Seven Assemblies And USAID Sign GHC3.5m Agreement

Seven metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern Region, have signed a GH₵ 3.48 million pact with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve livelihood and nutrition status among vulnerable households. The agreement reached between the USAID�s Resiliency in Northern Ghana Project (RING), would pave way for the assemblies to implement cross-cutting programmes and activities towards reducing poverty in the districts. Mr Abdul-Rahaman Abdulai, Communications Officer of RING Project, in a statement copied to Ghana News Agency on Wednesday listed the beneficiary districts as East Gonja, Gushegu, Karaga, Kpandai, North Gonja, Sagnerigu and Kumbungu. RING is a USAID funded project focused on poverty reduction by improving the nutrition and livelihood status of vulnerable households in the Region through agriculture, sanitation, good governance and community engagement. The statement quoted the Regional Coordinating Director, Alhaji Issahaku Alhassan, as having lauded the RING project as a good initiative that is complementing government�s effort to ensure a healthy population through quality nutrition. Alhaji Alhassan said the RING initiative is one of the unique and results driven projects in the region and urged all the beneficiary districts to work towards attaining the objectives of the project. He urged them to work hard and draw lessons from experiences of past projects and interventions, and to let it guide them to successfully implement the activities outlined under project. The Chief of Party of RING, Philippe Lemay commended the MMDA�s for exhibiting a high sense of commitment in the implementation of the RING project activities and urged them accelerate the pace implementing activities enhance livelihoods and improved nutrition status in the region. He said: �RING will continue to strengthen its partnership with Northern Regional Coordinating Council as well as provide the MMDAs the needed technical support to effectively implement their selected activities and programmes.� The statement also quoted the East Gonja District Chief Executive, Mohammed Amin Lukman as saying: �The RING project has helped East Gonja district to design programmes and activities, specifically targeting vulnerable households, especially women through agriculture, nutrition, WASH and small ruminants production.�