Louis Stippel/USAID
Farmers in Janjori-Kukuo near Tamale,
Ghana, store corn in mud silos. With agricultural support from USAID, these farmers have improved their crop production.
6 Essay 1
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Bread for the World Institute
One of the most important things about the MCC is that countries develop
their own plans to reduce poverty with feedback from different groups in society—members of Parliament, churches, nonprofits, business leaders, rural
groups, and the like. The idea is that hearing from as many of those affected by
the project as possible will make the plan stronger and more likely to succeed.
Ghana, like many countries that received MCC grants, chose to focus its
development assistance on agriculture. Ironically, the majority of the country’s
hungry people were farmers. As Kufuor put it, “The best way to break the back
of poverty is through agriculture.”
Ghana significantly increased its investments in agriculture. Kufuor
emphasized that a comprehensive approach was needed. It’s not enough to
make better farming tools available to families—they need a way to get their
crops to market. They also need to be able to borrow money to grow next
season’s crops—for supplies such as seeds, for example—and pay it back once
the crops are harvested.
Ghana’s plan was a good one: not only has the country cut hunger and
poverty in half, but its economic output (“Gross Domestic Product” or GDP)
has quadrupled since 2000.
The United States has given Ghana development assistance before. For example, a program that provided schoolchildren with a nutritious lunch every
day made a very direct contribution to today’s successes. Ken Hackett, immediate past president of Catholic Relief Services, which helped carry out the
school lunch program, explained, “Many of the schoolchildren [who participated] are now in the government of Ghana. Catholic Relief Services worked
ourselves out of a job.”