The Canadian High Commission in Ghana has held a two-day Partners' Forum to celebrate works done in areas, including health and nutrition, gender equality, inclusive economic growth, food and agriculture, and environment and climate change. This year's Forum, being the first to be organised after the COVID-19 pandemic, was to build better partnerships, by creating space for partners to exchange, network, coordinate and learn from one another. It was also to enable Canada to build better programmes, by mapping out and understanding common strategies, influences and opportunities to respond to Ghana's development agenda and meet local needs. The Forum was also to help achieve better results by deepening work in thematic portfolios, building synergies between projects, and sharing lessons learned from project implementation. Ms Martine Moreau, High Commissioner of Canada to Ghana, in her opening remarks, highlighted Canada's long-standing partnership with Ghana and its commitment to supporting Ghana's devel opment priorities. She noted that, Canada had provided more than CAD $3.2 billion in development assistance to Ghana since the early 1960s. International assistance investments in Ghana are approximately CAD $95 million per year, half of which comes from the bilateral programme within the Canadian High Commission. Ms Moreau noted that, Canada's support, especially in Northern Ghana, had for the past decades provided livelihood opportunities for women and men through agricultural development. She said it had also helped rural communities to access enhanced water and sanitation facilities, leading to improved health and well-being for millions of people. Ms Moreau indicated that, since 2017, the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana project with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development had significantly increased the number of agricultural extension visits-reaching over five million farmers, compared to 1.3 million visited in 2016. She ad ded that, the Women Farmer Based Organization component had also equipped women's groups with agro-processing equipment to make their products attractive for both local and international markets. That, she said, had helped improve productivity, with some groups reporting increased access to markets, higher earnings, reduced drudgery, reduced poverty, increased participation in decision making, and improved status of the women in their communities. Ms Moreau pointed out that, Canada's project with Ashesi University and the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), had enabled entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions, such as renewable energy projects, sustainable agricultural practices, and eco-friendly manufacturing. That, she said, had helped in building more profitable businesses while addresing climate change. 'These results would not have been possible without the highly productive relationships we enjoy with the Government of Ghana, local community-based and civil society organizations, internatio nal organizations and, the individual Ghanaian women, men, boys and girls, who share our commitment,' she said. She emphasised that, partnership remained a key pillar of Canada's development approach, adding that, 'we remain inspired by our shared commitment to building a more peaceful, more inclusive and more prosperous Ghana'. Chief Directors from key partner ministries in Ghana also shared their development priorities as well as perspectives on how to enhance collaboration with development partners and to promote sustainability. Mr Paul Siameh, Acting Chief Director, Ministry of Food and Agriculture; Dr Afisah Zakariah, Chief Director, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection; and Dr Maureen Martey, Head of Bilateral Resource Mobilisation, Ministry of Health. The Forum was attended by other senior representatives of the Government of Ghana, partners from local and international civil society organisations, other global organisations, and the private sector. The first day of the event saw the official opening of the partners' marketplace-an exhibition to showcase the various partner organisations and the works that the Canadian government had been supporting in Ghana. Some of the partner organisations are United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF Ghana), Network for Women's Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF Ghana), Farm Radio International, World University Service of Canada (WUSC), Children Believe, Catalyste+, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Mr Samuel Oppong Kwabiah, Programmes Manager, Children Believe, commended the Canadian High Commission for organising the Forum. He said: 'This is a great platform. It brings partners together to learn best practices from each other. It also enables us to build relations with other organisations and share what we are doing, so that we can have a bigger voice.' Source: Ghana News Agency