We are a leader in community-led development and grassroots innovation. For more than 40 years, we have worked with frontline activists, community organisations and individuals to help people to gain agency over their own lives – so they can move Beyond Aid. For United Purpose Ghana, inclusive, participatory governance is central to achieving this. Project title, Donor and value
Project summary
Breaking the poverty chain , Big Lottery Fund
This project aims to enhance the capacity of community members for advocacy and engagement with local duty bearers to deliver public goods and services, leading to improved access to, and quality of, primary education in Krachi East and Nchumuru Districts
£ 477,272.46 Partnership for Accelerated Local Economic Development in Brong Ahafo , EC € 882,433.91
This project contributes to promoting local economic development and job creation for 10,000 smallholder famers and 500 agro entrepreneurs in the Brong Ahafo region. It aims to enhance responsiveness and effectiveness in planning and delivery of local economic development by 4 District Assemblies as a result of increased citizen participation in governance and decision making.
Citizen participation for accountability in health service delivery , European Commission € 540,161.83
This project contributed to improving the effectiveness and quality of health service delivery particularly maternal health, in the Brong Ahafo Region by facilitating enhanced citizen participation in the planning and monitoring of health services delivery. The action established Social Accountability Monitoring Committees (SAMCOs) in 8 districts, which serve as platforms for Districts and Communities to share knowledge and discuss priority community needs. This involved training and supporting 200 community members as change agents in 40 communities to engage in maternal health and health governance issues at the community and district levels
Ghana is described as an African success story, with average annual GDP growth over 5%, and a democratic transition to power to the opposition party in 2016. Ghana was classified as a lower middle income country in 2010. Whilst there have been positive developments in the country, inequality has risen and growth has been centred in the southern regions. Despite efforts to deepen democracy and decentralisation, there is still limited real citizen participation in the planning, implementation and monitoring of public goods and services delivery in Ghana. Calls for accountability mainly come from a distance, aided by media, and collaboration between citizen groups and local government is minimal. This may in part be due to limited CSO involvement in key sectors including health. Our work has both focused specifically on accountability in maternal health care services, and local economic development. Women and the youth are particularly marginalized in governance and decision making.
620 community members in Volta region engaged in participatory planning with local government officials Improved access to electricity, potable water, health workers, and street lights in 34 Community Health centres in Brong Ahafo by facilitating citizen engagement in local governance 32 district assembly personnel and 56 members of the Brong Ahafo coalition of NGOs in health practice trained in maternal health and accountability 28 district assembly personnel in Brong Ahafo trained in participatory, multi -stakeholder approaches to developing Local Economic Development (LED) plans. We then supported all four participating MMDAs to develop plans 5 communities across Amaana, Nkoranza South now connected to the national grid following UP ’s work to facilitate accountability and dialogue between communities and MMDAs 20 communities in Volta region completed Community Score cards. 94% of citizen are happy with increased participation in decision making,
Focus Group Discussion for Children in Salamkrom doing their scoring
Action Plan for Salamkrom developed through the CSC process
Women’s FG in Krabonso
Capacity building-We work with communities to ensure they have the confdence and skills to hold duty bearers accountable for their decisions and actions. This includes the capabilities of participatory planning, public expenditure monitoring and effective advocacy. This process is inclusive and purposeful; for our programme on maternal health services we actively engaged women and teenage girls in the discourse. For example, through our CIPAH project we build the capacity of 4,277 community members to participate in Community Score Card exercises, through which citizens could discuss and prioritise issues around maternal health service delivery. Issues included availability of medicines, knowledge of and access to the National Health Insurance Scheme, cleanliness and set up of health facilities, and geographic proximity. These issues were then communicated to duty bearers through advocacy initiatives, with follow up improvements in health facilities contributing to a 50% decrease in maternal deaths, an increase in supervised delivery from 72.5% to 97% of deliveries. Facilitating collaborative change-Stimulating positive change requires action, understanding, commitment and ownership by government, communities, civic society, the private sector and other stakeholders. We facilitate MultiStakeholder processes to; 1) ensure activities are relevant to local needs and realistic in the context 2) ensure ownership and sustainability, as decisions are made collaboratively; 3) build partnerships and alliances with common goals and opportunities for dialogue and sharing resources. We train District Assembly personnel to understand the value of, and tools for engaging other stakeholders effectively. Through our BA LED project we trained 79 local government officials in the Local Economic Development approach and multi-stakeholder processes, then helped to facilitate a participatory planning process that involved local government, financial institutions, farmer based organisations, off-takers, agro-processors, and other SMEs. As a result, the district assemblies integrated key issues highlighted by communities (including access to improved agricultural extension services) into their medium term development plans. Knowledge and access to information– We understand that knowledge is power, and that access to information is key to communities being able to hold duty bearers accountable for their commitments, plans and budgets, as well as identifying when they don’t effectively reflect needs. We work with community members and organized citizen groups to build their understanding of the workings of the local government, commitments made in district development plans, available resources, and the means and channels of communicating with duty bearers in target districts. Information also includes available services (eg National Health Insurance) and the responsibilities of community members. Community meetings and local radio provide a means of raising public awareness of the planning, budgeting and implementation process for local development plans. Participatory Accountability—Planning; we facilitate town hall meetings and sub-zonal meetings to collect citizens’ views on key local issues (including health care delivery) and work to communicate these to duty bearers. Monitoring; we work with communities to develop simple, participatory monitoring tools. These include public expenditure tracking and participatory project monitoring tools. We also use community score cards, which are a two-way and ongoing participatory tool to assess, plan, monitor and evaluate service to positively influence the quality, efficiency and accountability of service delivery Building a sustainable platform for accountability—We build the capacity of the Brong Ahafo coalition for NGOs in health to sustain their advocacy for quality health services, so that accountability is institutionalised. Social Accountability Monitoring Committees are another key channel for sustained, organised community engagement. UP and partners help to establish, train and support these committees to bring about positive change at sub-district level.
We work with the Social Development and Improvement Agency (SODIA), a local organisation registered in 2000, with significant experience in Sustainable Agriculture and Food, Rights of Women and Youth, Governance, and Economic Development. SODIA lead on field level activities in this project, including supporting production, improved processing and marketing of cassava. Afram Plains Development Organization (APDO) - we have partnered with APDO since 2012. They are a local NGO that focuses on poverty alleviation and holistic community development in rural communities in the Afram Plains. APDO support our governance work through direct imple; mentation of activities including capacity building for communities and local government, and facilitating the CSC process. We work with District Assemblies, who lead on planning and policy making activities, as well as providing institutional leadership.