By Gifty Amofa/Josephine Nyarkoh
The Ghana Demographic Health Survey has revealed a
disturbingly high prevalence of hypertension among males in the Ashanti Region.
Dr. Mrs. Alberta Biritwum Nyarko, Kumasi Metropolitan
Assembly (KMA) Health Director, said they “are 10 times likely to have the
disease than males in the same age group, elsewhere in the country”.
She made the findings of the survey known at the annual
health performance review meeting held in Kumasi.
She could, however, not tell what was making more men in
the region increasingly hypertensive, except to say that further research was
being carried out to determine the cause.
The meeting brought together health professionals from
the various facilities and medical institutions, chiefs and representatives
from civil society organizations.
Dr. Mrs. Biritwum-Nyarko identified hypertension as the
third highest cause of death in the metropolis.
They were therefore determined to launch sustained
public education and health outreach programmes to reverse the trend, she
added.
She spoke of the success they were making to bring down
maternal deaths, saying that, it had reduced to 290 per 100,000 livebirths,
from 336 per 100,000 livebirths.
Infant mortality, she indicated, had also dropped from
3.6 per 1,000 livebirths to 1.9 per 1,000 livebirths.
The Metropolitan Health Director applauded the Kumasi
South Hospital’s Infectious Disease Treatment Unit, for leading efforts to curb
respiratory diseases, through the study of airborne viruses.
Mr. Solomon Boakye, an official at the metropolitan
health directorate, said five out of the seven suspected meningitis cases
reported from the five sub-metropolitan areas proved positive and that there
were three deaths.
He underlined the need to build more community-based
health planning and services (CHPS) compounds to improve access to quality
health care.
He repeated the call to the National Health Insurance
Authority (NHIA) to promptly reimburse the facilities for services rendered to
insurance card holders.
GNA
Editorial
POLICE
The Ghana Police Service has done extremely well in the
fight against crime.
Over the last couple of years it appears that the crime
rate has gone down considerably as policing has improved.
The visibility project has contributed significantly to
making the presence of the police felt in many communities.
In spite of the achievements of the Police we still find
some of its practices worrying.
How can anybody explain the raid on the campus of the
Kumasi Technical Institute where they allegedly fired live ammunition and
destroyed property?
We are deeply worried by this incident and call on the
Police Service to take immediate action to prevent a reoccurrence.
The students could have been treated in a more humane
way.
Over to you, Mr IGP!
PROMOTE RIGHTS OF MENTAL
HEALTH PATIENTS
 |
| Kwaku Agyemang Manu, Minister of Health |
By Albert Futukpor
Traditional authorities and religious leaders have been
asked to use their influence to promote inclusiveness by ensuring that mentally
ill people were not marginalised and discriminated against in terms of their
developmental needs.
Mr Stanislaus Azuure Sandow, Project Officer at
BasicNeeds – Ghana, who made the appeal, said mentally ill people enjoyed the
same rights and freedoms like any other member of society calling on all to
stop all forms of abuses against them.
He was speaking at a durbar organised by BasicNeeds –
Ghana at Larabanga in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region to create
awareness on epilepsy and the Mental Health Act, which granted rights to mental
health patients.
The durbar, which was held in five other districts
including Karaga, West Mamprusi, East Gonja and Yendi Municipality in the
region, formed part of a project to build a national mental health system that
effectively and efficiently responded to the mental health needs of the
population.
The project is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department
for International Development and is aimed at increasing access to quality
mental healthcare services through integration into primary healthcare.
It is also to improve health outcomes while eliminating
extreme poverty amongst people with mental illness and epilepsy among their
families in the country.
Mr Sandow urged traditional authorities, religious
leaders, and heads of various families to support in encouraging families to
send their mentally ill relatives to hospital for treatment.
He urged chiefs to discourage people from chaining
mentally ill patients and urged them to also punish those who abused mentally
ill people.
He emphasised that “Mentally ill persons
have the right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect, free from sexual
harassments, physical assaults, domestic abuse, discriminatory abuse,
psychological abuse and financial abuse.”
Mr Charles Senyoh, West Gonja District Psychiatric Nurse
said efforts were being made to ensure regular supply of drugs to mental health
patients at their doorsteps to aid their recovery.
Mr Senyoh said mental health condition was manageable
urging people to accept mental health patients, which could help them to
recover.
Abudu Seidu, Chief Imam of Larabanga commended
BasicNeeds – Ghana for their efforts at encouraging support for mental health
patients assuring that his outfit would work to promote the rights of mental
health patients.
GNA
SADA
Master Plan Must be Implemented!
 |
| Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghan |
By Mercy Hededzome
Coalitions of Civil Society Organisations from the
Northern Sahara Ecological Zone (NSEZ) have called for the immediate
implementation of the SADA Master Plan.
The plan, according to the group, will transform the
northern Savannah area into a place of opportunity for all Ghanaians and help
liberate the thousands of women and under aged girls caught in the activity of
carrying heavy loads (Kayayei) due to hunger and poverty.
Bismark Adongo
Ayorogo, Executive Secretary of the Coalition, also called on the Akufo Addo
led administration to quicken the pace towards the realization of “6 percent
growth rate of agriculture as required of all African countries under the
Maputo Declaration to further the objectives of the Comprehensive Africa
Agricultural Development Program (CAADP)”.
Irrigation Infrastructure for the SADA area
According to the coalition, valuable research conducted
by both public and private researchers reveal that only 15.6% of a total of 8
million hectares of arable land is currently under cultivation in the Northern
Sahara Ecological Area with 1% of the entire area under irrigation, describing
it as “completely unacceptable”.
“As a prelude to the implementation of your [NPP]
proposed One Village, One Dam Policy, we urge you to begin improving existing irrigation
facilities to operate full capacity and work towards irrigating at least 25% of
the 8 million hectares in your [Akufo Addo’s] first year in office” the
coalition urged.
Sahara: The Sleeping Giant
According to the coalition, another research show that
between 1992 and 2013, total public investment in the whole of the northern
savannah areas was less than 1% leading to the deepening of poverty and the
continuing marginalization of the entire area in spite of its inherent
potential to contribute towards the productivity of the nation.
The Coalition has also expressed great discontent at the
neglect of Northern Sahara Ecological Zone during the era of colonialism and by
successive governments after the attainment of independence.
It said governments in past, have failed woefully “to
marshal the required political will to equitably allocate national resources to
transform the area which is often being described as Ghana’s sleeping giant”.
According to the Coalition, there remain numerous
untapped natural resources of the regions whose exploitation by the state could
also lead to the rapid conversion of the Sahara area, and “awake the sleeping
giant” to take its place in the national development effort.
Revamp Old Factories
President Nana Akufo Addo, the coalition warned, can
only continue to enjoy the goodwill of the people in the Sahara and show good
faith, if he takes urgent and adequate steps towards the resurrection of old
factories in the country with particular reference to the Northern Star Tomato
Factory, the Bolgatanga Rice Mill and Meat Factory, established to economically
empower Northern Ghana and create decent and sustainable jobs for the people in
the area.
Modernisation of Agriculture Is Now A Reality In Ghana
 |
| Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Agriculture |
Feature by Iddi Yire
Ghana is blessed to establish a national e-agriculture
policy to promote national development through agricultural modernisation.
E-agriculture describes an emerging field focused on the
enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved ICT processes.
The innovation is the way forward to realise the much
talked about modernisation of agriculture in the country.
According to E-agriculture Community of Practice, more
specifically, e-agriculture involves the conceptualisation, design, development,
evaluation and application of innovative ways to use ICTs in the rural domain,
with a primary focus on agriculture.
The good news was made public at the end of the 68th
Annual New Year School and Conference (ANYSC), which was on the theme: “Promoting
National Development through
Agricultural Modernisation: The Role of ICT.”
The ANYSC was organised by the School of Continuing and
Distance Education, College of Humanities, University of Ghana.
A communiqué issued at the end of the ANYSC, which was
held from, January 15, to January 20; said in ensuring the modernisation of
agriculture through ICT, adequate awareness should be created by the Ministry
of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in the use of docu-drama, and the hosting of
policy fairs.
Globally, the need for national e-agriculture strategies
has been recognised by many stakeholders, however many countries including
Ghana are yet to adopt it.
A national e-agriculture policy would regulate the
emerging industry and promote speedy and wider adoption of the use of ICT in
agriculture.
Consequently, leveraging ICT in agricultural
modernisation which is an information-intensive sector has proven to be
expedient the world over, and Ghana is no exception.
The agricultural sector offers a viable platform for it
to be modernised and strengthened with the use of ICT.
The integration of ICT and agriculture will in no doubt
lay the foundation for addressing the myriad of challenges that have arisen in
the sector and in the long run, to promote the development of the sector.
In this direction, e-agriculture is very important in
speeding and achieving the nation’s development.
Speaking at the formal opening of the ANYSC, President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo called for an end to the cost of food in the country,
which is blessed with fertile lands.
He explained that due to the fact that production
methods in agriculture sector were not the best, while income levels of farmers
and fisher folks remained low, the situation had worked to make the
agricultural sector unattractive to the youth as a viable means of livelihood
and that the situation ought to be arrested.
The President also noted that ICT had brought to the
fore new ways of doing things, and that given the rapid penetration of ICT in
society today; particularly the use of mobile telephony, there was the
realisation that ICT should be integrated to be effectively used as a
facilitating tool in agricultural development.
“ICT provides easier access to markets and information
as well and I have no doubt that if this is mainstreamed into our agricultural
practices, productivity within the sector will be increased, and not only will
farmers’ income increase but food security will also be guaranteed,” said
President Akufo-Addo.
The President’s statement would be given a strong
impetus to agriculture development if the government translates the call by
participants at the ANYSC for the establishment of a national e-agriculture
policy to promote national development through agricultural modernisation using
ICT.
The government’s unveiling of the National Campaign with
the slogan "Planting for Food and Job” would generate more wealth in the
agricultural sector and improve livelihood of farmers and fisher folks as well
as help grow the national economy.
E-agriculture offers a wide range of solutions to some
of the perennial agricultural challenges in Ghana (FAO, 2016).
The communiqué called on government to create a special
fund to support youth in agriculture; stating that in particular, government
could create an ‘Agri-Fund’ targeted at the youth to attract them into the
sector.
On youth empowerment, Professor Michael Ayitey Tagoe,
Dean, School of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana, said:
"Although we have struggled to attract the youth to the School, this year
we witnessed a little improvement over that of last year’s”.
"One of the innovations of the 68th Annual New Year
School and Conference was the youth dialogue. We wish to thank the young
farmers and the senior high schools that participated in the programme.”
The communiqué recommended that a national e-geospatial
data base should be developed for all farmers in Ghana and this should be
integrated into the systems of all agricultural agencies and other corporate
bodies such as banks, telcos, among other requirements.
The communiqué also noted that the ICT unit of
Ministries, Departments and Agencies should be upgraded and expanded with
increased capacity of personnel to drive the vision of e-agriculture; adding
that the ICT units at the various districts should also be empowered to
localise the policy.
It called for the upgrading of telecommunication
networks to the length and breadth of the country and provision of ICT enabled
gadgets such as phones, Global Position System monitors, broadband spectrum and
computers.
To promote the adoption of e-extension, it was strongly
recommended that the MoFA should integrate ICT services and extension services
to increase outreach, scope and depth of extension services while reducing
costs.
ICT plays a critical role in agriculture value chain,
which entails all activities involved in the production of agri-food and food
products from the input supplier to the producer, through processing, packaging
and marketing to the final consumer.
According to Apostle Professor Samuel Asuming-Brempong
of the Department of Agriculture Economics and Agribusiness, Faculty of
Agriculture, University of Ghana, who delivered a paper at the ANYSC, current
trends in value chain development incorporates ICT that is targeted at
enhancing the activities by increasing their productivity and efficiency.
Different types of ICT have different strengths and
weaknesses, as well as different impacts.
Today, ICT has gained traction in developing countries.
Some of the ICT tools identified by the World Bank and being deployed include
mobile phones, radio, the internet, television, satellite imagery, and
electronic money transfers.
In Ghana, the commonest means of disseminating
information to smallholder farmers is the mobile telephony.
Dr Betty Annan, the Country Manager, Agribusiness
Systems International, also a speaker at the Conference, said mobile finance
held great potential for promoting financial inclusion in agribusiness
especially with mobile phones increasingly affordable.
She said mobile financing provided financial inclusion
access to rural under-served agribusiness value chain actors; stating that most
smallholder farmers lacked access to formal bank accounts and services.
The Ministry of Communications, the telcos and other
stakeholders should promote the customisation of mobile technologies.
For instance handsets and memory card could be designed
to provide specific services to farmers and extension agents.
Despite the challenges the nation’s farmers are likely
to face in switching to the use of ICT in agriculture such as high illiteracy
rates among the, e-agriculture remains the best option for accelerating Ghana’s
agricultural modernisation.
Promoting the use of ICT in agriculture is essential for
the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s
Agenda 2063.
Africa’s agricultural sector needs modernisation to
increase productivity and to reduce poverty at all levels of society, as well
as create jobs for the many young people who are currently unemployed.
The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda recognises that
global connectedness and the spread of ICTs have boundless potential to not
only modernise agriculture but also to accelerate human development and
progress, bridge the growing digital divide and develop knowledge societies
(United Nations, 2016).
The government’s efforts to formulate a national
e-agriculture policy would further be enhance by the Ghana ICT for Accelerated
Development (ICT4AD) Policy, which represents the Vision for Ghana in the
information age.
It is based on the Policy Framework Document: “An
Integrated ICT-led Socio-economic Development Policy and Plan Development
Framework for Ghana”.
Some of the strategies identified in the Policy to
modernise the agricultural sector include promoting the deployment and
exploitation of ICTs to support the activities of the agriculture sector
including, the production, processing, marketing and distribution of
agriculture products and service.
Others are revitalising agricultural extension services
by empowering and equipping farm extension service workers with relevant ICT
skills.
The government’s ability to formulate and implement a
national e-agriculture policy would go a long way to ensure that information
and knowledge is distributed efficiently to the nation’s farmers, thereby
ensuring agricultural productivity and food security.
As President Akufo-Addo rightly puts it, the era of high
food prices in Ghana must be a thing of the past.
GNA
WORLD CONDEMNS
ISRAELI EXPANSION
 |
| Map revealing Israeli occupation of State of Palestine |
By International news staff
On February 1, the international community condemned
Israel's decision to build 5,000 new settler homes on occupied Palestinian
land, despite a U.N. Security Council vote at the end of last year demanding an
immediate and total end to settlement construction, reported international
media outlets.
In a statement, Spokesperson for the United Nations
Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, noted that "We are concerned over
recent announcements by the Israeli government…We once again warn against any
unilateral actions that can be an obstacle to a negotiated two-state
solution."
 |
| An Israeli soldier points a gun at a Palestian child |
He called on both parties to "Return to meaningful
negotiations on the basis of relevant Security Council resolutions and in
accordance with international law," noting that "The United Nations
stands ready to support this process."
Meanwhile, Spain's Foreign Minister criticized the
construction of new settlements in the West Bank by the Israeli government.
France also condemned Tel Aviv's decision to build over
3,000 homes in the area.
Last January 24, Israel approved plans to construct
2,500 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank. Following the announcement,
Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu posted on Facebook: "We are building,
and will continue to build."
CIA Cover-Up on Chile
1973 Coup against Salvador Allende
 |
| Salvador Allende |
By Peter Kornbluh
Forty-three
years after the U.S.-supported military coup in Chile, the Central Intelligence
Agency continues to withhold information on what it knew about planning for the
putsch, and what intelligence it shared with President Richard Nixon, according
to redacted documents posted today by the National Security Archive. The
documents, among the hundreds of President’s Daily Briefs (PDBs) the CIA
declassified last month, excise material that almost certainly has already been
released to the public years ago. The section on Chile of the PDB dated
September 11, 1973, for example, was completely censored, as was an entire page
on Chile provided to Nixon on September 8, 1973, even though thousands of
once-sensitive intelligence records from the coup period have already been
declassified since at least 1999.
“The
CIA is trying – but failing – to hold history hostage,” stated Peter Kornbluh,
who directs the Archive’s Chile Documentation Project. By continuing to censor
the historical record, he suggested, “the CIA is attempting to cover up what
Nixon knew about coup plotting in Chile and when he knew it, as well as hiding
the CIA’s own contacts and connections to the coup plotters.”
The
National Security Archive today called on the Obama administration, which has
prided itself on historical transparency, to revisit the CIA’s determination to
withhold the records. Kornbluh said the Archive would also use mandatory
declassification procedures to press for the full release of the censored
documents.
The
CIA’s continuing censorship of history, Kornbluh noted, makes no sense because
the agency has already officially acknowledged its ties to coup plotters within
the Chilean military and already declassified substantial intelligence
reporting on the countdown to the coup and CIA contacts with a key member of
the military effort to overthrow Allende. In a special report on its operations
in Chile to the House Intelligence Committee in September 2000, the CIA
acknowledged that at the time of the coup it “was aware of coup-plotting by the
military, had ongoing intelligence collection relationships with some plotters,
and—because CIA did not discourage the takeover and had sought to instigate a
coup in 1970—probably appeared to condone it.”
Indeed,
according to Kornbluh’s book, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on
Atrocity and Accountability, on the eve of the coup, one of the plotters
identified by the CIA as a “key officer of Chilean military group planning to
overthrow President Allende” confirmed to the CIA that the military would move
against Allende the next morning and “asked if the U.S. government would come
to the aid of the Chilean military if the situation became difficult.”
According to a declassified secret CIA memorandum sent to the White House on
the day of the coup, the official was promised that his request “would promptly
be made known to Washington.”
According
to declassified records posted today by the Archive, the intelligence community
began generating substantial information about preparations for the coup on
September 8, 1973. Initial reports stated that the coup was planned for
September 10; the CIA subsequently reported in a special “critical information”
cable that the coup would take place the next day, on September 11. Among the
already declassified intelligence reports are:
**A
Defense Intelligence Agency summary, dated September 8 and classified “Top
Secret Umbra,” that provided detailed information on an agreement among the
Chilean Army, Navy and Air Force to move against Allende on September 10.
**A
CIA Intelligence cable, dated September 8 and classified “Secret,” stating that
the Chilean Navy would “initiate a move to overthrow the government of
President Salvador Allende in Valparaiso at 8:30am on 10 September,” and
provided detailed information on which branches of the military and police
would seize control of which strategic locations. The cable identified key
Chilean officers and officials who had signed on to support the coup.
**
A CIA intelligence cable, dated September 10 and classified “Secret,” which
stated that the September 10th date had been postponed “in order to improve
tactical coordination” but that “a coup attempt will be initiated on 11
September. All three branches of the Armed Forces and the Carabineros are
involved in this action.”
The
September 10 cable was written by Jack Devine, a young CIA operative in
Santiago, based on intelligence provided to him by a source close to the
military. In his memoir, Good Hunting: An American Spymaster’s Story,
cleared by the CIA for publication in 2014, Devine wrote that “I sent CIA
headquarters in Langley a special type of top-secret cable known as a CRITIC
[critical information], which takes priority over all other cables and goes
directly to the highest levels of government. President Richard Nixon and other
top U.S. policymakers received it immediately. ‘A coup attempt will be
initiated on 11 September,’ the cable read.”
In
1999, the Clinton administration declassified Devine’s cable along with 23,000
other formerly secret records as part of a special declassification project on
Chile; the National Security Archive has posted it for the first time today.
Under
the Obama administration, in October 2015 the CIA began declassifying the
President’s Daily Briefs, a set of intelligence records provided to presidents
that former CIA Director George Tenet claimed could never be released publicly
“no matter how old or historically significant it may be.” The CIA’s decision
to process the records came eight years after the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, in response to a FOIA lawsuit brought by the Archive and Professor
Larry Berman, refused to create a “per se status exemption for PDB’s,” leaving
them subject to future Freedom of Information Act requests.
“The
CIA deserves credit for finally acknowledging that the PDB’s can, in fact, be
declassified without any harm to national security”, Kornbluh noted. “The
documents provided to Richard Nixon on Chile,” he said, “can and should be
released for the sanctity of the historical record. The public has a right to
know what the President knew, and when he knew it.”
READ
THE DOCUMENTS
Document
01
CIA,
“The President’s Daily Brief,” Top Secret, Briefing Paper, September 11, 1973
On
the day of the military coup in Chile, the CIA presents intelligence
information on the progress of efforts to overthrow Salvador Allende to
President Nixon. The information remains entirely redacted in this document.
Document
02
CIA,
“The President’s Daily Brief,” Top Secret, Briefing Paper, September 8, 1973
Three
days before the coup, the CIA provides President Nixon with a full page of
intelligence on preparations in Chile to overthrow Allende. The information
given to the President is likely to be drawn from intelligence reports sent by
the CIA and the DIA from Santiago that day. The information provided to Nixon,
however, remains entirely censored by the CIA.
Document
03
DIA,
“Chile: The Military May Attempt a Coup Against The Allende Government on 10
September…,” Top Secret UMBRA, Intelligence Summary, September 8, 1973
This
highly classified intelligence report provides detailed information on an
agreement among the Chilean Army, Navy and Air Force to move against Allende.
Sources in Chile told U.S. military officials there that the target date for
the coup was September 10.
Document
04
CIA,
[Intelligence Report on Planned Coup], Secret, Intelligence Cable, September 8,
1973
In
this report from the CIA station in Santiago, the CIA’s sources among the coup
plotters provide information that the Chilean Navy will lead a coup from
Valparaiso in the early morning of September 10, and then the other branches of
the military will join in. Sources tell the CIA that General Augusto Pinochet
is in communication with Air Force General Gustavo Leigh about the planned coup
effort.
Document
05
CIA,
[Updated Intelligence Report on Planned Coup], Secret, Intelligence Cable,
September 10, 1973
This
cable was written by a CIA operative in Santiago, Jack Devine, based on
information from a source close to the Chilean military. Devine identifies the
new date of the planned coup, September 11, and confirms that all three
branches of the Chilean armed forces, along with the police, “are involved in
this action.” In his memoir, Good Hunting, Devine writes that the cable was
labeled CRITIC [Critical Information] for urgency and distributed to top
officials in Washington, including President Nixon.
Document
06
CIA,
“Possible Request for U.S. Government Aid from Key Officer of Chilean Military
Group Planning to Overthrow President Allende,” Secret, Memoranda, September 11,
1973
The
CIA transmits to the White House confirmation of the forthcoming coup from a
“key officer” as well as his request for U.S. assistance if the military
encounters resistance. The request arrives at the White House on the actual day
of the coup. No direct U.S. support proved to be necessary; the request was
never acted upon.
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