In a landmark event that signifies a monumental step forward for Ghana’s oil and gas industry, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo officially commissioned the new Operational Headquarters of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on Thursday, 1st August.

This event not only celebrates the culmination of a project that began four years ago but also underscores the government’s commitment to decentralizing development and ensuring that all regions benefit equitably from the nation’s resources.

In his address, President Akufo-Addo reflected on the significance of this new facility, describing it as a fulfillment of a promise he made to the chiefs and people of the Western Region during his 2016 presidential campaign. The President emphasized that the establishment of the GNPC headquarters in Takoradi is more than just a fulfillment of a campaign promise; it is a strategic move to bring development closer to the communities that contribute significantly to Ghana’s wealth through their land and sea resources.

“This is a very happy day for the Western Region, for Mother Ghana and, indeed, for me personally,” President Akufo-Addo declared. “The realization of this promise is proof of my government’s determination to ensure that the development and benefits of Ghana’s natural resources are felt by the people whose land and sea contribute so significantly to the nation’s wealth.”

The construction of the state-of-the-art facility faced numerous challenges, including the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and various logistical and financial hurdles. Despite these obstacles, the project persevered, thanks to strategic planning and the unwavering support of the people of the Western Region. President Akufo-Addo extended his gratitude to all who played a part in bringing the project to fruition, including the Regional Minister, Hon. Kobby Okyere Darko Mensah, the Western Regional House of Chiefs, and the Regional Lands Commission.

“This new headquarters is strategically positioned to serve as the hub for GNPC’s operations, particularly in the Western Region, which remains the epicentre of Ghana’s oil and gas industry,” the President noted. He highlighted the practical benefits of situating this facility in Takoradi, which include enhanced operational efficiency and closer collaboration with domestic stakeholders.

The establishment of the headquarters is expected to have a significant economic impact on the local community. President Akufo-Addo outlined the direct and indirect job opportunities that will arise from GNPC’s presence, ranging from administrative roles to technical positions. The increased economic activity is also anticipated to stimulate local businesses, contributing to the overall economic growth of the region.

Furthermore, President Akufo-Addo lauded the widespread investments made by GNPC through its Foundation, which has been headquartered in Takoradi for the past seven years. He pointed out that the Western Region continues to be a major beneficiary of the Foundation’s initiatives in community development and capacity building, including the provision of health, education, and sanitation infrastructure, as well as support for artisan training and other social impact programs.

In his address, President Akufo-Addo also underscored the broader vision of transforming GNPC into a world-class national oil company capable of competing on the global stage. The new headquarters, a seven-storey modern office complex with a basement, is equipped with Smart Office Management Systems and various high-technology specifications. It includes a 300-seater auditorium, a gymnasium, a cafeteria, and a business center on the ground floor, and is designed to achieve energy efficiency and meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification.

The President stressed the importance of environmental and social responsibility in the exploitation of petroleum resources. He urged GNPC and other industry stakeholders to continue working collaboratively with local communities, environmental groups, and regulatory bodies to implement best practices that minimize environmental impact. “We owe it to future generations to manage our resources sustainably,” he stated, emphasizing the need to balance economic growth with environmental protection.

Additionally, President Akufo-Addo called for a renewed focus on local content and participation in the oil and gas industry, urging the continued capacity building of local businesses and professionals to ensure they can benefit meaningfully from the sector.

As he concluded his speech, President Akufo-Addo expressed his sincere gratitude to the chiefs and people of the Western Region for their support and patience. He congratulated the management and staff of GNPC on this remarkable achievement and officially declared the “GNPC Energy House” commissioned.

“May this new headquarters serve as a beacon of excellence, innovation, and progress in Ghana’s oil and gas industry,” President Akufo-Addo said. “May God bless the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, and us all, and may God bless our homeland Ghana, and make her great and strong.”

The commissioning of the GNPC headquarters marks a significant milestone in Ghana’s journey towards harnessing its natural resources for sustainable development and inclusive growth.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency, Republic of Ghana.

Repeated attacks on healthcare facilities in El Fasher, in Sudan’s North Darfur, are causing the already heavy death toll in the city to rise even further; The ongoing blockage on urgently needed medical supply trucks is putting even more lives at risk; MSF calls for all parties to respect healthcare facilities and the civilian population and to allow the urgent delivery of food and medicines to the area.

On 29 July, an attack on Saudi hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), marked the tenth time a hospital had been hit in the city since the fighting escalated more than 80 days ago, on 10 May. Three caregivers were killed in the attack and 25 people were injured, including displaced people who were sheltering in a nearby mosque that was also hit. The shelling took place while El Fasher was under attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Since the fighting intensified almost 12 weeks ago, over 2,170 wounded people have been treated at MSF-supported hospitals in El Fasher, and over 300 people have passed away from their injuries. As more and more wounded continue to flood into Saudi hospital and MSF’s trucks continue to be held by the RSF in the town of Kabkabiya, medical supplies are rapidly running out, putting the life-saving activities even more at risk.

“We do not know if hospitals are being intentionally targeted, but the incident on Monday shows that the belligerents are not taking any precautions to spare them” said Stéphane Doyon, head of MSF’s emergency response in Sudan. “They are not making any efforts to prevent the death of civilians or to ensure the protection of patients and medical staff. As a result, many more lives are being lost.”

At least nine people have been killed in the 10 attacks on hospitals in El Fasher over the past 80 days, and at least 38 have been injured.

“The warring parties are well aware of the location of Saudi hospital, and they are also well aware that it is the last remaining public hospital in the city with the capacity to treat the wounded,” says Doyon. “It has been hit four times now, and if it goes out of service like South hospital did when they raided it in June – the fifth time it was attacked – there will be nowhere left in the city for the injured, or women in need of life-saving emergency C-sections, to receive surgery.”

“The paediatric hospital was also made non-functional in May when it was damaged by a bomb that landed close by, killing three people, including two children who were in the intensive care unit,” says Doyon. “ Children in need of hospital treatment are now being treated in a small health clinic with limited equipment – or, if they have war injuries, they are being treated in Saudi hospital.”

In addition to attacks on health facilities, MSF supply trucks have been held in Kabkabiya by the RSF for the past four weeks, which could soon leave Saudi hospital without essential supplies.

“Our trucks left N’djamena in Chad over six weeks ago and they should have reached El Fasher by now, but we have no idea when they will be released,” says Doyon. “In El Fasher, we only have enough surgical kits left to treat 100 people. If the casualty numbers continue to increase at the same rate as we are seeing now, these supplies will soon run out.”

“We desperately need our trucks to arrive. But they do not only contain supplies for Saudi hospital – they also contain therapeutic food and medical supplies for children in Zamzam camp, where there is a catastrophic malnutrition crisis,” says Doyon. “Because these supplies have not yet arrived, we only have enough therapeutic food left to last another few weeks. Already, many children there are at deaths door. These supplies are needed to save their lives. If the blockade on humanitarian aid is not lifted as a matter of urgency, there is going to be an even greater death toll.”

MSF urges all parties to stop attacking hospitals in El Fasher and across Sudan, and the RSF to release its trucks from Kabkabiya so that life-saving medical supplies can be brought to Saudi hospital and the MSF facilities in Zamzam camp. MSF also urges the warring parties to enable the swift arrival of all humanitarian supplies and convoys to El Fasher and Zamzam, where they are vital for preventing the further deterioration of the health of the population.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).

Intense fighting in Sudan has driven the Zamzam internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Northern Darfur, host to half a million IDPs, into famine conditions, according to a new food security update from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released today. One in five households in this area face an extreme lack of food with little to no options to feed themselves. 

755,000 people across 10 states in Sudan are facing catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC5), and experiencing an extreme lack of food. These numbers may be much higher in reality as many areas remain inaccessible to verify numbers across Sudan due to active fighting. The International Rescue Committee is once again warning of the need to scale up humanitarian access which would require conditions like a cessation of hostilities and unimpeded access. 

Eatizaz Yousif, IRC Country Director for Sudan, said:

“An escalation of violence over the last few months has severely hindered humanitarian access to parts of Northern Darfur resulting in a near-collapse of the healthcare system. This extreme level of hunger where people, especially children, are starving to death every day, is expected to persist until at least October. If the conflict continues and humanitarian access remains constrained, the situation risks deteriorating beyond October. 

“There has been no food assistance distributed in Zamzam camp since April this year while prices for goods have soared, according to the Famine Review Committee. Families have depleted their assets and without assistance, they have extremely limited options for food and are unable to cope. Alarming levels of malnutrition, especially among children, means an increased risk of infectious diseases without health care services. An immediate ceasefire is now more critical than ever to prevent mass deaths resulting from a hunger crisis that is rapidly spreading across Sudan. Already, more than half of Sudan’s population is now facing crisis levels of hunger or above, the worst in Sudan’s history. 

“We have been warning for months that the widespread conflict across Sudan is driving alarming levels of hunger, and now a perfect storm of conflict, low food production this lean season coupled with restricted humanitarian access will lead to horrific levels of hunger and deaths. This latest data is a clear alarm and call to action: the Sudanese people need an immediate halt to the fighting and for the restoration of humanitarian access to the most affected areas.” 

The IRC response in Sudan:

The IRC has adapted and scaled up our programming in Sudan to address increased humanitarian needs. We are supporting people who have been displaced internally through multi-purpose cash assistance, health and nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene programs. The IRC also provides protection and empowerment services for women and children, including gender-based violence survivors in Blue Nile, Gedaref, White Nile, and Khartoum states. We have established offices in new regions, including Port Sudan, and are in the process of launching an emergency response in River Nile state to deliver primary health care services, cash assistance, safe water, and sanitation and hygiene services to vulnerable communities. We are also working to establish a presence in new locations to address gaps in humanitarian coverage and expand our programming in response to the enduring humanitarian crisis. The IRC is also working in Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Uganda to support refugees from Sudan. To learn more about IRC’s programming in Sudan, go here.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Rescue Committee (IRC) .

More than a third of the world’s population could not afford a healthy diet in 2022, and some regions have yet fully to recover from the harms wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an innovative data set published in the 2024 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, the flagship hunger report issued last week by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and four sister United Nations agencies.

While food prices increased throughout 2022, pushing up the average cost of a healthy diet, this was largely offset by economic recovery and the ensuing positive income effects. As a result, some 35.4 percent of the global population, equal to 2.826 billion people, were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022. That compares to 36.4 percent and 2.823 billion in 2019. However, this recovery to  pre-pandemic levels in 2022 was achieved in an uneven manner across regions.

“In 2022, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet dropped below pre-pandemic levels in the group of upper-middle- and high-income countries. In contrast, low-income countries had the highest levels since 2017,” the first year for which FAO has published estimates, said Maximo Torero, Chief Economist of FAO. 

The finding highlights “a major structural problem of our agrifood systems,” said David Laborde, Director of FAO’s Agrifood Economics and Policy Division. He noted this part of the SOFI 2024 report revealed significant variation across and within regions that in turn point to where national and international attention should be prioritized.

Key findings

The share of people in Africa unable to afford a healthy diet was 64.8 percent. In Asia, the figure is 35.1 percent; in Latin America and the Caribbean, 27.7 percent; in Oceania 20.1 percent; and in Northern America and Europe, 4.8 percent.

In low-income and lower-middle-income countries, the number of people unable to afford healthy diets grew from 2019 to 2022, an outcome that reflects how post-pandemic economic recoveries were unevenly shared and how more advanced economies were better placed to cope with supply-chain shocks and worldwide inflationary pressure on food commodity prices.

The SOFI 2024 report details the methodology used to calculate the affordability of a healthy diets, defined as comprising diversity, adequacy, moderation and balance.

The main takeaway is that the prices, in purchasing power parity (PPP), rose significantly – a global average of 6 percent in 2020 and 11 percent in 2021 – but the impact was diluted where income growth was also robust and where food as a share of household budgets was lowest, as in higher-income countries with greater fiscal capacities.

“The uneven progress in the economic access to healthy diets cast a shadow of achieving Zero Hunger in the world, six years away from the 2030 deadline,” the SOFI report says.

“There is the need to accelerate the transformation of our agrifood systems to strengthen their resilience to the major drivers and address inequalities to ensure that healthy diets are affordable for and available to all. But there is also a need to assure people that can access and consume healthy diets,” said Torero.

Mapping the details

The global average cost of a healthy diet rose to 3.96 PPP dollars – a measure that compares purchasing power parity across economies – in 2022.

Subregional variations were considerable, ranging from a high of 5.34 PPP dollars in Eastern Asia to a low of 2.96 PPP dollars in Northern America. For Africa, the average price was 3.74 PPP dollars; for Asia 4.20 PPP dollars; for Latin America and the Caribbean 4.56 PPP dollars; for Oceania 3.46 PPP dollars and for Northern America and Europe 3.75 PPP dollars, with a sizable difference between Southern Europe, at 4.15 PPP dollars and Western Europe at 3.01 PPP dollars.

1.677 billion people living in lower-middle-income countries cannot afford a heathy diet, and the same holds for 503 million people living in low-income countries. Combined, these account for 77 percent of people unable to afford healthy diets.

People who cannot afford the least-cost healthy diet in their countries are likely facing at least some degree of food and nutritional insecurity and thus face the risk of swelling the ranks of the hungry as measured in SOFI’s traditional measures of chronic hunger as well as chronic conditions such as stunting and wasting.

FAO’s ongoing foray into gauging and tracking the cost of affordable diets offers an early warning indicator of sorts. As the alarm is greatest where countries’ fiscal capacities are weakest, and where the cost burden perpetuate itself by dragging down economic growth, the data in SOFI 2024 highlight the need for greater and more innovative investments in agrifood systems, the topic of the second section of the flagship report.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).