Refugee agencies in Ghana holds workshop

Accra, Jan. 12, GNA- Mr. Thomas Broni, Deputy Minister of Interior, on Monday reaffirmed the determination of the Executive to play a pivotal role in the search for peace and stability to rid the continent of the numerous factional conflicts.

He said, for two decades, conflicts in the West African Sub-Region have transformed Ghana into a safe haven for the massive influx of refugees and asylum seekers, leading to serious economic and security implications.

Mr Broni was speaking at the start of a four-day Regional Food Management Training workshop organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and World Food Programme (WFP) in Accra.

The workshop aims at forging partnership between the UNHCR and WFP in the upkeep of refugees in Ghana and the harmonization of operational and policy issues.

The 32 participants would discuss: Basic Information on Nutrition, Distribution Systems Registration, Self-Reliance, Gender Mainstreaming, Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation Techniques and Improving Understanding of the Provisions of the WFP/UNHCR Memorandum of Understanding, signed in July 2002.

Mr Broni said the recent registration exercise conducted by the Refugees Board indicated that Ghana was hosting about 49,000 refugees between the ages of 0-60 from countries like: Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra and Togo.

"But upon all these, we have been able to provide a decent quality of life for these refugees and asylum seekers and also fulfil all obligations in terms of protection, care and control with support from our partners."

The Deputy Interior Minister, urged the participants to review their various methods and strategies of going about their duties to help improve their operational competence.

Ms Trudy Bower-Pirinis, WFP Representative to Ghana, said the massive influx of refugees and asylum seekers last year 2003 alone to Ghana called for the strengthening of the state of preparedness by the international community and contingency planning to meet future challenges.

"We hope to supplement the staff and resources of our small development office to strengthen the emergency preparedness of WFP and its partners in communications, logistics, contingency planning, food needs assessments, monitoring and evaluation."

Mr. Thomas Albrecht, UNHCR Representative to Ghana, said the provision of food aid to refugees was not the lasting solution to the problem.

What Africa needs, he said, was peace and stability.