interestingly unique ideas and concepts together and turn them into sustainable projects or business enterprises for development, emphasized the use of mobile phones globally as a much-used medium to get information about developments in their communities online.
Ama Dadson, Programme Coordinator, Africa e-governance Academy (AfegA), in a presentation, said for an e-governance programme to be sustainable, there was the need to engage or involve all stakeholders concerned. And these include Government, citizens, businesses and policy makers.
“There is the need for a holistic approach to e-governance at the national level and regional fronts and there is also the need for commitment and support at the highest levels of government”.
The concept and practice of innovation, driven by the application of information, knowledge, science and technology, she continued, has led to new ways and opportunities for businesses and governments to connect and interact with consumers and citizens so as to promote good governance and create socio-economic value.
“E-government allows government transparency. Government transparency is important because it allows the public to be informed about what the government is working on as well as the policies they are trying to implement.”
A policy dialogue for policymakers, academia and civic society will take place online from July 1 – 15, 2011 in Accra to explore electronic governance policies in Africa, especially with the advent of social media and mobile technologies.
Fredrick Ampiah, Partnerships Advisor, UNDP Ghana, applauded the initiative shown by AIDIP and AfegA and expressed gratitude to the media for their role in supporting e-governance through information sharing.
AfegA, an independent autonomous organization with no allegiance to any government or institutions, was established to create and transfer knowledge on e-governance.
It is co-funded by the UNDP and OSIWA (Open Society for West Africa) with a primary geographical focus on ECOWAS countries.
In the long-term, AfegA seeks to become the leading African institution in all aspects of e-governance.
AfegA is located in the Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC).
Farmers Can’t Access Loans – Best Farmer
By Samuel Boadi
BENJAMIN ADJEI Adjetey, the 2010 National Best Farmer, has called on Government to institute more research into how farmers could be assisted to manage their farms as businesses instead of a mere means of subsistence.
Speaking at the launch of a maiden report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the UK’s leading independent think-tank, on Ghana, titled: “Ghana’s Story – Ghana’s sustained agricultural growth,” in Accra, Mr Adjetey said despite the pronounced progress purported to have been registered in Ghana’s agricultural growth by the report, a lot of hardworking farmers still struggle to get loans.
“Loans are expensive. Farmers cannot pay the high interest rates on loans. And this has prevented Ghana from achieving what it is supposed to achieve.”
The report, presented by Henri Leturque, who co-authored it, noted that with agricultural growth averaging more than 5 percent a year in the past 25 years, Ghana ranked among the top five performers in the world.
“This has contributed to major reductions in poverty and malnutrition, and Ghana will achieve the MDG 1 before 2015.”
He continued that economic reforms, since 1983, have played a major role in creating the conditions for private investment, driving growth in the cocoa sector in particular. Also, he noted that political leadership has been key to the growth in agriculture, supported by a working partnership between government and donors.
“Having raised food production per capita by more than 80 percent since the early 1980s, Ghana is largely self-sufficient in staples, owing in part to large increases in cassava and yam production as well as improved varieties.”
Touching on what has been achieved, the report indicated that after 1983, agriculture grew at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent, one of the five fastest growth rates anywhere in the world.
“The sector grew on most fronts. The most striking trajectory, especially since 2000, has been in cocoa, where production now exceeds levels seen before the 1970s recession.
“Staple crop production has also increased – cassava, yam, cocoyam and sweet potato in particular. With rising yields and a more than doubled harvested area since 1983, cassava production has grown by over 7.2 percent a year during the past 25 years,” Mr Leturque continued.
It furthermore stated that although involving fewer farmers, non-traditional exports have also taken off, with pineapple the most prominent of these adding, higher-value produce for the domestic market has risen rapidly as well with tomatoes being a prime example.
“Expansion of cultivated area has been important too, although productivity per hectare has increased more quickly than the size of land under cultivation.”
Poverty, most of it rural, it noted, has declined commensurately, adding farm incomes, albeit lower than the national average, has been rising, especially in the 2000s.
“Food supply has grown faster than the population has, making Ghana largely self-sufficient in terms of staples. At the same time, the real price of food has fallen. More accessible food meant that under-nourishment went down to 8 percent by 2003, from 34 percent in 1991.
“Child malnutrition has also declined, with the proportion of infants underweight falling from 30 percent in 1988 to 17 percent in 2008.”
Dr Emmanuel Tambi, Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in a presentation, said though Ghanaian farmers produce a lot, a larger part go waste due to the lack of appropriate processing facilities and ventures.
“There is the need for increased investment on these.”
Tia Alfred Sugri, Deputy Minister of Food & Agriculture, delivering the keynote address, said in 2010, over 925 billion people all over the world, including 239 million Africans, faced severe hunger.
“In Ghana, our farmers produced over 14.5 million tons of cassava; 5.9 million tons of yams; 3.5 million tons of plantain; 1.9 million tons of maize; 1.4 million tons of coco-yams; 350,000 tons of fish and 295,000 tons of rice among others in 2010. Ghana was able to avoid severe hunger.”
However, some experts have argued that the report greatly dwelt on the cocoa sector, disregarding the actual situations for other important food and cash crops.
In 2010, Ghana’s agricultural growth rate was 5.8 percent with an overall gross domestic product of 7.7 percent. According to the Economist Magazine, Ghana is projected to become the second fastest growing economy in 2011 with a growth rate of 14 percent second only to Qatar with a rate of 20 percent.
BENJAMIN ADJEI Adjetey, the 2010 National Best Farmer, has called on Government to institute more research into how farmers could be assisted to manage their farms as businesses instead of a mere means of subsistence.
Speaking at the launch of a maiden report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the UK’s leading independent think-tank, on Ghana, titled: “Ghana’s Story – Ghana’s sustained agricultural growth,” in Accra, Mr Adjetey said despite the pronounced progress purported to have been registered in Ghana’s agricultural growth by the report, a lot of hardworking farmers still struggle to get loans.
“Loans are expensive. Farmers cannot pay the high interest rates on loans. And this has prevented Ghana from achieving what it is supposed to achieve.”
The report, presented by Henri Leturque, who co-authored it, noted that with agricultural growth averaging more than 5 percent a year in the past 25 years, Ghana ranked among the top five performers in the world.
“This has contributed to major reductions in poverty and malnutrition, and Ghana will achieve the MDG 1 before 2015.”
He continued that economic reforms, since 1983, have played a major role in creating the conditions for private investment, driving growth in the cocoa sector in particular. Also, he noted that political leadership has been key to the growth in agriculture, supported by a working partnership between government and donors.
“Having raised food production per capita by more than 80 percent since the early 1980s, Ghana is largely self-sufficient in staples, owing in part to large increases in cassava and yam production as well as improved varieties.”
Touching on what has been achieved, the report indicated that after 1983, agriculture grew at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent, one of the five fastest growth rates anywhere in the world.
“The sector grew on most fronts. The most striking trajectory, especially since 2000, has been in cocoa, where production now exceeds levels seen before the 1970s recession.
“Staple crop production has also increased – cassava, yam, cocoyam and sweet potato in particular. With rising yields and a more than doubled harvested area since 1983, cassava production has grown by over 7.2 percent a year during the past 25 years,” Mr Leturque continued.
It furthermore stated that although involving fewer farmers, non-traditional exports have also taken off, with pineapple the most prominent of these adding, higher-value produce for the domestic market has risen rapidly as well with tomatoes being a prime example.
“Expansion of cultivated area has been important too, although productivity per hectare has increased more quickly than the size of land under cultivation.”
Poverty, most of it rural, it noted, has declined commensurately, adding farm incomes, albeit lower than the national average, has been rising, especially in the 2000s.
“Food supply has grown faster than the population has, making Ghana largely self-sufficient in terms of staples. At the same time, the real price of food has fallen. More accessible food meant that under-nourishment went down to 8 percent by 2003, from 34 percent in 1991.
“Child malnutrition has also declined, with the proportion of infants underweight falling from 30 percent in 1988 to 17 percent in 2008.”
Dr Emmanuel Tambi, Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in a presentation, said though Ghanaian farmers produce a lot, a larger part go waste due to the lack of appropriate processing facilities and ventures.
“There is the need for increased investment on these.”
Tia Alfred Sugri, Deputy Minister of Food & Agriculture, delivering the keynote address, said in 2010, over 925 billion people all over the world, including 239 million Africans, faced severe hunger.
“In Ghana, our farmers produced over 14.5 million tons of cassava; 5.9 million tons of yams; 3.5 million tons of plantain; 1.9 million tons of maize; 1.4 million tons of coco-yams; 350,000 tons of fish and 295,000 tons of rice among others in 2010. Ghana was able to avoid severe hunger.”
However, some experts have argued that the report greatly dwelt on the cocoa sector, disregarding the actual situations for other important food and cash crops.
In 2010, Ghana’s agricultural growth rate was 5.8 percent with an overall gross domestic product of 7.7 percent. According to the Economist Magazine, Ghana is projected to become the second fastest growing economy in 2011 with a growth rate of 14 percent second only to Qatar with a rate of 20 percent.
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