Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Eastern Regional Minister, on Thursday said all strategies involved in poverty reduction must aim at empowering girls and women for a sustainable livelihood. He said there were many girls and women who had no skills let alone means of livelihood and all those factors contributed to the high poverty levels in the country. He therefore called for a concerted effort in addressing that issue which was paramount if poverty reduction was to be achieved. According to the Regional Minister, the continuous neglect of girls and women through systematic training programmes posed a big threat to all strategies adopted for national poverty reduction programmes. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo was speaking at a meeting with the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Alex Asamoah and executive members of the Social Investment Fund (SIF), prior to inspection and inauguration of SIF projects in Koforidua. He therefore urged the SIF urban poverty reduction programme to channel its resources into the empowerment of disadvantaged girls who for some reasons could not make it through formal education since focus on formal education alone could not achieve any significant reduction in poverty. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo urged the SIF to re-direct its attention to the institutionalization of sponsorship packages to disadvantaged girls through vocational training since the developmental projects alone without a significant empowerment of girls would not impact on poverty reduction. Dr Jones Quartey Papafio, Board Chairman of SIF, corroborated the views of the minister saying that the rate at which many young girls were selling phone cards on the streets was alarming and raised the point for support. He said the SIF would therefore put in a comprehensive programme to ensure that the laudable idea of the minister was adopted so that women empowerment would be a part of the urban poverty reduction strategy of the SIF. Mr Justice Akuffo Henaku, Zonal Coordinator for Eastern and Volta Regions, said apart from the construction of projects selected by the people themselves, there were micro-finance loans being disbursed to women to enhance their businesses. He said SIF had realized that accessing of the loans from the banks were cumbersome to small business enterprises such as food sellers and therefore looked as if there was no support for them. Mr Henaku indicated that SIF was taking steps to ensure that all traders no matter how small their businesses had access to the loan facility. Source:GNA