Our work

Grant and technical support

Through grants and technical support, we are working with and through partner organisations (grantees) to enable citizens to engage with the state and with government to ensure accountable, transparent and responsive governance.

We provide support to grantees to enhance their operational competence, efficiency and capabilities to enable them to more effectively achieve their goals and represent their constituents. The programme builds on the results and learning from grant partner capacity building work undertaken in STAR-Ghana’s first phase to develop and implement a holistic and integrated civil society strengthening strategy.

Evidence from our experience and other programmes has shown that giving grants alone does not lead to transformational change which is why we have a focus on strengthening civil society capacity.

Non-grant support

Strengthening civil society’s capacity to plan, manage, implement, and account for results and sustain organisations is critical to achieving sustainable development objectives. We work through our 3 Cs approach to promote inclusive development.

Our non-grants strategy is organised around STAR-Ghana’s overall strategic approach, to act as convener, catalyst and coordinator of civil society action towards systemic change and a facilitator of learning to enable a more reflective and adaptive approach to programming.

STAR-Ghana:

provides evidence, tools and innovative ways to support civil society to mobilise resources for its own actions.
facilitates alliances, aided by the credibility of the STAR-Ghana brand: alliances are central to our collaborative approach to stimulating citizen action. The programme supports formal and informal coalitions of change actors.
provides integrated capacity building support to partners: our capacity building strategy combines support in strengthening partners’ technical abilities with strengthening their ability to act politically.
convenes dialogue on critical and sensitive national issues: STAR-Ghana has developed a strong convening power, which helps bring together influential individuals in a way that previous donor-funded civil society initiatives have been unable to do.

Related projects

Anti-corruption

STAR-Ghana Anti-Corruption Documentary

Corruption affects us all, holding back Ghana’s development and fuelling inequality. We work with citizens, companies and civil society to combat corruption and create lasting change.

Our approach

Through our anticorruption work, we are helping to develop models proven to work in the promotion of transparency and accountability. We have brought together a wide range of stakeholders from community, civil society, media, research and private sector organisations to create and test initiatives aimed at tackling corruption in the delivery of public goods and services, supply chains, promoting accountability in the use of mining royalties in the extractives industries, and encouraging a culture of anticorruption.

Our 33 projects are enabling our grant partners to take collective action on anticorruption, change perceptions and behaviours, influence systemic change and create an enabling environment for business to grow.

An enabling environment for business

The STAR Ghana Foundation supports initiatives with private sector associations aimed at tackling corruption and improving accountability. The Chamber of Pharmacy is working on a Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Watch initiative which seeks a review of the procurement and registration of pharmaceutical products with the Food and Drugs Authority.

The Private Enterprise Federation is engaging private sector and citizens to tackle corruption and improve the efficiency of services delivered by various agencies. Work is underway to improve transparency, health and safety, and accountability in the construction industry through our support to the Association of Ghana Industries.

‘The initiative supported by STAR Ghana has allowed us to engage in coalitions and to bring people and partners together to be part of the fight against corruption. This is a new approach to fighting corruption because citizens think they are not part of the fight, so the STAR Ghana project has allowed us to engage citizens bringing across the cost of corruption to them.’ Nana Osei-Bonsu, Chief Executive Officer, Private Enterprise Federation.

United against corruption

The STAR Ghana Foundation has helped to convene a number of innovative alliances to work together to tackle issues of corruption. For example, Socioserve-Ghana, a civil society organisation has teamed up with research consultancy JMK Consulting Group and iWatch Africa a media company to challenge corruption involving police officers.

Innovative approaches to tackle corruption

We are supporting community and civil society organisations to develop and test strategies which empower citizens and communities to tackle locally relevant corruption issues. In Tamale, the Centre of Active Learning and Integrated Development has joined forces with the League of Youth Coalition to track reports of corruption in the health sector and empower citizens demand their rights to health services. Elsewhere partner organisations are testing the use of innovative approaches, for example using digital communication technology, to enable citizens to raise issues related to corruption.

Where is our disability fund?

Community members are working to reduce the level of corruption associated with the management of the District Disability Fund across three districts in the Volta Region, thanks to the work of our partner Global Action for Women Empowerment. We are supporting the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled to engage with duty bearers on behalf of their members with a focus on improving the administration and allocation of the District Assembly Common Fund, as well as access to healthcare services.

Changing minds on corruption

A number of our partners are working to shift perceptions and behaviours so that citizens are empowered to end corruption. We are encouraging a new generation of incorruptible Ghanaians through civic education thanks to the work of the inter-faith Forum for Actions on Inclusion, Transparency and Harmony (FAITH) Forum. The FAITH Forum is working with schools to provide lesson plans and activities aimed at sharing anticorruption messages and shaping a mindset among the young that will not tolerate corruption.

‘Corruption is to the detriment of society, it brings dishonesty and chaos, and hinders our national development. Faith leaders are seen as role models so we need them to be morally incorruptible and to talk against corruption to their constituents.’ Hajia Ayishetu Abdul-Kadri, chair of the FAITH platform committee and chair of the Federation of Muslim Women Association in Ghana.

Media

In December 2016, STAR-Ghana announced its gender, equality and social inclusion (GESI) and media calls for proposals and concept notes. Both calls were divided into two components – small grants and strategic partnerships.

While the strategic partnership components were opened to national level civil society and/or media organisations, the small grants components were opened to community-based organisations (CBOs), district level civil society organisations (CSOs), community radio stations and networks and citizen groups.

Two hundred and twenty-six organisations responded to the call. Out of this number, a total of 164 organisations responded to the GESI call – 80 for the small grants component and 84 for the strategic partnership component. Sixty-two responded to the media call: 32 and 30 for the small grants and strategic partnership components respectively.

STAR-Ghana contracted independent assessors to assess the proposals. Their recommendations were presented to the grants sub-committee (of the steering committee), in February 2017, who in turn reviewed and shortlisted the applications. Feedback was then sent to all applicants. This was followed by a due diligence exercise for all shortlisted applicants for both the small grants and strategic partnership components. A due diligence exercise validated information provided by applicants, assessed the organisation’s capacity (human and technical resources), reviewed the project budget, the organisations’ internal governance, financial and monitoring and evaluation systems and also made recommendations for capacity support to enable applicants to deliver on their projects.

The recommendations from the grants sub-committee, together with findings from the due diligence exercise were sent to the steering committee for final approval for the small grants component of both the media and GESI calls. Shortlisted applicants of the strategic partnerships component were invited to the next stage of the process: proposal development. This stage is a combination of workshop and a mentoring process. Proposals from the shortlisted organisations, together with findings from the due diligence process, were presented to the steering committee for vetting, final approval and sign off.

STAR-Ghana wishes to express its appreciation to all the 226 organisations that submitted applications for both the GESI and media calls.

Who we are

Since 2010, we have managed funds worth more than $70m (GHS348m) and have an impressive track record in delivering a successful programme that has supported 232 partner organisations across every district in Ghana. We became STAR-Ghana Foundation in 2018 as an independent registered company limited by guarantee.

STAR-Ghana Foundation has an established network across civil society, media and government, we have experience of galvanising change which addresses pressing development and social challenges. We are non-partisan and work to the highest standards of transparency in our management systems and reporting. We uphold the highest standards for our work, with strong technical expertise, robust financial and programme management, and quality administration systems.

The Governing Council is responsible for the Foundation's overall management and strategic oversight and direction, while the Foundation Management manages the day-to-day running of the foundation.

Governing Council

The Governing Council is responsible providing strategic direction to the Foundation from a national perspective, and for setting out a clear plan and vision for for the Foundation. It is accountable to the Subscribers who appointed the members of the Governing Council.

Meet the governing council

Foundation management team

STAR-Ghana Foundation's management team has a wealth of experience in development, civil society strengthening, social development, tackling exclusion and more.

Meet the Foundation Management Team

Our funders

STAR-Ghana Foundation has been funded by major international institutional funders, including USAID (2010-2015), UK aid, European Union (EU) and DANIDA. It is currently being funded by the FCDO, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Global Funds for Communities Foundation and Near Network.