EMPOWERMENT FOR LIFE PROGRAMME PHASE III
ANNUAL REPORT 2017
IMPLEMENTED BY
FUNDED BY
WORKING TOGETHER TO CREATIVELY SOLVE COMMUNITY PROBLEMS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The Board of Directors, Management and Staff of Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) wih to express our profound gratitude to our valued donors, partners, communities, groups, religious religious leaders and our revered traditional authorities for their unflinching support throughout this period. We acknowledge the contributions and support of the MMDAs, departments of the Assembly and all agencies.
Our special acknowledgement goes to all our development partners. particularly DANIDA and Ghana Friends.
We finally wish to acknowledge all those who have contributed in diverse ways, directly and indirectly towards the success of our development interventions 2017.
WWW.GDCAGHANA.ORG
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WWW.YEFL-GH.COM
WWW.GHANAVENSKAB.DK
FOREWARD The E4L Programme Phase III has successfully sailed through the third year of its implementation period, rising to the challenge of contributing towards making Ghana a democratic and just country, where all citizens have an influence on political processes and resources are distributed equally.
Lending support to civil society groups and organisations in the northern regions to enable them to actively drive and influence social, economic and political development initiatives and pursue their interests and rights has been the development objective of the programme.
The E4L Programme keeps building on the history of successes chalked since its inception in 2015 without losing focus on key learnings for strategic changes in its design and implementation. The success of the programme can be linked to the unique partnership between Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) on one part and their Danish counterparts, the Ghana Friends (GV) on the other part. ALHAJI OSMAN ABDEL-RAHMAN E4L PM AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GDCA
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To achieve it, the partners calved out four well thought out immediate objectives anchored on three main thematic areas namely education, food security and livelihoods and youth empowerment, with Governance and Gender as cross-cutting themes. There is evidence of the programme’s contributions towards building a vibrant civil society in Northern Ghana, capable of mobilizing citizens in the communities to address needs of the citizens. The programme’s success can also be linked to the Community Driven Social Change (CDSC) employed as its main development change approach which hinges on Community Driven Development, Communication for Social Change (CFSC) and REFLECT. These constitute the theory of change methodology of the programme. The CDSC focuses on facilitating dialogues in communities and among community groupings for them to analyze their community needs, identify resources, both internal and external, and draw action plans with the bottom-up principles in mind. The programme recognizes that success is largely founded in partnerships and will therefore leverage more on strategic collaborations with civil society groups for transformative actions for greater impact going forward. I trust that as you read this report you would be abreast of our best practices, key achievements and lessons recorded during this implementation year.
ALHAJI OSMAN ABDEL-RAHMAN E4L PROGRAMME MANAGER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GDCA
“Our children’s dreams drive our actions for change” - PTA Chairman of Baakondi Junior High School
TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgement i Foreward iii Acronym vii Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Promoting Quality Education Through Organised Groups 5 Ensuring Food Security And Sustainable Livelihoods 9 Creating Safe Spaces and Opportunities For Youth Development 12 Strengthning CBOs and Networks Through Good Governance Practices 15 Mainstreaming Gender 17 Key Results Under Immediate Objectives
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Lessons Learnt 27 Conclusion 29
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ACRONYM ACT Advocacy and Communication Team CBE Complementary Basic Education CHRAJ Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice CSOs Civil Society Organizations DCEs District Chief Executives DCs District Co-ordinators DEOC District Education Oversight Committee DEOT District Education Oversight Team DoA Department of Agriculture DOVVSU Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit DPP District Partners Platform E4L Empowerment for Life FAW Fall Army Worm FSCBOs Food Security Community Based Organizations GDCA Ghana Developing Communities Association GES Ghana Education Services HDWs Hand Dug Wells KLOE Key Lines of Enquiry LC Local Committees MERT Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Team MMDAs Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies MMDCEs Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives MoE Ministry of Education MoFA Ministry of Food and Agriculture NCCE National Commission for Civic Education NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations PM Programme Manager PME Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation PTA Parent Teacher Association RC REFLECT Circles RF REFLECT Facilitators SADA Savannah Accelerated Development Authority SfL LCs School for Life Local Committees SfL School for Life SMC School Management Committee TAs Technical Advisors TOCAT Technical Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool TOs Technical Officers TOT Training of Trainers VA Village Agents VfM Value for Money VSLA Village Savings and Loans Associations YC Youth Centres YCMCs Youth Centre Management Committees YEA Youth Employment Agency YEfL Youth Empowerment for Life YGs Youth Groups YSU Youth Speak Up
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Working together to creatively solve community problems
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2015, the Empowerment for Life (E4L) Programme entered its third phase, building on the achievements and experiences of the previous phase. Being implemented by Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) with funding from DANIDA and Ghana Venskab (GV), the E4L Programme seeks to contribute towards making Ghana a democratic and just country, where all citizens have an influence on political processes and resources are distributed equally. Three years into the third phase, the programme has made significant contributions towards the changes occurring in the operational districts and communities. It is amazing to find the beneficiary civil society groups and organisations or CBOs improving upon their technical and organizational capacities as well as advocacy, networking and dialogue skills. Importantly, their knowledge on local governance and 1
decentralization in Ghana is improving tremendously and this is helping them to advocate and act on their own to engender their desired changes. Some of these changes can be seen in terms of improvement in the involvement of women in decision-making and in leadership positions in the CBOs and communities, women’s access to and control over fertile lands, women and men’s roles in the households and communities, transparency and accountability, self-employment among the youth, increasing yields and household income among others. Although the change of government in Ghana in 2017, which led to change of leadership at various levels including the district level, affected activity implementation, there are ample evidences to suggest that: i. All the 240 beneficiary CBOs were well organised and 72% of them could
identify their community priority problems and engaged duty bearers to address the issues. They addressed issues relating to education, community development, youth, electricity, food security, potable water etc. More than half of the CBOs had gained recognition by the District Assemblies and other duty bearers in their districts and importantly, duty bearers are responding to the demands of the CBOs. The education groups (PTAs and SMCs) promoted good school governance, transparency and accountability which led to improved quality teaching and learning. ii. Fifty-one young persons established new businesses as a result of the E4L entrepreneurship boot camp training. Out of that, 89.5% of the businesses recorded remarkable growth and employed others. iii. Members of beneficiary farmer groups experienced bumper harvest through the application of improved agronomic practices learnt through the Farmer Field 2
Schools introduced by E4L Programme. And this translated into increased household income. Women groups have improved their livelihoods as they applied knowledge on processing of shea, soya beans, and rice among others facilitated by E4L Programme. iv. The Ghanaian Partners, Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), have improved capacities in contributing to delivering the Programme’s outcomes within the year. They have become more visible in their roles in national advocacy. GDCA and YEfL won three (3) and one (1) new projects respectively, during the period to contribute to addressing local and national issues. The evidences suggest that the strategies and methodologies of the E4L Programme worked well in the year under review and generated the desired changes anticipated in line with the programme goals and objectives.
INTRODUCTION The Empowerment for Life Programme (E4L) Phase III started in January 2015 after going through two successful programme cycles. The Programme is implemented by Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), both Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Ghana, with funding from DANIDA and Ghana Venskab (GV). In 2017, the Programme marked its third year of implementation and it’s expected to run until the end of 2019. The intervention is mainly in the Northern Region, but uses evidence from its work to pursue advocacy at the national, sub-regional and international levels. In the Northern Region, the Programme covers five administrative districts, namely; Saboba, Mion, Karaga, Kumbungu Districts and Savelugu-Nanton Municipal.
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The Programme partners envisaged that by intervening with the E4L Programme, they will contribute to, support and lead national initiatives targeted at making Ghana a democratic and just country, where all citizens have an influence on political processes and resources are distributed equally. Specific to the Northern Region, the Programme interventions have an overall goal of facilitating Civil Society Groups and Organisations in the region to actively drive and influence social, economic, and political development initiatives and pursue their interests and rights by the end of 2019. To achieve these goals, the Programme works through four immediate objectives in three thematic areas; Education, Food Security and Livelihoods and Youth Empowerment, with Gender and Governance as cross cutting themes.
IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVES OF E4L PROGRAMME
Civil society groups and organisations have organisational capacity to mobilise their communities to address community issues and rights
Civil society groups and organisations have technical capacity to drive social and economic development processes
Civil society groups and organisations have access to and influence democratic processes and, advance their interests and rights through advocacy, dialogue and networking
Partner organisations have the institutional capacity to be strong and active players in civil society and promote the interests and rights of local CSOs and groups locally, nationally and internationally through advocacy, partnerships and networking
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PROMOTING QUALITY EDUCATION THROUGH ORGANISED GROUPS
Ensuring quality education requires the involvement of well organised and informed local civil society groups in the management and governance practices at the school, especially in the deprived districts. The E4L Programme works with the Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), School Management Committee (SMCs) and District Education Oversight Committees (DEOCs) in the implementing districts as key stakeholders in the promotion of quality education at community and district levels. The roles of these groups go beyond school management and governance issues to influencing local authorities and both formal and informal governance structures to put in place necessary and sufficient conditions in and outside school environments for better educational outcomes. During the reporting year, 5
the groups were able to influence the government and other stakeholders in different ways to put up infrastructure in schools within their districts. Some of the infrastructure provided by stakeholders included classroom blocks, teachers’ accommodation and classroom furniture. They also established bylaws and came up with sanctions to curtail lateness and teacher absenteeism. In Kumbungu District for example, six teachers who were abscent for number of days without genuine reasons had their salaries embargoed by the District Director of Education as a result of the DEOC’s influence, while the DEOC in Karaga District banned school children from loitering about during and after school hours. The actions of the DEOCs showed a demonstration of their ability to function as
a statutory body within the education sector. They have been able to build on the previous action plans and demonstrated their ability to apply the knowledge gained through the capacity training they had from E4LProgramme. The activities of SMC groups supported by the E4L Programme in 2017 contributed to increasing and strengthening their relationship with school authorities and , increased teacher attendance and improved engagement with GES and the District Assemblies.
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The effectiveness of the programme’s networking strategy passed the litmus test. The groups demonstrated their knowledge in networking skills by building synergies with others to pursue issues of common interest. The SMCs collaborated with their PTAs to organise education fora with the support of the staff of the District Directorates of Education and the District Assemblies to increase awareness on educational policies and initiatives carried out by the government.
The support of the District Directorates of Education and the District Assemblies also affirms the recognition they give to the CBOs. The participation of Traditional Leaders such as the Chiefs on community issues, contributed greatly to the realization of the action plans of the education groups. Most of the PTAs and SMCs’ interventions (Construction of extra classrooms, construction of teachers’ residence, etc.) were successful as a result of the effective involvement
of the traditional leaders. The SMCs and the PTAs in the E4L operational areas are becoming more aware of their mandate, roles and responsibilities in the development of education in their communities and government policies and interventions as a result of the trainings and facilitation processes provided to them by the E4L programme. The level of their engagement with duty bearers was higher in 2017 than the previous years.
Reading competition organised by Pong-Tamale youth and PTA 7
Teachers’ residence at Sung
PTA and SMC collaborate to build teachers’ residence in Sung One of the factors affecting effective teaching and learning in most rural communities is inadequate and in some instances, lack of teachers’ residence. This situation compels most teachers to commute to such communities to teach everyday. The lost of teaching hours and fatigue on the part of teachers after commuting long distances to school, warrant the pupils a field day, loitering around. Sung, a farming community in the Karaga District had such a problem to contend with, affecting the performance of pupils in the Sung D/A Primary School.The problem motivated the PTA/SMC of Sung D/A Primary School to mobilise the community to construct a five-bedroom house to address the teachers’ accommodation problem in their community. During a community dialogue session, inadequate teachers’ accommodation was ranked as the pressing need for the school. An action plan was then developed by the PTA/SMC executives with support from the E4L District Team. The groups mobilised resources to execute the action plan to the latter. This has not only bring relief to the teachers but also increased contact hours betweeen teachers and pupils and generally resulted to effective teaching and learning.
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ENSURING FOOD SECURITY AND SUSTAIBNABLE LIVELIHOODS When rural families have the ability to produce enough to feed till the next harvesting period and can boast of relieable sources of income to cater for other needs through out the year, the objective of ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods can be rated as near achievement. The E4L Programme has in its aproaches an embeded strategy towards improving food security and sustainable livelihoods and assisting communities to build more resilient and climate change adaptive capacities. The programme complements existing food security interventions through collaboration and networking with other stakeholders in the new context of climate change. Catalysing on the introduction of the Planting for Food and Jobs presidential initiative and the re-introduction 9
of the fertilizers and seeds subsidy programmes, E4L Programme in collaboration with MoFA and the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) shared the information on the two schemes with the CBOs. The CBOs used the information to engage with Agricultural Extension Officers and MoFA on the modalities of the programme and subsidy schemes and how they could benefit from the initiative. Farmers especially, in the E4L operational areas responded actively to the new knowledge on the Agricultural subsidy policies by registering at the various MoFA offices in the districts to access the package. quite affordable and accessible. The invasion of Fall Army Worm (FAW) was one experience, farmers would not forget.
It was first reported in the Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region during the 2016 farming season. In the 2017 cropping season however, all the ten (10) regions of Ghana were affected by the dreaded worm. The Northern Region was the hardest hit area in the savannah belt of the country coupled with its mono raining season. The effect of the worm infestation on crop yields in the region including the E4L operational districts would was much more devastating, but was partly mitigated by the knowledge CBOs gained from training sessions facilitated by the E4L programme in collaboration with Exten10
sion Officers on the early detection and management of the worm. The affected farmers had the farm inputs packages offered by the planting for food and jobs programme to depend on to replant in time within the season. Farmer groups working with E4L target districts were able to record increases in their production levels with others sustaining their output levels despite an outbreak of FAW during the raining season. The key factor propelling changes in attitude of farmers is their increased knowledge in improved agronomic practices.
“I had more maize and millet this year because I followed what the Agric Extension Agent told us at our meetings� - a farmer
Farming remains their most viable source of income followed by trading, animal rearing, then remittances and contributions from group members. The FSCBOs, in an event of a serious calamity in order of reliability, fall back on their own savings, take a loan or sell property. When these options are not readily available, they approach government or other philanthropic sources for support. These resilience strategies is reducing the impact of unexpected changes, stresses and shocks on the households. Aside training on good agronomic practices and post-harvest loss management, food security CBOs received training in product value addition and marketing to increase their production base and thus, widened their income net. Kayong women get better markets for their processed rice
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The E4L Programme provides training support to the youth to become entrepreneural and self – employed aimed at improving their livelihood
CREATING SAFE SPACES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT It is the strategy of the E4L Programme to have the Youth Centres (YCs) as umbrella organizations mobilizing youth for collective action. The programme can report that the YCs and youth groups have clearly defined purpose, methods of organisation and internal functioning. This implies that the YCs have mission, vision, objectives, constitution and action plans and can thus function effectively. It is also indicative that they are now able to meet regularly, keep records of meetings and now have skills to attract new members than last year. All these, they attributed to the training on strategic planning and other capacity building interventions they received from E4L. The organized nature of the youth groups and YCs makes them legitimate actors in the communities, districts and with relevant 12
stakeholders. Their legitimacy has facilitated their engagement with local duty bearers and increased their participation in decision making processes particularly at the community and district levels. The YCs and youth groups derive their legitimacy on the number of community development initiatives they have embarked upon including clean-up exercises, blood donation, reading competition and holding extra classes for students during vacations. This has also enabled them to attract new members to the youth groups and YCs. The challenges of youth representation in decision making processes and marginalization are being addressed. In addressing this challenge, many of the YCs and the youth groups had their capacities built which makes them legitimate actors in their communities.
The challenges of youth representation in decision making processes and marginalization are being addressed. In addressing this challenge, many of the YCs and the youth groups had their capacities built which makes them legitimate actors in their communities.
the release of the 2% DACF to the PWDs in the district and also advocated for the decentralization of the NHIS registration process to promote quality health care delivery.
Under the E4L Programme, youth are empowered to lead their own development agenda by demanding for accountability and access to basic services. In line with this, in the Kumbungu district for example, the youth were able to demand for
pacities of the YCs and the youth groups in leadership, ability to interact in their communities and to engage. Consequently, they were able to discharge their civic responsibilities to achieve ODF in six communities in Saboba.
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Significantly, the Programme has strengthened the ca-
“I am happy that I can use radio as one of the platforms to engage duty bearers in my community and district to respond to our needs.� - Ellen, CJ in Saboba District
The youth groups used their communicative skills and various platforms to address some of the structural challenges they face in their own communities. They were able to influence their community development agenda within their own means and capacities. For example, the youth in
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Kumbungu District advocated for community registration of the NHIS beneficiaries as well as the release of the 2% of the DACF to the PWDs and positive reponses from the responsible institutions. In Langogu and Nyansabgi in the Karaga District, the youth equally campaigned against bush burning.
STRENGTHENING CBOs AND NETWORKS THROUGH GOOD GOVERNANCE PRACTICES In line with the governance cross cutting thematic strategy, the CBOs and Networks have received a number of trainings on good governance, local governance and decentralization, as well as training of CBOs on civic education including the roles and responsibilities of relevant duty bearers and rights holders in democratic processes and human rights based approaches. The CBO Networks and groups were also trained in budget tracking, relevant government policies, structures and operations. The CBOs and Networks further received training on how to engage with relevant duty bearers, stakeholders and partners including the media. A total of 65 beneficiary CBOs received the training on good governance, local governance and decentralization under the governance cross cutting thematic area during the period. 15
These trainings have enhanced the CBOs knowledge on good governance and decentralization in Ghana. The strategy is also helping the CBOs to advocate and act on their own. CBOs now appreciate and demonstrate their understanding of the local government structures, the policies and practices of the District Assemblies, as well as their roles and responsibilities and the channels to follow to present their community priority needs to the District Assemblies. The CBOs have also become aware of some of the functions of the District Assembly and other local government structures (Assemblymen) and have subsequently engaged with these Assemblymen in their advocacy efforts. They have also mobilized their communities for engagement with duty bearers to advance their advocacy issues.
Relevant Observation The period has seen the introduction of Capital Project Monitoring (CPM) initiative in the E4L District. District Steering Committees (DSCs) have been inaugurated in each district. The DAs have accepted the initiative, lauded the idea and have so far shown willingness and support for it. The initiative will be an added advantage to the governance strategy where the CBOs together with other Stakeholders will monitor capital development projects of the DAs to ensure quality service delivery, accountability, transparency and increased responsiveness.
CBO having a community dialogue session 16
MAINSTREAMING GENDER TO REDUCE INEQUALITIES The programme can report that generally there are changes occurring in the programme operational districts and communities. Some of these changes can be seen in terms of improvement in the involvement of women in decision-making, involvement of women in leadership positions in the CBOs, women’s access to and control over fertile lands, women and men’s roles in the households and communities. The Gender strategy continues to provide guidance on how issues of women and men should be addressed. There has been a significant shift in the perception of communities about women; that is, women seen only as objects of control, with their roles limited to only household chores. The capacities of women to hold leadership positions and contribute actively during meetings 17
and community dialogue sessions, have improved compared to the past where leadership positions and discussions during meetings were greatly dominated by men. Women have begun occupying leadership positions in mixed groups. The positions of Chairperson, Magazia, Assistant chairperson, Secretary, wAssistant Secretary, Treasurer/ Financial secretary and Organizer are some of the positions held by women in the CBOs. The representation of women in leadership has also boosted the confidence of women to better articulate and speak on issues during community and group meetings. For instance, the Widows for Change and other women groups in Saboba now hold live radio discussions on their advocacy issues to educate and reach out to a larger audience.
Women ownership, access to and control over fertile land remain a topical gender issue in the programme districts. However, the continuous trainings and sensitization of the CBOs on gender issues resulted to a shift in the attitude of men towards women’s access to and control over fertile lands. Men gave out part of their productive lands to their wives and also assisted them to till the lands in the 2017 farming season. 18
Women groups sign MoU for reliable tractor services Some women groups in the Karaga District have taken the bull by the horn to arrange for tractor services which used to be a perennial problem. Every year, the female farmers would have to wait for their male counterparts to access the tractor services to plough their farms before the women get access to same services. This affects their productivity since most of them miss the best part of the weather needed for good yield. Access to tractor services is generally a challenge to most farmers in the remote communities in the E4L districts. The situation is worse when it comes to female farmers. However, with the step taken by women in the VSLA groups in Langogu in the Karaga District, the narrative could change if other women groups follow suit. The group had increased access to tractor services as a result of their engagement with tractor operators. The groups signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tractor Operator (Zaabuni Farms) and had over hundred acres ploughed on time for the women groups on credit. The women paid later when they had their VSLA share-out. The groups have gone through series of trainings that sought to build their organizational and technical capacities and also enjoyed the facilitating support of E4L Programme anytime they needed an assistance to help further a process that would inure to their benefit.
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Relevant Observation
Girl child access and retention in school is seen as a critical area deserving much focus and attention within the programme education thematic area. For this reason, the programme will now actively engage traditional authorities, religious leaders, school management and authorities and girl students to educate and sensitize them on the relevance of girl child education and its impact on community and national development. This praxis will constitute a step further in ensuring access to education for the vulnerable girls as well as meeting the gender parity index in enrolment for girls and boys. It will further increase enrolment; retention and completion rates of girls in school both at the basic and secondary levels. To better achieve this, girls in this category will need a lot of support in terms of guidance and counselling services to build their confidence level. 20
CBOs HAVE ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY TO MOBILISE COMMUNITIES TO ADDRESS COMMUNITY ISSUES AND RIGHTS
7 of every 10 CBOs on the E4L Programme initiated self-help projects in their communi-
Mobilising local resources to build cmmunity schools
Maintenance and building of teachers and nurses’ residence
Donating blood to community health centeres
Dredging of communty dams to improve on access to water
CBOs demonstrated good leadership, transparency and accountability in their work by holding their group leaders and duty bearers accountable for their stewardship
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8 of every 10 CBOs on the E4L Programme were mananged well by themselves and collectively promoted their rights and issues
72% of the 240 CBOs identified their community priority problems and engaged duty bearers to address the issues on education, community development, youth, electricity, potable water etc. Ninety (90) new community issues were been identified and action plans developed to address them in 2017, 41% increase compared to 2016
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CBOs HAVE TECHNICAL CAPACITY TO DRIVE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES
“We have improved knowledge on shea processing, rice processing, soya beans processing and soap making. We have improved on the quality of our products. This has also helped us to diversify our sources of income.” - Women’s group leader
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44% of 115 trained youth under E4L Programme became self-employed through the programme’s time-tested Bootcamp entrepreneurship model and as result contributed to the household incomes of their families
63% of 90 food security and livelihood groups applied improved agronomic practices learnt through the FFS introduced by E4L and have increased yield and household incomes 91% of the groups diversified income sources such as relying on their savings/VSLA, loans, sale of property, animals, borrowing from relatives as mitigation measures in case of shocks
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CBOs HAVE ACCESS TO AND INFLUENCE DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES AND, ADVANCE THEIR INTERESTS AND RIGHTS THROUGH ADVOCACY, DIALOGUE AND NETWORKING
More than half (63%) of the 240 CBOs have been able to get recognisation from their respective District Assemblies, and other duty bearers in their districts.
The duty bearers are responding to the CBOs demands for improvement in the delivery of services, provision of infrastructure, establishment of by-laws and changes in practices, transparency and accountability, human rights and democratic governance. As a result, 41% of the issues raised by the CBOs were acknowledged and responded to by duty bearers and service providers.
The farmer-based groups are pursuing their interests through associations and cooperatives. As at December 2017, 30% of farmer-based groups had advanced their interests through membership of associations or cooperatives. This offered them opportunity to get timely tractor services.
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PARTNERS HAVE STRONG INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY TO PROMOTE INTERESTS AND RIGHTS OF LOCAL CSOs AT ALL LEVELS THROUGH ADVOCACY, PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKING
GDCA signed a MoU and started a collaboration with SEND-Ghana for implementation of a project dubbed Grassroots Economic and Literacy Programme (GELAP) in Gushegu and Saboba districts.
#GDCA EVA
CUFCH PROJECT
PROJECT
ADAPTATION FUND PROJECT
The Government of Ghana, started implementation of the CBE policy in 14 districts in 2017 as a pilot to facilitate a takeover of the CBE programme.
GDCA and YEfL have become members of the SDGs platform at the regional and national levels. GDCA was selected as the Co-convener of the Northern Regional
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#YEfL
YOUTH PARLIAMENT PROJECT
SOME LESSONS LEARNT 1. Some traditional and religious practices (e.g. strict adherence to gender roles, polygamy, etc.) are so deep seated in some communities that it is clear that it will take time for such communities to accept women on equal bases. 2. Also, stereotyping and derogative remarks prevent some community members from embracing and practicing ideas that promote gender equality; for example, supporting their women at home with some chores to reduce the work load of the women. To mitigate these situations, Traditional Authorities, Opinion and Religious Leaders should be targeted in the sensitization and awareness creation on gender. Some key gender activities should include the traditional authorities and religious leaders. This is because they play a key role in bringing about the needed change in their commu27
nities and will thereforebe instrumental in facilitating the community members to embrace issues on gender. If the Traditional Authority and Religious Leaders participate in gender trainings and other activities and have a good understanding about issues on gender they are in a better position to get the community to comply. In addition, there is the need for the CBOs to have a sustained programme for engaging community members on gender issues. This will bring to the fore issues on gender and how to deal with them as a community. 3. The Women Groups are very enthusiastic about the VSLA and it is helping them to save and have access to credit. However, common to nearly all the groups is the little or lack of knowledge in basic literacy and numeracy skills in counting and keeping accounts of their savings.
This has compelled them to depend on the men which creates undue delays especially on the days of sharing the money. One way of supporting the Women Groups to be able to count and do simple arithmetic is to provide the women who have had some little formal education in the groups with basic skills in numeracy and literacy. 4. Working with CBOs as lead agents of their desiredchange promotes ownership and sustains the interventions. If CBOs are continuously supported by E4L to prioritise holding duty bearers accountable in the group’s operations and be facilitated to demand for accountability from duty bearers it will enhance ownership and sustain interventions as well as improve service delivery. 5. Working with the traditional system, structures and traditional leaders and in close consultation with the DAs and in collaboration with decentralized departments will 28
make the local government system authorities more responsive to community demands and priorities. 6. The Youth Parliament concept adopted by the Saboba Youth Centre can promote unbiased discussion of youth issues and promote advocacy campaigns initiated by the youth, should the concept be replicated in the other E4L Districts. 7. Committed District Chief Executives in the Programme Districts have greater influence in ensuring that planned activities of DEOCs are carried out. 8. The presence of the media at the various districts presented a much better picture and reportage to the advocacy issues in the programme districts. Hence, promoting interaction between the media, CBOs and duty bearers at the district level enhances reportage and the pursuit of advocacy issues.
CONCLUSION The E4L programme strategies and methodologies have worked well. The achievement of the above results can be attributed to the effective use of Community Dialogue Process by the E4L Teams and the Groups during the year under review. The Programme hopes to use its results to demonstrate the suitability of the Community Driven Social Change methodology (CDSC),which focuses on facilitating dialogue in communities and among community groupings for them to organize themselves, analyse their community needs, identify resources (internal and external) and draw action plans with bottom-up approach and implement them. Despite these results the following challenges were encountered during the year: •The change of DCEs and transfers of District Directors of Education in the Programme area affected the activities of the DEOC and CBOs in the various districts. •The fall armyworm affected all the districts the progamme works with especially yields of farmers. This •Inadequate market for farm produce/products (soya, rice, maize). The E4L Programme has demonstrated commitment to facilitating underserved citizens and groups in its intervention area to increase their participation in local governance and access to democratic decision-making processes. The Programme and its Partners will therefore in the ensuing years, continue to work towards reaching its objectives of strengthening the organizational and technical capacities of its target groups and contribute to transforming Ghana into a just and democratic state. 29
PARTNERS Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) Walk in: CM Block IV, Civic and Culture Plot, near Mariam Hotel, Tamale P. O Box TL 2211 Tamale - Northern Region Ghana
Tel: +233 (0) 501333867 +233 (0) 501333865 Email: info@gdcaghana.org Website: www.gdcaghana.org
Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) Walk in: Block B. House No: KR 56, opposite Klass One Court, Naa Luro Estates, Tamale P.O. Box TL 2498 Tamale - Northern Region Ghana
Tel: +233 (0) 243 252 844 + 233 (0) 501 387 534 Email: yefltamale@gmail.com Website: www.yefl-gh.com
Ghana Friends (GV) Walk in: Klosterport 4T, 3rd Floor, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark Tel: +45 61 41 71 52 30
Email: gv@ghanavenskab.dk Website: www.ghanavenskab.dk
