STAR-Ghana Foundation and the West African Civil Society Initiative (WACSI) have held a series of meetings across the country on the validation of project frameworks for the Civil Society Strengthening Programme (CSSP).
The CSSP seeks to provide long term support to civil society in Ghana, and in effect, enhance their resilience, responsiveness, and effectiveness in delivering the priorities of its constituents.
Amidu Ibrahim-Tanko, Executive Director-STAR-Ghana Foundation
The meetings were held on three zonal bases: southern zone, the middle belt and the northern sector.
The Comic Relief funded project CSSP-StP is implemented by STAR Ghana Foundation and WACSI as anchor partners for Ghana. It seeks to build institutional resilience of CSOs in Ghana by providing a more progressive, negotiated, participatory and widely owned solution to social development work.
Eunice R. Agbenyadzi, Head of Programmes- STAR-Ghana Foundation
Speaking at the Accra validation meeting on Tuesday February 7, 2023, the Head of Programmes at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice R. Agbenyadzi, explained the iteration phase of the project involved the development of project tools and frameworks: governance structure, grant guidelines, capacity development frameworks among others to guide implementation.
Thus, she said, “we are organizing this level of conversations civil society groups to present to you the meaning we have made out of all those conversations on the tools and frameworks that we have developed for the implementation of the CSSP.”
Some participants in the Accra meeting
In an overview of the CSSP, Miss Agbenyadzi said the CSSP which is a long-term support (2022-2030) is also being implemented in Zambia and Malawi and has two components: organizational development and grant.
“It focuses on how civil society can be more resilient (independent, sustainable), and how they can deliver the priorities of their constituents, among other things. We are not set up for ourselves, but we are set up to meet some specific needs of our communities.”
“So, the point about how our work is organised and taken up in a such a way that it reflects the aspirations and needs of our constituents,” she said.
In his remarks at workshop for the middle belt, Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Amidu Ibrahim-Tanko urged participants to factor models of local philanthropy that works for their respective organizations in their reflections and inquiries. “CSSP-Stp is about producing outputs and outcomes that strengthen local organizations, benefit most marginalized, and most excluded sections of communities” he added.
Participants in the Tamale meeting
Related projects
Multi-stakeholder approach needed to promote girls' education
The Executive Director of STAR-GHANA Foundation, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, has called for a collaborative approach from all stakeholders towards the promotion of girls’ education in the country.
He said the performance between boys and girls have not been the best despite efforts by the government, civil society organisations (CSOs), development partners, traditional authorities, parents, and others to improve the situation.
Mr Ibrahim-Tanko was speaking at a forum on girls’ education organized by STAR-Ghana Foundation under its Gender Rights and Empowerment Programme (G-REP). The forum which was held for stakeholders in the northern sector took place in Tamale on 2nd February 2023.
The Executive Director said there is an interplay of several causes such as poverty, traditional and religious beliefs, and practices that affect education of girls, particularly in the northern part of the country.
“So, when we talk about girls’ education, we are looking at access which has improved - enrolment has improved- we could gain gender parity. It is the retention from primary to junior high and senior high school, and the performance that is a problem.
“We need to find ways of ensuring that girls attend school, stay, and perform well. There is simply no way we can develop if we are not able to address this,” he said.
Some participants in a group discussion
Mr Ibrahim-Tanko u noted the importance of girls’ education cannot be overemphasized, and several studies have shown that investing in girls’ education is the most effective means countries can reduce inequality and strengthen economies.
“How can we address quality and resources constraints? If we continue to do things in the normal, we will continue to get the normal results. We need to challenge each other and not cover up the issues to be able to arrive at the kind of solutions that we want.”
“We should create a safe space for critical consultations to generate the solutions and recommendations we need towards improving girls’ education,” he said.
He encouraged role models to step up and mentor and support girls to attain higher laurels in education.
“It takes parents and the community to turn off the television sets, social media and get girls to also focus on their education,” he said.
Some participants in a group discussion
Forum
Mr. Ibrahim-Tanko said the forum was part of strategies by STAR-Ghana Foundation under the G-REP to promote girls’ education in the country.
The forum brought together development partners, civil society organisations and government agencies to re-examine existing strategies, renew commitments and build consensus on improved and continuous access to quality education for girls in Northern Ghana.
In an address, the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Shaibu, commended STAR-Ghana Foundation for its effort and commitment to the development of Northern Ghana.
“STAR-Ghana Foundation has been involved in several initiatives, strategies, and a wide range of development issues over the years. Northern Ghana especially, has been the biggest beneficiary of the initiatives of STAR-Ghana Foundation. We must commend the Foundation for its effort and commitment to the development of Northern Ghana,” he said.
He said education remains the key to the development and progress of any society which also demands that premium be always paid on it.
Alhaji Shaibu noted successive governments have made strides to improve the lots of the girls in school in the last three decades through policies such as a 10-year Education Plan for Girls, the creation of Girls’ Education Unit (GEU) under the Ghana Education Service (GES), and School Feeding Programme, among others.
Complementing government efforts, he said are several non-governmental organisations and CSOs that have worked assiduously in the sector in addressing cost-related challenges and embarking on widespread advocacy on the importance of girls’ education.
“Almost all of us agree that if we fail to provide the needed attention to girls’ education, we cannot achieve any meaningful development. I want to assure you all that government will continue to provide the relevant support to girls’ education to ensure that every child realizes her potential,” he said.
G-REP
The G-REP is a Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) funded project aimed at contributing to increased access to rights and quality social services for women and girls. The programme which covers 47 districts in 6 regions, including three in northern Ghana, Central, Eastern and Volta regions is intended at increasing the effectiveness of civil society advocacy for women and girls’ political and social rights, particularly rights to inclusive and quality social services and participation in public governance at the national and sub-national levels.
Fact sheet
Growing numbers of out of school children in Ghana
- Over one million out of school children, aged between 5-16 years more than 50 % of whom are girls
- 244,731 girls aged 6 to 14 years have never attended school at all
- Three out of every 10 (30 %) of these girls are in the Northern region, followed by Savannah (27,930) and North East (22,857)
- Never attended and currently not attending: Savannah (40.2%)’ North-East Region (29.3%) and the Northern Region (28.5%) – Ghana Statistical Service, Population and Housing Census, 2021
STAR-Ghana Foundation Giving for Change project reignites self-help community development
A STAR-Ghana Foundation (SGF) Giving for Change (GfC) programme that seeks to promote domestic resource mobilization for development is gaining grounds in some communities in Tamale and Wa, in the Northern and Upper West regions respectively.
Indeed, 12 rural and urban communities in the Sissala West district and Wa Municipalities have accepted local philanthropy to raise funds for public goods and services such as clinics, schools, and clean water, among others.
The GfC programme is a five-year project that aims to do development differently from a mindset that the citizenry is responsible for their own development.
With funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the GfC is anchored on the recognition that domestic resources are important in increasing local ownership of projects and influence civic actions for inclusive development.
The Community Development Alliance (CDA), located in Wa is an implementing partner of the SGF’s GfC project, and has through its project dubbed, “Catalyzing Local Philanthropy for Development (CLPD), implemented a series of participatory behaviour-led initiatives that empowered women, youth, and leaders of the 12 local communities who gained agency, prioritized their needs, and self-mobilized locally and are working to address their challenges.
During a team visit by STAR-Ghana Foundation to Wa, the Executive Director of CDA, Salifu Issifu Kanton, said their partnership with the STAR-Ghana Foundation essentially focused on opening the civic space, ensuring that our communities have a voice, they appreciate their own development, and they can self-mobilize and contribute to improving development outcomes in their local communities.
He said the decision to embrace local philanthropy is a major shift in mindset.
“Prior to the giving for change intervention, some of these community members expressed reservation and doubts as to how poor people can self-mobilize to address their needs. But the mind-set of receiving and not giving is fast changing. Communities are now recognizing and appreciating that there is inherent power in giving,” he said.
Community projects
For the communities that have embraced local philanthropy, they do not only mobilize resources (fiscal cash and raw materials) to support development projects, but also offer their skills to fix some of the challenges they face.
Already, the Kusali community has completed the construction of a community clinic, popularly referred to as Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound and ready for use while the Bouti Community in the Sissala West District have also self-mobilized resources and currently constructing a CHPS compound to increase access to primary health for the indigenes.
The Dondoli community in the WA municipality has made firm commitments to construct a Youth Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) centre to for the youth to develop their skills.
The Konzokala community in the Daffiama Busie Issa (DBI) district in the Upper West region, led by the assembly member for the area, Nicholas Yengsoba, is constructing a delivery room in the existing CHPS compound to facilitate safe deliveries in the area.
Nicholas Yengsoba, Assembly Member for Konzokala community in the Daffiama Busie Issa (DBI) district in the Upper West region
Mr Yengsoba said the intervention by the CDA with support from STAR-Ghana Foundation has helped to bring to bear the idea of a delivery room they conceived years ago.
“We had that in mind but how to start was the issue. They motivated us. Very soon we may not need to transport our women by tricycle to about an hour drive facility to deliver, with its attendant challenges,” he said.
The Project supervisor, Jacob Dordaa, said contributions for the project come in piecemeal - some think they are old and cannot take part, many of the youth have migrated down south, and some argue that previous contributions of such nature did not yield results.
“They are supportive though. This is the first time we are doing such a project in the community through CDA with support from STAR-Ghana Foundation. What we need is constant supervision and facilitation because the name CDA brings everyone on board,” he said.
Jacob Dordaa, Project supervisor
A resident mid-wife at the CHPS Compound, Theodora Tarma, said that currently, the outpatient department (OPD) serves all purpose and so makes it difficult to accept labour cases at the facility.
“I am very happy that the community is putting up a delivery room. I can only appeal to the members in the community to try and support the initiative so the issue of referring labour cases to other communities will be a thing of the past,” she said.
Theodora Tarma, resident mid-wife at the CHPS Compound
At Fian, also in the DBI district, plans are far advanced by the community development committee members towards the construction of kindergarten (KG) block to avoid children in the area having to travel long distances to acquire education.
The Fian Peace Camp, a youth group in the area is leading the project. In an interview, the Secretary of the group, Gilbert Kapaala, said that the GfC initiative has enlightened them on the need to promote and lead community development.
“We must give all credit to CDA in partnership with STAR-Ghana Foundation for bringing out this great initiative GfC. We recognize that all infrastructure in this community were put up by government or some other people. We never knew we could mobilize to do more than what government can give us,” he said.
Gilbert Kapaala, Secretary to Fian Peace Camp
SGF-CDA partnership
According to the Executive Director of CDA, Salifu Issifu Kanton, after a year of implementation, the GfC project greatly impacted how the organization perceive and do things.
“The GfC has inspired our programming process and has influenced us to look more towards sustainable ways of fostering community development. We are now focusing more on strengthening the capacities of local communities to lead their own development, to own their development and to be responsible for their own development, to be actively involved in their development,” he said.
He added, “we do not have to tell them what to do but basically facilitate the processes for them to explore their own possibilities of making life much better. Our thinking, our advocacy strategies, our programming strategies, our relationships with communities has been significantly shaped through the methodology that we have used under this project. Now, other projects are beginning to have co-benefits of the lessons that have evolved from this GfC project.”
Fact sheet
- The Giving for Change Project is implemented through an alliance and covers eight countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.
- The project is over a five-year period and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- STAR-Ghana Foundation is the anchor Institution for Ghana, with the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) as a strategic partner.
Ensuring sustainability
The Project Manager at CDA, Mercy Dakogri, said that through the GfC project, the communities are empowered to explore local mechanisms of supporting their development.
“The GfC project has generally been very good, and the community members have accepted it. It has been a very insightful thing for me because mostly, NGOs go into communities and do things for them that they do not even want.”
“But the GfC gives them room to do what they think is affecting them in terms of development, so they can develop their communities using their own resources. They are now aware they can help themselves without waiting for any politician to come to their aide,” she said.
Miss Dakogri said because CDA will not always be present to facilitate, there exist committee members who help to mobilize and oversee the use of the resources for the good of the community.
Mercy Dakogri,Project Manager at CDA
Challenges and lessons learned
Miss Dakogri noted a major challenge is when some community members select projects that are more capital-intensive and will require a long duration to implement.
“The lesson here is that you can’t force people to do what they don’t want to do, you can only create the space for them. You need to know the dynamics of engaging them; farming period you won’t get them, and they can also contribute after harvesting. Accounting to them on the progress of any project is also ideal,” she said.
Way forward
According to the Results and Learning Manager at SGF, Frank Kwaku Amoateng, although external aid can be utilized, it is important for the citizenry to lead development, therefore, the GfC project can help to create an enabling environment that supports community philanthropy in Ghana.
Speaking during a working visit to Wa, he said the GfC project is currently working with about 34 partners, engaged either under the community of practice or they are taking up initiatives that promote local giving, and some civic engagement towards transformational changes.
He said the project has done well in creating an enabling environment for people to give and recommends that more avenues should be created.
“Though people are giving, we can still create the environment for people to give better. The whole essence is that we are creating a giving culture where everybody in the community believes that transformational change is not for a particular government or district, but everyone can be included. The GfC has made some good strides that we can celebrate,” he said.
He emphasized the need to create an enabling environment that is not limited to the policy level.
“We at STAR-Ghana Foundation have helped to create avenues towards the local philanthropy work. We are admonishing that the government which is charge of policies would come in strongly to support by granting some tax reliefs to people desiring to give towards social course or transformational changes,” he added.
Shift The Power: Civil Society Strengthening Project (CSSP) team onboarding begins.
“Translating the proposal into action is the challenging part, it is not just having a StP manifesto and saying we’re going through with it to the latter. Development is a very messy process; it takes two steps forward and about four backward, and so it requires a lot more than rhetoric.”- Amidu Ibrahim-Tanko, Executive Director -STAR-Ghana Foundation
The search of new ways of working that promote community voice and involvement in social development is imperative and has become an agenda pursued by many development actors, recently. In this spirit, two organizations, supporting civic space strengthening STAR-Ghana Foundation and the West African Civil Society Initiative (WACSI) are initiating steps towards rolling out the long-term civil society support programme-Civil Society Strengthening Programme-ShiftThePower. The Comic Relief funded project seeks to build institutional resilience of CSOs in Ghana by providing a more progressive, negotiated, participatory and widely owned solution to social development work.
The team onboarding, aims at supporting the CSSP-StP implementation teams to reconnect, renew energy and re-create enabling ways of working to optimise resources and deal with potential issues that can pose risks to effective delivery of the programme
The Civil Society Strengthening Project seeks to provide long term support to civil society in Ghana, and in effect, enhance their resilience, responsiveness, and effectiveness in delivering the priorities of its constituents. The CSSP-StP is implemented by STAR Ghana Foundation and the West African Civil Society Institute as Anchor partners for Ghana.
Head of Programmes at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice R. Agbenyadzi intimated that “the team needs to will help co-create how to work together and manage resources and challenges that may affect the delivery of the project as well as how to mitigate it.” She mentioned that the programme in its nature is shifting power.”
In recognizing the challenges associated with development, the Executive Director of the Foundation, stated that “translating the proposal into action is the challenging part, it is not just having a StP manifesto and saying we’re going through with it to the latter. Development is a very messy process; it takes two steps forward and about four backward, and so it requires a lot more than rhetoric.” Alhaji Amidu Ibrahim-Tanko added that for a seamless implementation, it is also important to rope in the various workstreams of both organizations for the segregation of duties on the project in accordance with areas of specialty.