Alfred Adjabeng wins African Youth SDGs Achiever of the Year Award

The African Youth SDGs Summit is the largest gathering platform for youth from across the African continent and beyond to discuss and assess the status of implementation of continental commitments to the Global Goals but also sharing ideas, critiques, results and challenge national governments to deliver on their promise. It is a summit that brings duty bearers and right holders together to reaffirm actions towards sustainable development on the continent from the perspectives of the continent’s largest population, the youth.

The summit hosted more than 1,000 delegates representing youth organizations and AU agencies, national governments, international development agencies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs, the private sector and SDGs actors to exchange experiences and good practices regarding the implementation of the SDGs and African Union Agenda 2063.

Bane of rural youth in agriculture

Rural young people are a great resource for local agriculture development, yet little is done to harness their potential. So, despite the huge arable land in rural areas coupled with the opportunities that the agriculture sector presents in these areas, rural young people are migrating to urban areas in pursuit of ‘unexisting’ jobs. Rural young people are the future of food security, yet around the world, few young people see a future for themselves in agriculture or rural areas.

Alfred Adjabeng Among 40 Young African Innovators to Attend Africa4Tech Conference in Morocco

Marrakesh Morocco will host 40 young Africa innovators for the Africa 4 Tech conference from the 2^nd of November to the 4^th of November. Africa 4 Tech Conference is a network of innovators and 72hs open innovation bootcamp to source, design and code innovative solutions for and from Africa.

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng is one of the 40 young innovators handpicked by the Africa 4 Tech committee of entrepreneurs, scientists, businessmen and women and conference partners.The Africa 4 Tech has been initiated by co-founders Stephan-Eloise Gras and Gilles Babinet.

Achieving #ZeroHunger in Schools: The School Farms Program’s Approach.

The Author: Alfred Godwin Adjabeng, School Farms 

School Farms  is a rural community-based school feeding support program that empowers local community schools to grow their own food whilst creating a space to help students gain practical skills, explore opportunities in Agriculture, reduce the feeding budget of the schools we work with and increase the nutritional value of food served to students.

I am Alfred Godwin Adjabeng, a hunger fighter in Ghanaian schools. Some 18 years ago, I was in the Primary School in an underserved community in Ghana. The experience I had while growing up inspired the work I do today.

Back in school, I had a friend called Ntumy Raymond who was gifted in the arts and crafts. He does it passionately and creatively. Raymond comes from a poor family and can barely secure his daily meals; lunch at school almost always eluded him.

Raymond aspired to be an engineer in future. I often shared my school meal with Raymond and when I am absent from school he is barely left with the hope of a secured meal. Raymond was often caught absentminded in class and most times with his head on the table. He is just hungry, nothing apart from that. He later dropped out of school to support his family get daily bread. What if Raymond could be afforded the opportunity to grow in a healthy school environment with a hope of a secured school meal?

How to Fight Hunger in Ghanaian Schools

I’m very optimistic about the prospects of funding school meals through harnessing local resources. It requires truthfulness, community cohesion and innovation. Communities hold the power to solve their greatest challenges. -Alfred Adjabeng

Over the last three years, since 2013, I have developed special interest in school feeding and I have spent these years in engaging communities to find sustainable solutions to the challenge of feeding students in schools. I have read extensively about researches that focus on providing alternative solutions to government-funded school feeding. I also appreciate to an extent some existing school feeding solutions ranging from the World Food Programme’s, Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) to Ghana’s National School Feeding programme. They all hold some prospects and can achieve more, I believe, if built on communities’ capacity and resilience to solve their own challenges with local resources. This to me is key to developing, and implementing any self-sustaining school feeding policy alternative.

“Why so many Investments, but little Impact” –Lessons from Northern Regions of Ghana

 Young People shared their views

There has been growing concerns about the dilapidated state of the three Northern regions of Ghana despite the “pour” of many grants, financial assistance and technical know-how to mitigate the socio-economic challenges experienced in these regions. The three Northern regions of Ghana are Upper East, Upper West and Northern Region.

I have a sincere passion for civic engagement and community development but for once frightened by the ongoing debate about the fact that ” the three Northern regions of Ghana would always remain the same irrespective of the socio-economic interventions”.

#“Charcoal Project” made Impact in my School.

“Simple ideas solve complex problems in #social entrepreneurship”

Change is Important

Back in Bishop Herman College (2009), we had a urinal that was located between the Science Block and a Staff Bungalow. As the General Infirmarian back then, I was always been queried by our teachers who came to teach and by my very good friend, Mr. Jesse, who had his bungalow close to the urinal.

The stench that came out of the urinal no matter the number of times we scrubbed was unbearable. I was always working towards getting an idea that would temporally solve the problem before the permanent relocation of the urinal since it was dated to be relocated some months away.