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Department of Biomedical Sciences Students Exhibit Ghanaian Products

28 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

The Department of Biomedical Sciences has organised an exhibition to showcase products and activities of the students. The exhibition attracted a large number of patrons, including students and staff of the University to the forecourt of the Sam Jonah Library, to see at first hand the products displayed by exhibitors, who are students from the Department. Some of the products displayed by the students were medicated hair shampoos, medicated soaps, herbal bitters, medicated body lotion, hair creams, anti-malaria and immune system syrups, among others. Patrons were conducted round the various stands and were taken through both procedure and packaging levels. In an interview, a student, Isaac Osei, who produced herbal bitters, urged Ghanaians to patronise traditional medicine, because most people across the world are turning to the use of herbs. Mr. Osei appealed to herbal medicine practitioners to adopt modern preservation methods for their products. The Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences, Prof. Moses Jojo Eghan, in his remarks, expressed joy at the wonderful display of locally manufactured products by students. He said the exhibition would help students to hone their entrepreneurial skills in order to start their own jobs after school. A lecturer at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Dr. Francis Armah, said the Department would put its research into practice and expressed the hope that it would help to empower the students to be productive to society. “Always we hear that the universities are not producing anything and so we have a lot of research on the shelves and now what we are doing is that we have decided not to put the research on the shelves again,” said Dr. Armah, whose students displayed products at the exhibition.

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Place Priority on Your Safety and Clients-Mr. Bekoe Urges Participants of Sexual Harassment

27 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

A two-day training workshop aimed at building the capacity of Hall Counsellors, Chaplaincy Committee and new Members of the Sexual Harassment Committee has ended with a call on participants to place priority on their safety and that of their clients. Organised by the Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD), the workshop was held to educate participants on how to handle sexual harassment cases among staff and students of the University. “The immediate safety of your client and your own safety should be your first priority. Never assume that as for you; you cannot fall. You must constantly be aware of the fact that there are temptations in this world. If you do not stand well, someone may construe your sensitivity to be love. And that might see your downfall,” a lecturer at the Methodist University College, Mr. Adolf Awuku Bekoe, advised. According to Mr. Adolf Awuku Bekoe, there was nothing wrong for the participants to erect boundaries for their clients to know that they were in control and don’t have “blurred vision when it comes to your moral standing and emotions.” Mr. Bekoe, who was speaking on the topic “Handling Sexual Harassment Cases (Victims) with Sensitivity, said many organisations were grappling with tons of law suits for creating hostile working environment. “Victims are taking organisations to court and in other jurisdiction organisations are paying dearly for creating hostile environment for allowing sexual harassment to fester.” To help stem the tide of sexual harassment, the resource person called for the empowerment of sexual harassment victims by taking the perpetrators to court for prosecution to deter others. Mr. Bekoe said sexual harassment could have a negative effect on individuals and employers, namely: decreased job satisfaction, unfavourable performance evaluations, loss of jobs or promotion, absenteeism, withdrawal from work or school and change in career goals. Mr. Bekoe noted that organisations have dual obligations towards their staff through prevention and intervention as regards to handling sexual harassment cases. “When it hasn’t happened, you prevent it. When it happens you intervened”, he said, while calling for public education, durbars, awareness to prevent it,noting that when it happens the Sexual Harassment Committee should decisively intervene a reported case. He took participants through topics such as “Empowering the survivor of sexual harassment, “Useful steps when handling survivors of sexual harassment” and “Beyond victimizations". Addressing participants on “Legal Definition, Constitution and Human Rights Dimensions, some facts and Processes,” a Human Rights Activist, Mrs. Christabel Dadzie, said most employers abuse their authority either explicitly or implicitly for victims of sexual harassment to succumb to their advances before offering them jobs or promotion.. Some of the topics she took participants through were the procedure of sexual harassment investigations, including creating a conducive environment for enquiry, period of the enquiry, launching the complaint, evidence and decision of the committee. Mrs. Dadzie added that each complainant needs encouragement to stick with process. However, she noted if complainant chooses not to participate in the hearing, the Committee may still proceed with the inquiry. She advised participants not to belittle objection(s) raise by any member of the Committee during investigation so as to serve as a precedent for future cases. She stressed that sexual harassment victims have right to external investigations, adding that complainant has a right to access Police, Courts, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Legal Aid Board and Customary arbitration process. The Director of CEGRAD, Prof. Akua Britwum, made a presentation on the topic “Gender and Power Dynamics in Sexual Harassment”. The Outreach Coordinator of CEGRAD, Dr. Genevieve Adukpo, commended the participants for taken time of their busy schedules to participate in the workshop and urged them to handle sexual harassment cases in their jurisdictions well.

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Institute of Education Trains Quality Assurance Officers of Colleges of Education

26 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

A two-day Training Workshop for Quality Assurance Officers of the various Colleges of Education has opened at the University. The theme of the workshop is “Technical and Facilitating factors for the Implementation of Quality Assurance in Colleges of Education”. It is being organized by the Institute of Education, University of Cape Coast (UCC). The Workshop is aimed at providing hands-on activities, as a way of promoting best practices that would enhance students’ learning experience, and thus safeguard academic standards and quality in Colleges of Education. In a speech read by the Vice Dean of the School of Educational Development and Outreach, Dr. Christine Adu-Yeboah, on behalf of the Director of the Institute of Education, Prof. Frederick Ocansey, noted that the importance of quality assurance in higher institutions has come to the fore in both local and global contexts especially, with the coming into force of internationalisation and mobility of higher education clients. This, Prof. Ocansey said, was against the backdrop of the awareness that success of higher education institutions depended, to a large extent, on quality assurance and improvement mechanisms that were operational in the institutions. According to the Director, as mentoring institutions to the Colleges of Education, UCC through the Institute of Education was playing its role to support the colleges to maintain high academic standards and students’ success. He added that the Institute of Education has rolled out a number of workshops to help improve the capacity of staff of the colleges since 2014. Prof. Ocansey hoped participants would share information and knowledge gained in the workshop with their colleagues in their respective colleges. He entreated the participants to take advantage of the opportunity to tap into rich expertise of the resource persons. Explaining the purpose of the workshop, Mr. N. K. Kutor of the Institute said there was the need to provide participants with a firm grounding on what they were doing since without a firm grasp of the task they could not perform well. Quoting Alexander Pope, Mr. Kutor said, “A little learning is dangerous, drink deep or taste not”. Mr. said some of the colleges had problems with quality assurance and, therefore, the training programme would help them generate reports for their superiors. He also noted that the workshop would serve as capacity building to those who already know what would be preseted during the two-day period.  

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The Arts have Significant Roles to Play in Achieving the SDGs

26 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

Panelists at a Roundtable discussion have unanimously posited that the Arts have huge part to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals(SDG). The roundtable, which was organised under the SDG –Graduate School, has three main collaborators in University of Cape Coast, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria and University of Heldsheim, Germany. Under the collaboration, 12 PHD students and 6 masters students will be trained in the first instance. The theme for the discussion was “The Role of the Arts in Sustainable Development” and had panelists drawn from both academia and industry. It was held to find the possible contribution that the Arts could make towards the achievement of the SDGs. In his presentation, Prof. Victor Yankah of the Department of Film and Theatre Studies, UCC, indicated that the Arts has since both pre and post independence era been used to educate the masses on patriotism and nation building. He said Kwame Nkrumah for instance had the belief that drama and songs could be used to create awareness in what it meant to be the new Ghanaian after independence. He wondered whether it was not possible to revisit the period of mobile cinema concept in the light of the apparent devastation of the country’s forest resources through illegal mining (galamsey). Prof. Yankah said, “When we do that our future generations will be disinherited. One day we will have to show pictures to our children to say this is how a forest looks like or direct them to Nageo world”. He said, for example, in Burkina Faso the Arts was used to educate farmers on how to do an all year round planting and said a similar effort could be made to tackle the devastation of the environment. He bemoaned the practice where funding was mostly given to the Sciences to the detriment of the Arts. “Unfortunately, for the Arts funding eludes us, the Sciences are often given funding for research because of the contention that they rather contribute more to the SDGs”. “This is even more in our institutions where they give more funding to sciences than the Arts. We always misconstrue the role of the Arts”. Contributing, Prof. Brigit Mandel of the University of Hildesheim, said the word sustainability originated from forest economy and therefore, we can experience the entire spectrum of human diversity and emotions through the Arts. “The Arts can show different perspective of the world, in Germany for example we use the Arts to preserve our Heritage”, she added. The Vice-President of the Musicians Union of Ghana, Mr. Bessa Simons called for the reintroduction of Music as an examinable subject in basic schools to whip up interests in the youth. Mr. Bessa Simons advocated for the collection of comprehensive data to convince policy makers on what the Arts could offer with respect to the SDGs. “We have to get data and research that will support what we are saying and again, the decision makers when they see our data, what we have gathered they will believe us more,” he added. Mr. Simmons said he has taken it upon himself to showcase what the Afro-Rock Band, Osibisa, did it all over the world by going around tertiary institutions in the country to hold workshop on their works. He said the group was dedicated to their culture and therefore made it to the top. Mr. Bessa Simons said he did not think after the discussions, things should remain as they were and therefore, suggested the setting up of a committee of both academia and industry players to shift the agenda forward. He pledged the support of the Musicians Union to any such committee in their work. The Executive Director of the National Theatre, Mrs. Amy Frimpong-Appiah, said it would be beneficial to look at areas in the SDGs where the Arts could fit in and find effective ways of meeting those targets. “We have to look at strategic partnerships that will help us make a mark, how can we use the Arts related work to make it beneficial to all of us. We just need to look at those areas to fulfill our part of the goals”, she asked. She said people in the Arts have sat back for too long a time in talking about what could be achieved through the area. Due to this she said, people who work outside the Arts see those in it to be living on a different planet. “The way we think does not seem to connect with anybody in the world. So we need to develop those relationships and educate them on the importance of the Arts”, she stressed. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K. T. Oduro, who also spoke at the programme, said the University was committed to the partnership and called for the cooperation of all stakeholders. “Knowledge is like a Baobab tree, no one person can embrace it. So even as we think about promoting the Arts and using Arts to promote SDGs, we need the cooperation of all. We need disciplines to come together and also understand how to bring cultures together, and this is why we in UCC think this partnership should be supported”, he said.

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The Arts have Significant Roles to Play in Achieving the SDGs

26 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

Panelists at a Roundtable discussion have unanimously posited that the Arts have huge part to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals(SDG). The roundtable, which was organised under the SDG –Graduate School, has three main collaborators in University of Cape Coast, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria and University of Heldsheim, Germany. Under the collaboration, 12 PHD students and 6 masters students will be trained in the first instance. The theme for the discussion was “The Role of the Arts in Sustainable Development” and had panelists drawn from both academia and industry. It was held to find the possible contribution that the Arts could make towards the achievement of the SDGs. In his presentation, Prof. Victor Yankah of the Department of Film and Theatre Studies, UCC, indicated that the Arts has since both pre and post independence era been used to educate the masses on patriotism and nation building. He said Kwame Nkrumah for instance had the belief that drama and songs could be used to create awareness in what it meant to be the new Ghanaian after independence. He wondered whether it was not possible to revisit the period of mobile cinema concept in the light of the apparent devastation of the country’s forest resources through illegal mining (galamsey). Prof. Yankah said, “When we do that our future generations will be disinherited. One day we will have to show pictures to our children to say this is how a forest looks like or direct them to Nageo world”. He said, for example, in Burkina Faso the Arts was used to educate farmers on how to do an all year round planting and said a similar effort could be made to tackle the devastation of the environment. He bemoaned the practice where funding was mostly given to the Sciences to the detriment of the Arts. “Unfortunately, for the Arts funding eludes us, the Sciences are often given funding for research because of the contention that they rather contribute more to the SDGs”. “This is even more in our institutions where they give more funding to sciences than the Arts. We always misconstrue the role of the Arts”. Contributing, Prof. Brigit Mandel of the University of Hildesheim, said the word sustainability originated from forest economy and therefore, we can experience the entire spectrum of human diversity and emotions through the Arts. “The Arts can show different perspective of the world, in Germany for example we use the Arts to preserve our Heritage”, she added. The Vice-President of the Musicians Union of Ghana, Mr. Bessa Simons called for the reintroduction of Music as an examinable subject in basic schools to whip up interests in the youth. Mr. Bessa Simons advocated for the collection of comprehensive data to convince policy makers on what the Arts could offer with respect to the SDGs. “We have to get data and research that will support what we are saying and again, the decision makers when they see our data, what we have gathered they will believe us more,” he added. Mr. Simmons said he has taken it upon himself to showcase what the Afro-Rock Band, Osibisa, did it all over the world by going around tertiary institutions in the country to hold workshop on their works. He said the group was dedicated to their culture and therefore made it to the top. Mr. Bessa Simons said he did not think after the discussions, things should remain as they were and therefore, suggested the setting up of a committee of both academia and industry players to shift the agenda forward. He pledged the support of the Musicians Union to any such committee in their work. The Executive Director of the National Theatre, Mrs. Amy Frimpong-Appiah, said it would be beneficial to look at areas in the SDGs where the Arts could fit in and find effective ways of meeting those targets. “We have to look at strategic partnerships that will help us make a mark, how can we use the Arts related work to make it beneficial to all of us. We just need to look at those areas to fulfill our part of the goals”, she asked. She said people in the Arts have sat back for too long a time in talking about what could be achieved through the area. Due to this she said, people who work outside the Arts see those in it to be living on a different planet. “The way we think does not seem to connect with anybody in the world. So we need to develop those relationships and educate them on the importance of the Arts”, she stressed. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K. T. Oduro, who also spoke at the programme, said the University was committed to the partnership and called for the cooperation of all stakeholders. “Knowledge is like a Baobab tree, no one person can embrace it. So even as we think about promoting the Arts and using Arts to promote SDGs, we need the cooperation of all. We need disciplines to come together and also understand how to bring cultures together, and this is why we in UCC think this partnership should be supported”, he said. By Imensah

DESAG Launches Endowment and Scholarship Fund

26 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

The Distance Students Association of Ghana (DESAG) of the College of Distance Education has launched an Endowment and Scholarship Fund to support brilliant but needy students. "Raising our Dreams Higher: A Shared Responsibility", was the theme for the launch, which was held at the College of Distance Education (CoDE) Conference Room. Speaking at the launch, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, commended the leadership of DESAG for the initiative to support underprivileged students of the College. Quoting from Galatians 6:2, which enjoined Christians to bear one another's burden, Prof. Ampiah said the fund would help alleviate the burden of disadvantaged students. He, however, called for transparency and proper modalities for assessing the fund to prevent any doubts amongst students. Prof. Ampiah, who was the guest of honour, advised students of the College not to look down upon distance education. "Even some of the regular students are still being taught through distance. Even though they are face to face students, lecturers meet some of them on a platform which means with the passage of time, we cannot distinguish between distance learning and the regular learning", he noted. The Provost of CoDE, Prof. Isaac Galyuon, lauded the leadership of DESAG for coming out with the Fund to support needy students and called on managers to ensure regional balance in its disbursement. He said the College would award scholarships to the best graduating students at the next congregation. Prof. Galyuon noted that DESAG had made the requisite arrangements through the fees collection to support the Fund. As a result, Prof. Galyuon urged the students to market the Fund to attract public-spirited organisations and benevolent individuals to support it to cater for the needs of more students. He announced that the College would from 2017/2018 recruit some students of CoDE to do their National Service at the College. The National President of DESAG, Mr. Pearson Sablah, said the Fund would initially support 20 students partially for the first academic year. He noted that it was projected that the Fund would support around 100 people in the next five years. Mr. Sablah, therefore, appealed to government, corporate organisations and individuals to support the Fund so as to assist more less privileged students of the College.  

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University Health Services Collaborates with School of Medical Sciences

26 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

The Directorate of University Health Services (DUHS) and the School of Medical Sciences (SMS) have agreed to collaborate to improve health care delivery in the University. Under the agreement, House Officers from SMS will undertake housemanship at the University Hospital. Also clinical students from the SMS will use the facility for their training. Again, specialists and Medical consultants from SMS will render medical services to the University Hospital to improve healthcare delivery and expand the services of the Hospital. This came to light when a delegation from the Directorate of University Health Services (DUHS) and SMS met with the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, to inform him of the collaboration between the two parties. The delegation from the SMS included the Provost of the College of Health and Allied Sciences (CoHAS), Prof. Harold Amonoo-Kuofi and the Dean of SMS, Prof. Francis Ofei, while the DUHS delegation comprised the Director, Dr. Evans Ekanem and the Administrator, Mr. Samuel Atta-Yeboah. Briefing the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ofei said since the assumption of the current Director of DUHS, the two sides have been discussing means of improving healthcare delivery in the University. However, he added that provisions in both the 2012 and 2016 revised Statutes did not permit them to collaborate, adding that “no member of SMS is serving as a member on the University Hospital Committee and vice-versa.” The Director of the DUHS, Dr. Evans Ekanem, said his outfit would do its best to ensure the sustainability of the collaboration. He noted that authorities at the University Hospital had embarked on sensitisation exercise to disabuse the minds of staff of the Hospital that the collaboration between SMS and DUHS would pave way for SMS to usurp their functions. He said the Hospital would now serve as a training facility for medical students and also help the Hospital to meet the requirements for accreditation by both the Ghana Medical and Dental Council, and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. Responding, the Vice-Chancellor commended both SMS and DUHS for initiating the collaboration which would improve healthcare delivery in the University. He urged them to ensure that the issue of remuneration of medical consultants and specialists were ironed out before the implementation of the collaboration. He called on the delegation from CoHAS to brainstorm on how to generate funds to procure equipment for the building at the Diagnostic Centre. Prof. Ampiah asked them to consider Public Private Partnership (PPP) both from within and outside and added that some units in the University could even avail themselves to partner the College to complete the facility.

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FUSSAG Executive Council Builds Capacity

24 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

A capacity training workshop has been held for members of the Executive Council of the Federation of Senior Staff Association of Ghana (FUSSAG) to equip them in the delivery of their duties. The two-day workshop, which brought together members of the Executive Council and various Constituency Representatives, was on the theme “Enhancing Productivity through Professional Behaviour.” The Constituency Representatives are members within the Senior Staff of the University who have been elected in the various colleges, school and faculties to represent members at FUSSAG Executive Council Meeting. Addressing the participants, a Consultant, Mr. John Ato-Mensah, underscored the importance of time and stress management to the participants in the discharge of their duties as union leaders and staff of the University. According to Mr. Ato-Mensah, the Council members should ensure that they do not allow activities of the Union to consume greater part of their time to the detriment of their assigned duties as staff of the University. Consequently, he advised them to balance their time to ensure increase productivity at their places of work. Mr. Ato-Mensah, who took participants through stress management and other topics, said it was an undeniable fact that work and the environment of conditions at the work place cause most of stress. To help manage stress, Mr. Ato-Mensah advised participants to take charge of their thoughts, emotions, schedules and the way they deal with problems. He urged them to refrain from unhealthy coping strategy of stress such as smoking, over eating, recluse, procrastination and using pills to relax. The Chairman of FUSSAG, Mr. Daniel Egyir Arthur, thanked the facilitator and added that participants would balance their time and deal with stress management in the exercise of their duties as union leaders and workers of the University to ensure productivity. He urged participants to share their experiences from the workshop with their constituents. The Secretary of FUSSAG, Mr. Kofi Adom-Yankey, said he had learnt that how to effectively manage his time as a union leader so that it wouldn’t affect his official duty at the University. “It has been very resourceful. I have learnt how to co-operate and work with people within groups,as well as stress and time management” said Mr. Akwasi Karikari, a participant, representing members of FUSSAG at the Sam Jonah Library. Participants pledged to share lessons learnt at the workshop with their constituents and other staff of the University.  

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THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES HELD 49TH CONGREGATION, 2017

24 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah
UCC will Continue to Make Quality Graduate Education a Priority- Prof. Ampiah

“As management, we are set on a mission to make UCC synonymous with higher quality graduate education in the country and beyond”. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah stated this during the 12th Session of the 49th Congregation for the School of Graduate Studies. A total of 2,214 students were presented with various postgraduate degrees, which included 51 Ph.Ds. Addressing the graduands, the Chancellor of UCC, Sir Dr. Sam Esson Jonah said the School of Graduate Studies continues to enhance the intellectual life of the University by enabling graduate professional students to undertake scholarly study and advanced research and to prepare them for professional work. “It is my conviction that the School of Graduate Studies will continue to foster a conducive environment that enables critical, curious, creative, and courageous thinkers, who work both independently and collaboratively, to find answers to significant development challenges confronting the nation.” Dr. Jonah called on the School to be guided by the core values of integrity, dependability, creativity, and innovation and work even harder to position graduate education more centrally and visibly within the University. The Chancellor said, for tertiary institutions to successfully fulfill their functions in the 21st century, they needed to respond effectively to changing needs and trends in education as well as changing information and communication technologies. He told the graduands that more innovative ways of doing business were emerging, and therefore, they should endeavour to be among the “21st century think tanks who engineer such progress”. He reminded them that the University has empowered them with generic and discipline-specific research knowledge and skills, employment-related skills and competencies and were expected to impart positively on their respective communities. “I would also like to recommend that you consider the agriculture sector as you think of establishing yourselves. It is one area Ghanaians have failed to invest into on full scale”, Dr. Jonah emphasised. Presenting his address, the Vice-Chancellor said the school has over the years and in 2015/16 in particular, sought to ensure relevance of graduate programmes to socio-economic and technology development in Ghana and the West African sub-region. “Improved graduate programmes and policies as well as facilities for more effective teaching, research and community engagement have been our stock-in-trade to transform significantly our knowledge base, curricula and mode of delivery”, he stated. The Vice-Chancellor reported that enrollment saw a slight expansion and included students from the sub-region adding “A curious feature of the total enrollment was a shift in numbers from our regular mode to sandwich and distance modes. This signal the need to reposition ourselves as a University to meet the shift in demand for graduate education”. Prof. Ampiah said the impressive statistics of postgraduates presented, reflected hard work and diligence on the part of faculty, students and supporting staff. He announced that work was progressing sturdily on the construction of the new School of Graduate Studies Building and indicated that it would solve the problem of inadequate office space for staff and also provide the needed environment for graduate students upon its completion. The ceremony also witnessed the presentation of awards to deserving graduands and their supervisors. Among the graduates who received award for outstanding research were Dr. Jerry Opoku-Ansah-Ph.D (Physics), Prof. Eric Mensah-Ph.D (Curriculum and Teaching), Dr. Sebastian Eliason-Ph. D (Population and Health) and Dr. Emmanuel Kwasi Abu-Ph. D (Parasitology). The following supervisors; Prof. Joseph K. Mintah, Rev. Prof. Seth Asare-Danso, Prof. Akwasi Kumi-Kyereme and Prof. Kofi Awusabo-Asare were honoured. Others were Prof. Moses Jojo Eghan, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong and Dr. Irene Ayi. Two hardworking staff of the School of Graduate Studies, Mrs. Gifty Dzansi and Mr. Kwesi Anhwere were also honoured at the ceremony. Click to download the Congregation Brochure

Administration

Stakeholders Discuss Establishment of SFM for Agricultural Research and Extension in Ghana

21 Apr, 2017 By louis Mensah

Stakeholders in the Agricultural sector have begun discussions on the establishment of Sustainable Funding Mechanism (SFM) for agricultural research and extension in Ghana at a consultative meeting at the University of Cape Coast. Over the last few years, most agricultural research, production and extension programmes have been funded through the benevolence of donor agencies like World Bank. Currently, the World Bank is sponsoring one of such agricultural project known as West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP). The first phase of WAAPP started in 2008 and ended in 2012, whilst the second began in 2013, and is expected to end in 2017. In the light of challenges with financing agricultural research and extension, the Projects’ Appraisal Documents (PAD) of WAAPP mandated each participating country to work towards establishing SFM for Agricultural Research and Extension Service delivery, as part of the exit strategy for the project. In view of this, Agricultural-SFM Committee was set-up in June 2016 to develop a road map for the institutionalization of a comprehensive SFM for Ghana’s agricultural research and extension. Giving a brief overview on “Sustainable Funding Mechanism”, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) WAAP Liaison Officer, Prof. P.N.T. Johnson, noted that a number of projects have been implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agricultural which were terminated when the specific projects phased out. He mentioned National Agricultural Research Programme, Rice Sector Support Project, among others as examples of such projects. Prof. Johnson said funding mechanisms must be well designed such that it will guarantee effective and demand-oriented services and provide empowerment to clients and other stakeholders. He said funding mechanisms should also lead to investment of public funds as well as promoting environmentally sustainable land use practices. He further said it should contribute to better livelihood security for the poor and prevent marginalisation of vulnerable groups. On principles for funding of Research and Extension, Prof. Johnson called for the use of funding mechanisms which promote empowerment, link between financial participation and empowerment and the participation of producers or users in financing extension. He explained that the position of development partners on alternative funding of research and extension was to reduce the scope of state financing and improving cost effectiveness. For his part, the Dean of the School of Agriculture, Prof. Elvis Asare-Bediako, said for sustainability to work, there should be a conscious effort to farm and consume the produce, stressing that “We should farm what we eat and eat what we farm and add value to what we farm.” He said agricultural business should be backed by strong scientific research. He recommended the setting up of an endowment fund; ceding some percentage of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund and support from industries to help establish SFM for agricultural research and extension in Ghana. A similar zonal stakeholders’ meetings will be held in Kumasi and Tamale to solicit their views. After the meetings, the Agricultural SFM Committee is expected to prepare a consultative document for a final Validation Stakeholders’ Meeting in Accra in June from which a comprehensive proposal for setting up SFM in Ghana can be forwarded for the Government for consideration.

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