Presentation by Ghana at the meeting of the Senior Experts Group of the Global Alliance for Resilience (SEG-AGIR) 32nd RPCA annual meeting/32e réunion annuelle du RPCA 12-14 December 2016, Abuja, Nigeria

1. SENIOR EXPERTS GROUP OF THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR
RESILIENCE (SEG-AGIR)
STATEMENT BY GHANA ON APPROPRIATE MEASURES TO START
THE
NATIONAL RESILIENCE PRIORITIES (NRPs) PROCESS
Abuja, Nigeria-December 14, 2016
MR. CHAIRMAN
Ministers of Agriculture from West Africa and the Sahel
INVITED GUESTS,
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
It is a great pleasure to attend this all important meeting on behalf of the Hon.
Minister who could not make it due to other national assignments.
In spite of an overall improvement in food production and productivity, Food and
nutrition crises are becoming more frequent in the Sahel and West Africa. Significant
number of people face food insecurity and malnutrition on an almost permanent basis,
regardless of whether harvests are good. To prevent the region from being hit by crisis
year after year, much greater attention needs to be given to building the resilience of
the most vulnerable population groups – for example, by making basic services
available to nursing mothers and their children during the first two years of their
lives, or by ensuring that aid programmes prioritise assistance to the most vulnerable
people.
This is necessary because policies to sharpen agricultural development in this region
are meant to be inclusive.
The idea of an international alliance bringing together governments of the region,
regional organizations and their international partners, as well as civil society is
indeed a welcome initiative and commendable.

2. I wish to state categorically that Ghana is duly committed to the objectives of the
Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative which aims at helping countries build
resilience to recurrent food and nutrition crisis. An objective that synchronises with
Ghana's food and nutrition policy objectives.
Actions already implemented:
 identification of stakeholders and formation of national food and nutrition security
working group
 key policies and programmes to analyse per sector identified
What are the next steps?
 The provisional road map for the AGIR process for Ghana need to be
reviewed as follows:
- Setting up of thematic work groups – January, 2017
- Thematic group work sessions, collation and validation – Feb/March, 2017
- National Resilience Priorities formulation workshops – April, 2017
- NRPs validation workshop – May, 2017
I wish to take this opportunity to again reiterate Ghana's commitment to the ideals of
the AGIR process to develop our NRPs and again appeal for the necessary technical
and financial support to the country during this crucial phase of the process.
Thanks very much for your attention!