Day: May 10, 2023

Vice President Nangolo Mbumba said human-wildlife conflict (HWC) should not be the responsibility of the government and the line ministry alone but that of everyone.

Mbumba at the commencement of a three-day National Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict Management here yesterday said human-wildlife conflict is complex and thus requires multidimensional solutions.

“The impact of this conflict on people and their property is a difficult challenge that conservation agencies and institutions such as the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism are facing,” he said.

He noted that innovative approaches are being considered to reduce the level of HWC to ensure that the benefits of conservation far outweigh the cost and to build on the significant successes already achieved.

Mbumba also noted that conservancies are now benefiting 245 000 people in various regions.

He thus called upon the national conference to review and discuss progress, challenges, and opportunities in the implementation of this policy so that they may have specific resolutions and actions to implement specific preventative, protective, and mitigative strategies for HWC management.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has launched the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED), a product geared towards expanding coverage of the basic national social security scheme to self-employed Ghanaians. Dr John Ofori-Koranteng, Director-General of SSNIT, speaking at the launch of the product in Kumasi, said the aim was to redefine social security in Ghana and give hope to the self-employed to be able to retire in dignity and comfort. In pursuit of this agenda, the management of SSNIT had carried out extensive engagements with various stakeholders across the country, to solicit input and support on how to extend pension coverage to the self-employed. According to him, the engagements revealed that, Ghana had relied on the compulsion of the law to extend pension coverage to employees through their employers, where several employers had complied begrudgingly. Again, stakeholders saw SSNIT as a tax, and tried very hard to pay the barest minimum by pushing most employee entitlements into allowances and paying SSNIT contributions on minimal basic salaries. Dr Ofori-Koranteng indicated that this had then snowballed into several pensioners receiving relatively small pensions (because small salaries/contributions equal small pensions and vice versa), which made the Scheme unattractive, especially to the self-employed who are not obligated by law to join the Scheme. 'On a personal level, these engagements and this journey have convinced me that extending pension coverage to everyone who spends their best years toiling and working daily to build our country is simply the right thing to do. Of course, there is also the added bonus of the improved sustainability of the Scheme. The law has its place but for this campaign, we are going to rely heavily if not exclusively, on the strengths of the Tier One product…and we believe that once we have convinced the self-employed to look at SSNIT again, we will get them to sign up,' he explained. The Director-General was optimistic that the self-employed would sign up because SSNIT was offering an opportunity for them to ensure their incomes so it could be replaced when they were old or become invalid and could not work again. The same Scheme will also pay a benefit to their survivors if they pass on. Dr. Ofori-Koranteng said unfortunately, only about 1.9 million of the 10 million workers in the country were covered under the SSNIT Scheme. What was more disturbing was that only about 32,000, representing just about two percent of active contributors, were self-employed, even though most workers in the country were self-employed and/or work in the informal sector. This meant most self-employed workers risked working their entire lives even when they were old and frail or having to rely on the state or family and friends for financial support when they retire. 'This unbalanced coverage of workers is a sad commentary of our social protection system, and we have a responsibility to change this narrative. The SSNIT Scheme is not for formal sector employees only, it is for all workers in Ghana. Indeed, our highest earning pensioner (GH?169,000) was a businessman,' he disclosed. Dr Ofori-Koranteng urged Ghanaians to take the tier two and tier three contributions seriously, adding that, it would ensure that in addition to the monthly pensions received from SSNIT, the other two tiers would each pay a one-time lump sum when one retired. Mr. Bright Wereko-Brobbey, Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, noted that the Scheme was more appropriate for self-employed people because more of the people in this sector had the capabilities of contributing hugely on a monthly basis. He used the occasion to urge the management of SSNIT to continue improving on service delivery, simplify onboarding processes and maintain open-door policies that allowed clients to easily reach out and lodge complaints

Source: Ghana News Agency

Some Journalists in the Western Region have been taken through a two-day training on fact-checking and digital verification tools to help in ending information disorder in newsrooms. Information disorder, commonly referred to as 'fake news' is gradually gaining grounds with the advent of new media which required urgent response and actions particularly among newsrooms to avert any unhealthy eventualities. The Journalists have therefore been tasked to scrutinize trends of information, do proper fact-checking and verification both through Traditional and digital media in curbing the spread of such unverified information that could misinform, malinform or disinform. Mrs Caroline Anipah, the Country lead for Dubawa Ghana, initiators of the programme took journalists through the information disorder ecosystem and the need for journalists to be wary of the use of information disorder -fake news by sections of the public to perpetuate an agenda and the need for media houses to be critical in their information consumption and disorder so as to avoid spreading such news. The Journalists were taken through Satire, misleading content, imposter, sensationalism, false content, manipulation, and fabricated content as some common forms of information disorders. She said journalists must begin to care about the effects of information disorder since it can cause censorship, bad actors use as manipulative tools, targeting to lie and create false news. Mr Nathan Gadugah, the Editor of Dubawa Ghana pointed out that fact checking had become even more imperative on the part of the Journalists so as not to fall into the band wagon of information disorder syndrome. Ms Maxine Danso took Journalists through digital verification tools that could aid in avoiding the spread of information disorder in the country to avert consequences associated with such news articles.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Tunisia strongly condemned "the perfidious air strikes committed by the occupying entity in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in a number of martyrs and dozens of wounded, including unarmed children and women, in flagrant violation of all international laws and standards," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad. In the face of this "dangerous and repeated escalation", Tunisia reiterated its rejection of this brutal aggression and the systematic abuses and attacks against the brotherly Palestinian people that threaten their security and right to life. It also renewed its "full solidarity and unwavering support to the Palestinian people in the defence of their legitimate rights, first and foremost the establishment of their independent state on their territory, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital", calling on "the international community to intervene urgently to put an end to these criminal violations and to provide them with international protection", said a statement from the Foreign Ministry. The occupying entity's army launched on Tuesday morning a series of large-scale air strikes and land incursions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, resulting in the martyrdom of 22 and dozens of injuries, including women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse