A Policy Analyst for Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ali Eliasu, has said that WASH facilities should be included in all ABFA funded educational projects across the country.
According to him, there should also be diversification of the sources of funding for the Free SHS policy so that there can be money available for critical infrastructural care in the education sector.
Mr. Eliasu, made the remarks in an interview at the Stakeholder Forum on Gender Sensitivity Analysis of ABFA expenditures in Ghana at Takoradi in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis of the Western region.
He noted that, the call follows a study conducted by ACEP on the Gender Sensitivity of ABFA major funded projects in Ghana.
According to the study, the disbursement is not taken cognizance of the expansive studies that have been done on the existing gaps within the agriculture, health, and education sectors.
It was also revealed in the agriculture sector, that the literature is expansive on the fact that women dominate in the agro-processing value chain and no allocations were being made thereof to improve it.
This, indicates that the expenditure of ABFA has not really taken recognizance of the existing gaps.
Mr. Eliasu stressed that currently only 1.19% of the ABFA funding in the education sector goes to infrastructure.
On the Health sector, Mr. Eliasu, recommended that the CHPs compound should be NHIS accredited as an essential pro-poor service to ensure that the CHPs compound as an infrastructure can actually meet the needs of both men and women.
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He stressed that women who want to use NHIS have to travel to other communities to use it. He said the CHPs compound is there, but the women cannot afford to access it for quality healthcare delivery due to NHIS accreditation issues.
“We are also saying that some allocations should be made to ensure some basic maternity infrastructure because we find that just about 0.58% of ABFA goes into ABFA infrastructure, whereas 29% goes into nonmedical expenses such as the construction of office complexes, construction of car parks which we find it not to be too plausible and quiet not in line with the pro-poor spirit of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act.”
He, again, recommended that the country should ensure a comprehensive gender mainstreaming and consultation of women, particularly in sub-sectors including irrigation development, agricultural mechanization, fisheries, and aquaculture where men tend to dominate, particularly the production segments.
The policy analyst added, that about 80% of women in agriculture also participate in agro-processing business. Thus, agroprocessing should receive some prioritization.
He also called for a value for money assessment in the areas where ABFA funded irrigation projects are currently ongoing. This is because irrigation projects within the agricultural sector have received 70% of all the allocations in the sector.
And so, if there is starved investment in other sectors such as agro-processing, there should be a value for money assessment to ensure that the benefits intended by irrigation projects are actually met.
Source: Sankofaradio.com/Matthew O. A. Dadzie
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