The Organisation said Ghana stood to increase its visibility in the sub-region documenting these success stories and sharing these experiences with neighbouring countries through south-south co-operation.

 Dr Berhanu Bedane, the Animal Production and Health Officer, FAO Regional Office for Africa said this on behalf of Dr Abebe Haile Gabriel, Deputy Regional Representative for Africa and FAO Representative to Ghana, during the Dialogue Session on Reducing Rural Poverty in Ghana: South-South Cooperation (SSC) Initiatives in Accra.

The SSC is a mechanism that ensures mutual benefit for all parties involved in the negotiation, which also promote development of sustainable intra-regional trade. He said it was viewed by development practitioners that poverty could simultaneously create profound social disruption unless institutions and citizens take steps now to reduce and prevent poverty.

“But I am of the greatest conviction that the challenges that confront us as society would be more than halved if poverty could be drastically reduced,” he added. He said the FAO has supported knowledge generation and exchange between Ghana and other countries of the south.

“The FAO will continue to collaborate with the government of Ghana and institutions dedicated to rural poverty reduction by facilitating knowledge exchanges among southern countries,” he added. He said Ghana had a number of rural poverty initiatives and institutions that have contributed to the successes so far achieved.

Dr Abebe said Ghana’s poverty profile indicates that 24.2 per cent of the population were below the poverty line and this was distributed unequally between the rural and urban divide with almost 80 per cent of the poor residing in rural areas.

Meanwhile, the rural population in Ghana accounts for 50 per cent of the population and this, therefore, indicated that the dynamics of poverty in Ghana was still very much a rural in dimension.

He said the knowledge and information sharing on these initiatives were, therefore, important for mutual progress among developing countries. “Therefore, solutions that work best in one southern country are of greater possibility of working in another,” he said.

Mr Peter Anaadumba, Regional Office for Africa, FAO Officer in charge of SSC said FAO has been implementing the initiative for more than 20 years.  He said the initiative was cost-effective and promotes global visibility in the realm of international development and demonstrates commitment and responsibility towards national development.

He said about 80 per cent of FAO SSC were in the African region, adding that the main type of agreement includes general agreement, letter of agreement, Memorandum of Understanding and it contributes to agriculture development and reduction in rural poverty.