Accra,-Canada has initiated new interventions under its development assistance programme towards supporting countries, including Ghana for inclusive recovery from COVID-19.
Madam Kati Csaba, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, noted that COVID-19 had a huge socio-economic impact on Ghana just as it had had on the rest of the world and that Canada’s biggest focus was to support a bounce back, this year.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, she described Ghana as a strong friend of Canada with common priorities, including peace and security, regional stability, and human rights, particularly the rights of women and girls, and vulnerable groups, hence the need to support its COVID-19 recovery.
Madam Csaba said in line with that, Canada had committed a one million Canadian Dollar facility to Plan International Ghana, to help local women organisations to analyse the impact of COVID -19 on women in Ghana and Ethiopia.
A 10-million Canadian Dollar facility, she said, had also been made available to UNICEF to undertake a health response project to increase health system capacity to respond to COVID-19 and deliver essential maternal and child health services.
Canada, Madam Csaba, said had also increased funding to Right to Play, a non-governmental organisation’s Gender Responsive Education and Transformation Project, which was seeking to minimise educational disruptions due to COVID-19 and help communities prevent sexual and gender-based violence in Ghana, Mozambique and Rwanda.
In the area of Agriculture, the High Commissioner, said a six million funding package had been announced to be seeded to International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD’s) to address COVID-19 disruptions to the food systems in several countries, including Ghana.
She indicated that the funds would help finance IFAD’s new Rural Poor Stimulus Facility that supported farmers and agricultural communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic fallouts.
Madam Csaba said to find new ways of working, the High Commission, provided support through its Canada Fund for Local Initiatives to the Foundation for Security and Development Africa to offer online training opportunity to women peacebuilders to help build their capacity to work amid the pandemic.
She said Canada, in its robust global efforts to stop COVID-19, responded by mobilising more than $2.5 billion in diverse assistance, including vaccine development, and distribution as well as tests and treatments.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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