As calls for power shift between the global north and south in areas of development deepen, International NGOs continue to fashion out ways to prepare the south for a paradigm shift in power. In Ghana, Norsaac is modelling Participatory Grants Making (PGM) with a core country team including STAR-Ghana Foundation, Oxfam and WACSI providing support.
The pro-marginalized and policy influencing organization (Norsaac), is one of two CSOs selected in Ghana to roll out prototypes aimed at providing the needed power shift. This follows a global call from Research International NGO (RINGO), for models that can shift the power from partners in the global north to partners in the global south.
PGM as a homegrown grant making model in Ghana will prepare the country as a model from the south to embrace and use power efficiently. The global south power shift agenda is expected to operate in a way that is context driven, responsive to local narratives as well as norms and values. It would also be designed with southern terms in a mutually beneficial relationship between north and south, it would disrupt patterns of top-down grant making learning.
Norsaac and its partners have held power shift dialogues, facilitated platforms for reflections or providing critical alternatives to the process. At a recent consultation meeting hosted by STAR-Ghana Foundation, the organizations, among other objectives documented their perspectives on concepts of balancing power between INGOs, donors, CSOs and shifting power initiatives within partner organizations among other areas critical to implementation of the PGM prototype. Local CSOs were also engaged at a similar convening in Northern Ghana to document their perspectives on what power they need to be shifted and what PGM means to them.
The partner organizations and Norsaac have agreed to hold monthly consultations around PGM and have strategic engagements with the donor community.
Related projects
Giving for Change: Hundreds of pupils to benefit from Multimedia Group’s “lifesaving” classroom project
Hundreds of children living in parts of the Central and Northern regions can look forward to receiving education for a brighter future. This is because the Multimedia Group through the Giving for Change (GfC) Project, under the auspices of STAR-Ghana Foundation (SGF) and WACSI is constructing classrooms in selected districts in the two regions to provide safer school buildings for pupils to learn.
Multimedia Group’s Classroom Project is one of several initiatives under the continental Giving for Change (GfC) project funded by the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry. Among other objectives, the Giving for Change also seeks to, engender and promote development through self-help initiatives at the local community levels without having to depend on the central government or foreign aid in the wake of dwindling donor support globally.
Education Director for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa District, Seth Emmanuel Panwum recounting a building disaster that killed six pupils noted, that the intervention by Multimedia’s audiences and clients to put up the school block will prevent further tragedies in the community. According to the Education Director, “this is a very wonderful project that Multimedia and STAR Ghana have brought to Breman Jamara, and I must say that we are excited because we have a serious deficit in terms of classroom infrastructure. So…by bringing this edifice here, in fact, it will prevent disaster’’. He was speaking during a site tour of the seven-space edifice at Breman Jamara D/A Basic School with the Education Directorate, traditional leaders, and global partners of the Giving for Change Project.
An estimated 700 pupils in the Central and Northern Regions are expected to benefit from the Classroom Project after completion.
The District Chief Executive for the area expressed excitement and assured global partners of the Giving for Change Project that every investment made into the Multimedia Group’s Classroom Project at Breman Jamara in the Central Region will be put to good use. Lawrence Edutuah-Asiaw exclaimed – ‘’God richly bless you. I am really grateful. But the assurance I will give you – putting up the project is one thing and utilizing it is another thing…..It is my duty to maintain it and that assurance I’m giving you – that whatever investments that is being made in the district, I am going to make sure one, we put it to good use and ensure a better maintenance culture to sustain the project’’, recognizing the impact of the project on his district.
The new Breman Jamara School is a three-classroom unit block with an ICT laboratory and library, a Staff Common Room and Headmaster’s office. It is being funded with cash and in-kind donations from cherished audiences and clients of the Multimedia Group Limited. Among them are the Forestry Commission, DBS Roofing Sheets, Israeli Embassy, Duraplast Ghana, Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority, the Planned City Extension Project, Tropical cables and many more. Also, a 94-year-old woman donated part of her monthly pension benefit to support the project.
JoyNews’ Senior News Editor Fiifi Koomson for his part reported, “we have steel benders who are offering to support; there’s a value there; we have the Forestry Commission giving us wood – about GHS50, 000 worth of wood; we have electricians coming in, we have tillers coming in, we have so many resources from different individuals, different companies just to support this whole project and enterprise’’.
Fiifi Koomson and the Classroom Project Lead at the Multimedia Group, Emefa Atiamoah-Eli, together with the DCE, briefed the delegation of global partners and other community leaders on the status of the project and its benefit to the people of Bremana Jamara. The partners asked questions mostly about the significance of the project to the district and how the Multimedia Group is ensuring accountability to all donors and stakeholders.
Gyaasehene of Breman Jamara, Nana Kwesi Ennin III committed to continuing to mobilize human resource in communal labor to ensure the completion of the project.
According to him “the children are aware of the ongoing construction. If we fail as leaders to provide the necessary support for this project to be completed, they will not forgive us’’.
STAR Ghana Foundation and the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) are the lead agencies for the Ghana Chapter of the Giving for Change Project, with funding from Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Translating the RTI Law into Action is critical to the promotion of Active Citizenship
To promote and encourage Active Citizens’ engagement toward national development, an effective and seamless implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Law is required. This is according to Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu. He told a gathering of the Civil Society representatives, public interest individuals and a cross-section of state institutions during a forum to reflect on the implementation of the RTI Law that, “Active Citizenship cannot take place without access to information, and so it is on the basis of this that STAR Ghana Foundation and its partners – Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Ghana Friends(GV) decided to convene the forum for stakeholders to reflect on journey to the passage of the RTI Law, its implementation, including challenges and prospects in order to collectively work to realize the objectives of the RTI law.”
Mr Amidu noted, “passing the law and setting up the Commission is the easiest part of the journey. But the most difficult part especially looking at the experiences of other countries has been in translating the spirit and the letter of the law into action.” The Executive Director maintains, “RTI as we know it is critical to democracy and democratic governance, it is fundamental to the realization of citizens’ rights and their ability to make informed demands and hold duty bearers accountable.”
The forum which was organised under the Rebuilding Civic Space Project of the STAR Ghana Foundation (SGF) and its partners featured the presentation of a discussion paper on “Assessing Access to Information in the Context of the RTI Law Implementation” which was commissioned as part of the project inception. This was followed by an expert panel discussion on strengthening civil society awareness of the implementation of the RTI Law, reflection on the challenges associated with the law and support their mobilization to influence the effective implementation of the to promote access to public information for public use in holding public officials to account.
Programme Coordinator for Ghana Friends (GV) Lise Grauenkær remarked “civil society needs to keep up the pressure to make sure that Ghanaians have access and are provided with requested information. There are still obstacles to having access to information, this is a concern for Ghana Friends.”
For his part, the Executive Secretary of the Right to Information Commission, Yaw Sarpong Boateng (Esq) revealed that the Commission has now secured a fiat, empowering his outfit to independently prosecute offenders of the RTI Law. Yaw Sarpong Boateng (Esq) said staff of the RTI Commission are expected to be trained by the Director of Public Prosecutions on prosecutions under the RTI Act, 2019 (Act 989) by the close of September this year.
As a next step, the forum will be replicated in Tamale in the coming weeks to provide an opportunity for individuals and groups in Northern Ghana to also engage on the implementation of the Law within their own context and experiences. This will be led by the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) with support from Ghana Friends (GV) and STAR Ghana Foundation (SGF). Following this, a coordinated advocacy campaign involving different actors will work together to take forward the recommendations from the forums and actions to promote the effective implementation of the law.
Giving for Change Partner Learning and Reflection Meeting Ongoing in Accra
More than 50 partner representatives of the Giving for Change (GfC) programme attended the opening session of the five-day partner learning and reflection meeting which has begun in Accra, Ghana.
The event which started on Monday 11 July 2022 will create a platform for the partners coming from Africa, Asia, and South America to reflect on the progress and strategic direction of the programme over the past 18 months of implementation.
This meeting is the first of its kind and will be an opportunity for the partners to strengthen relationships and identify additional opportunities to harness and scale up the programme. This may include opportunities for the GfC consortium members and national anchor partners in the eight implementing countries to champion the core thematic areas of the programme at regional and global levels.
In his opening remarks, Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, the anchor partner of the programme, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, said the conference would push partners towards achieving the goals, objectives, and vision of the initiative as it was an avenue for evaluating the success and challenges they had encountered over the past 18 months.
“This conference will help us go back to the vision of the alliance and continue the process of building a global movement of shifting the power,” he said.
He encouraged participants to share their stories and be intentional about creating spaces like this to learn from one another. “I look forward to constructive innovations that will challenge us, he added.”
The coordinating alliance of the programme consists of the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF), the African Philanthropy Network (APN), Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) and Wilde Ganzen Foundation.
Stigmata Tenge, Executive Director of APN expressed confidence that the dialogue would build on existing knowledge for achieving “a community philanthropy which is responsive.”
“Community philanthropy started long ago but there is still the need to reflect and deepen conversations in ensuring that we are finding the right road towards the destiny we are looking at, “she said.
She added that partners should dismantle systems and structures that were perpetuating inequality in their communities by mobilising resources from their communities.
In an interview with the media, Jim Chick Fomunjong, Head of Knowledge Management and Communications at the West Africa Civil Society Institute, a strategic partner of the programme explained that GfC was geared towards “re-inventing how we are doing philanthropy and seeing how best we can connect practices to promote local philanthropy.”
“We want to build an industry of local philanthropy that will help Africa’s development. Aid has certain regulations and obligations that come with it so we can not solely rely on it,” he said.
Jenny Hodgson, Director of GFCF, noted that communities in the south and north had access, knowledge, resources, and power to drive development at the local level. “We can leverage these to build and grow both citizens and communities and model an ecosystem approach where communication at the local level builds up to the global level,” she said.
Esther Meester, Program Manager at Wilde Ganzen Foundation, indicated that the meeting was timely and will ensure that partners were able to discuss their hurdles and find ways to overcome them.
The recommendations that will come from this workshop will help partners adopt a strategic direction to meet the programme goals. The workshop which was organised by STAR-Ghana in partnership with WACSI will end on 15 July 2022.
Watch some interviews with other partners and participants at the event. using this link
