Day: May 21, 2023

As part of efforts to prevent violent extremism and acts of terrorism in Ghana, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has organised sensitisation programmes in some communities in the Jaman North District of the Bono Region.

The outreach campaign dubbed: ‘Prevention and Containing Violent Extremism in the Five Northern Regions and three regions that share borders with the northern part of Ghana’ aimed at sensitising and educating the people on some triggers of violent extremism and acts of terrorism and finding ways to prevent them.

The Commission identified chieftaincy disputes, ethnic conflicts, political polarisation, human rights abuses and social marginalisation, as well as poverty, unemployment and religious intolerance as some of the triggers for violent extremism and terrorism.

The sensitization programmes were held in market centres, lorry stations, schools and mosques at Sampa and Kabile Market in the Jaman North District.

The NCCE took the outreach campaigns to St. Ann’s Girls Senior High School, Sumaman Senior High School in Suma, Ghana Tailoring and Dressmakers Association, GPRTU lorry station and Central Mosque in Sampa respectively.

The programme is ongoing in the five northern regions and three regions that share borders with the northern parts of Ghana, with support from the European Union.

Speaking at the various sensitisation events, Mr Oscar Kwabena Donkor, the NCCE District Director for Jaman North, said the recent threats and occurrences of violent extremism and acts of terrorism in some neighbouring countries were a serious concern to Ghana’s peace and security.

He noted that such threats posed a great danger to the survival of the country’s fledgling democracy, saying; ‘Allowing violent extremism to fester will undermine the peace and safety in our communities’.

Mr Donkor, therefore, appealed to the people to eschew any acts of bickering and mudslinging, and rather comply with societal laid down structures for resolving conflicts and misunderstanding.

Mr Donkor also urged the people to comply with the provisions of Article 35 (5) of the 1992 Constitution and underscored the need for them to work together to fight against violent extremism and terrorism.

‘Peaceful co-existence and inter-faith tolerance must be prioritised by all and sundry to help us fight against violent extremists and terrorist groups,’ he urged.

Mr Daniel Okrah, the NCCE Programmes Officer for Jaman North, on his part, charged the participants to be extra vigilant in their respective communities and prioritise their safety and security, noting that no one could be more responsible for their safety and security than themselves.

Mr Okrah urged them to dialogue with persons they may have misunderstanding with and respect their rights, freedoms and legitimate interest, and refrain from any acts that could be detrimental to the welfare of others.

‘You should be security conscious and volunteer information on security concerns to your chiefs, community elders, assembly members, pastors, imams and security agencies,’ Mr Okrah admonished them.

He also entreated them to actively participate in the upcoming district-level elections and support the youth, women and persons with disability to contest for various positions in the local government structure.

The chiefs and opinion leaders in the beneficiary communities expressed their gratitude to the Commission for reaching out to them with very insightful tips on violent extremism and acts of terrorism.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Sissala East Municipal office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has engaged community-based groups and individuals in the municipality to consciously guard against the infiltration of violent extremist groups into their communities.

Some staff of the NCCE had been engaging artisans, women groups, youth groups, Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs), and community members across the municipality under the European Union-funded ‘Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE)’ project.

The project is aimed at preventing and containing violent extremism and terrorism through the promotion of social cohesion, peace, and tolerance in the five regions in the north and the regions bordering them.

Speaking to community folks in the municipality at different fora, Mr Hussein Elyasu, the Sissala East Municipal Director of the NCCE, stressed the need for the people to live in harmony by respecting divergent views and beliefs in religion, culture and tradition, and political matters.

He said the municipality was plagued with some developmental challenges including chieftaincy disputes, unemployment, poor road network, and inadequate social services among others served as incentives for extremist groups to come into the country through the municipality.

‘The various traditional councils in the municipality and the Upper West Region House of Chiefs should expedite action on the numerous chieftaincy dispute cases dotted across the municipality since the disputes have already resulted in the destruction of property and the maiming of people’, Mr Elyasu said.

He also appealed to religious leaders to eschew invective statements and other acts that could result in conflict and heighten security at their worship centres as part of efforts to help prevent violent extremism.

‘The ability to prevent and contain violent extremism largely depends on how individuals, institutions, groups, and communities play their respective roles and how roles are well coordinated’, he explained.

Mr Elyasu encouraged the people to be security conscious and to report any suspicious characters or activities to the security agencies, community, and religious leaders for the necessary action to be taken.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Pastor Paul Adu Adjei, the Abesim District Pastor of the Deeper Life Bible Church has admonished Christians to be watchful and be ready for the second advent of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the church.

He emphasized recent happenings around the globe, including the economic downturn, flooding, earthquakes, wars and rumours of wars as well as diseases and pestilences were all biblical prophecies foreshadowing the ‘rapture,’ the catching up of the saints.

Pastor Adjei gave the warning when delivering a sermon titled ‘Signs of the end time,’ at a church service at Abesim, near Sunyani, saying ‘What we are hearing elsewhere and seeing here are clear indications Christ’s second coming to rapture the church is imminent.’

He expressed worry about the rise in moral decadence as well as the get-rich-quick syndrome among the youth in the country and urged Christians to intensify evangelism and reach the masses with the Word of God which contained the power to transform the sinner or unbeliever.

Pastor Adjei said the Word of God remained the surest remedy to save and deliver the sinner from the looming and impending judgment of God, but added until ‘we preach the word in season and out of season, there is no way the sinner can repent, convert and accept the eternal life of God’.

Every soul, he added, had eternity stating, ‘Where to spend eternity, either in heaven or hell is the problem every living soul must ponder and contemplate’.

As ambassadors and the bride of Christ, Pastor Adjei said the responsibility was placed on every Christian to show love and preach the word of God to sinners and added ‘Our preaching must be centred on Christ who is our high priest and, the mediator between God and man.’

He said advancement in technology had provided enormous opportunities for the church to reach out to sinners everywhere with the gospel which is the heartbeat of God.

‘Virtually, all the biblical prophecies ahead of the second of Christ had been fulfilled and we need to be watchful and prepare ourselves to meet Christ in the air, as predicted in the Bible. Our preaching must put emphasis on the rapture because that is the only hope for the nation,’ Pastor Adjei stated.

As the embodiment of love, Pastor Adjei said Christ expected the church to love and care for the needy and vulnerable in society, saying by doing so, ‘we would be able to persuade sinners and unbelievers into the Christian faith.’

He reminded that Christians who served and worshipped God in sincerity and in truth would prosper here and be blessed and joyous hereafter, saying, ‘There is however no hope for the wicked if they continue to wallow in sins and in their wickedness.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Godsway Agyagbo, Director of Programmes, The Oasis, has said the centre was committed to equipping the children and youth of Gbi-Wegbe with digital and employable skills.

He said the opening of the centre, a new youth development centre aimed at empowering young people, was to give back to society and keep children and senior high school graduates engaged during holidays and free hours under programmes run by the centre.

Mr Agyagbo speaking during the opening of the centre noted that the programmes included, an ‘After-school filmmaking club’ which would teach photography, filmmaking, animation, and graphic design as a means of engaging the beneficiaries aged 14 to 21 years in their education.

He explained that the ‘After-school coding club’ would teach children between 10 and 18 years of all backgrounds how to code to improve their computational thinking, boost problem-solving skills and help them develop confidence and communication skills.

Mr Agyagbo noted that there would be sporting activities such as video games, athletics, football, and dance classes among others as a means of using physical education to teach young people about time management, competitive attitude and working as a team.

The centre he said, would also provide youth and adolescent counselling sessions for young people and serve as a safe place where they could feel free to share their worries and be provided with the needed help.

Madam Blair Kaplan, Founder of The Global Resilience Project, and a Social Media Marketing Expert, noted that her partnership in opening and running the centre was due to the vision of Mr Agyagbo for the children and youth of Gbi-Wegbe.

She noted that children in Canada had access to technology from an early age and got to explore and learn computer skills including coding which all children in the world including Gbi-Wegbe must have too.

Madam Blair noted that the possibilities of a very bright future to make money, be happy and resilient hinged on learning digital skills.

She said it was her hope that the children would learn and gain new skills such as social media marketing, coding, and building websites, technical skills which would help them get jobs that would connect them to parts of the world while in Ghana.

Mr Daniel Noble Awume, Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), noted that the centre was a good starting point because it would provide extra digital skills for students outside their classrooms.

He noted that the country was IT-driven, and the facility was of importance to the Municipality.

Mr Awume noted that parents were focal points of young people and youth development, hence, the need for them to focus on the development of their children in areas of reading, IT and classroom work.

Mr Manfred Adzah, Regent of Gbi-Wegbe, on behalf of the community, expressed gratitude to the founders and partners of the centre, which would go a long way to equip the youth and children with skills that would enable them to be competitive with others wherever they found themselves.

He noted that the community would offer the necessary support for the centre to develop to be able to offer others beyond the community digital skills.

Source: Ghana News Agency

As part of efforts to promote women’s participation in the mining sector, Women in Mining (WIM), Ghana has organised a two-day sub-national policy dialogue in Ahwetieso in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality.

The meeting sought to afford stakeholders the opportunity to discuss issues of gender inclusion and their implications for policy formulation.

Addressing participants, Mrs Georgette Sakyi-Addo President of WIM Ghana said, the organisation was established in 2015 with the objective to advocate the full participation of women along the mining value chain.

She said in line with that, their aim in the regional dialogue programme was to listen to the strategies, policies and interventions recommended by various institutions.

Mrs Sakyi-Addo further said it was also an opportunity for the participants to share their stories, gains, challenges, and recommendations to help shape the development of gender-sensitive policies for the sector.

She noted that responsible sourcing, environmental, social and governance frameworks and sustainability, are emerging issues that could help grow their industry positively.

‘People are at the centre of these concepts. When you take care of people, you take actions that will improve your scorecards and Sustainability matrix. In Africa, women make up over 50 per cent of the population. So, let us take care of women in the mining sector’

In that regard, WIM with support from the Ford Foundation, undertook an eight-month study on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the mining sector in Ghana. The geographic areas for the study were in the Western and Eastern Regions.

‘The research examined women living in communities affected by the decision to mine, women working in the Artisanal and Small-Scale mining sector, women entrepreneurs offering services and supplies to the mining sector and women working professionally in the mining sector’

For professional women in the industry, the report highlighted concerns such as discrimination and harassment, retaliation from superiors for reporting incidents of harassment, lack of leadership, mentorship, and gender-insensitive work environments that make the workplace unreceptive to many women in the mining industry.

Additionally, it was observed that women in mining communities faced challenges such as low education levels, poor health, lack of skills, absence of formal employment, poor community leadership, and unequal access to mining benefits, consequently increasing their socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

Under small-scale mining, the report highlighted the lucrative nature of informal (galamsey) mining for many young boys and girls who eventually drop out of school. Reports of discrimination in issuing concessions for small-scale mining were also reported by some women in the communities.

‘Another area of concern in the report was the lack of access to financial aid for women who work as entrepreneurs in the industry. Many are pushing for financial institutions to include gender-based financing options that are accessible to them.’

‘This report is one of the many steps WIM is undertaking to achieve its objectives. Engaging various industry players, local governments, national regulators, and other community stakeholders is evidence.

It is demonstrative of commitment, and we are all encouraged to fully utilize this platform and opportunity to project and find solutions to our common concerns and challenges,’ she noted.

Giving an overview of the Gender Mainstreaming Programme, Mr Hillary Konadu Awuah, project coordinator said in October 2021, WIM Ghana received funding support from Ford Foundation West Africa to implement the said project to enhance the advocacy agenda for gender inclusion in the mining sector.

The project intended to increase women’s participation in the mineral value chain at three levels of implementation.

At the continental level, he said they established the office of the Association of Women in Mining Africa (AWIMA) in Ghana to strengthen the administrative and institutional structures for the effective implementation of activities.

Mr Awuah explained that at the subregional level, WIM-Ghana is collaborating with Women in Mining of West Africa (WIMOWA) to sensitize women in the geo-extractive sector on the Draft ECOWAS Gender Charter among countries in the West African region.

According to him, quarterly meetings were held to support the capacity-building efforts of WIMOWA for their member countries through online presentations, workshops, and webinars.

At the country level, WIM Ghana has commissioned a study to assess the gender gaps in the current mining laws, and determine the levels and forms of gender injustice, discrimination, and diversity in Ghana’s mining sector, he explained.

The project coordinator emphasized that promoting women’s participation in the mining sector is a daunting task which required, collaboration from all sector actors such as government, regulatory institutions, mining companies, and local authorities, among others.

The queen mother of Apinto Divisional Council, Nana Abena Boaduwaa II, expressed appreciation to the organisers for including the Western Region in this all-important programme.

Source: Ghana News Agency