Two oil exploration companies recently said the discovery of an estimated three billion barrels of oil is set to propel the country into the league of the big African oil producers when production starts in 2010. Some 18.2 percent of Ghana’s 22 million people are deemed “extremely poor” by the UN as they live on less than a dollar a day, struggling to access basic social services like health, water and education.

By early evening the corridors of the Soldier Bar brothel in a busy commercial area of Accra were already filled with long queues of young girls and their clients, when heavily armed police stormed in, arresting all 160 of the girls. The targets of the raid, which took place in February, were the 60 girls among them who were aged under 16 who had been recruited according to brothel manager Matthew Abanga to service the brothel's teenage clients.

The international community has been urged to pile pressures on the Ghanaian government and the UNHCR to protect the human rights of refugees in Ghana. The followed the arrest, detention and alleged mistreatment of protesting Liberian refugees in Buduburam refugee camp on Monday.

We are writing to you to announce a writers' conference in Ghana, July 3rd-18th of this year. We hope to get the word out. The flier is attached here.

SABLE in London, U.K. and KwaniTrust in Nairobi, Kenya are two of many organizations that we are partnering with internationally.

We will be based at the New York University Campus in Accra, Ghana. We will waive the conference for any applicant based on the African continent or charge a nominal amount, depending on a given applicant's financial circumstances and need. We want to encourage any writer interested in coming to the conference to apply for travel funds, monies to cover the airfare.

We are especially anxious to get the word out to writers in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Information about our organization and the 2008 conference is available at The web site will be updated next week

Traditional female leaders in Ghana are beginning to open their communal gatherings to discussions of women's legal rights to abortion. The country has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the continent, but women are dying in ignorance of it.

A few days ago the members of RAINS came face to face with a Norwegian company called BioFuel Africa. In the words of Mr Finn Byberg, Director of Land Acquisition for BioFuel Africa a subsidiary of Bio Fuel Norway (http://www.biofuel.no) at a public engagement session in Kusawgu, a village in the Mid-Volta River Basin in the Northern Region of Ghana, “developing the largest jatropha plantation in the world, in Ghana”.

For Christiane and Yannick Milev, tackling teen pregnancy is a family affair. Together the mother-and-son team run Village Exchange Ghana, a community-based NGO offering support to young mothers and other youth in Ghana’s rural Volta region. "Teen-age pregnancy programmes used to focus only on girls – what not to do or punishment – no support," Ms. Milev says. “Men go on with their lives without consequences. Men have all the power and decision-making and don’t ask women what they think or want.”

Environmental groups have for several years accused mining companies in Ghana of destroying the environment. In a strange twist of events, it now seems that farmers have turned to illegal mining as a result of the devastation of the pollution caused by mining activities. Ghana’s ranking among gold-producing countries by volume improved from 11th in 2005 to 10th in 2006. Production from new mines such as Chirano Gold Mines and Newmont Ghana Bold have offset the effects of the declining output from established mines, according to Jurgen Eijgendaal, president of the Ghana Chamber of Mines.

A digital camera belonging of Fred J. A. Ibrahim, a Kumasi correspondent of the Daily Guide, a privately-owned Accra-based newspaper, was on January 11, 2008 destroyed by Yaw Amankwah, a photographer of Manhyia Palace, official seat of the Asante Kingdom.

A terminally-ill Ghanaian woman who was forced to return home after her UK visa expired is struggling to receive the medical treatment she needs. Ama Sumani, 39, who has cancer and requires kidney dialysis, was removed from a Cardiff hospital and flown back to her home country on Wednesday.

After intense protests and controversy over the trade partnership agreement between the European Union and Africa Caribbean and Pacific countries, Ghana government decided to sign what is referred to as an interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)with the European Commission. The trade deal, which made Ghana the second after Cote d’Ivoire, would immediately eliminate tariffs on virtually all of the country’s exports to Europe and on 80% of imports from Europe over 15 years.

Ghana is to host the 12th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XII) in April 2008, under the theme 'Science, Technology, Innovation (STI) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)s for Development (ICT4D)'.

The cost of malaria treatment is crippling Ghana's health budget, Ghana’s Health Minister, Major (retired) Courage Quashigah, told an annual health summit in the capital Accra on Tuesday. The cost of treating malaria this year amounted to US $772.4 million. This amount that equalled to the Ghana's entire health budget for 2008, represents 10% of the country's entire Gross Domestic Product for 2006.

President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana has challenged auditors to fashion out multifaceted approaches to combat the nature of the threat posed by fraud and economic crime, which had the ability to erase gains made by government at improving public sector financial management.

As in countries throughout Africa and around the world, the abuse of women and children continues to be a challenge for authorities in Ghana. Recognizing traditional police forces were ill equipped to deal with such cases, the Ghana Police Services established the national DOVVSU unit more than a decade ago.

A group of teachers in the Tema Municipality in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana on November 15, 2007 threatened to embark on an indefinite strike, should the Ghana Education Service (GES) fail to reinstate Helen Abrokwa, former head teacher of Padmore Street Primary School who has been demoted for granting interview to the media.

The 3rd International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training will take place from May 28 to 30, 2008 in Accra, Ghana. eLearning Africa is the premier gathering place for all experts and stakeholders engaged or interested in ICT-based education, training and development on the African continent. Everyone concerned with eLearning in Africa is welcome to share and learn. We encourage practitioners and academics engaged in an African context to apply by submitting a proposal. Deadline for receipt of all proposals is Friday, December 7, 2007.

On February 22, 2007, the Ghanaian Parliament passed the long awaited Domestic Violence Act (DV Act). Although the original bill specifically prohibited marital rape, parliament bowed to public pressure and removed the provision, leaving husbands free to rape their wives with impunity. Marital rape constitutes a violation of women's human rights. The Ghanaian parliament should act immediately to expressly make marital rape a crime, writes Nancy Kaymar Stafford in this forthcoming publication.

Artists for Human Rights recently presented its International Human Rights Hero Award for 2007 at the Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood, Los Angeles USA. among the recipients of this year’s award was Sammy Jacobs Abbey, Director of the International Centre for Conflict and Human Rights Analysis (ICCHRA). His 2007 International Human Rights Hero Award was in recognition for successfully implementing Human Rights Education and leadership program in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, at the United Nations and all over the world, providing hope to thousands of youth and potential leaders.

Over 500,000 people in Ghana's rural and peri-urban communities are benefiting from the establishment of about 69 Rural Business Centres (RBCs) aimed at connecting the communities to the outside world and also to educate them on the uses and benefits of ICTs. The centres, established under the Ghana Telecom's eCommerce and Renewable Energy (eCARE) programme has been running since 2003 with just about three of such centres piloted as at 2005.