The Minister for Local Government and Rural Development has said the Rural Development Policy, which seeks to guide and coordinate service delivery and investment in the rural communities has been formulated and approved by cabinet and currently at its implementation stage.

Addressing the media in Accra, Hajia Alima Mahama said the policy will significantly help modernise agriculture for rural growth and development, provide quality socio-economic infrastructure and services in a decent and secured environment, maximise the potential of rural areas towards rural enterprises development and industrialisation.

She further added that, the Rural Development Policy will promote sustainable management and utilisation of natural resources for the benefit of the rural population and promote financial inclusion in rural communities. This, she said, will help strengthen participation of the rural communities in the decentralised governance system.

“A total of 340 sub-projects are being delivered under a Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) programme. These include; 73No. Small Earth Dams and Dug-outs (SEDD), 60No. feeder roads of an average of 3.5km at an aggregate length of 235.6km, 209 Climate Change Interventions (Plantations) totaling 2,027 hectares,” she stated.

Hajia Alima Mahama said in line with this policy, the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP) has been designed and is being implemented with US$60 million funding from the World Bank, with total seedling production of 7.9million.

“The implementation of these sub-projects has created 29,959 (female 18,508 constituting 62%, male 11,451 constituting 38%) jobs and a total of approximately GHS19 million as wages has been transferred to extreme poor households across the country during the first season of work in 2020,” she said.