Sissala Chiefs Petition Roads Minister Over Exclusion From EU-Funded Farm Access Road Projects

The Chiefs and the people of four districts in the Upper West Region, have petitioned the Minister of Roads and the Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, over their exclusion from the €35 million European Union (EU) farm access roads project and the districts affected are the Wa East, Sissala East, Sissala West and Lambussie. Community

members in districts on Monday held demonstration to protest what they say was their neglect despite being major sources of agriculture production in the region. According to them, bad state of road infrastructure in the communities and their subsequent sidelining from the projects will deprive them of economic development

particularly when they are high agricultural production areas in the region and it is also our firm belief that the programme is aimed at improving the inter-connectivity between areas of production of Agricultural crops and market centres in the Upper West Region. That being the case, our respective communities should have been

given priority too. The reasons are also not difficult to appreciate, some portions of the petition also read and the Government of Ghana, the World Bank, and also the European Union broke grounds for the project which was aimed at granting support for improving the inter connectivity between areas of production and market

centres. But the disturbed residents simply put it that, their exclusion from the programme is unfair and also inequitable. We therefore hereby petition your high office for urgent response to our grievances regarding the total exclusion of above aforementioned farming districts from the benefits of EU funded farm access

Farm Access Roads that was launched on Tuesday 18th of the May 2021, at Kpongu in the Wa Municipality, the petition added. The Chiefs and farmers in the districts have for too long also  complained to all the successive governments and development partners about the total neglect of the deplorable and almost non-existent farm

access road network in the farming districts. This they say has denied the poor farmers access to the market centres which also have the potential of worsening the household incomes from farm produce and contribute to the widening the poverty gap.

Subsequently they are making the following five urgent demands

1. We hereby demand on the principle of transparency and accountability, that the Ministry of Roads and Highways should publish the selection criteria that formed the basis for the inclusion or exclusion of beneficiary districts under the EU funded 670 km farm access roads project.
2. We further demand that in the spirit of fairness, social justice and non-discrimination which are cardinal principles in the Ghanaian Constitution and values shared by the EU, a re-prioritization and selection of the farm access roads be done based on production levels and severity of need.
3. Alternatively, we further demand that the Ministry of Roads and Highways should immediately find additional resources to create, rehabilitate and maintain the abandoned farm access roads in the four aforementioned excluded farming districts under the EU funded project.
4. We wish to state emphatically that this petition is not against any district benefiting from the EU Funded Farm Access Roads Project. We are demanding fairness, equity, social justice and non-discrimination in the selection, allocation and distribution of development projects (roads).
5. We wish to mention herein that a framework to resolve the issues mentioned herein has been attached for stakeholders study. It is our hope that in the shortest possible time, our grievances would be attended to for an amicable solution to be reached to further calm aggrieved youth and focused groups likely to advise themselves otherwise should they not behold remedies forthcoming.

The EU funded feeder roads project

The government of Ghana received a grant of €35 million from the European Union for the rehabilitation and maintenance of 670 km of feeder and farm access roads in the Upper West Region. The financial support is aimed at improving inter-connectivity between areas of production and marketplaces. In a joint statement released by the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the European Union, the sector minister, Kwasi Amoako

Atta, noted that the support falls in line with the government’s vision to provide a better transportation system for farming communities. The grant comes under the larger EUR €160 million European Union-Ghana Agricultural Programme (EU GAP) to develop sustainable agriculture in the Upper West Region. The roads are organized in three packages, as follows;

1. Wa Municipal, Wa West, Nadowli-Kaleo (235 km)
2. Jirapa, Lawra, Daffiama-Bussie (210 km)
3. Nandom and Lambussie-Karni (225 km)

This intervention aims at improving inter-connectivity between areas of production and marketplaces in the Upper West Region. The objective is to reduce the travel time on these sections of roads, promote road safety, and strengthen at the same time the institutional management of the transport sector. The feeder roads are commissioned under Output and Performance

Based Road Contracts (OPBRC) managed by the Department of Feeder Roads under the Ministry of Roads and Highways. To maximise the support intervention, the EU funding is administered under a Trust Fund administered by the World Bank as part of the Transport Sector Improvement Project’ (TSIP), which finances a larger national transport programme.