A six-member delegation of Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Upper East Region have pledged their support to ActionAid Ghana’s fight against poverty and injustice.
The pledge was made during a visit by the MPs to the newly appointed Country Director of ActionAid Ghana, John Nkaw at Organisation’s Head Office in Accra.
The MPs are: Mr Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku, Mr Cletus Avoka, MP for Zebilla East, Mr Albert Akuka Alazuuga, MP for Garu, Hajia Yamba Lardi, MP for Pusiga, Lydia Lamisi, Akanvariba, MP for Tempani and Mr Abdulai Abanga, MP for Binduri constituency.
Mr Albert Alazuuga, MP for Garu, commended ActionAid for their long-standing commitment towards the fight against poverty, especially in the five regions of the north.
He noted that despite the strides made, residents in the five regions of the north continued to face challenges relating to access to basic social amenities and that a collaboration between the two parties would go a long way to minimise the daily hurdles faced by members of the people.
Hajia Yamba Lardi, MP, Pusiga Constituency said ActionAid’s focus on women centered interventions was rightly placed due to the prevalence of violence and injustice perpetuated against women in the northern Ghana, adding that most women, in the Upper East region especially, did not engage in any form of economic activity to make them independent.
According to her, although government had been providing financial support to these deprived women through loans, the support had not yielded the needed results due to the lack of skills to enable them engage in viable economic activities.
Hajia Lardi further called on the leadership of AAG to expand its ongoing livelihood skills training programmes implemented under the Providing Employment Opportunities for Young People in Ghana project which seeks to provide economic opportunities for women across the regions.
Mr Abdulai Abanga, Deputy Minister for Works and Housing and MP for Binduri, also noted that his constituents had benefited immensely from ActionAid’s interventions through the provision of a child-friendly education facility and livelihood skills training for the youth.
He, therefore, appealed for an expansion in the skills training to help curb the increasing social vices recorded in the communities.
Mr. John Nkaw, Country Director for ActionAid Ghana, in response, expressed profound gratitude to the MPs for the visit and commitment to support his leadership agenda.
He reiterated that ActionAid was committed to the fight against poverty through its four Mission Priorities to strengthen resilient livelihoods and contribute to secure climate justice, address the root causes of violence against women and girls and reduce unpaid care work and promote descent work.
Mr Nkaw mentioned the promotion of the rights of all citizens to equitable access to good quality child friendly education and the improvement of citizen’s participation, public accountability, effective mobilization and fair redistribution of public resources towards gender responsive public services, as some part of the Organisations mission.
The Country Director said climate justice and advocacy for economic policies that served the interest of women were key strategic focus for the ActionAid Federation and stressed the need for the Parliamentarians to work with likeminded non-governmental organisations to resist policies and programmes that affected gender-responsive public services.
He said the International Monetary Fund programmes for instance were retrogressive and led to a cut in the provision of government expenditure on critical services in the health, education and water and sanitation sectors.
Mr Nkaw called on the Government to stay disciplined and resist any attempts by the Britton Woods Institutions to enroll Ghana back onto their programmes.