Addis Ababa: Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the reforms made on institutions have enabled to create competitive institutions at continental level.

The premier made the remark at the award ceremony at Adwa Victory Memorial Museum to honor five institutions today.

The PM said on the occasion that the institutions were awarded for doing work that made them competitive at the continental level.

Noting that success is not a goal but a journey that continues with needs, Abiy stressed that the awards given to the institutions stimulate them to do more in the future.

The prime minister recalled that Ethiopia was one of the African countries that imported much wheat.

The country has now become the leading wheat producing country in Africa with the work done in a short period of time, he said, adding that the Ministry of Agriculture has played a major role in this success.

Similarly, he pointed out that Ethiopian Airlines was able to continue as a competitive institution by performing actions that redeemed the se
ason when faced by COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, the airline is currently a huge institution that dominates Africa in the field and the recent acquisition of aircraft and terminal expansion works will further enhance its competitiveness.

Following the reform, Ethio telecom has also more than doubled the number of customers and has now over 76 million customers. The number of Tele Birr users has reached 43 million.

Abiy underscored that the recognition given to the institution will create incentive to build capacities in the sectors.

Ethio Post was able to be effective in a short period by implementing reform works.

The PM pointed out that the institution has not only come out of bankruptcy, but has been able to become a model on a continental level in some of its procedures.

The leaders and employees of the institution have contributed a lot to this, he stated.

Abiy further noted that the reform works done on the construction of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam are a demonstration of the effe
ctiveness of institutional reform.

Passing through the challenges, the history of the dam construction process has been accomplished.

He said the dam will be a center of regional integration in the continent.

Winners of the Ethiopian Institutional Success Award are Ministry of Agriculture’s wheat program, Ethiopian Airlines, Ethio Post, Ethio Telecom, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) has called for the inclusion and effective participation of women in policy development and implementation in mining communities.

Mrs Hannah Owusu-Koranteng, the Associate Executive Director of WACAM, who made the call, said women were more vulnerable in mining communities, hence the need for their active participation in developing regulatory frameworks to protect their wellbeing and that of the children.

Speaking at the 2024 International Women’s Day celebration at Bibiani in the Western North Region, she said it was sad that no concrete provisions had been made in regulatory frameworks in the mining sector to protect women.

The programme was organised by SOKODEVI- Ghana, a non-profit organisation, in partnership with A Rocha Ghana and the Friedrick-Ebert-Stiftung (FES).

It aims to discuss and advance women-inclusive safeguarding for a sustainable environment and mineral governance.

Some of the topics discussed were how to address women’s
vulnerabilities to unregulated mining in Ghana, the role of stakeholders, livelihood sustainability and environmental nexus: exploring strategies for mitigating vulnerabilities and enhancing environmental safeguards.

Mrs Owusu-Koranteng said it was an undeniable fact that the challenges that women faced in the mining communities were vastly different from the challenges of men.

It was, therefore, important that the need for women to be included in such discussions to address their challenges was elucidated.

On the regulatory structures of mining, Mrs Owusu Koranteng pointed out that Ghana had a very weak framework and stressed the need to strengthen measures to back those regulations.

‘You see, people acquire licenses but when it comes to respecting the rights of citizens and respecting the rights of laws, they do not do so and go about harassing community people instead of negotiating and paying compensation,’ she said.

‘The regulators are not on top of their businesses, if they had been up to their tas
k, we would not have such huge environmental issues in the country.’

Mrs Owusu-Koranteng said it was, therefore, important that citizens understood issues on mining laws and regulations to help them demand proper accountability from the state.

Ms Martha Mensah, the Lead of the SOKODEVI Together Project, said looking at mining communities the organisation operated in, galamsey had had a negative impact, particularly on women.

‘Water bodies have been destroyed, cocoa farms have been cut down for illegal mining activities and the repercussions have been that women have to walk long distances to get water.’

The other thing was the prevalence of diseases with some women giving birth to abnormal babies, she said.

Source: Ghana News Agency