Human development-related initiatives be monitored

Mr George Medie, Executive Director of Humanitarian Youth International (HU-F), a non-governmental organization, on Wednesday underscored the need to monitor the implementation, and evaluate the outputs and outcomes of human development-related projects in the country. He said, when this was done, it would give real meaning to the allocation of inputs to initiatives. Mr Medie made the call at a stakeholders' conference in Tema on the theme: "Consolidating Tema Township as the Industrial Hub of Ghana: Public and NGO/Youth Volunteer Services Dimensions." The conference, organized by Humanitarian Youth International, provided a platform for the participants to raise awareness of decision-makers at all levels, and find solutions to common social, economic, and environmental challenges facing the Metropolis. Mr Medie said policies and interventions must be designed to address most of the problems facing Tema, which hosts the industrial nerve centre of the country. He pointed out that the rapid population growth in Tema had brought in its trail environmental and sanitation problems and challenges which needed to be addressed. For instance, he said, the several communal natural resources such as the Chemu and Sakumomo Lagoons, and a number of dams, must be maintained. Furthermore, he indicated that the drainage and sewerage systems within the Metropolis must be improved to reduce the spread of diseases like malaria. Mr Medie expressed concern about environmental degradation within the Metropolis, and cautioned that care must be taken to protect our God-given natural resources, including the environment. He was optimistic that in the wake of the conference, and two subsequent ones, stakeholders would come out with a working document or a blue print, to ensure that the mandate for the establishment of Tema Township as a key strategic hub in Ghana's economic development and emancipation would be realized and achieved. Mr Kingsley Kwame Appiah, Presiding Member of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, gave the assurance that the Assembly would do all it could, not only to ensure the greening of the Metropolis; but to also formulate, and implement integrated and comprehensive urban development programmes, to help beautify it.