ActionAid Ghana has used its 20th anniversary celebrations to send a message of warning over “new partition of Africa”, where land belonging to the poor is being taken away for the production of bio-fuel to feed industries outside the continent.

Country Director of ActionAid Ghana, Ms. Adwoa Kwateng-Kluvitse spoke to the assembled journalists of the charity’s concern that many impoverished areas could be pushed further into destitution by the actions of the bio-fuel industry.

But her speech also contained words of hope for the country, as she praised the government’s decision to not sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), a trade partnership agreement between EU and African/Caribbean countries.

Ms. Kwateng-Kluvitse said the issue of production of bio-fuel in the country was of immense concern to the organisation. She explained the range of problems that were wrapped up in the industry’s activities, including huge implications for food security, land usage, environmental and human rights as a result of the unregulated upsurge of bio-fuel companies into the country.

She said Ghana needed to have a holistic energy policy including bio-fuel companies which protected its citizenry from unscrupulous bio-fuel companies.

“We need to ensure that there is accessible and fertile land for the next generation of farmers. We need to ensure that the economic trees that many women depend on are not destroyed and also the bio-diversity of the environment is not compromised by this mono cropping of huge acres of Jatropha,”

The proposed EPA was seen as an extension of this transferring of control from local people to international companies, and Ms Kwaten-Kluvitse explained how after careful analysis of the agreement, ActionAid Ghana did not see any benefit accruing to Ghanaians and other small scale farmers.

“Rather the benefit of opening our markets would accrue to Europe. We would therefore commend government and encourage it to scrutinise the agreement and not be coerced or inveigled to sign it.”

Ms. Kwateng-Kluvitse noted the tremendous achievements of the NGO over the last 20 years, including the building of 91 schools, four childhood development centres, 16 nurses’ and teachers’ quarters, a clinic, 17 dams and tube wells, 13 grinding mills, 23 farmers’ centres, numerous seed and grain banks.

But for Ms Kwateng-Kluvitse, their successes of the past are no more than a promise of what they can achieve in the future:

“Over the next 20 years Actionaid Ghana is committed to doing what we have been doing even better, we want to build people’s power to work with each other and build their confidence and power within to act on the courage of their convictions, holding duty bearers to account. That is the only way we can truly End poverty. Together.”

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