Mr Rockson Ayine Bukari made the call when some members of the Coalition paid a courtesy call to him at the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) to congratulate him for his appointment.

   Mr Bukari said the key challenges facing the Region were the land tenure system and education.

   He urged the Coalition to collaborate with the RCC to lobby with traditional authorities and the ‘Tindamas’,   the overseers of lands, for the release of lands for government projects.

  He said numerous pro-poor interventions being initiated by the government including the One Village One Dam, One District One factory, Planting Food for Agriculture among others may go through some challenges if communities refused to release land for the implementation of such projects.

   Whilst calling on the CSOs to partner the government by coming out with practicable ideas to assist implement the pro-poor government policies to alleviate the plight of Ghanaians, the Regional Minister also charged the CSOs to partner the Ghana Education Service to undertake monitoring and supervision of schools to check teachers absenteeism to class, to help reverse the falling standards of education.

  “I belief in finding practical solutions to problems and not theoretical and as CSOs who are major partners in development, you must focus your attention on assisting government to find practical solutions to problems”, Mr Bukari said.

  Mr Bismark Adongo Ayorogo, the Executive Secretary of the Coalition of SADA- CSOs, who commended the Government for its pro-poor policies, pledged the unflinching support of members for the implementation of the interventions.

  He said the SADA zones had very huge agricultural potentials and when supported to tap them it would help contribute 24 per cent of Ghana’s Domestic Product.

 Mr Ayorogo appealed to the government to exploit the SADA Master plan, which had earmarked all the agricultural potential areas in the SADA zones.

   “Adopt the SADA Master Plan which is a perfect match with the government’s agricultural and industrialisation policies.

    “In this plan there is an extensive Commercial Agriculture Investment Guide as a master piece to guide decision making in agriculture. Potential dams have been mapped out and soil and crop suitability types also detailed,” he said.

   Other areas the CSOs   advocated for the government to look at is the revamping of the defunct factories such as the Northern Star Tomato factory, the Meat factory and the Rice mill in the Region.

They also called for the establishment of Shea Plantation Board in the area and ensuring the release of the Government’s school feeding grants to the second cycle institutions in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.