Enhancing rural livelihoods and food security through wise use of wetlands in northern Ghana project

Food security is inextricably linked with poverty. Thus, poor people are at a greater risk of food insecurity. The World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time’. From the definition of poverty, it can be agreed that it is a complex societal issue that requires everyone’s attention.

The global goals (SDGs) were set to address issues of global concern, and this includes poverty and hunger. As a result, SDG 1 and SDG 2, addresses poverty and hunger respectively. Member states of the UN have been tasked to ensure that targets of the SDGs are met. Therefore, Ghana is putting in efforts to achieve these targets by 2030. The Open Society Foundation for West Africa provided a grant to the Centre for Biodiversity Conservation Research (CBCR) which was formerly Centre for African Wetlands (CAW) to implement a project “Enhancing Rural Livelihoods and Food Security through Wise Use of Wetlands in Northern Ghana” to help address the issue of food security and poverty in Northern Ghana through wetland conservation.