Over the past month, Luke has spent some time looking at the UN Human Development Report from 2010 in order to provide some background information about the area of Ghana that ATE works in. He has been able to pick out some particularly interesting facts that the report highlights, which you can see below or take a look at the full UN report on Lawra here…
Key points –
- P6 – There is a ‘severe threat to environmental stability, and natural resources conservation for future generations’. This is potentially due to the extended dry season, bushfires, dependence on firewood, inappropriate farming practices, soil erosion and livestock overgrazing.
- P8 – The climate between April and October is the only time in the year with suitable amounts of rainfall for farming.
- P9 – Christianity is the most dominating religion with over 56000 (57%) professing their faiths. ‘Traditional African religion’ follows with over 35000 (36.5%), while over 4000 (4.2%) Muslims reside in the area.
- P8- Population in Lawra according to the National Census in 2000 is at 87,500 people with over 576,500 living in the Upper West region overall.
- P12 – over 75% ‘dump’ their refuse rather than finding alternative, safer practices.
- P17- Agriculture accounts for 80% of the Lawra District economy.
- P17 – Between 2003 and 2005, there were on average 64 days of rainfall in Lawra district
- P20 – Poverty incidence in Lawra at 100% compared to national rate of 28% (2006), and Upper West rate of 88% (2006). Upper West is the poorest region in Ghana.
- P21 – An estimated 83% of the working population of Lawra is engaged in subsistence agriculture.
- P21 – Research indicated that each year there is a period of time where people eat less frequently (the hunger period). At its worst, this period lasts around 6 months, becoming more severe in the months of May and June. Households can struggle to afford even two meals a day.
- P24 – Many students travel for more than 1 hour each way to school every day including 19.5% of primary school students and 21% JHS students.
- P24 – Teacher to Pupil ratio in Lawra (42:1) is above the recommended rate of 33:1
- P34 – Lawra has 404 water boreholes, however 47 of these are non-working, however many of these working boreholes become unusable during dry season due to a lack of rain. This is particularly concerning as 71% of residents use boreholes as their main source of water for the household
- P35 – 68% of household members don’t have access to or use a toilet.