Military expenditure by developing states is usually interpreted within the context of its potential alternative cost-benefits to the state and, often, its links with sustainable development, however, tenuous. In this sense, Ghana is not particularly different from other developing nations. This is in the sense that military expenditure is usually subjected to inter-agency ‘debate’ and cost-benefit analysis of how such expenditure could have been alternatively invested in ‘other’ development projects.

Hundreds of non-governmental organisations operating in Ghana will be blacklisted at the end of March, if they cannot provide an adequate record of their activities. Kojo Amoakwe, Chief Director of the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment, explained to BBC Africa Live! that there are 3,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country and only 150 have submitted their annual reports and statements of accounts to the Social Welfare Department.

"Forestry needs to be fully integrated with other sectors in policy development, particularly agriculture", according to FAO Assistant Director-General, Forestry Department, Hosny El-Lakany. El-Lakany underlined the need "to end the isolation of forestry from mainstream development initiatives." The importance of forests in alleviating poverty and protecting the environment is increasingly being recognized, yet deforestation and forest degradation are continuing at an alarming rate, Mr. El-Lakany said.

Miss Melany Bokuma, Lawra District Director of Health Services has appealed to Ghanaians to do away with cultural practices that could spread HIV/AIDS. Speaking at the launch of the Lawra district HIV/AIDS activities, at Lawra, organized by the District AIDS committee, Miss Bokuma said the stoppage of such practices would go a long way in enhancing the health status of families and communities. She mentioned some of the practices as inheritance of widows of deceased relatives, female circumcision and polygamy.

Encouraging local producers to form co-operative groups has been an important part of development policy in Africa. Such co-operative projects can help to reduce poverty in remote areas and give members greater control over their livelihoods. However, the benefits may be short-term. A paper from the University of Middlesex draws on a survey of isolated regions of Ghana to assess the usefulness of producer’s co-operatives. The author found many examples of farmers working together without external support to negotiate prices with traders and to maintain roads required to get to markets. Trust and respect for rules are most apparent in areas where the authority of traditional chiefs and elders remains un-contested. Building trust and co-operation, the report argues, is a long-term process dependent on members being given the time and space to develop and enforce simple and flexible rules.

The appearance of Former President Jerry John Rawlings before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) in response to two subpoenas from the Commission came to an anticlimactic end after 30 minutes hearing on Thursday. The Chairman of the Commission, Mr Justice Kweku Etru Amua-Sekyi discharged Rawlings after the Former President had said he did not have a video and audio recordings of two events. Former President Rawlings was to produce a video recording of the torture and killing of some soldiers, who allegedly attempted to overthrow his government.

Ghanaian health experts began reviewing measures to control HIV/AIDS at a first ever National Research Conference on Wednesday following a new survey which showed that HIV prevalence rates were rising in the country's main cities. Ghana's National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), which conducts Ghana's HIV/AIDS Sentinel Surveys, determined in 2002 that the HIV prevalence rate in Ghana was 3.4 percent, one of the lowest in West Africa.

Domestically, Ghanaian democracy is thriving amidst a virulent opposition that is gearing to stage a come back to the political podium. Parliamentary and Presidential elections are billed for 2004 and the atmosphere is (as it has been since the 2000 elections) already rife with politics. Ghanaians seem to talk and live politics every day. Local FM radio talk shows have all been about politics, dominated by the scramble for visibility and consolidation of gains by officials, supporters, or sympathizers of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the opposition and former ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). The picture of Ghana painted above is quite rosy, but is the impression as positive under the surface? This article takes a cursory look at the strengths of the present Ghanaian dispensation, the stakes, and the grey areas of the Ghanaian drive towards democracy and economic consolidation as a West African peace house.

The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice George Kingsley Acquah, says he is determined to fight against any form of corruption and indiscipline within the Judicial Service. "I cannot eliminate completely allegations of corruption within the judiciary on the eve of my assumption of office but I will ensure that corruption is controlled", he said last week.

Ghanaian women's rights groups have called for stronger laws against female genital mutilation (FGM) following two landmark rulings in northern Ghana against the traditional practice.

A judge in northern Ghana has sentenced a 70-year-old woman to five years in prison for violating a ban on circumcising girls, saying the tough sentence should deter an "outmoded custom." Ghana in 1994 outlawed the practice of cutting away parts of girls' sexual organs, but the long-held rite of passage has continued in parts of West Africa, mostly in rural areas where education campaigns are only beginning to reach largely illiterate and highly traditional populations. Prosecution is rare, throughout West Africa.

Ghana earlier this month began providing antiretroviral treatment to some HIV-positive people living in the country, Reuters reports. Sekyi Amoah, director-general of the Ghana AIDS Commission, said, "We started providing free antiretroviral drugs to patients in four hospitals around the country this month. Our target is to have 6,000 people on the drugs each year over the next two years."

Could information communication technologies (ICTs) improve learning in rural Africa? When exposed to new technology, how do children, adults and teachers use it to represent their lives and opportunities?

Whilst it is children working in carpet, clothing and sports equipment industries that grab the headlines, the majority of working children actually labour on farms operated by their own families. What explains the apparent paradox that children in households with land are often more likely to be in work and less likely to be in school than kids from families without land?

The Executive Secretary of Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local branch of Transparency International (TI), has revealed that the Ghana government failed to show up at the Mexican city of Merida to sign the United Nations Convention against corruption last month. According to the GII Executive Secretary, Mr. Daniel Batidam, the UN required every member country to be represented by top government executives such as the President, the Foreign Minister or the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice for the signing and possible ratification of the convention. In Ghana, the President had mandated the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Paapa Owusu Ankomah, to attend the ceremony and sign on behalf of Ghana.

Down a steep hill, on the edge of the deep green forest that encircles this village in Central Ghana, a man with a strange growth on his upper arm lies on a wooden bench in great pain. Mary Agykpomaa, a local healer, has just cut a hole in his shoulder and another one in his chest. Now she's squirting a strange potion into one hole and watching it ooze out of the other. Meanwhile, Osei Darkwa, a genial 43-year old man with a slight paunch and vast ambitions, is strolling around, taking pictures of the patients with his digital camera. Soon he'll upload them to his webpage, complete with Java scripts, Flash animation, and a soundtrack of African drummers. "I want the world to know her," he says.

A section of the Ghanaian media have undergone a one day training course on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) at the Ashanti regional capital Kumasi. The training workshop which was organized by the Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS) and PenPlusBytes (International Institute for ICTs Journalism) attracted twenty-five senior journalists from both the print and broadcast media in the northern part of Ghana: Upper east, Upper West, Northern Region, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Region.

Mr Andrew Awuni, Deputy Minister for Information, on Saturday denied that the Right to Information Bill was a subtle attempt by the Government to re-introduce the Criminal Libel Law. He said the claim was far from the truth, since the government would not work relentlessly to repeal the Law, only to re-introduce it in its third year in office.

Reporting to the West and Central Africa Regional Director this position is responsible for developing the capacity of the HFHI Ghana National Organisation and its board of directors in order to fulfil the purposes of Habitat for Humanity.

Statistics show that 12,365 health professionals left the country in search of greener pastures between 1993 and 2002. Of the figure 630 were medical doctors, 410 pharmacists, 83 laboratory technicians and 11,325 nurses including auxiliaries.