Attach_9-USAID_Ghana_FtF_Fact_Sheet.pdf

May 2011 www.feedthefuture.gov

FEED THE FUTURE AT A GLANCE

Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is a $3.5 billion commitment to support coun-try-driven approaches to address the root causes of poverty, hunger and under-nutrition. A whole-of-government initiative led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Feed the Future leverages the strengths of multilateral institutions, civil society and the private sector to assist 18 mil-lion vulnerable women, children, and family members – mostly smallholder farmers – escape hunger and poverty. Together, we will increase agricultural productivity, decrease poverty, drive economic growth, and reduce under-nutrition to improve millions of lives.

COUNTRY CONTEXT

Impressive growth and record poverty reduction over the past twenty years have made Ghana an African success sto-

ry. GDP has grown between 4 to 8% annually over the past decade and is expected to continue in coming years. This growth puts Ghana on track to reach the first Millennium Development Goal to cut pov-erty in half by 2015. Agricul-tural growth has been the ma-jor driver of poverty reduction, especially in the southern part of Ghana. The sector is the largest source of employment for Gha-naians and is dominated by smallholder farmers producing food and cash crops.

Ghana has achieved an overall reduction in the poverty rate from 52% to 28% over the past ten years. Despite this progress, the northern part of the country still has poverty rates nearly twice that of the south. There is a risk that poverty in the north will remain high and the income gap between the north and the south will further widen. While Ghana has exhibited significant progress in agriculture, it still has a trade deficit of 70% in rice and 15% in maize — its top two staple crops. Consumption of both crops is predicted to escalate with the rise in incomes and a high urban growth rate.

While Ghana has made progress in decreasing the prevalence of underweight children under five, from 25% in 1998 to 14% in 2008, major child health challenges remain. The northern re-gions have greater rates of underweight and wasting, which are linked closely to food insecurity. Chronic under-nutrition in the-se regions is linked to household poverty levels, disease burden, inadequate sanitation facilities and poor infant feeding practices.

OPPORTUNITIES

The Government of Ghana has demonstrated strong political investment in agriculture-led development. Private sector actors have recently shown a sustained commitment to improving food security. U.S. agencies, multi-lateral institutions, and the interna-tional donor community have formed a global network to sup-port Ghanaian leadership to transform agricultural systems.

Promoting sustainable food security is a prominent objective in Ghana’s own national development agenda. The government’s policy statements recognize that nearly two million people re-main vulnerable to food insecurity, in spite of two decades of sustained economic growth. In response, the government devel-oped the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan for 2011-2015, which aims to modernize agriculture, increase food security, employment and incomes, and reduce poverty. Feed the Future will assist Ghana in achieving the agriculture goals of this plan.

KEY OBJECTIVES

Our collective efforts aim to improve the livelihood and nutri-tional status of households in northern Ghana through:

Increasing the competitiveness of major food value chains Strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities and households Improved nutritional status, especially of women and chil-dren

TARGET REGIONS

Ghana Quick Facts

Ghana has a population of 24,791,073

GDP growth of 7.7% in 2010 Agriculture contributes close to 30% of GDP and employs 56% of labor force

28% of Ghanaians live below the poverty line

28% of children <5 suffer from stunting and 14% are underweight

70% trade deficit in rice needs and 15% in maize needs

GHANA Fact Sheet

May 2011 www.feedthefuture.gov

CORE INVESTMENTS

The U.S. is focusing its efforts in northern Ghana and selected value chains to maximize impact. Concentrating resources, fos-tering political engagement, linking agriculture to nutrition and supporting gender equality are critical investments to successful-ly improve food security throughout Ghana.

Country-led Food Security Investment The Ghanaian government has more than doubled its investment in agriculture since signing its CAADP Compact in 2009. Ghana’s Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan brings togeth-er donor, public and private sector resources to transform the agriculture sector. This plan has a significant focus in the north-ern breadbasket region with the aim to improve the investment climate for agri-business and develop socially-inclusive Private- Public Partnerships (PPPs) and smallholder linkages aimed at in-creasing on-farm productivity and value addition in selected val-ue chains. The northern breadbasket supports change agents in the region to rapidly realize change rather than working with individual farmer groups or individual smallholders.

Leveraging U.S. Investments Through support to the Ghanaian government-led food security investment plan and strong collaboration with other donor in-cluding the World Bank and AGRA that are focusing investment in the north, the U.S. is leveraging over $100 million in FY 2010 resources country wide to support complementary programs to enable a more significant impact on food insecurity in Ghana.

Value Chain Competitiveness The main objective is to increase the competitiveness of rice, maize, soya value chains in northern Ghana through better use of improved technologies, management, and access to services on the input, production, and output sides. There is great poten-tial for increased production in northern Ghana, where large tracts of land remain under-utilized and post-harvest losses are significant. Agriculture will be transformed and modernized by creating inclusive commercial agricultural systems which realize gains in productivity, establish stronger value chain commercial arrangements and attract and keep private sector investment.

through investment in finance, inputs, irrigation and rural roads, storage and distribution, mechanization services, capacity build-ing and policy support and improved nutrition.

Private Sector Engagement The U.S. will promote private sector engagement through public -private partnerships in northern Ghana’s breadbasket region.

Enabling Policy Environment Feed the Future will provide capacity building support to the Government of Ghana to realize its Medium-Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan and to address the three largest policy constraints to agricultural development—land tenure, marine fisheries governance, and institutional performance.

Nutrition The Resilience and Reduction of Under-nutrition Program will increase the resiliency of at least 40,000 food insecure house-holds with women of reproductive age and children under two in Northern Ghana by providing improved access to diverse and quality food, especially for young children. Feed the Future will also invest in activities to improve child feeding behaviors, in-cluding developing training materials and approaches for infant and young child feeding, expanding community-based treatment of acute under-nutrition of children, and expanded accessibility of safe quality foods for child weaning.

GENDER INTEGRATION

Gender is a cross-cutting issue for Feed the Future. Programs will be required to address gender issues in value chain develop-ment to ensure that private sector led approaches support broad-based growth inclusive of both men and women. For ex-ample, the value chain activity will engage women’s groups to advocate on behalf of women farmers, traders, and processors to better voice their needs.

WHOLE-OF-GOVERNMENT APPROACH

Feed the Future elevates coordination across the U.S. Govern-ment so that our investments, resources and programs are har-monized for greater collective impact. This interagency engage-ment, led by USAID, includes collaboration with U.S. Depart-ment of State, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Treasury Department, Millennium Challenge Corporation, U.S.

African Development Foundation, U.S. Trade Representative, Overseas Private Investment Corporation and Peace Corps. For example, USDA will work with the Ministry of Agriculture and other stakeholders to enhance agricultural statistics and market information, and strengthen the policy and regulatory capacity.

FEED THE FUTURE: IMPACT IN GHANA

Over the next five years, Feed the Future will:

Assist more than 860,000 vulnerable Ghanaian wom-en, children, and family members – mostly smallholder farmers – to escape hunger and poverty.

Reach nearly 324,000 children, improving their nutri-tion to prevent stunting and child mortality.

*2012 is included in the President’s budget request to Congress

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2008 2009 2010 2012*

M il li o n s

USAID Agriculture & Nutrition Funding to Ghana

Agriculture Nutrition