Mahama to launch SADA MVP in Tamale

On Tuesday, August 28th, 2012, His Excellency, President John D. Mahama

will join Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the eminent Developmental Economist and a

Special Advisor the United Nations Secretary General, and was also a

Special Economic Advisor to the President John Atta-Mills, and others, in Tamale

to officially launch the Millennium Village Project (MVP) in the SADA Area.

The other foreign dignitaries joining His Excellency will be Honorable

Andrew Mitchell, the British Secretary of State for International Development,

and Lord Michael Hasting, Head of KPMG Global Citizenship and a Chairman

of the Board of the UK Millennium Promise.

His Excellency, John D. Mahama will be fulfilling the commitment made

earlier by the late President John Atta-Mills to attend the Event before his

sudden and sad demise on July 24th, 2012. Ironically, the SADA Millennium

Village Project was initiated by His Excellency John D Mahama back in May of

2010 when he was then the Vice President. The story goes that, during the

celebration of the Accra Millennium City launch in January of 2010, Mr.

Japhet Aryiku, a Ghanaian resident in New York City, who is the architect of

the Accra MCI, and a Special Advisor to Professor Jeffrey Sachs, mentioned

to Sachs that, the Northern Region, from where the then Vice President

hails, faces a lot of challenges with poverty and underdevelopment. Without

hesitation, Jeffrey Sachs informed Japhet that he could help, and that he

would like to have a conversation with the Vice President about it. Japhet

then spoke with the Vice President about it and the Vice and Jeff spoke and

met a number of times to discuss how best to incorporate the Millennium

Villages Project model into the SADA development model. The Office of the

President was also informed and the late President Mills readily embraced the

support and assistance offered by Professor Sachs. It was agreed that the

Millennium Village Project model of holistic and comprehensive approach to

poverty alleviation, which includes economic and social interventions, would be

tried in selected areas of the SADA north.

After almost two years of campaigning, and constant reminder and advocacy

from Japhet, Jeffrey Sachs was able to secure a funding grant of $18

million from DFID to start the Project. This news was announced in New York at a

meeting at the Ghana Mission between the late President Mills and Professor

Jeffrey Sachs on December 29th 2011. The project will immediately benefit

over 30,000 people in the selected villages and greatly reduce the level of

poverty. It is expected that the success of this model would lead to its

application in other poverty stricken areas of the SADA ecological area.

The Event is a clear indication of the commitment of President Mahama to

continue the aggressive development of the SADA area and the overall

national economic development program that was started by the late President

Mills.