Accra, May 26, GNA - Four communities in Accra have been identified as poverty endemic according to a Co-operative Housing Foundation International (CHF) report.

The Accra Poverty Map (APM), an initiative of CHF and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) which assessed the poverty situation in Accra in 2008/2009, identified the areas as Ga Mashie, James Town, Chorkor and Nima. It cited James town and Nima as being high poverty zones, whilst Airport Residential Area, Dzorwulu, Roman Ridge, North Ridge and West Ridge were in the non-poverty zones.

The report indicated that Accra had 79 communities with the highest number of people per community found in La with 104,868 and the lowest in the South Industrial Area with 1,692 and 27,090 as the average population per community.

The APM indicated the various dimensions of poverty in Accra and presented spatial data for the city on a number of themes including demography, housing, solid waste, water and income generation, using data from the 2000 Population and Housing census and a survey of selected households.

It further identified and analysed the nature and characteristics of poverty at the community level within the AMA area and how to m1ake it possible to channel resources to alleviate poverty in poverty stricken enclaves of the city.

Receiving a copy of the map, the Mayor of Accra, Dr. Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, said the lack of comprehensive and sufficiently detailed information about the city had thwarted the efforts of city authorities to make progress in the city-wide planning and urban renewal, adding that the poverty mapping exercise had deepened his understanding of the problems confronting Accra.

He said he was optimistic that the map would provide a broader framework for city authorities and other development actors to access conditions of the population at the community level and provide a solid basis for recommendations on how best to reduce poverty and improve the living conditions of the city's poor.

He invited the CHF to a summit scheduled for May 2011 in New York and encouraged the public to participate and also have stands at a policy fair to be organised by the AMA from June 1st to 3rd on the poverty situation in Accra.

Ms Sandrine Capelle-Mannuel, Country Director of CHF, noted that the APM exercise was one of such approaches to unearth emerging challenges that confronted the city and expected to enhance pro-poor programmes that reached the poor and to minimise the leakage of the benefit of such programmes to the non- poor.

Designed to help policy makers and city managers identify areas in the city that had the greatest number of people and the highest poverty rates, it also aimed at identifying pockets of poverty across Accra, including defects in service provision and the state of the poor in depressed communities, she said.

The APM, she said, was designed to help policy makers and city managers to identify areas in the city that had knowledge on the greatest number of people and the highest poverty rates.

It also aimed at identifying pockets of poverty across Accra, including defects in service provision and the state of the poor in depressed communities. 26 May 10