The African Youth SDGs Summit is the largest gathering platform for youth from across the African continent and beyond to discuss and assess the status of implementation of continental commitments to the Global Goals but also sharing ideas, critiques, results and challenge national governments to deliver on their promise. It is a summit that brings duty bearers and right holders together to reaffirm actions towards sustainable development on the continent from the perspectives of the continent’s largest population, the youth.

The summit hosted more than 1,000 delegates representing youth organizations and AU agencies, national governments, international development agencies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs, the private sector and SDGs actors to exchange experiences and good practices regarding the implementation of the SDGs and African Union Agenda 2063.

The summit also recognized and rewarded individuals and institutions whose efforts are promoting youth inclusive governance and participation on the continent. All nominees demonstrated a significant contribution toward creating a positive and inclusive youth engagement on the SDGs through the implementation of policies, programs, and initiatives.

There were five categories: African Youth SDGS Achiever of the Year Award (male & female categories), Leave No One Behind, Private Sector Youth Inclusive Award, Innovative Start-Up Award and Youth Agribusiness initiative Award. Alfred Godwin Adjabeng won the highest and most prestigious award which is the African Youth SDGS (Male) Achiever of the Year. African Youth SDGs Summit co-organised by CSO Platform on SDGS, UNDP, UNICEF, and UNPA.

In Ghana, there is a compelling evidence of ageing farmer population which when not addressed will threaten sustainability in agriculture production and development. The average age of a farmer in Ghana is 55 years and life expectancy averages between 55 – 60 years.

Below are the 22 things to think about:

1. Rural young people are a great resource for local agriculture development and food security and must not be treated as passive participants.
2. Rural young people do not perceive agriculture as a remunerative and prestigious profession.
3. Rural young people do not see economic opportunities and attractive environments in rural areas.
4. Opportunities, knowledge and support for value addition to agricultural production are yet to be harnessed by rural young people.
5. Rural young farmers are exploited by a growing urban young agripreneurs population along the value chain or through agriculture value chain development.
6. Rural young people are excluded from harnessing ICT for local agriculture development mainly because of unavailable ICT infrastructure in rural areas.
7. The concept of ICT in agriculture is yet to sink down with rural young people.
8. Rural young farmers cannot connect their produce to urban markets.
9. Farmlands for rural young farmers are under siege by urban estate developers.
10. Rural young agripreneurs are excluded from participating in international and national discussions on agriculture development.
11. Indigenous agriculture knowledge is relegated and totally replaced with expensive and unsustainable new knowledge whereas both can be leverage for agriculture development.
12. The focus of agriculture investors on urban farmers and commercial agriculture will destroy the prospects of rural smallholder farming and may result in food insecurity.
13. Despite the arguably high penetration of mobile phones in Africa with inaccessible internet in rural communities, agriculture tech innovations must be contextualized. ICT in agriculture is not an urban concept.
14. Opportunities, knowledge and support for agriculture insurance are yet to be exploited by rural young agripreneurs.
15. Call for review in security for accessing investment for scale in agriculture. Total dependence on collateral is a threat to the participation of rural young agripreneurs in the sector.
16. The future of work in the rural economy also depends on making rural communities as habitable as urban. Basic infrastructure development, accessible technology and availability of social amenities encourage agricultural development in rural communities.
17. Urban agripreneurs local labour exploitation creates conflicts and threatens local agriculture development. Call for fair value for service.
18. Conserve indigenous and sustainable good agricultural practices through local agriculture mentoring.
19. School farms are safe spaces for youth. They promote agriculture entrepreneurial skills development through experiential learning.
20. Prospects of a partnership between rural and urban agripreneurs are yet to be harnessed.
21. Agribusiness is not an urban concept.
22. Rural young people’s experience, indigenous knowledge and skills should be leverage for youth employment in agriculture.

I am the founder of School Farms, a rural community-based school feeding support program that empowers local community schools to grow their own food whilst creating a space to help students gain entrepreneurial skills and explore opportunities in Agriculture. School Farms is the flagship programme of Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement, a youth-led community-development-based nonprofit organisation in Ghana.

Thank you for allowing me to share these thoughts with you. I wish you a safe journey to Kigali, Rwanda.

Feel free to reach out to me via [email protected] or [email protected].

This article was also published on Graphic Online.

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng is one of the 40 young innovators handpicked by the Africa 4 Tech committee of entrepreneurs, scientists, businessmen and women and conference partners.The Africa 4 Tech has been initiated by co-founders Stephan-Eloise Gras and Gilles Babinet.

Alfred will share ideas on the School Farms Program concept and seeks some ideas on harnessing digital technology to achieve its goals.

The conference will focus on four themes in Education, Health, Education and Agriculture (#E-Heath, #Agrotech, #CleanEnergy, and #EDTech). Each of these themes will be addressed from a digital and reverse innovation standpoint and analyzed by key-experts through both their scientific and technological aspects. The speakers and consultants will provide the participants a 360° view of each field’s main challenges based on a state of the art, trends as well as a prospective vision.

The Profiles of the 40 Young African Innovators. & The schedule for the conference.

School Farms  is a rural community-based school feeding support program that empowers local community schools to grow their own food whilst creating a space to help students gain practical skills, explore opportunities in Agriculture, reduce the feeding budget of the schools we work with and increase the nutritional value of food served to students.

I am Alfred Godwin Adjabeng, a hunger fighter in Ghanaian schools. Some 18 years ago, I was in the Primary School in an underserved community in Ghana. The experience I had while growing up inspired the work I do today.

Back in school, I had a friend called Ntumy Raymond who was gifted in the arts and crafts. He does it passionately and creatively. Raymond comes from a poor family and can barely secure his daily meals; lunch at school almost always eluded him.

Raymond aspired to be an engineer in future. I often shared my school meal with Raymond and when I am absent from school he is barely left with the hope of a secured meal. Raymond was often caught absentminded in class and most times with his head on the table. He is just hungry, nothing apart from that. He later dropped out of school to support his family get daily bread. What if Raymond could be afforded the opportunity to grow in a healthy school environment with a hope of a secured school meal?

What if Raymond gave all his concentration to active academic work? What if he had enough reason or motivation not to sacrifice his education in pursuit of an income for the house?

I came face to face with a similar experience whilst in my third year at the University of Cape Coast in 2013. More than sixty (60) public senior high schools in the three Northern Regions of Ghana delayed in reopening after vacation, with some schools facing threats of closure due to the unavailability of food to feed the students whilst others had increased school fees to make up for the deficit. This challenge was attributed to the inadequate government feeding grant and the delay in its release, rise in the cost of feeding, unreliability in the supply of food stuffs from markets, and institutional challenge in dealing with the unfortunate situation facing the school meals regime. I felt a strong connection to this challenge and as was Raymond’s case, I wouldn’t look on for an opportunity for education to be robbed of others. The call to responsibility was what inspired the creation of School Farms Program, a community school feeding support program that empowers communities to grow their own food whilst gaining skills in Agriculture.

Lack of School meals affects access to education, effective teaching and learning, work, especially in poor communities.

Communities hold the power to solve their greatest challenges and therefore harnessing communities’ capacity and resilience to solving their own challenges with local resources is a key element in developing and implementing any self-sustaining school feeding policy alternative.

There is inefficient transfer of knowledge ‘on a hungry stomach’. Children in schools need energy to grow healthy, learn and aspire. Let’s work to ensure no child studies on a hungry stomach.

In order to ensure the availability, access, stability and proper utilization of school meals, we dedicate 60% of our work for developing School Farms, 20% for Community Resource Mobilization, 10% on local and international donor agencies and 10% for Governmental support. Let us all commit to providing a social safety net for children, that will ensure food security, enhance enrollment and reduce absenteeism.

Methodology:

The land is cultivated and 70% of the yield is used to feed the students while the remaining 30% is sold to an identified market and proceeds go into a fund. 20% of this fund is re-invested in the farm and 10% is paid to the School Farms Program secretariat for the project’s continuous management. The program also partners with local government institutions like, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture that provides free technical advice in order to help increase yield and access to quality seeds. The community provides land where schools do not have land and hard labour as part of their communal service. There was a 40% reduction in the termly (four-month) feeding budget of the school.

Let’s work to ensure no child studies on a hungry stomach.

Note:

To support School Farms Program, kindly send us an email via [email protected]

I’m very optimistic about the prospects of funding school meals through harnessing local resources. It requires truthfulness, community cohesion and innovation. Communities hold the power to solve their greatest challenges. -Alfred Adjabeng

Over the last three years, since 2013, I have developed special interest in school feeding and I have spent these years in engaging communities to find sustainable solutions to the challenge of feeding students in schools. I have read extensively about researches that focus on providing alternative solutions to government-funded school feeding. I also appreciate to an extent some existing school feeding solutions ranging from the World Food Programme’s, Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) to Ghana’s National School Feeding programme. They all hold some prospects and can achieve more, I believe, if built on communities’ capacity and resilience to solve their own challenges with local resources. This to me is key to developing, and implementing any self-sustaining school feeding policy alternative.

There is absolutely no need to engage in a back and forth argument on whether school feeding is important to improving access to both education and nutrition.  There is enough scientific evidence that relates the frequency of school attendance or enrollment to school feeding in most underdeveloped communities and the role good nutrition plays in the mental development of children in schools. There is no efficient transfer of knowledge ‘on a hungry stomach’. Children in schools need energy to grow healthy, learn and aspire. If you have ever gone to school hungry and with no option than to study on a hungry stomach, it will be easier for you to appreciate the importance of school feeding in under-resourced or less developed communities.

The Millennium Development Goals came to an end in 2015 giving way to a more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals. The global goals aim at transforming our world by 2030 and the conversation about zero tolerance to hunger has been deepened and given more attention. This has given more focus and weight to global and national interventions aimed at ensuring that hunger is eliminated in our lifetime.  It is in this light that supporting school feeding must be given a critical look to ensure that is works effectively. There has been a lot of concern raised across the globe for government to increase support to funding school meals.

I have some lessons to share on supporting secondary school meals. I began this article laying emphasis on how communities’ resources can be harnessed to develop self-sustaining intervention that addresses communities’ greatest challenges. Community cohesion has always been a well proven conceptual model for practical sustainable development. School Farms Program’s works on this model.

School Farms Program is an initiative of Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement, a youth-led community-development-based organization that creates opportunities for young people to engage for community development. School Farms Program is a rural community-based school feeding support program that empowers local community schools to grow their own food whilst creating a space to help students gain practical skills and explore opportunities in Agriculture.

School Farms Program recognizes the link between education, nutrition and skill building and is employing community-based solutions to improve access to all. Rather than relying on only government’s subvention like school feeding grants, the School Farms Program partners with schools and local institutions to develop community-driven farms that offer experiential learning and technical training opportunities to youth and also ensure constant food supply that will keep schools open and able to provide nutritious meals throughout the school year. Communities as poor as you may classify them hold some key resources capable of ensuring that ideas are self-sustaining. Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement, the organization behind School Farms Program, creates a space for community dialogue where even every necessary and available resource of a community is tapped into ensuring that the program receives the energy it needs to be successful.  The School Farms Program collaborates with schools and local institutions to develop community-driven farms that offer experiential learning and technical training opportunities to youth while also ensuring consistent food supply that will keep schools open and able to provide nutritious meals throughout the school year.

The program’s main objectives are to; reduce the feeding budget of the schools we work with, increase the nutritional value of the food served to students and equip students with practical agriculture skills for food security. Five (5) acres of land were cultivated and 70% of the yield was used to feed the students. 30% of the yield was sold to an identified market and proceeds went into a fund. 20% of this fund was used to cultivate the next farming season and 10% was paid to the School Farms Program secretariat for the project’s continuous management. The program also partners local government institution like, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture that provides free technical advice in order to help increase yield and access to quality seeds. The community provides land where schools do not have land and hard labor as part of their communal service. By harnessing these resources from the community we have achieve a 25% reduction in the feeding budget of the schools we work with. If the goal of the program is reducing the feeding budget by 100%, we only have to work together to increase our one-time investment into these farms, and also increase to a 100% the monitoring and evaluation capacity.

I believe by reducing feeding budget of these schools to 0% then can we achieve ZeroHunger in these schools.  We must work to ensure no child studies on a hungry stomach.-Alfred Adjabeng

To support or learn more, please email us via [email protected] or LIKE our School Farms Program facebook page.

 

There has been growing concerns about the dilapidated state of the three Northern regions of Ghana despite the “pour” of many grants, financial assistance and technical know-how to mitigate the socio-economic challenges experienced in these regions. The three Northern regions of Ghana are Upper East, Upper West and Northern Region.

I have a sincere passion for civic engagement and community development but for once frightened by the ongoing debate about the fact that ” the three Northern regions of Ghana would always remain the same irrespective of the socio-economic interventions”.

I took on the challenge and got a post on my Facebook wall that attracted several comments from young people in Ghana. Young people across the length and breadth of the country shared their rich experience.

Here’s the post;

“The three Northern Regions of Ghana have benefited so much through international, local NGOs and Government support systems but undoubtedly these investments seem not to reflect significantly in the lives of its people (Northerners). What might be the Cause? Why so much investments and little impact?

*I am about implementing a project in the three Northern Regions of Ghana and it would be great having some fare knowledge from my wonderful friends on social media.
I invite comments from everyone. My purpose is to help identify the major challenges confronting these investments.”

Here are some of the experiences shared by some very thoughtful young people from Ghana;

Sharif Mahmud Khalid-“It all boils down to planning and implementation plus i doubt if there are any evaluations, if at all, how were they done? and how do they inform future programs. Point is almost the entire budget for these interventions are spent on needless meetings and admin work to the neglect of the very practical essence of the projects and programs…”

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng-“Evaluation, sustainability, project management, and human resource (focus) Thanks Hon. Sharif Mahmud Khalid for the share. Your rich experience has been duly appreciated. God bless.”

Hotep Abeku Adams-“You cannot rule out THE HUMAN FACTOR: dishonesty, profit-mindedness, lack of innovation and true intent to solve problems, lack of vision and lack of the courage of conscience to see the right thing done. Many of the people running these NGOs and in charge of Government interventions are Business-minded individuals seeking to make profit and thus end up ignoring the problems they are to tackle.”

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng –“Project Integrity, lack of innovations, Project Value and Commitment and selflessness. Thanks Hon. Hotep Abeku Adams for sharing this rich experience. Your recommendations are highly recognized and it would be taken into consideration in our project implementation. Thanks for making a difference. God bless.”

Dick Acheampong –“Sustainability is also an issue, these projects seeks to tackle challenges just but on the surface. They fail to think about project sustainability. Also as mentioned above that countless unfruitful meetings are held which lacks the core mandate of the organization”

Hotep Abeku Adams –“Individual Integrity is KEY to overcoming the social and economic challenges of society. For in the final analysis NO INSTITUTION runs automatically without Human involvement and NO quantum of Funds can work on its own without MEN administering it. The big question then is HOW DO WE GUARANTEE THE INDIVIDUAL INTEGRITY OF THE MEN INTO WHOSE HANDS FUNDS DROP?”

Bright Daily Sunu-“ It’s about not teaching them how to fish but rather catching fish for them and lack of education.”

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng-“thought provoking ads. Thanks fellows.”

Roger Goka-“ Generational think-tanks; can we for once try as much as we solve the problem from the intervening point of view and also look at the beneficiaries in question too? Sometimes, the dogmatic nature of we humans in general is also a key factor to be considered. Can we do things no more as the “oldway” of doing things but improving on the “oldway of doing things” to make it suitable to solve the problem of these 3 naturally endowed regions. #Traditions do kill. Northern Ghana i must confess is a great place to be…#RG”

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng-“ innovation, problem entry point and perception. Thanks @Roger for the share.”

Emmanuel Kwadwo Opoku -“Alfred, you might want to look at the areas the Investments were directed towards and then you wud be able to measure the level of actual impact against the expected impact at the start of the project.”

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng –“Splendid! Emmanuel Kwadwo Opoku. Thanks for your add.”

May-Daisy K Tikkle- “Empowerment and community participation. These in addition are needed. Don’t just shove d project on their faces to represent I helping. Actually make it worth the while. Research into what the communities need not what u think they need. That would be a blunder. Thank you”

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng –“May-Daisy K Tikkle, incredible add. Thanks for the rich experience shared! You’ve uncovered a rich concept.”

Don Woozy -“Development starts with d people and must be from the people. Most of the developmental plans are drawn in Accra (Ghana’s capital city), and sometimes abroad. How will they work in those places? The needs of two places can’t the same. U have to go there and solicit their needs and this will help you make a difference..”

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng-“Thanks Don Woozy. You and May-Daisy K Tikkle have given us a lot to think about. God bless.”

Speaking with Prof. Sackyi, a food scientist and renowned professor at the University of Ghana, blamed the situation on what she described as “Social Ideology”, which has to do with project acceptance. She said the Northern Regions of Ghana are the Heart of every international, local and government interventions but failed to realize its significant impact. She advised organizations to also focus on other parts of the country since they also need such interventions. She refused to accept the fact that the three northern regions of Ghana are the poorest in Ghana.

Traveling to the Northern Region of Ghana, almost all the streets we walked on had the signboards of Non-governmental Organisations. This is an indication of the number of personal, governments, and organisations’ interventions.

Ghana School Farms Project Team met Savelugu Municipal Chief Executive who was happy about our project and has asked to be fully involved in its activities. He described the project as an ‘old one but lost treasure’.

He said the Acheampong regime pioneered a project, ‘Operation Feed Yourself’, which is similar to ours. He highlighted the major challenge that organisations face in the implementation of their projects in the Northern Regions as;

a. Project acceptance
b. Sustainability
c. Culture of the people.

These are just some few thoughts shared! Hope they serve you well. Thanks for reading. Please remember to leave a comment and also share. God bless.

Back in Bishop Herman College (2009), we had a urinal that was located between the Science Block and a Staff Bungalow. As the General Infirmarian back then, I was always been queried by our teachers who came to teach and by my very good friend, Mr. Jesse, who had his bungalow close to the urinal.

The stench that came out of the urinal no matter the number of times we scrubbed was unbearable. I was always working towards getting an idea that would temporally solve the problem before the permanent relocation of the urinal since it was dated to be relocated some months away.

An idea then came up, I decided with the help of some juniors during grounds work to get charcoal, build up a system that makes it possible for the charcoal to absorb the stench that comes out from the urinal. We called the project-“charcoal project”.

We dug a hole behind the urinal, at the “outlet for the urine” about 3 ft., and we’d filled it with charcoal. The system worked in such a way that it allowed the urine flow through the charcoal whilst the charcoal does it work by absorbing the stench.

To our amazement, we achieved it. There was no more stench coming out, no more complains from my teachers and my good friend, Mr. Jesse. They even thought the urinal had been relocated. The Senior House Master embraced the project and congratulated us for our Initiative.

Three years after I had left my school for the University of Cape Coast, I came back to see that the urinal had not been relocated instead the project was being championed. This is how powerful ideas can impact.  “Simple ideas solve complex problems.”

To my six juniors who helped me solve that problem, do I dedicate this post.

*Change is independent on “quantum”, it just needs a network of other impacts to make a great difference.

To you reading this post, I hope you have been convinced on how you can make impact by harnessing your ideas no matter how simple they are, to solve complex problems.

This is your time, this is my time and this is our time. We cannot make that change when we keep sitting there idle. Create something that would make the world awesome.

You are great within. Ghana needs every bit of you. I will end with the quote of Mahatma Gandhi which says; “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Thank you. If you don’t mind, I can help structure your ideas. Just contact me. Bye.