The meeting was attended by national, regional and district level planning officers, and representatives of farmer groups in the Northern and Savannah Regions as well REACH-STR project partners, who made inputs into various work streams of the project including policy analysis, migration, youth and social transformation, and gender and social transformation.

The project, being implemented in the northern part of the country from 2019 to 2025, will undertake STR and policy advocacy related to the project's work streams to achieve more inclusive and sustainable economic growth policy and programming.

REACH-STR is a European Union (EU) funded project, which is being implemented by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in partnership with University for Development Studies, University of Ghana - Centre for Migration Studies, and Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Dr Abdel-Majeed Haroun, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Development Authority (NDA), who spoke on "Development Opportunities and Challenges in Northern Ghana" during the meeting in Tamale on Wednesday, lauded the project saying it was in line with NDA's mandate to promote development in the northern ecological enclave.

Dr Haroun expressed the need for environmental awareness and initiatives to safeguard the environment saying the NDA was encouraging tree planting to promote climate resilience and improve opportunities for all in the northern part of the country.

Mr Winfred Nelson, Deputy Director, National Development Planning Commission, emphasised that politicians, who controlled decision-making, be engaged as part of the project such that they would commit to rely on its findings and recommendations for decision-making to promote sustainable development.

Dr Charity Osei-Amponsah, Researcher, Project Coordinator, REACH-STR expressed gratitude to stakeholders for their commitment to the project saying their inputs would be synthesized, and validated to be used to better shape the research design and methodology to achieve the expected results.    

Dr Osei-Amponsah said the inception workshop in Tamale was the second after the earlier one in Accra adding another inception workshop would be held later in the year in the Upper West Region to collate inputs of relevant stakeholders.

She was hopeful that at the end of the project, local, regional, and national decision-makers would better understand the social transformation conditions that would ensure sustainable and inclusive rural economy to promote enhanced implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation practices in development plans and strategies.