It is a well-documented and an undisputed fact that the most deprived communities in Ghana are agricultural-dominated communities. These communities are often denied access to basic social amenities including quality drinking water, school infrastructure, health facilities, access roads and more. A first-hand experience with these realities will reveal to anyone that these problems will persist even in the next fifty years, unless policy makers embrace the problem as it is and make conscious efforts to tackle it. It looks like a hopeless situation but then we must never deny ourselves hope. The desert dwellers found a way to bring in the sea. There is always a way.
Background
Presently, Ghana’s economy thrives on agriculture considering its tremendous contribution through food production for local consumption as well as export for foreign exchange. It contributes to one/fifth of Ghana’s economy. The sector remains a major contributor to the economy, providing employment to 44.7% of the total workforce in the country. However, this seems to come at a very costly price to the holistic development of Ghana.
The sector births agriculture settlements, which are often very scattered, with many coming in hamlets. The practice has often been a family or individuals travelling to virgin lands purposely to farm. Due to distance from the farms and their present place of abode, they are forced to put up structures closer to the farmlands. With time, other relations join them and as such more structures are put up to house them. When this happens, now, we don’t just have structures housing people but then a complete settlement. With time, they begin to demand access to basic social amenities including safe drinking water, schools, health centres and more, of which, they call on the government to provide these amenities.
Implications on Development and Meeting Basic Infrastructural Needs
With a developing country as Ghana, it is unrealistic for the government to meet the needs of every community in the country. Government will often give priority to numbers. It makes a lot of sense for government to spend millions of Cedis trying to put up school buildings to serve two thousand children in a rural community. However, same defence cannot be made for a rural community with a population of two hundred or lesser. Unfortunately, these are the rural communities that abound. They might be a minority group. However, these are Ghanaians who deserve to enjoy every form of benefit a Ghanaian deserves in his own country. Again, the democracy we practice as well as our constitution makes provision for minority groups.
A lot of times, many a people find it unacceptable or ridiculous that there are still some Ghanaian school children who have access to no school and are forced to use unconventional places especially under trees as classroom. Recently, the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, revealed that approximately five thousand (5,000) schools across the country are operating under trees. In the next one year, assuming the government or donors are not able to reduce this number by providing conventional infrastructure to replace these schools under tree, you can bet that this number would increase due to this unplanned settlement problem.
A lot of school kids are forced to trek on foot several kilometres to attend school every day. Also, a good number of people have had to travel ridiculously several distances to access health care. Both circumstances contradict United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization’s (WHO)prescribed 3km and 5km access to basic education and health care respectively (SDG Target 3.8). It is easy to blame the local assemblies if you don’t have a first-hand experience and information on what the real problem is. After spending the past seven years relating with these challenges, one can only conclude that it is either the duty bearers have lost touch with what the real problem is or are completely overwhelmed by the situation.
The Way Forward
Policy makers must be made aware of root cause of the of unplanned settlement and how it is making the provision of amenities difficult in rural areas. Until we identify with the problem, own it up and develop policy options for tackling the menace, things are never going to change. Government must collaborate with all development partners and Civil Society Organizations to find a lasting solution to the challenge.
Article by
ISAAC ELI ASAMOAH
He is a Development Planning professional. He holds a Bachelor degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology in Ghana. He shares in the ideals of YAFO Institute including free market and civil liberty. He is also a strong advocate for mental health awareness and climate change mitigation interventions.
