More than 1,200 children who were sold by poor families on the coast of Ghana to fishermen on Lake Volta will be returned to their parents next week in an operation organised by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM). The programme is voluntary and involves measures to boost the incomes of parents who sold children into virtual slave labour for as little as US $180 to dissuade them from continuing the practise.

When Ken Amoah established a child-welfare organisation eight years ago, he sought to rescue child labourers from a life toiling in the streets. The foster home, which is located in the New Achimota section of Accra, was set up to provide needy children with a place to live, an education - and a respite from work. Amoah has delivered on some of his goals, yet his prime donors - an arm of the Danish government called Danish International Development Assistance - are wondering whether he - and not neglected children - is the main beneficiary of his Accra-based organisation, Children In Need Ghana.

A national child labour survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that over 28 per cent of children of school going age are out of school with most of them working. It further showed that about 1,273,294 children are engaged in child labour throughout the country.

Exhilda Natogma (Not real name) is a nurse at a mission hospital of one of the popular Pentecostal churches in Madina a suburb of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. Exhilda fell in love with one of her church elders who was studying at a professional Institute in Accra. After six months of a hot romance, Exhilda discovered that she was pregnant and the Elder quickly suggested an abortion.

ICONNECT GHANA is a quarterly online, offline and e-mail knowledge service designed to enable the use of ICTs as a tool for Ghana's development.

This study of Nkrumah provides a compelling account of one of the most significant politicians in post-colonial Africa. Hadjor argues that although Nkrumah's experiment failed, it continues to have relevance for Africa today. He also illustrates how certain mistakes were unavoidable during Nkrumah's time. He writes of the clarity of Nkrumah's vision, which helps throw light on the problems many Africans face today. In this important way, Hadjor's reworking of the essential themes of Nkrumah's presidency contributes to the debate on the political future of Africa and promises to give focus to the recent revival of interest in Nkrumah.

Ghanaian health authorities have ordered anti-retroviral drugs from undisclosed sources to cater for the treatment of 2000 HIV/AIDS patients for the next two years.

The brain drain of health professionals is proving to be a distressing economic headache for the country. According to the State of Ghanaian Economy Report 2002 a total of 3,157 health professionals left the country between 1993 and 2002, representing over 31 percent of health personnel trained in Ghana during the same period.

Third World Network Africa, a non-profit advocacy organisation is looking for a lead programme officer for its Gender Unit. TWN-Af´s work involves research, communications and campaigns around economic, social justice and development policy issues. It seeks a greater articulation of the needs and rights of people of the third world, especially marginalised groups, a fair distribution of the world's resources and forms of development that are ecologically sustainable and fulfil human needs.

During his inaugural address on January 7, 2001, President Kufuor declared that his government would pursue a policy of "Zero Tolerance for Corruption". It was an effective sound byte which was immediately latched on to by the nation. But as the months roll by, we can begin to ask, says this commentary in the Accra Mail, whether it is feasible, or even desirable to predicate human development on just the total elimination of corruption.

Water experts have predicted that a worldwide water shortage is set to worsen significantly over the next 25 years with billions of people affected by an unprecedented global crisis. The experts also forecast that women and children, especially in Africa, are the group that would be hit hardest. During a recent international workshop on the privatization of essential services participants sent distress signals that women would be the worse affected if water were put in private hands.

The rampant presence of corruption in a country seriously undermines its management and economic development, the executive director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Prof. Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, has said.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, Professor E. Gyimah-Boadi, has said that the government's commitment to the policy of zero tolerance for corruption is gradually waning in the light of its failure to significantly empower and resource official anti-corruption and countervailing agencies.

UK-based Hermann Chinnery-Hesse was on holiday in his home country of Ghana when he accepted a school friend's bet to try to make his fortune in West Africa. In this article, Briony Hale describes how - starting with a battered old personal computer in his bedroom - Hesse developed Ghana's own software firm which, for the moment at least, is holding Microsoft at bay.

The National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) has received three-four wheel drive vehicles and other equipment as part of a 220,000- dollar grant from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), a member of the global network of the Soros Foundation.The equipment include computers, video cameras and binding equipment. OSIWA's grant, which was made through the Access to Justice Initiative of the Legal and Justice Programme, would enhance the Commission's capacity to conduct public hearings in the regions and provide greater citizen access to the services of the Commission nationwide.

Minister of Women and Children's Affairs Gladys Asmah has called for the concerns of women to be highlighted, noting that although women produced about 60 per cent of the foodstuffs in the country, many were illiterate and poor.

A coalition of 13 Ghanaian organisations need a global outpouring of citizen support for forest reserve protection. The Ghanaian coalition that opposes mining in the forest reserves is working with villagers on a variety of projects for sustainable economic development as an alternative to mining. They charge that five mining companies, including industry giant Newmont, got away with illegal mineral explorations in the forest reserves under the former administration. You can respond to this urgent request for international solidarity from the people of Ghana who have already suffered too much from irresponsible mining.

Under the general direction of the Project Field Team Leader in Ghana, the candidate will provide technical assistance on local development for the CIDA Community-driven Initiatives for Food Security (CIFS) project. This project seeks to achieve a sustainable increase in household food security in the 7 districts of the Eastern Corridor, Northern Region of Ghana.

In a new grassroots movement to combat the corporatization of water, organisers gathered here in mid-May for their first annual water forum. Titled "Securing the Right to Water in Africa," the event brought together various groups in Africa who oppose growing efforts by multinational corporations and lending institutions to privatize water. The World Bank has set its sights on Ghana as a poster child for water privatisation in Africa. Under Bank loan requirements, monthly water rates have skyrocketed for the average Ghanaian. Now, the Bank is demanding the country privatise its system. A coalition of non-profit groups and grassroots protesters have delayed the plan for two years.

As public concern over the current bill on government procurement in the Ghanaian parliament gathers momentum, it has emerged that an earlier instrument prepared by Ghanaian procurement experts which would ensure genuine accountability while promoting domestic enterprises was jettisoned by the World Bank. In the place of this, World Bank officials almost single-handedly crafted the current bill, which the experts say sacrifices accountability for the primary purpose of granting foreign companies unparalled access to government procurement in Ghana, and to the detriment of domestic businesses.