Kumasi, Feb 23, GNA - The Advisory Board of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), has vowed to ensure best practices to make the project a big success.

The MVP is a United Nations (UN) intervention, designed to help the poor in Africa out of poverty and its being piloted in Ghana at Bonsaaso. Mr Kofi Opoku-Manu, Ashanti Regional Minister and Chairman of the Board, said they would provide technical guidance for efficient implementation of the project.

Additionally, they were determined to scale up efforts to enable the entire Amansie West District to benefit from it. Presently, the MVP - Bonsaaso cluster, covers 30 farming communities. The Regional Minister, opening the Board's second general meeting in Kumasi, asked people in the area to be inspired by the high marks given to the Bonsaaso project by Ghana's celebrated diplomat, Mr Kofi Annan, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, brain behind the MVP concept, to work collectively to reduce the level of poverty in the district. The two together with other top ranking officials of the World Body inspected the Cluster in January, this year. Originally, the Project was to have ended in 2011 but has been extended by another five years.

Mr Opoku-Manu asked the district assembly to incorporate approaches and programmes of the MVP into its Medium Term Development Plan. The Cluster Manager, Mr Samuel Afram, said there has been significant rise in household and village level agricultural production, education and health of the people in the communities. He said through distribution of subsidized fertilizers, improved seeds and intensified agricultural extension services the farmers have expanded the sizes of their farms. Hospital attendance had gone up resulting in zero maternal deaths since the last two years. 23 Feb. 10