In collaboration with the Ministry of Energy, Ghana Alliance for Clean cookstoves (GHACCO) and CIWED-Ghana [who are members of ACCESS Coalition], the Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND), a climate Change advocate is currently engaging community people in the Ashanti, Northern, Central and Greater Accra regions on clean cooking stoves.

This is to know and understand their perceptions and experiences on the use of clean cooking stoves based on the free distribution of 500,000 clean cooking stoves by government of Ghana 2 years ago.

The programme is expected to benefit approximately 1.8 million Ghanaians through a $5.5million South Korea Government funded project.

This was disclosed in a press release issued on this day, 4th February,2022 by the Executive Coordinator of Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND), Mr. Chibeze Ezekiel in Accra.

“The outcome of this exercise is to feed into the Ministry’s evaluation processes and inform the next steps in line with attaining SDG7, Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) and the Nationally Determined Contributions (Gh-NDCs)”, it stated.

Furthermore, the release hinted that, particularly, “we will be organising a Post-COP26 Workshop on Energy later this month with relevant state and non-state actors to among others share the findings of our survey to help contribute to Ghana’s energy transition interventions.

Currently, the team are currently in Tamale engaging women on clean cooking, hence to collate their views, perceptions and thoughts on the use of the stove as well educate them on the importance of using clean cooking stove in their day to day cooking.

SYND is the West Africa Regional Node for ACCESS Coalition. The coalition is made up CSOs across the globe working to promote energy access particularly to the poor and vulnerable.

CIWED Rolls out the Women’s Voice and Leadership Ghana Project in the Nantong District and Savelugu Municipality

The Centre for Capacity Improvement for the Wellbeing of the Vulnerable (CIWED), with funding support from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) has officially launched the Women’s Voice and Leadership Project in the Nantong District and Savelugu Municipality. The project seeks to increase the effective participation of women in decision-making roles and in leadership positions as well. It also seeks to empower women to have access to and control of resources. Inaugurating the project, the District Social Welfare Directors of Nantong Savelugu as well as the heads teachers of the selected schools welcomed the project and pledged the support of the assemblies and the Ghana education Service to the success of the project. On his part, the Executive Director of CIWED, Mr. Baako Abdul-Fatawu assured the stakeholders of his outfit’s continuous engagement and consultation throughout the project life span. He also thanked OSIWA for the confidence reposed on his organisation and assured to deliver as expected.

CIWED in partnership with Tools for Self-Reliance (TfSR), a UK based donor to provide skills training for young people in Northern Region. The programme is an intervention to ensure that the youth (18 – 24 years) especially those out of school to acquire entrepreneurship skills to become self-reliance and live dignified lives and reduce social vices in society. The unemployment rate and the lack of livelihood opportunities in the Northern Region and the country at large has contributed to a large extend of some social problems such as Rural- Urban migration (Kayaye) where young people as low as age 10 and above migrate from northern region to the southern regions of Ghana to do menial jobs such as head-potting to earn a living. Most of them return with teenage pregnancies and STIs, worsening their situations and increase their poverty level.
The fist face started in July 2019 to train 10 young girls in dressmaking and 5 young boys in welding and fabrication.  Many of these young people were selected from the streets and part of the project aim is to re-integrate them back to their homes when they are done with the trainings.
The second face which is yet to start is looking at getting 26 young boys and girls acquire skills in Tailoring and dress making, Head dressing and beautician and Electronic welding and fabrication. This will contribute in Addressing Youth Unemployment through Skills Training and Development especially young women of age brackets (12-25) to be self-reliance and economic independent.

GENDER AND SDGS STEP DOWN TRAINING FOR WOMEN AND GENDER-BASED CSOs/CBOs IN THE NORTHERN REGION

he women 2030 project being carry out in 52 countries across different regions of the world. It is led by a coalition of 5 women and gender network organisations collaborating to realize the SDGs in a gender equitable and climate just way. The project also aims at contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement by advancing local and regional sustainable development while ensuring it is equitable and inclusive. As part of the activities of the first part of the implementation, Foundation for Grassroots Initiatives Africa organised capacity building training for some selected women and gender based organizations in HO.  The training was to serve as training of trainers to build the capacity of the participating individuals to carry out stepdown trainings for same NGOs/CBOs at the regional, districts and community level.
It is against this background that CIWED led the stepdown training on gender and SDGs for local NGOs and CBOs in the northern region of Ghana.  The activity was carry out on 17th November 2017 at the Regional Disability Training Centre, Tamale.

CIWED CARRIES OUT COVID – 19 COMMUNITY SENSITIZATION EXERCISE IN ZIONG

The Centre for Capacity for the Well – being of the Vulnerable (CIWED) has been engaging members of the Ziong community in the Savelugu Municipality on the need for them to continue observing the COVID – 19 health and safety protocols to prevent infections.
The activity is part of the project, “Promoting Community Based Enhanced Systems Management Preventing Contracting COVID – 19 (ProBESPCoD)”, which is an 18 – month COVID – 19 prevention intervention. The project is being implemented in five MMDAs across the northern region, by seven NGOs who form the Alliance for Future Generations (AFG – Ghana) as implementing partners, to which CIWED is a member. CIWED, which has responsibility to implement the activities in Ziong in the Savelugu Municipality and Wovogu in the Sagnerigu Municipality, has been carrying out periodic sensitization as all other partners.
CIWED Executive Director facilitating the COVID – 19 sensitization in the Ziong Community
The CIWED team that visited the community and was involved in the exercise, including the Executive Director, Mr. Baako Abdul Fatawu, encouraged the community members to continue reminding each other that the COVID – 19 pandemic is still around and within our communities, which is why it is important not to let the guard down on adhering to the protocols. He revealed to them that the COVID – 19 pandemic is even more serious now than it used to be, since the new wave is unpredictable and changes all the time. According to Mr. Baako, this is making it difficult for experts to predict when the virus will become extinct, since researches carried out are not always consistent with the virus’ current form. He therefore encouraged the community members to continue wearing their masks and washing their hands with soap under running water, keeping a distance from the other person and most importantly, avoiding crowded places, especially when one is not well protected.
The “Promoting Community Based Enhanced Systems Management Preventing Contracting COVID – 19 (ProBESPCoD)” aims at sensitizing community members in the project areas on the prevention of COVID – 19 as much as possible, to prevent infections and spread of the virus in the rural areas.
The “(ProBESPCoD)” Project is in its third quarter of implementation and is being funded by Difaem in Germany.