Mr Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (LGDRD), has underscored the dire need for effective stakeholder collaboration to ensure the successful implementation of the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project.
He said the project which was being implemented in 48 districts in the Upper West, Upper East, Northern, North East, Savannah, and Oti Regions, was expected to improve the socio-economic livelihoods of the beneficiary communities through job creation.
Mr Korsah said this in Wa during an orientation and sensitisaton programme on the SOCO project attended by Chief Directors of beneficiary regions, Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives, and Coordinating Directors among others.
The minister observed that the spread of conflict from the Sahel had led to increased vulnerability of the over 16 million people living in the northern parts of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo due to the impacts of climate change.
Madam Yvonne Quansah, the Director, External Resources Mobilisation and Economic Relation Division (ERMERD), Ministry of Finance, in a speech read on her behalf by Mr Edem Bonhardt Norglo, said the SOCO project focuses on border communities due to the socio-cultural dynamics of those communities which had made them susceptible to conflict escalation as well as presented a potential cross-border trade befits.
Mr Peter Maala, the Upper West Regional Coordinating Director, noted that the project was timely as it presented the potential of building community resilience to fight violent extremism and conflict.