Mr Japhet Aryiku , a Special Advisor to Professor Jeffrey
Sachs and a Ghanaian resident in New York has stated that the Savannah
Accelerated Development Authority Millennium Villages Project (SADA-MVP) is
non-partisan.
In this regard, he underscored the urgent need for all state and non-state actors
to collaborate and coordinate effectively to ensure that the various interventions
of SADA-MVP are well implemented fully to help improve the livelihoods of the people
particularly the vulnerable.
He made the statement when the Director of the Millennium Development Goals
Centre (MDGC) based in Dakar , Senegal , Dr Amendu Niang , the Personal Assistant
to the Minister in Charge of Development Authorities of the President Office, Mr
Lawrence Nowteh and a team from the SADA-MVP led by its team leader, David Sumbo
toured the SADA – MVP operational areas to inspect the some interventions being
undertaken by the project.
The SADA- MVP was launched in 2012 at Selinga in the West Mamprusi District by
President John Dramani Mahama. Over the past two years, SADA- MVP, in union with
communities and other stakeholders, including the Ghana Health Service, (GHS), Ghana
Education Service (GES), District Agriculture Development Units (DADU) and the
districts assemblies have implemented various activities such as the provision of
education and health facilities and agriculture support to 35 communities in the
West Mamprusi, Mamprugu Moaduri and the Builsa South Districts.
Mr Aryiku stressed that Mr Jeffrey David Sachs , the founder of the MVP
who initiated it in Ghana and other countries is non-partisan and indicated that
his main focus was aimed at assisting a specific population in the rural northern
savannah belt of Ghana in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and to help
establish a robust local economy that can sustain and extend the progress made
during the project life
“Mr Jeffrey David Sachs has worked under both the President John Agyekum Kufour’s
Government and is now also working with the President John
Dramani Mahama’s Government. This is a clear manifestation that Mr
Jeffrey David Sachs does not belief in partisan politics”
He emphasized that the project objectives could only be attained and
sustained if all the state and non-state actors including leaderships of the
opposition parties , Government, Members of Parliament , District Chief Executive ,
Assembly members , the beneficiaries and among others played an active part in
the project activities from the implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases .
He stated that the team visit, apart from assessing the impact the projects
and programmes had made on the people , it was to reinforce their relationship
with Government, mainline SADA and other state and non state actors and to see
whether SADA-MVP could become a development module thatcan be up scaled
to the Brong- Ahafo and Volta regions which are also SADA regions.
Dr Amendu Niang , Director , Millennium Development Goals Centre(MDGC), Dakar ,
Senegal said the execution of SADA-MVP projects and programmes could be massive and
fast when all actors including policy makers, local authorities, Technocrats and
politicians exhibited high determination by collaborating and
building alliances towards the implementation process , stressing that the small
resources available could be optimized to make it a significant impact on the
livelihoods of the people.
“The SADA-MVP project is not just a local problem but also national and
therefore needs all hands on deck to transform the development of SADA areas” he
noted..
The District Chief Executive for West Mamprusi District , Mr Adam B Yusif
Mandela and the Member of Parliament for Wawale Constituency ,Dr Sagre
Bambaugi said when the SADA-MVP was launched in 2012 most people including
themselves made mockery of it and said it would not yield any meaningful results.
They said the massive interventions in education, health, agriculture and
infrastructure brought by SADA-MVP had allayed their earlier fears and pledged to
play their part to see to the proper implementation of the project.
“The construction and renovation of clinics including the provision of medical
equipment to some of these clinics and health posts has also brought health care to
the door steeps of the people”, they stressed. Another remarkable feat chalked by
the project is the building and renovation of schools including the provision of
computers and school uniforms to pupils in the areas”, the DCE stated.
They also indicated that SADA-MVP’s support in the area of agriculture had
helped improve the livelihoods of the people and indicated that the provision of the
tractor services and farm inputs had contributed significantly to the cultivation of
crops such as maize and beans.
The MP for Walewale noted that SADA-MVP interventions in the area of education
had helped improve the study of ICT in schools in selected project communities and
noted that hitherto the pupils in the area had not seen computers, stressing “they
can now learn ICT and write it at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE)
level like their colleagues elsewhere and impressed upon the school children to take
the learning of ICT seriously.
The SADA MVP is the result of collaboration between the Savannah Accelerated
Development Authority (SADA) and Millennium Promise (MP), with funding from the
United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. The SADA-MVP is guided by
a partnership between the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Millennium
Promise, working closely with communities, governments, companies, multilateral
organizations, and non-governmental organizations around the world.
