German government to support cocoa farmers

THE German government will, from 2009, extend support to Ghanaian cocoa farmers by instituting workplace policies on HIV/AIDS for them to facilitate their access to the treatment of the disease.
Already, the German government, through the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ), has supported organisations, including the Ghana Community Network (GCNet), Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL) and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB), to implement HIV/AIDS and other health programmes for different targeted groups in society with a budget of $1 million.
The Team Leader of the GTZ HIV/AIDS Project in Ghana, Dr Holger Till, told the Daily Graphic that the decision to include cocoa farmers under the programme was meant to facilitate farmers’ access to treatment of any kind, especially in the area of HIV/AIDS, since they mostly resided in deprived areas.
He said under the programme, there would be treatment for preventive health programmes for cocoa farmers in sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Dr Till said the GTZ had, over the years, worked in three key areas of agriculture, good governance and private sector development and that the HIV project was an additional programme introduced in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Aids Control Programme to support institutions to establish workplace policies on HIV/AIDS.
He explained that the GTZ mostly expended its resources under the programme in partnership with the government in the areas of HIV mainstreaming, public-private partnership and high-risk group activities such as commercial sex work.
“The German government sees the fight against HIV/AIDS as crucial, hence the need to support Ghana which, we observed, has demonstrated enough commitment to fight the menace,” Dr Till noted.
For him, injecting more funding into the programme would increase the establishment of more voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) centres in Ghana.