The chiefs and people of the New Juaben traditional area will use this year’s cerebration of the Akwantukese festival to initiate and sustain implementation of the award-winning Root-based Economic Development (r-BED) Model, which was propounded by the Omanhene of the area Daasebre Oti Boateng and have been hailed across the globe.
This was announced by the Omanhene of the traditional area Daasebre Oti Boateng II at the mini durbar of chiefs and people of the area to mark Akwasidai at Koforidua over the weeked.
This year’s Akwantukese Festival of the people of the New Juaben traditional area of the Eastern Region would be held from October 6 to November 23.
He said the decision was taken at the Traditional Council’s meeting held at the Omanhene’s Palace on Friday, July 12, 2019.
The Akwantukese Festival is celebrated by the people of New Juaben traditional area to mark the grand migration of the people from Juaben in the Ashanti Region.
The (r-BED) model is aimed at building sustainable community development through the reduction of poverty, the provision of basic needs such as housing, food, clothing, health and education and more importantly the involvement of the active citizenship in their own development.
Daasebre Otti Boateng noted that the Traditional Council had agreed that each community within the traditional area would establish a Community Economic Development and Investment (CEDI) council, which would be run on sound business lines to generate employment and create wealth to advance the economic development of the communities.
“A Traditional Area Fiscal and Economic Development (TRAFED) Council will be established to coordinate the activities of the CEDI councils,” he added.
He explained that the CEDI councils together with their TRAFED Council would form a robust foundation, upon which the superstructure of community development governance in New Juaben traditional area, encompassing its communicative and operative impact, would rest on.
The Omanhene’s ideology of Root-based Economic Development (r-BED) Model, which forms part of his book Unity in Development and has been lauded at the London and New York book fairs is believed to provide a useful basis to replicate it, not only in other New Juaben traditional areas but also throughout the country.
By Nana Sifa Twum
