Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture Visits Heifer International

Hon. Yaw Effah-Baafi, Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Food & Agriculture (MoFA) in charge of crop production, and Eric OseiOwusu, CEO for MoFA’s National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), paid a courtesy call to Heifer International’s headquarters on Tuesday, February 15, 2011, to learn about its work in Africa, particularly in Ghana, and explore opportunities for Heifer and MoFA to add value to each other’s work.

The pair were accompanied by representatives from the Ghana Embassy in Washington, DC., Arkansas World Trade Center, TransEarth Group in Tennessee, and DUNAVANT, a Little Rock-based logistics company. Brief introductions were followed by presentations on Heifer’s program in Africa and an overview of Ghana’s program and its future strategic priorities. Issues of institutional funding, strengthening existing strategic partnerships with MoFA and the government of Ghana, as well as building other private-public partnerships to scale-up impact and link farmers to markets beyond subsistence dominated the discussions. Dr. Sahr Lebbie, VP of Africa Programs, emphasized Heifer’s values-based approach to development including the “Passing on the Gift” strategy, which enables recipients to become donors themselves, a model that MoFA is already replicating in Ghana. Dr. Lebbie also shared the Africa Area Program’s Sustainable Livelihoods approach, which takes human, social, physical, natural and financial capital assets into consideration, thus enabling families to have adequate and sustainable access to income and resources to meet basic needs. This approach prevents families from falling into a sustainable subsistence mode.

The visitors were also interested in Heifer Ghana’s beekeeping and (L to R) Don Stuart, DUNAVANT; Swaleh Karanja, Saeed Bancie, Sophie Uzzell (Heifer – Africa Area Program); Dexter Carver, TransEarth Group; Peter Boateng, Embassy of Ghana; Hon. Yaw Effah-Baafi, Ghana Dep. Minister, Food & Agriculture (Crops); Dr. Sahr Lebbie, VP of Africa Programs – Heifer; Eric OseiOwusu, CEO MoFA’s NAFCO, Ghana; Carl Raff, TransEarth Group; Boon Tan, Arkansas World Trade Center. (Photo credit: Tina Hall)honey production component and the possibility of linking honey producers to corporate institutions such as Tesco and Wal-Mart. Issues of youth involvement in agriculture production were discussed, and consideration was given to engaging the media to share Heifer’s impact stories as a key strategy. All agreed that this strategy will maximize the visibility of Heifer’s work in Ghana and help entice youth, giving them the hope and motivation needed to find the agricultural sector attractive.

In closing, Dr. Lebbie reiterated Heifer’s strategic interest in strengthening linkages with the MoFA and the government of Ghana and having their support with other sister ministries and national institutions to access resources and implement development and livelihood projects, such as the USAID Feed the Future (FtF) 1 Initiative, within the country.