CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

STAR-Ghana Foundation is inviting volunteers to work directly with our implementing partners under the Actions for Voice and Inclusive Development (AVID) project. The partners are mainly grassroots organisations of/or working with underserved groups across the country. These organisations are passionate about their organizational strengthening and strengthening their capacities for effective programming for higher impacts on their constituencies. 

We seek Volunteers of all ages and with the expertise, passion and character to serve in a host community as Technical Advisors to grassroots organisations. SGF will recruit, train and place selected volunteers with partner organizations for a period of up to one year, though this may vary depending on the assignment and or the volunteers’ availability.

Find more details about this opportunity below. 

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS STAR GHANA FOUNDATION

  Volunteer Sign Up Form finalised

 Completed form should be emailed to info@star-ghana.org. Kindly note that the deadline to receive forms is 21st July, 2023.  

STAR-Ghana, OXFAM, other CSOs and INGOs reignite the push to accelerate Northern Ghana Development.

Conversations about development in northern Ghana need to be purposeful, coordinated and targeted; that was the overwhelming consensus reached at a Civil Society Organizations Forum on Development Coordination in Northern Ghana held in Tamale on March 14, 2023. The Forum, which was co-funded by STAR-Ghana Foundation and OXFAM with support from other organizations like  Norsaac, ActionAid Ghana, GDCA and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) amongst others, reignited frank conversations on how to better coordinate and collaborate to accelerate development in Northern Ghana.

More than eighty (80) participating organisations – comprising community based organizations, women and youth-led/serving organizations based in northern Ghana, as well as CSOs and international non-governmental  organizations (INGOs) with either a physical or operation presence in northern Ghana, came together  to deliberate on current state and gaps in collaboration and development coordination in Northern Ghana.  The convening comes amid rising calls among civil society actors that the  annual Northern Ghana Development Summits were failing to live up to the bill of serving as an agenda setting platform for the sustainable development of the north. CSOs in this forum therefore discussed among other things, modalities for repositioning themselves to maximize the platform provided by the Northern Ghana Development Summits to accelerate development in Northern Ghana. They committed to working together towards ensuring a coordinated CSOs input into the planning and delivery of the future summits to ensure that the summits are properly leveraged to sustain joint advocacies in between summits, and for mutual accountabilities among CSOs themselves on one hand, and between CSOs and the state for the sustainable development of northern Ghana.  

A number of interventions, and strategies have been developed and implemented by various actors and stakeholders, to among other objectives, create economic growth and improve the livelihoods of the people in the north. These have focused on unlocking the potential of northern savannah ecology, addressing poverty and inequalities, and developing resilience of the people to create wealth while restoring the environment. Despite these, participants expressed worry that the efforts and  rhetoric have not translated into results for communities and people of northern Ghana..

In his opening remarks, Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Alhaji Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, called on CSOs to focus on purposeful actions that will help address the gaps and challenges impeding northern development. Alhaji Tanko said “we need to ensure that all our actions and efforts are effectively coordinated through collaborations, so that when we talk about northern Ghana, we will be referring to one of the pillars of development in Ghana instead of the usual narrative that depicts the north as improvised and underdeveloped.” Alhaji Tanko added, “there is also a need to acknowledge efforts made over the years at ensuring that we’re enabled to coordinate actions, culminating in some of the progress that has been made in northern Ghana in terms of development.

For his part, Alhaji Muhammed Awal, Executive Director of Norsaac bemoaned the seeming over politicization and control of development authorities established by the state as special purpose vehicles to address developmental challenges. According to him, “Civil Society is often seen as opposition by governing parties.” “But why shouldn’t I be in opposition?” he quizzed.

He explained that governments in power are custodians of citizens’ taxes, hence, there is a responsibility on everyone including CSOs to ensure that governments administer state resources in the best interest of the masses. This he reckoned would mostly make CSO critical of governments in power not because they are anti-state, but because they are contributing to shaping state policy and efforts to improve the lives of citizens. He maintained that individuals and organizations with the development of Northern Ghana at heart must push for a united platform to enable them challenge certain practices and systems that would not facilitate development work in Northern Ghana.

The CSOs Steering Committee

Following discussions and assessment of the gaps in collaboration and coordination of development efforts in northern Ghana, the forum proposed a set of recommendations and actions on addressing the gaps, to effectively collaborate and coordinate better towards the sustainable development of northern Ghana.   Key amongst the proposals included position civil society to more effectively engage with the annual Northern Development Summits as spaces for building partners and exacting mutual accountabilities; developing  a strategic plan for CSOs coordination; working towards establishing a CSOs regulatory body as a peer review mechanisms; and institutionalizing the CSO’s forum as an annual event amongst others. 

To help take the recommendations forward, a CSOs Steering Committee was proposed – composed of an inclusive mix of youth and women-led organizations, community-based organizations, regional and thematic organizations, as well as national and international NGOs.