Stakeholders attend workshop on project to reduce rural poverty

Elmina, Mar. 8, GNA - A day's orientation workshop aimed at enhancing the implementation of the Community Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP), was on Tuesday, held for stakeholders in the Cape Coast municipality and Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) district. They included staff of the Cape Coast municipal and KEEA district assemblies, Department of Social Welfare, Ghana Education Service and Ministry of Food and Agriculture and representatives of some NGOs. The CBRDP), is a major intervention by the government to reduce rural poverty and improve upon income levels of the productive poor and the quality of life of beneficiaries.

The participants, were taken through topical issues such as 'community-based natural resource management, infrastructure for social, agricultural and human development, and monitoring and evaluation of project performance'.

In his address, Mr Osman Danladi Yakubu, the project's zonal co-ordinator for the Central and Western regions, said the CBRDP is to serve as "one of the principal vehicles" for the implementation of Ghana poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS).

According to him, the project, which is being undertaken in all parts of the country, is to generally, strengthen the capacity of rural communities to enhance their quality of life, by improving their productive assets, rural infrastructure and access to key support services from the private and public sector.

It would also build the capacity of government units to enable them to play their statutory roles effectively and efficiently, he added.

In a welcoming address read for him, the acting KEEA District Chief Executive, Nana Ato Arthur, stressed the importance of the project, and urged the participants to take the workshop seriously.