In Ghana, 8 out of 10 children under the age of five and 3 out of 10 adult women suffer from some form of malnutrition, including stunting, wasting, and/or deficiencies in iron, iodine, and vitamin A. I recently visited Nyankpala Community Management of Acute Malnutrition in Tamale, Ghana, a Health Service (GHS) project that integrates and promotes community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) services and supplies.

With funds from USAID and UNICEF, GHS has established support units for acute malnutrition at the national, regional and district levels. Between 2008 and 2011, Ghana has increased CMAM from two learning sites in two districts to 403 sites in 31 districts. In total, 2,040 health care providers have been trained on CMAM services and 5,973 children with severe acute malnutrition have been admitted to the program. Of these children 71 percent were cured, 2 percent died, and 1 percent did not recover; 26 percent failed to follow up.

Why is Ghana ready for a mobile technology boom? Are investors looking to Ghana as a market ready to advance with mobile?
Anytime I’m asked if Ghana is ready for the mobile technology boom, my answer is always YES. In Ghana, there are two major organizations providing locals with the business and technology skills they need to leverage ideas into successful mobile web companies: Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology and Mobile Web Ghana.

New opportunities are showing up that make it possible for low-income economies to leapfrog other countries by adopting technologies that are suitable to their specific circumstances. I’m happy to say that Ghana is taking that bold step in adopting new mobile technologies. Take a critical look at the continent: Africa has more than 110 million Internet users, a number that is poised to grow by 2400 percent in this decade alone.

What about Ghana’s market makes it ready for mobile phone technology? How are smartphones being introduced into the market? Can bandwidth improvements keep up with the technology?

African governments are aggressively developing broadband and information/communications (ICT) policies in order to properly regulate the industry while allowing the market to work its magic. In Ghana, mobile penetration currently stands at 85.5 percent, which means that out of a population of about 25 million, there are 20 million subscribers to at least one of the country’s five active mobile networks (MTN, Vodafone, TiGO, Airtel and Expresso). These days, smartphones are being used in all areas. By 2013, Africa will have 11 undersea cables (including one in Ghana by Glo Mobile), which is likely to result in increased bandwidth and reduced cost to consumers.

From banking to agriculture, mobile technology plays a vital role in the life of the average Ghanaian. Here are two examples of how mobile or smartphones are being used in Ghana:

Esoko is an agricultural market information platform managed on the web and delivered via mobile technology in Ghana and other parts of Africa. Individuals, agri-business, and government agencies use Esoko to collect and send out market data using simple text messaging. By way of SMS, the Esoko platform provides automatic and personalized price alerts to farmers in rural areas.

The Grameen Foundation is also developing and distributing mobile phone-based applications to help the poor better manage their health, through such programs as the Mobile Technology for Community Health (MOTECH) initiative.

How are younger people in Ghana helping to push mobile advancements? As a younger person, why is tech growth so important to you and your circles?

Mobile technology is the future for Africa. In Ghana, the only way to access the Internet among the younger generation is via mobile and smartphones.

The greatest opportunity for growth will come from technological innovation and the adoption of new technologies in service sectors, such as banking, insurance, health, education and agriculture. These growths in technology are very important to me and my networks because they help shape the socioeconomic aspect of our lives and bridge the gap between people in Ghana and those in other parts of the world.

Can you describe some of the apps that could come from tech innovations that would help people in Ghana?

The catalog of mobile applications in Ghana seems to be growing by the day. We have a host of programs including mobile banking, SMS alerts for farmers and agri-business, chat functions, stock market updates and photo-sharing platforms.

When it comes to mobile apps from Africa, there’s been mention of Ushahidi, iCow and Mocality from Kenya, and Ummeli and TXTALert from South Africa. In Ghana, app providers like Nkyea, Esoko, ShopAfrica53, NandiMobile, iWallet – Dream Oval, Retail Tower and Streemio have gained a lot of popularity.

Can you describe the benefits, if any, to government transparency and democracy that mobile tech can bring to Ghana (e.g. promoting accountability, coordinating political events, and inspiring social activism)?

Universal access to affordable information is one area in which mobile technology will be of great importance in Ghana. There is widespread consensus that ICTs offer one solution to this problem, with mobile phones showing particular promise already.

In Ghana, smartphones are more affordable than computers. They require less infrastructure, do not demand much technological knowledge (users do not even have to be literate), and are very durable. With increased use of mobile phones in Ghana, citizen participation in all social aspects of life will be monitored and reported.

As a citizen journalist, the mobile phone serves as a great tool in my reporting and social activism. Bloggers in Ghana will use their mobile phones to monitor and report on the December elections later this year. This will be first time citizens have the chance to play a participatory role in the elections.

Read more from Mac-Jordan Degadjor on his blog or follow him on Twitter. Mac-Jordan also writes for the Venture Capital for Africa blog.

Funded by the Global Fund through financial support from Product (RED), Tema Hospital cares for 2,200 people living with HIV. We recently visited their facility again –- their work never ceases to amaze me. The Global Fund make it possible for the hospital to provide ARV treatment and PMTCT (prevention of mother-to-child-transmission). Thanks to these interventions, only 4 percent of babies at Tema with HIV-positive mothers are born with the virus.

When I wake up, I groggily roll out of bed, and half-asleep, I jump into a hot shower. Then, I fill up my water bottle with cold water from the tap, brush my teeth with water from the faucet, and wash my hands. These simple amenities that we take for granted are truly luxuries. Because in Africa, 70 to 80 percent of disease is related to water. Most people don’t have a faucet with running water, or even clean water nearby that they can drink or brush their teeth with.

We visited a joint project with USAID and Rotary International that provides clean water to thousands of people in Afadjtator, Ghana. As we arrived, the townsfolk swarmed us with welcoming cheers. Though we didn’t build the wells they are benefiting from, our tax dollars did. The United States is contributing approximately $13.4 million to improve water and sanitation in Ghana over the next four years. And thanks to this join project in Afadjtator, 86,000 more people will be able to wake up in the morning and get a glass of clean water.

Captions, from top to bottom and right to left: New well build through the joint water and sanitation project with USAID and Rotary International; Woman from the community carrying water from the well back to her house; Ed Goeas walks with children from the community; Jen Pihlaja walks with children from the community; Women filling up at the new water pump; Sheila Nix, ONE’s US Executive Director cuts the ribbon with local chiefs for the newest water pump in the community; Laurie Moskowitz, ONE’s Senior Director of US campaigns, laughs with local community members.

The participants are Tucker Eskew, who works in Republican strategic communications; Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster; Myra Miller, a Republican strategist; Heath Thompson, another Republican strategist; Annie Burns, who works in Democratic communications; Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and MSNBC analyst; Jen Pihlaja, a Democratic strategist; and Erik Smith, who also works in Democratic communications.

This trip follows our successful model from last year to educate and engage strategic politicos about the successes in health and development in Africa, as well as the challenges that still lie ahead. We will focus much of our trip on US-supported programs, including the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and USAID’s Feed the Future initiative. We will also show strategic partnerships between US funded programs and organizations including CARE and Rotary International.

We will be tweeting during the trip so be sure to follow us on Twitter for photos and updates. @SheilaNix, @ErikSmithDC, @MyraMiller, @EdGoeas, @TuckerEskew, @FinneyK, @gmmbAnnie, @jenpihlaja. We excited to show the proof of US investments in Africa with the group and look forward to working with them in 2012.

Every year, on the first Friday of December, Ghanaians celebrate National Farmers Day in honor of the gallant farmers who feed the growing population and contributing to the nation’s GDP.

This year’s Farmers Day was centered around growing more food and promoting research for sustainable agriculture development. The event was held at Agona Nsaba in the Central Region of Ghana.

A search committee made up of members from the University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana and other organizations were dispatched to look for this year’s Ghana Best Farmer. It took them 63 days to submit their report to the chairman of the planning committee for National Farmers’ Day celebration.

Out of the 66 contestants, Ignatius Agbo emerged as the 2011 Ghana National Best farmer. He has a farm size of 480 acres, which includes 160 acres of cocoa, 12 acres of oil palm, 15 acres of citrus, 15 acres of plantain, 2 acres of cowpeas, 1 acre of sweet potatoes, 5 acres of cassava, 2 acres of coconut, and vegetables, together with his livestock occupying about 50 acres.

Agbo took home a three-bedroom, fully furnished house to be built at a location of his choice, a generator, laptop and fully loaded modem, and a trip to India. He was the central regional Best Farmer for 2002 and 2005 respectively. Ignatius Abgo called on the government to walk the talk and provide farmers with the needed resources for accelerated growth.

Vice president John Mahama said that the government is committed to make agriculture a key sector of the economy in spite of oil discovery.

The second national Best Farmer is Assemblyman Daniel Ankoma Mends, 39, from the Assin South District of the Central Region. He took home a tractor with implements and insurance coverage for a year.

Philip Kwaku Agyemang, 44, from the Brong Aharfo region came third, and was rewarded with a double-cab pickup truck and a year’s insurance coverage.

The National Best Fisherman went to Agya Kwesi, 39, and National Best Livestock farmer went to Joseph Boney, 70.

Among those rewarded was a disabled woman farmer — she has proved to the world that disability is not inability and that the future of food security lies in the hands of women farmers.

We congratulate you farmers of Ghana, AYEKOO!!!

-Ofosu Asamoah

It’s time to announce our second finalist in the 2011 ONE Africa Award.

After our piece on a project in Togo, we went on to Accra, Ghana to meet the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR). The alliance was established by a group of NGOs in 2004 and evolved from a defunct Save the Children program on sexual and reproductive health. ARHR Executive Director, Ms. Vicky Okine, is the former Save the Children program manager, and recognized the importance of the continuation of this program. It builds on the potential of community health organizations to empower their communities and drive the demand for better access to sexual and reproductive health care.

The alliance coordinates the community organizations, arms them with the patients rights charter and provides training in the area of reproductive health care. Through the alliance, local organizations have been encouraged to come together and share their experiences in the community, learn from each other and organize.

ARHR works from a rights-based approach, which is their basis for empowering communities to demand health care services from the government. Ghana adopted a free maternal health policy that was generally disregarded at the village level where the lack of information allowed health officials to get away with low levels of service delivery in many communities. With the assistance of the alliance, organizations have hosted advocacy and training at a grassroots level to get people to understand their rights, complain about poor health services and organize themselves to agitate for change. In a recent advocacy effort, beneficiaries were able to secure a meeting with the district health officers to demand better service delivery.

ARHR’s model is unique because this rights-based approach provides a response to the demand and supply side of delivery of social services. It provides the information that people need to demand for services and it also influences public health policy. ARHR also develops materials to help educate people on government policies and works with the Ministry of Health to feed back information gathered at the grassroots level to influence policy modifications.

ARHR has used the media, including radio and television, in their advocacy work, and stakeholders are now more aware of Ghana’s progress in efforts to meet the health Millennium Development Goals. Earlier this year, ARHR produced a documentary called “The Lights Have Gone Out Again,” which was aired on Ghanaian television and popularly drew mass attention to the problems associated with sexual and reproductive health care service in the country.

Through all of their efforts, ARHR has successfully influenced the way government is doing business and improvements can already be seen in the health service with increased access to health care. Community residents, armed with information from the alliance, are no longer turned away from health centers when refused service. They stand their ground and demand their right to health care.

Good luck to the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights!

It was a long time in the making, but this week Feed the Future released its first long-term strategy for a potential focus country. That potential focus country is Ghana. ONE is excited about Ghana as a potential choice because of the strong role that women play in food production there. However, whether Ghana or other countries benefit from Feed the Future strategic plans depends on whether or not Congress funds Feed the Future fully.

In Ghana, women are responsible 70 percent of food-crop agriculture, 90 percent of food processing, and almost 90 percent of the artisanal fisheries industry. Feed the Future could achieve serious poverty-reducing impacts, improving the lives of many of Ghanaian women (and men). The impacts include:

· 860,000 Ghanaians –- mostly smallholder farmers -– assisted in escaping hunger and poverty through agriculture
· Improved nutrition in nearly 324,000 children, which could prevent stunting and mortality
· Decreased childhood anemia and the number of underweight children under five years of age.

How would Feed the Future do it?

Working with the Government of Ghana, the private sector, NGOs and contractors, the initiative will focus on farmers in the northern agricultural parts of Ghana, fisherfolk along the coast, and maize farmers around the country.

Because Ghana is so exposed to price fluctuations in the global rice and maize markets, Feed the Future’s agriculture work will focus on rice and to a certain extent, maize and fishing. Rice is very much in demand in Ghana and the country produces only enough to meet 30 percent of this demand. As a result, consumers have to buy imported rice, often at very high prices. Farmers in Ghana lose almost half of their rice and maize harvests in Ghana because they do not have adequate storage, drying, or processing facilities. Feed the Future plans to focus on these “post-harvest” interventions as well as on rice production in the northern part of the country, making farming a more profitable enterprise for some of Ghana’s poorest. In the coastal areas, Feed the Future would support management of the ecosystems that fisherfolk depend on for their livelihoods.

Poverty and malnutrition rates are exceptionally high in the northern part of the country, despite a reduction in the national poverty rate from 52 percent to 28 percent over the last 10 years. Thus, Feed the Future would focus three-fourths of its nutrition interventions in the north. It will not only treat acutely malnourished children, but also mobilize community members to prevent undernutrition by promoting, breastfeeding, a good transition to solid foods, and dietary diversity.

ONE congratulates Feed the Future for putting together such a comprehensive strategy for its work Ghana. However, Congress needs to make sure it funds Feed the Future plans fully. ACT NOW and tell Congress that we cannot cut foreign assistance any more than it has already been cut.

Photo credit: Feed the Future

I heard about the job from a friend. I had been working in another factory before, but it wasn’t paying well and I was not working. So, I sent in my application and got the job. I’m a quality control supervisor. It’s difficult! I have to make sure the work is done the way it needs to be done -– the measurements are correct, well stitched, etc. It’s tough but it’s a great experience. Telling people to do something and then seeing them do it the wrong way is not easy. I tell them what I want and that they have to give me what I want. I’m learning a lot of things at this job -– particularly how to supervise employees. I feel like the sky is the limit.

I want to go back to school for computing and graphic design to use in the fashion industry. I’m part of fashion now. I’ve always loved fashion. I wanted to be a model when I was young but circumstances led me to the fashion industry. When I was young I loved to make beaded necklaces and toys. One day, I want to have a fashion shop -– to make T-shirts, tops, dresses. And put my name on the products –- I’d have my own brand!

I leave my home by 5:30 every morning –- I live in Shai Hills, about 25 km from Tema. I arrive to the Tema roundabout by 6:30 and then I get on the bus -– it makes two trips every morning to bring workers to the factory. The management here is very good. When we work overtime, the management buys us food and drinks. I know so many people who want jobs but cannot find them. And here we feel special -– there’s unity and togetherness. In one way or another, the jobs have changed people’s lives for the better. Some are able to educate their kids and others are saving to go to school, like me.

Ghana’s national football team has arrived back home from the World Cup in South Africa to a rapturous welcome.

Thousands of dancing and singing fans welcomed the players – known as the Black Stars – at Accra’s airport.

“You’ve really held high the flag of Ghana and the entire African continent,” Deputy Sports Minister Nii Nortey Duah told the players.

The team is due to parade through Accra, to be followed by a free music concert in their honour on Tuesday.

Ghana, the only African team to progress beyond the group stage, went out to Uruguay in the quarter-final.

There were spontaneous shouts of joy at Accra’s airport as the plane with the Black Stars landed late on Monday evening.

Football fans, many of whom had started arriving hours before the team’s expected arrival, waved Ghana’s national flags and blasted vuvuzelas to greet their heroes in a carnival atmosphere.

“The Stars fought gallantly, not only making Ghana proud, but the entire African continent,” teacher Felicia Acheampong was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Ghana’s captain Stephen Appiah said: “We did our best but luck was not on our side but we’ll go to Brazil in 2014 to be major contenders.”