Stop paying lip service to fighting poverty-MPs

Members of Parliament have called on the government to show real commitment to the fight against rural poverty.

In a bi-partisan debate on a motion to pass the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Report in Parliament, the MPs argued that even though several initiatives have been launched to fight rural poverty in the past and now, very little is seen on the ground.

They said the incidence of poverty in the rural communities is increasing; as such government should stop paying lip service to the fight.

? When water is being sent to the rural areas, the rural community is made to pay part of the cost of the project.

Meanwhile these are poor people while their counterparts in the urban centres take some of these facilities for free of charge.

They are made to pay for what they have consumed and not for the extension of these facilities to their areas.

Why is it that the poor in the rural areas which have been producing food, cocoa the driving cash crop of the economy of this country yet in terms of sharing the national cake, they are cheated.?

Others called on the NPP government to clearly state a national vision for the country.

They argued that although some short and medium term development programmes have been launched, a long-term vision on how the country would be developed is yet to be presented to parliament.

? Increasingly we appear to be using the GPRS as a replacement for a medium to long term vision which I think is mot unfortunate. No solid long to medium term vision has been laid before this house. Anytime we ask about the vision, we are told the GPRS document is the vision. I think that the GPRS should fit into the framework of longer to medium term document.?

?There was an attempt at carving out a vision 2010. I realised that it fizzled out in 2003 and a document was outdoored but not laid in the house, its called Vision 2015.

Again I am aware that the millennium development goals that was couched from the millennium development declaration of 2000 has given us some indicators as to where we should reach by the year 2015.

And what seems to have prevailed on the minds of many actors of government to be talking about vision 2015. Actually it is not a vision. I think we have to go back to the drawing board and come out with a national vision so that we can fit in GPRS.?

Others called on the government to do more to bring down maternal and infant mortality and other social indicators to hamper the development of the country.

The Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy, GPRS II outlines the government?s programmes to reduce poverty in the next four years.