Many people not eating well in developing countries
Real Estate Agency Law to be introduced - Minister
Many people not eating well in developing countries
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 14 Oct '99
More than 800 million people in developing countries lack sufficient food to enable them live active and healthy lives.
About 200 million of such chronically undernourished people are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr Antoine A. K. Fayossowo, National and Regional Institution Officer of the African Secretariat of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) disclosed this on Wednesday at a two-day African seminar for rural agricultural workers and peasant farmers at Sunyani.
The seminar, which is being sponsored by the Geneva-based International Union for Food (IUF) and the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) is under the theme, "Small Farmers/ Landless Rural Workers and Agricultural Unions, the challenges of the global economy".
It is being attended by 35 delegates from Ghana, Eritrea, Mali, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands and representatives from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Mr Fayossowo said the sub-Saharan African region also accounts for 42 of the 83 low income, food-deficit countries in the world and in addition more than 40 per cent of their population live below the poverty line.
He said that the World Bank's annual world development report also revealed that the number of "people living in poverty will continue to grow for the foreseeable future" and underscored the need for effective development policies and programmes.
Mr Fayossowo, therefore, advised countries in the sub-Saharan African region "to understand the dimensions of globalisation and participate in shaping the process so that it becomes more people-centred and sustainable".
The General secretary of GAWU, Mr Samuel Kangah said the open market concept discriminates against developing countries as developed countries continue to subsidise agricultural production whilst they call for removal of subsidies in developing countries.
Mr Kangah said the concept of globalisation and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on trade and agriculture continue to dominate the global economic order, which remains unfair and unjust.
"These have created many socio-economic problems for our national economies and the rural worker endures the most of such a situation, which he has no hand in creating."
He said that the rural poverty issue is universal and reiterated the need for a combined effort to develop a common strategy within the sub-region to combat the problem.
Mr Kangah, therefore, repeated the GAWU's call on the government to ratify the ILO Convention 141 and recommendation 149, now that it presides over the International Labour Conference.
Opening the seminar, the Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Alhaji Kwadwo Maama Adam called for conscious efforts to revamp the agricultural sector to improve upon the lot of the rural non-wage peasant agricultural workers and peasant farmers.
GRi../
Real Estate Agency Law to be introduced - Minister
Accra (Greater Accra) 14 Oct. '99
The National Land Policy document, currently being drafted by the Ministry of Lands and Forestry, seeks among other things to check the numerous cases of fraud and conflict arising from land ownership and sale.
One such regulation expected from the Policy is a Real Estate Agency Law that would regulate the acquisition and disposition of interest in land, Mr Richard Dornu Nartey, Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, announced in Accra on Wednesday.
Opening a two-day seminar on "The Land Valuation Board (LVB) and sustainable
revenue generation" in Accra, he said, "I think it is that institutional arrangement that can eliminate a lot of the problems we have".
The policy would be laid before Parliament by the end of the year.
The 90 participants will discuss, " The Land Valuation Board - the way forward", "Effective revenue generation in the land market", "Compulsory acquisition of land and compensation" and "Decentralisation and local revenue generation by district assemblies".
The LVB was established to determine land and property values and compensation for public acquisitions.
Mr Dornu Nartey said, "it is however, disheartening to note that some malpractice have resurfaced, resulting in fraudulent practices calculated to siphon huge amounts of money from government coffers".
It has also been observed that the Board, in its eagerness to generate revenue from stamp duty, ignores laid down procedures for accepting well documented transactions for assessment.
He stressed that it is the policy of the Ministry that all documents, in respect of transactions on land, should first pass through the processing system at Lands Commission, before being accepted by the Board for assessment.
Constraints in human resource, funds, logistics, technology and legislation, are not peculiar to the Board alone, he said, expressing the hope that the seminar would develop strategies to overcome the hurdles.
Professor Kasim Kasanga, Chairman of LVB, said 13 years after its establishment, the Board is yet to find its feet due to lack of an appropriate law to regulate its activities and functions.
"Unfortunately, to date, apart from the PNDC Law 42, the Land Valuation Board is not mentioned in the 1992 Constitution or in any other legislation.
This legal hiatus is neither in the interest of Government nor the staff."
He said the LVB is a Government Valuer comparable to the Internal Revenue Service adding that the successful implementation of the land policy will partly depend on a new service orientation by all land and service delivery agencies.
Prof. George Benneh, Chairman of the Public Services Commission, who presided, said, since land constitutes an important resource to mankind its sustainable use holds the key to poverty alleviation.
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Accident victims identified
Accra (Greater Accra) 14 Oct '99
Seven out of the eight persons, who died in the Ofankor accident, near the Reverend John Teye Memorial School, on Tuesday, have been identified.
The Police gave their names as Agnes Aseidu, Margaret Adu Bonsu, Kwabena Asare, Joana Akrofi, Kwabena Aminka and Babu Nair, an Indian.
They did not give any details about the dead neither did they say where they were travelling from.
The Police Hospital, where the bodies were deposited, said relatives have claimed the bodies for burial.
GRi./
Techiman gets new lorry park
Techiman (Brong Ahafo) 14 Oct '99
In a bid to reduce congestion and improve passenger comfort at the Techiman main lorry station, a new lorry park has been commissioned at Techiman to serve vehicles bound for the Upper West Region.
The new "Techiman-Wa" station, which is the fifth lorry terminal in the town, was constructed by the Techiman District Assembly as part of its decongestion exercise.
It will cater for vehicles travelling to Wa, Nandom, Tumu and Hamile, among other towns.
The Deputy District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Kankam Adjei, who commissioned the lorry park, said the construction of the new terminal is a testimony to the commitment of the assembly to bring development to the area.
He said the new terminal would help address the problem of over-crowding at the main station, especially during market days when hundreds of vehicles and traders come to the town to do business.
GRi../