A Community Development Game Changer award has been conferred on the Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation (SGF). Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu's honour is in recognition of his contributions to Youth Development in the country, particularly, Northern Ghana. The award, organized by under the auspices of the National Youth Authority’s (NYA) Northern Regional Secretariat was held at Tamale in collaboration with Senior Youth & Development Consult (SYODC).
At the maiden edition of what organizers call “Northern Youth and Mentors Achievers’ Awards, twenty great men including SGF’s Ibrahim Amidu-Tanko and women were celebrated. Some young people were also awarded variously under a category called Young and Youth Achievers’. The Northern Regional Secretariat of the NYA also launched a Skills Development Fund.
The Fund, under the patronship of Tolon Naa, Chief Major Sulemana Abubakari, Yoo Naa Abdul Yakubu V and Mion Lana Abdulai Mahamadu is expected to support the implementation of a National flagship programme dubbed “Skills Towards Employment and Productivity(STEP).”
Related projects
STAR Ghana’s CSSF Project records major gains as Ministries, Regional Coordinating Councils and MMDAs mainstream parts of the roadmap for security and stability intervention
STAR-Ghana Foundation (SGF) through its Conflict, Security and Stability Fund (CSSF) under the Regional Response Programme has developed a roadmap for coordinating advocacy on peace, security and stability in the regions of the north in Ghana.
The one-year project was piloted and implemented in the five regions in the north with the objective of contributing to address the underlying causes of conflict, insecurity and underdevelopment in Northern Ghana. Among other achievements, the project has significantly influenced operational development plans of six ministries including the National Security Ministry, 5 Regional Coordinating Councils and ten MMDAs.
Conflict and insecurity in the northern part of Ghana has been a major challenge for governments for decades. Pockets of provocations and reprisals have become common place, characterized by gun violence and killing of women and children in avoidable crossfires.
For residents, embracing security patrols by detachments of combined Police and Military personnel cannot be negotiated. The situation in the five regions of the North has necessitated the imposition of curfews by government as a way of mitigating tensions while law enforcement agencies clamp down on perpetrators.
Addressing a gathering at a reflections workshop on the CSSF project, Executive Director of STAR Ghana Foundation, Alhaji Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, said the aim of the project was to develop a roadmap for coordinated advocacy on peace, security, and stability in the Northern, Northeast, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West Regions.
He noted that the project implemented by STAR Ghana Foundation was being funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and had contributed to addressing the underlying causes of conflict, insecurity, and underdevelopment in the area. Mr Amidu said the project implemented in partnership with the Northern Development Authority (NDA) and the Northern Development Forum (NDF) was able to convene a series of regional stakeholders’ dialogue meetings to offer them space to reflect on measures to put in place to fight against conflict in the area.
Mrs Eunice Agbenyadzi, Programmes Manager of STAR Ghana Foundation spoke about some of the achievements of the CSSF project saying it had catalysed and coordinated a lot of efforts to address the underlying causes of conflict and insecurity in the area as part of a broad roadmap. She said the roadmap was an output of the regional and national dialogue, which had laid the foundation for more holistic and inclusive actions to identify conflict which had offered recommendations for coordinated and complementary actions by state and state actors.
Mr Aaron Atimpe, Project Manager for CSSF at STAR Ghana Foundation said the project had also explored opportunities for sustaining peace and proposed strategies for addressing the drivers of conflicts and insecurities in the northern sector of the country. He added that it had adopted an integrated approach to link initiatives at the community levels, focusing on salient local issues and piloting innovative local partnerships with strategic national level engagements to influence policy and practice in the areas of peace, security, and development. Mr Abubakar George, Project Coordinator for Fistrad Organization, and a stakeholder of CSSF project said the project had provided a standard mechanism to resolve conflicts between Fulani herders and community members. He appealed for an extension of the project to enable them to consolidate the modest gains made so far in the area.
Mr Peter Asaal, Executive Director of Benum Wusa Debut Agency indicated that as part of the project implementation achievement, there was security agency and community engagements in the pilot communities to increase awareness on security issues and threats. He said it had strengthened relationships between security agencies and community members and added that border management issues were identified, and awareness created on the functions of the security agencies.
Civil Society to reflect on the implementation of RTI Law in Ghana
Despite the passage of the Right to Information Law in Ghana, administrative and bureaucratic bottlenecks coupled with the imposition of fees by public institutions and a seeming lack of awareness among the citizenry of the law and their rights to demand for information are among a host of challenges impeding access to public information and the effective implementation of the law.
STAR Ghana Foundation (SGF), in partnership with Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Ghana Friends (GV) is convening a forum with civil society organizations and other stakeholders on the implementation of the Right to Information Law in Ghana since its passage. The convening seeks to strengthen civil society awareness of the implementation of the RTI Law, reflect on the challenges associated with it and support their mobilization to influence its effective implementation to promote access to public information for public use in holding public officials to account.
The forum will feature the presentation of a discussion paper on “Assessing Access to Information in the Context of the RTI Law Implementation” commissioned by the partners. This will be followed by an expert panel discussion. The discussants include the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah; Executive Secretary to the RTI Commission, Mr. Yaw Sarpong Boateng Esq; Programmes Manager of Commonwealth Human Rights and RTI Coalition Secretariat, Esther Poku-Aduhene; and President of the Ghana Journalist Association, Mr. Roland Affail Monney.
The forum is scheduled for Wednesday July 6, 2022, at the Tomreik Hotel, East Legon, Accra. It is expected that the forum will generate actionable recommendations to strengthen the implementation of the RTI law for informed civic engagements with the state. This national level forum will be followed by a regional convening in Tamale to provide a similar platform for actors and stakeholders in the northern zone of the country.
In addition to in-person participants, the event will be streamed live on STAR Ghana Foundation’s Facebook page and be opened to virtual participation via zoom.
Giving for Change - Strengthening Capacities for Local Resources Mobilisation through Communities of Practice
Strengthening capacities for local resource mobilisation through Communities of Practice.
The Giving for Change project, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeks to promote development by recognizing the importance of domestic resources in increasing local ownership, and strengthening communities’ ability to claim entitlements. A key strategy of the project is the convening of Communities of Practice (CoPs) bringing together the project’s partners, other CSOs involved in promoting and utilising local philanthropy to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. Two COPs, co-facilitated by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), have been organised to develop a learning agenda aimed at building and exchanging skills in local resources mobilization for social change.
Communities of Practice (Cop) members for the pro-philanthropy initiative are part of the Giving for Change project, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Giving for change Project is a five (5) year project which started in 2021 with funding from Giving for Change Alliance (GfCA), spearheaded by an international Consortium consisting of the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF), Africa Philanthropy Network (APN), Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) and Wilde Ganzen (WG).
The GfC programme sets out a bold vision for transforming how ‘‘development is done’’. The main goal is community and domestic philanthropy; recognizing that communities do not only have issues but assets as well which can be used to build the power and voice of communities. This project will also cure the over-reliance of Civil Society Actors on external funding and neutralize the risk of governments accusations about CSOs serving the interests of foreign agents.
The Programmes Manager at STAR Ghana Foundation, Eunice R. Agbenyadzi in her welcome address stressed the need for mobilizing resources by Civil Society Organizations for development. According to her, the meeting will “develop a learning agenda for Communities of Practice to help local philanthropy thrive” to attain development.
For his part, Results and Learning Manager for STAR Ghana Foundation, Frank Kwaku Amoateng emphasized the need for setting learning and sharing agendas for areas that may require same. In Ghana, STAR-Ghana Foundation is the lead organization for the Giving for Change project and WACSI is the key partner.
The two day event drew Participants from diverse civil society organizations across Ghana. These participants also took turns to share program expectations and key observations on working on the project.
Giving for Change
The GfC project is being implemented in eight countries globally, including, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Brazil and Palestine. The Giving for Change programme seeks to transform how “development is done” by focusing specifically on the recognition and importance of domestic resources in increasing local ownership, unlocking agency and strengthening communities’ ability to claim entitlements from different actors, especially government. The strategic objective is to enhance freedom of speech (both as a means and an end) by amplifying community voices claiming their rights towards power holders through community philanthropy, with the support of other state and societal actors.
Context
The civic space is seemingly faced with a growing threat globally. A CIVICUS Monitor reports that only 3% of the global population live in countries where civic freedom is respected. The Monitor tracks civic space in 196 countries, and the 2020 report shows that, the civic space in countries ranges from narrow (Ghana) to obstructed (Kenya, Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Brazil) to repressed (Uganda, Ethiopia and Palestine). In Ghana, media organizations have continue to raise concerns over the deteriorating safety of journalists, as physical attacks and threats against the media have become commonplace. Access to information also is limited even though an RTI does exist.