The iMPACT PROJECT www.cocoasustainability.mars.com
PDA is part of a partnership inspired by the MARS Company comprising AFRICARE, GTZ, ICI, IFESH, MARS Inc, Rainforest Alliance and STCP. The Mars Partnership for African Cocoa Communities of Tomorrow (iMPACT) is a three-year program with funding from Mars Incorporated, starting January 2008.The target group is rural communities of Ghana who are reliant on cocoa as a means of income and living. The project is being piloted in 18 communities in two districts in Ghana. The pilot districts are Wasa Amenfi West (Asankrangwa) and Assin North (Assin Fosu).
The partnership’s aim is to demonstrate that an integrated approach that includes agriculture, environment, education and health can lead to distinct changes in the incomes and welfare of rural communities. The purpose of the iMPACT program is to develop the capacity of cocoa farming communities in Ghana to identify and improve their social, economic and environmental situation. The achievement of this purpose will contribute to the development of cocoa farming in Ghana as profitable, socially rewarding and environmentally sustainable livelihood for families and an attractive occupation for the coming generation.OASIS Foundation in Assin North and CODESULT Network in Wassa Amenfi West, both districts based NGOs are the Community Engagement Partners(CEPs), the face of iMPACT at community level.
PDA as part of the partnership has the responsibility to provide capacity building support to the community engagement processes. These include the training of Community Engagement Partners (CEPs) and key district stakeholders in the use of participatory methodologies to conduct Dialogue & Sensitisation and Participatory Planning and elaboration of community action plans. Also PDA is to coordinate, provide backstopping in the community engagement process and monitor the support the CEPs give to the communities in the implementation of their community action plans.
Contact Person in PDA
Joshua Roland Baidoo
(Programme Coordinator)
jbaidoo@pdaghana.com /233 (0)244 211 679
STCP-DEMAND DRIVEN EXTENSION SERVICES
This Demand Driven Extension Services is an initiative by the Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) which is a public-private partnership that aims to improve the socio-economic well being of smallholder tree crop farmers in West and Central Africa.This project which is being implemented in two (2) districts (Adansi South and Sekyere East) in the Ashanti Region of Ghana is to train farmers in Integrated Crop and Pest management (ICPM) using the Farmar Field School (FFS) methodology.
The objective is to develop a new community based institutions or arrangements for a demand driven production services, mainly extension services.
The project is being implemented with locally based NGO's and the district office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) as implementing partners and service providers (IPs/SPs) who showed an interest in the project.
Four (4) communities in each district were selected in consultation with the IPs/SPs for the project implementation.
PDA is the Coordinating Agency for this project with an Activity coordinator and a volunteer supporting the district NGO's and MOFA.
In the long term, STCP believes the success of the project will force other communities to demand the service to enhance their cocoa production and improve their livelihood. www.treecrops.org
On-going since Dec. 2007
Client:STCP
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Ghana Civil Society Rights and Voice Initiative (RAVI) www.ravighana.org
PDA is part of a consortium of four organisations, led by Action Aid International Ghana, responsible for managing this five-year programme which aims to enhance citizens’ engagement with the state with respect to social, political, economic, cultural and civil rights.
PDA has particular responsibility for capacity building of grant partner organisations.
On-going since Oct 2004
Client: DFID Ghana
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Yen Daakye Programme with the International Cocoa Initiative www.cocoainitiative.org
PDA is the Local Coordinating Agency for ICI in the implementation of the ‘Yen Daakye’ (‘our future’) Project. Yen Daakye is a programme of community driven initiatives for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour/forced labour in cocoa production and marketing, through a child-centred development strategy. The pilot programme will run for two years, ending in September/October 2006. This is being implemented in three districts in Ghana, namely New Edubiase in the Ashanti Region, and Daboase and Asankrangwa, both in the Western Region. The programme is being carried out by district-based Implementing Partners (NGOs), who carry out the work at the community and district levels. A PDA team comprising four District Facilitators, a Field Co-ordinator and a Community Technical Consultant supports them. (See Current Work…)
On-going since Nov 2004
Client: International Cocoa Initiative
Community Driven Initiatives for Food Security (CIFS)
PDA provides the Capacity Development Specialist on this 6-year bilateral programme funded by CIDA and implemented through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. The overall goal of CIFS is to contribute to increased food security in northern Ghana through an approach that is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. The purpose is to demonstrate that community-driven initiatives, implemented within the existing framework for district planning, are an effective and sustainable way of increasing food security in northern Ghana. The project covers 10 districts in the eastern corridor of the Northern Region and employs capacity building as a key strategy for implementation in a manner that enables learning across districts and ensures that lessons and experiences from one district inform the way activities are implemented in other districts.
On going since May 2004
Client: MLGRD & CIDA
Voices From The Land Project
This 6 month project which started June 2006 ended in January 2007. It has been developed to link closely to the Security in Land Tenure (SLATE) project Care International is currently implementing. The SLATE project seeks to address the underlying causes of poverty for rural land users in Ghana. It aims to influence land administration systems in favour of greater security of tenure for this group. To achieve this, the project specifically focuses on enhancing civil society voice and benefits from modified, customary or community based land administration systems and integrate its efforts into the ongoing World Bank supported Lands Administration Project.
In partnership with Care International the Voices from the Land project specifically focuses on establishing channels for the voices of poor land users to influence national policy. The focus of the work is in two regions within Ghana (Upper West and Greater Accra) and works from the community level to facilitate participatory debates amongst all land stakeholders. The issues raised from the community and district levels through dialogues and debates will be made available for advocacy at the national level, to strengthen the advocacy agenda on land. In close collaboration with the Care SLATE team, a national forum will be organised towards the end of the project, which will include other civil society organisations involved in issues related to poor land users and provide a platform to disseminate and discuss the issues identified.
started June 2002
Client: Care International
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Civil Society Strengthening Facility (CSF) www.frr.co.uk
PDA provided the Team Leader for this pilot project which was meant to encourage greater involvement of civil society in forestry policy decisions. Working with FRR in the UK, PDA had in-country management responsibility for CSF, providing support to a Fund Administrator, which hosts the CSF Coordinator. The facility targeted grassroots organisations within three Forest Districts in Ghana – Kade, Sunyani, Asankragua - to mobilise marginalised groups to be better able to represent their interests through capacity building in advocacy, negotiation, communication and lobbying skills. It also focuses on improving accountability and transparency in the forest sector within government, industry and civil society.
November 2003 - September 2006
Client: DFID | |
