CIWED entered into partnership with Women Environmental Programme in August 2018 to implement women economic empowerment advocacy project on women access to fertile lands for crop production.  Research in Ghana revealed that women do not have access to fertile lands for crop production especially in the northern part of the country.  The project main aim was to partner with local authorities and lobby for allocation of fertile lands to women for crop production, specifically maize, soybeans and rice.

The following are the achievements under the Women Agenda 2030 Project

–       Five communities in the Mion district benefited from the project.

–       872 women were reached out to and five advocacy groups were formed to champion the course of the project.

–       35 women group leaders were trained on advocacy, negotiation and lobbying skills

–       10 Gender Equality Champions (comprises of influential and religious people in communities) were identified and trained on advocacy negotiation and lobbying skills

–       82 beneficiaries were trained on good agronomic practices including soil fertility management process.

–       96 women were able to acquire fertile lands (average of 4 acres each) to cultivate maize, rice and soybeans and the yields were overwhelming.

About the Women Agenda 2030 Project

Women CSOs networking to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (Post-2015) also known as Women2030 project is an EU funded coalition of 5 global and regional women and gender networks working towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs in 52 countries of the world. It is being implemented in the following regions of the world: Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The Women 2030 project comprise of the following 5 global and regional women and gender networks: Women in Engage for a Common Future (WECF); Women Environmental Programme (WEP); Global Forest Coalition (GFC); Gender and Water Alliance (GWA); and Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). WECF is the lead applicant of the Women2030 project while WEP is the lead partner in Africa.

The Objectives of Women2030 Project is tobuild capacity of women’s and gender-focused civil society organizations on planning, monitoring and implementation of the SDGs/post 2015 agenda and the climate agreement. Create awareness at all levels of gender-equitable best practices and progress of national post-2015 SDG plans. Ensure more gender-responsive SDGs/post 2015 plans with participation of women and women’s organizations.

CIWED in partnership with SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) with funding from USAID Agri-finance project advocated for smallholder farmers who are primarily women to access banking services at the comfort of their homes to promote electronic cash transaction for safe keeping of their monies.  The project covered Mion, Sagnarigu, Tamale Metro, and West Mampurisi and Bole districts.

The following are the achievements under the USAID Agriculture Finance Project

·      The project mobilised over 5, 394 smallholder farmers in the aforementioned districts in the northern region of Ghana.

·      The project collaborated with Fidelity Bank in Tamale to linked up to 2, 780 smallholder farmers to open SMART accounts with Fidelity Bank in order to bring banking services to the doorsteps of these smallholder farmers and to encourage the operation of cashless system in communities.

·      The Agri-Finance project also trained over 50 women groups on Village Savings and Loans Association on Financial Literacy and numeracy and basic Records Keeping.

CIWED entered into partnership with International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) in 2017under the Agriculture Technology Transfer (ATT) project with funding from USAID Feed the Future Programme rolled out the agriculture intervention to build the capacity of Farmer-based Organisations (FBOs) where predominantly on best agronomic practices to increase their yields and for them to contribute in feeding the future.

The following are the achievements under the ATT project:

·      The project reached out to 5,780 members of (FBOs) in Mion and Bole districts sensitize them on good agronomic practices such as Soil Fertility Management, Soil Testing, planting in Rows, Right Fertilisation Application, weed control, best time of harvesting to prevent pre-harvest and post-harvest losses among others through video screening and community sensitisations.

·      The project has also distributed 418 starter packs to 418 farmers in Bole district to set up a demonstration fields in the 2017/2018 farming season to test the new technology and a doubt it.

·      Under the ATT project, CIWED cultivated 20 acres of soybean and 20 acres of maize certified seeds, in Mion district, which produced good yield and use to support government flagship Planting for Food and Job (PFJ) programme in 2018.

·      CIWED distributed over 3 tonnes of certified soybeans seeds and 2.1 tonnes of certified maize seeds to over 2,650 smallholder farmers in Bole and Mion districts where majority of them were women.

Agriculture Technology Transfer (ATT) Project

CIWED entered into partnership with International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) in 2017under the Agriculture Technology Transfer (ATT) project with funding from USAID Feed the Future Programme rolled out the agriculture intervention to build the capacity of Farmer-based Organisations (FBOs) where predominantly on best agronomic practices to increase their yields and for them to contribute in feeding the future.

The following are the achievements under the ATT project:

·      The project reached out to 5,780 members of (FBOs) in Mion and Bole districts sensitize them on good agronomic practices such as Soil Fertility Management, Soil Testing, planting in Rows, Right Fertilisation Application, weed control, best time of harvesting to prevent pre-harvest and post-harvest losses among others through video screening and community sensitisations.

·      The project has also distributed 418 starter packs to 418 farmers in Bole district to set up a demonstration fields in the 2017/2018 farming season to test the new technology and a doubt it.

·      Under the ATT project, CIWED cultivated 20 acres of soybean and 20 acres of maize certified seeds, in Mion district, which produced good yield and use to support government flagship Planting for Food and Job (PFJ) programme in 2018.

·      CIWED distributed over 3 tonnes of certified soybeans seeds and 2.1 tonnes of certified maize seeds to over 2,650 smallholder farmers in Bole and Mion districts where majority of them were women.

URBANET receives funds from EMpower, the Emerging Markets Foundation, to support the development of programs that empower youth with skills training and development, particularly young girls. EMpower is a USA-based charity organization that focusses on supporting youth in emerging market countries through partnerships and grants given to local organizations. The goals of EMpower align with the focus of URBANET, to address the needs of Ghana’s expanding youth population, who often have few skills and livelihood opportunities.

URBANET’s relationship with EMpower focuses on a diverse portfolio of projects, which enables the organization to meet the various needs of youth in northern Ghana. This includes programs to train young people, especially women, in Shea Butter processing, as Community Livestock Workers and as Seed Producers. These projects simultaneously address the critical need for youth skills training and employment, while also providing in-demand goods and services. Quality seeds, for example, are a sought-after product in the Northern Region, as are Community Livestock Workers, who bridge the gap between the hugely understaffed veterinary services and smallholder farmers. As well, the Shea Butter value chain represents a lucrative and growing employment opportunity.

URBANET’s relationship with Empower also recognizes the widespread challenges faced by youth, and particularly young girls, beyond simply a lack of employment. To this end, the organization addresses these challenges through complementary training in reproductive health, gender issues, business and entrepreneurship and information communication. Overall, through funding from EMpower, URBANET aims to increase youth livelihoods through capacity and skills development, which is gradually increasing employment opportunities as well as encouraging youth to re-enter education and to start their own businesses.

Donor: EMPower

URBANET in collaboration with ActionAid Ghana initiated a project to promote urban and peri-urban vulnerable farmers access to land for farming. The project was preceded with a research, community level sensitization, dialogue meetings with stakeholders (chiefs/land owners, planning authorities) and culminated in a project dubbed: zoning of agricultural lands/green belts. The project has since facilitated the zoning of about 475 acres of land in urban and peri-urban Tamale to be reserved purposely for agriculture especially to support women engaged in vegetable farming as their main source of livelihoods.

This is a two year project that identified 31 community level volunteers from 31 communities in the northern region engaged in livestock farming and trained them as Animal Health Workers to support their communities in basic animal husbandry such as de-worming of animals, washing of wounds, castration of animals and serving as a link between the Veterinary Services Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in reporting cases of animal diseases, and mobilizing farmers for national vaccination exercises. The project is funded by ActionAid Ghana with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture serving as the main collaborator in the implementation.