Citifmonline
By: Franklin Badu Jnr
A Moroccan human rights activist, Saadani Maoulainine is advocating for more targeted social intervention programmes to reduce poverty in Africa.
She argues that a well-planned strategy designed to address the basic needs of poor people will enable the continent to achieve its developmental goals.
Speaking to Citi News on the side-lines of the recently held International Mayors summit, Saadani Maoulainine is convinced that if leaders on the continent pay more attention to the needs of the poor, a lot of vices in society could be reduced.
“We need to pay more attention to the needs of the poor. They have basic needs which requires the attention of the state or governance structure at each level of governance. For example in the Kingdom of Morocco, the government in the Southern provinces has introduced some targeted programmes that has improved the lives of the rural poor. They have been provided shelter and quality free education,” she said.
According to her, governments should also invest a lot of resources to improve the skills of citizens to provide them the requisite knowledge for the job market.
“We must ensure that we do not widen the gap between the rich and poor. We have to pay more attention to closing the gap because if we do not do that, we will threaten the security and survival of society,” she added.
Saadani Maoulainin expressed her appreciation to the government and people of Ghana for hosting the summit and stressed the need for Ghana and other African countries to meet regularly to share ideas on the development of the continent.
