Accra, Aug. 21, - Professor Patrick A. K. Addy, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, today said the government is committed to seeking partnership with bilateral and non-governmental organisations on poverty and hunger reduction. This commitment is solid and cannot be derailed, Professor Addy said at the opening of a two-day international conference on the Second African Regional Meeting of Youth-Ending Hunger in Accra. The theme for the conference, being attended by 52 participants from Japan, Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Senegal and Uganda is ''the Role of the Youth in the Fight for Sustainable End of Hunger''. The youth-ending hunger project aims at working in partnership with communities and groups to reduce poverty and hunger on the African continent. Prof. Addy said his Ministry is prepared to co-operate with all agencies which believe in the tenets of the convention on the youth in New York at the World Summit on Children in 1990. He said ministry will create the necessary climate to enable the youth to get involved in projects which address poverty and hunger. Prof. Addy appealed to the Hunger Project (Ghana) to establish chapters of the Youth Ending Hunger. Mr Akihisa Tanaka, Japanese Ambassador in Ghana spoke against rural-urban migration of the youth which, he said, adversely affect agricultural production.

Professor Samuel Sefa-Dedeh, Country Director, Hunger Project (Ghana), described the youth as a critical resource for development and stressed the commitment of the project to work in partnership with the youth.

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