Kumasi: Professor Prince Osei-Wusu Adjei, a Development Geographer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology's Department of Geography and Rural Development, has urged the government and relevant stakeholders to adopt the Basic Means Approach (BMA) as a strategy to eliminate poverty. He emphasized that the BMA could create an environment conducive to empowering the poor and enhancing their productive capacities, promoting independence and resilience through self-help initiatives and sustainable local livelihoods.
According to Ghana News Agency, the BMA is not a novel concept, but it redefines development as the 'expansion of people's capabilities'. Prof Adjei, during his professorial inaugural lecture at KNUST, noted that researchers have evaluated various poverty reduction and social policy interventions, such as Ghana's Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) and the Rural Enterprise Programme. They concluded that the BMA offers a more effective framework for empowering the poor and enhancing their productivity.
The lecture, titled 'Eradicating Poverty in the Age of Sustainable Development: The Basic Means Approach', highlighted that Multidimensional Poverty Indicators are more prevalent in rural settings than urban areas. It pointed out that crop farmers in rural Ghana experience the highest levels of poverty and livelihood vulnerabilities, exacerbated by climate change and land grabbing. As a result, many economically active rural inhabitants seek opportunities in urban areas to escape poverty.
Prof Adjei cited internal migration studies showing that seven out of ten economically active rural inhabitants are inclined to move to urban areas. This migration trend has led to the depopulation of rural areas, a decline in agricultural activities, and a reduced contribution of the agricultural sector to the GDP, posing a threat to food security.
He warned that without effective rural poverty reduction measures, achieving the goal of eradicating poverty by 2030 and meeting Africa's development agenda 2063 would remain unattainable. Prof Adjei advocated for a focus on sustainable rural development through a participatory, bottom-up approach to accelerate rural transformation. This approach could optimize poverty reduction in Africa while ensuring the healthy development of urban areas.