Australia leading the change for women in Ghana

by Justice Lee Adoboe

    An Australian-funded scheme is saving and transforming lives in Akuapem North District, Eastern Region, and in Shai Osu Doku District and Ablekuma Sub-Metro, Greater Accra Region.

    With funding from the Australian Government, WaterAid has provided more than 7,000 people access to safe and sustainable water, appropriate sanitation and safer hygiene practices.

    “Supporting vulnerable communities in Ghana to access safe drinking water in a hygienic environment has been a lifeline, particularly for women and children”, said Graeme Dickson, Acting Australian High Commissioner to Ghana.

   He observed that, the success stories shared through the Australian funded project show that communities are more able to drive their own development when they receive the appropriate tools, such as those provided through WaterAid.

    Australia’s support through WaterAid promotes an enabling environment so that people from marginalised communities, particularly women, children and people with disability have better access to water, sanitation and hygiene services and greater influence and engagement with decision-makers.

    In Ablekuma Sub-Metro, Shai Osu Doku and Akuapem North Districts, the construction of rain water harvesting systems, iron removal plants, and water kiosks has increased access to safe and clean water for more than 6,000 people. Over 1,000 children have benefitted with access to sanitation through the provision of institutional latrines at selected schools.

   The capacity of school children has also been strengthened through the school-based hygiene promotion activities, where school hygiene clubs are formed to provide peer learning among school children.

    “Initially we found it very difficult to get to potable and reliable source of water. We had to walk for miles before getting water to bath, which often made us late for school and we were sometimes punished by teachers without them having the slightest idea of how we managed to get water to bath to school.

   But there was a relief when we got the borehole and a rain harvesting tank by which we are able to store rain water to supply the community as well,” says Beatrice Munyo, a pupil in Okyerekrom village. “People have toilet in their homes now and good sanitation. We are now free from a lot of sickness”.

    Through the Endogenous Development (ED) approach, women from marginalised communities have also been empowered to identify and demand their rights as well as actively participate in development activities and contribute to community life.

    The ED approach has led to the installation of a queen mother and a youth leader in a new intervention community, Tadankro.

    The installation of a queen mother is very important because it demonstrates that women have the recognition of a community level institution that they control.

   The increasing recognition of queen mothers and female chiefs suggest that women are gradually gaining the respect and power to influence policy changes and practices at the communities and districts.

   The Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES) is implemented in Ghana by WaterAid Ghana. 

mPedigree powers security check for African wax prints

by Justice Lee Adoboe

   ACCRA, March 4 -- mPedigree, the global leader in the use of web and mobile-based ERP and SCM technologies  to protect brand authenticity of manufactured products, has will power security seals for African wax prints owned by the Premium African Textiles (PAT), a release received here on Wednesday said.

   The new digital technology will enable consumers to instantly authenticate them via free Short Message Service (SMS) of a unique security code under a scratch panel on each pack.

   This was disclosed during the launch of a new campaign to empower its customers and Ghanaians in general to only patronize genuine textiles and to avoid fake and pirated versions of popular wax print and other African-inspired designs and fabrics.

   The campaign dubbed OGA – Original, Genuine, Authentic – cuts across PAT’s luxury brands such as GTP and should over time cut across its multiple markets in Africa too.

   PAT’s SMS-authentication program will be powered by mPedigree Network’s Goldkeys technologies such as Acodion and Signet.

   These technologies enable all the brand owner’s distributors to be enrolled in an electronic portal, and all textiles sent through the distribution networks to be tracked all the way to the consumer.

   Stephen Badu, Marketing Director of PAT, said in remarks at the launch of the program here that the technology would become a permanent mark of quality, distinguishing the company’s wares in a marketplace increasingly flooded by low quality fabrics.

   PAT’s campaign comes at a time of extreme social, business, and political concern over the serious spread of fake and pirated textiles in West Africa, with some analysts estimating more than 50 percent of textiles may in fact be of this fake variety.

   Governments, such as the one in Ghana, have been deeply troubled by the phenomenon and have set up taskforces to check the problem. But these taskforces have sometimes been accused of high-handedness and corruption.

   Meanwhile, the problems continue to compound, with the textile sector in the region shrinking every year and more than 80 percent of textile workers having lost their jobs in recent decades.

   Some public officials are also concerned about the activities of pirates and fakers in this sector because of the damage the fakes are doing to the unique local cultures that supply inspiration for the textile designs.

   As fakes decimate the local industry, the designers lose as much as the factory hands and the stock of native knowledge and skills consequently start to evaporate.

   mPedigree, headed by Bright Simons, a growing name in international technology innovations, also created security checks for the pharmaceutical industry which consumers can use to authenticate brands of pharmaceutical products.  Enditem.

   Source: mPedigree