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Mr Benard Guri, the Executive Director of Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD), a Non-Governmental Organisation, has said government could achieve her Ghana beyond Aid (GbA) agenda, if the nation build on its sources of indigenous knowledge.

He said the initiative of developing through the GbA was a laudable idea of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government, saying the concept required policy guideline that could be designed through developing the nation’s sources of indigenous knowledge.

Mr Guri said the building on the nation’s indigenous knowledge remains a catalyst that could push forward the GbA agenda and position the nation well to minimize her over-reliance on foreign partners for development.

He was speaking at the closing session of the fourth African Learning Training (ALI) on ‘Revitalizing African Cultural Heritage and Bio-Cultural Resources for Food Sovereignty’ held at Techiman in the Bono East Region.

It was organised by the COMPAS Africa Network for Endogenous Development, an international network for the enhancement of endogenous development, and co-hosted by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD), an NGO, and the College for Community and Organisational Development (CCOD), an affiliate of the University for Development Studies.

Participants who attended the one-week intensive training workshop comprised Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), actors and advocates drawn from Ghana, Benin, Cote D’Ivoire and Guinea.

As part of the training, the participants took a field visit to interact with the chiefs and people of Oforikrom, a town in the Techiman Municipality, learnt their cultural systems and visited some tourist attraction sites in the area

“We must develop our rich bio-cultural resources, heritages, agro-ecology and promote our food sovereignty to make us more reliant as a nation”, Mr. Guri explained.

Dr Gabriel Gbiel Bernakuu, the President of the CCOD, commended the participants for making themselves available for the training and expressed the hope that they would go back home, apply and share the knowledge acquired to bring about positive changes in their communities and countries.
Certificates of participation were presented to the participants.