Ama Achiaa Amankwah Baafi

Monday, April 03, 2023

STAR-Ghana Foundation rally partners to push for equity, social inclusion -Two-year AVID project begins

STAR-Ghana Foundation’s Actions for Voice and Inclusive Development (AVID) project has held an orientation for partners under the project in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

The aim was to create an avenue for the partners to better understand the Foundation’s ways of working, including reporting requirements and how these relate to the project.

Additionally, the workshop provided a platform for identifying synergies amongst the partners to enhance collaboration.

The AVID, a two-year project with support from the Flora and Hewlett Foundation seeks to contribute to addressing systemic constraints to underserved population's access to their rights, particularly voice and influence in governance and equitable access to quality public goods and services.

In all, 44 participants participated in the AVID orientation programme and were drawn from 21 Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), and less formalised networks shortlisted after submitting concept notes through the call for partnership process. These partners were supported to fully develop their concept notes into proposals in tandem with the project’s overall goal, participated in the two-day orientation from 28th – 29th March 2023.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Civil society urged to adopt double-edged approach in advocacy

The Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, has urged civil society to adopt a double-edged approach in their advocacy work.

He said their work must not just focus on reporting to align with the objectives and requirements of their donors but also geared towards development effectiveness.

According to Alhaji Tanko, civil society actors often force themselves to pick up positives, where perhaps it might have been more useful for them if they focused on the challenges.

“We are always focusing on what has worked because that is what the donor wants to hear. But if we do that, we lose sight of very important lessons. What hasn’t worked, what didn’t work, why didn’t it work? How do we use that moving forward.

“Donors don’t incentivise that type of learning, so we go through all kinds of concoctions to glean some results. As we move forward, we should be clear on what we want to learn or else we will go through endless learning workshops and not much coming out of it,” he said during a STAR-Ghana Foundation end of phase learning event for grant partners under the Gender Rights and Empowerment programme (G-REP), with funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), at Aburi in the Eastern Region.

He challenged civil society organisations to move beyond learning for contractual purposes, to learning beyond donor demands and for development effectiveness.

Monday, March 20, 2023

Community-led Philanthropy Projects driving change

As a result of local philanthropy, Abanga Moses Aningiba is currently pursuing a degree at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Community-led philanthropy is critical to the development of every society. Developmental projects through local philanthropy is largely need-based, thus addressing specific issues with distinctive tailor-made methods depending on the community. Today, a lot of Communities in Ghana are buying into the idea of owning their development by mobilizing capital and human resources through STAR-Ghana Foundation’s Giving for Change (GfC) Programme.

During a monitoring and support visit to project implementing partners under the GfC Programme, it emerged that project communities are building school blocks, health centers, places of worship as well as undertaking education support and livelihood empowerment activities to benefit needy community members.

The visit was aimed at ascertainning progress made on implementing projects against their expected deliverables. It also served as a check for compliance against required financial practices while strategic support is offered on effective implementation of the projects.

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Stakeholders push for more investments to improve girl’s education

Speakers at a STAR-Ghana Foundation forum have called for increased investments in education to improve access to education for all.

The call is coming on the back of concerns that poverty and cost-related (hidden) challenges remain foremost on the list of barriers that confront girls’ continuous access to education.

Therefore, the unique needs of girls should be factored into education financing to enable girls to enroll, remain and complete their education.

The forum was held under the theme ‘Increasing Inclusive Access to Continuous Quality Education for Girls.”

Friday, March 10, 2023

Violent Extremism and Border Security: STAR-Ghana Foundation builds capacity of border communities in Upper East Region

Community buy-in and support is critical to the success of efforts aimed at helping improve security and or preventing conflicts. Indeed, their involvement and ownership is almost inevitable in efforts to build resilience for risk border communities against spillovers and infiltration of violent extremism.

In Ghana, the volatile security situation in neighbouring countries to the north has heightened concerns of possible infiltration of extremists and radicalization of vulnerable demographics in border communities to disturb the relative peace in the country.

As a result, under its social cohesion project being implemented in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana, STAR-Ghana Foundation held capacity building sessions for members of Community Dialogue Platforms in six (6) border communities in the Upper East Region to be able to effectively educate their communities and contribute to raising awareness and building resilience against border security threats. The Dialogue Platforms are made up of women leaders, youth groups, security agencies, traditional leaders, and the representatives of state agencies at the local level among other stakeholders. The current training, being the second of a series of trainings focused on Early Warning and Response Mechanisms as well as Gender Dynamics in Violent Extremism & Border Security.

Thursday, March 09, 2023

Leverage technology to improve livelihoods of women, girls

Partners under the STAR-Ghana Foundation’s Gender Rights and Empowerment Programme (G-REP) have been encouraged to use all available platforms to ensure that women and girls embrace and take advantage of technological innovations to improve their lives.

Such a move, a Projects Manager at the Foundation, Dr Ernestina Tetteh, said would also help to improve the lots of their families, communities, and the country generally.

Speaking at a forum in Ho in the Volta Region to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) 2023, under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality,” she said the theme aligns with STAR-Ghana Foundation’s comprehensive Gender Equality and Social Inclusion plan that guides all its operations and partnerships.

She urged that in the pursuit of digital technology, no none ought to be left behind.

“Let’s remember that women and girls are not a homogeneous group, and there may be some, and a significant proportion at that, who may need a little more help in embracing technology and enjoying its benefit thereof. Subsequently, we all need to be intentional in our approach so that we do not end up excluding certain groups in our pursuit of gender equality.”

“I am thinking about women and girls with disabilities, women and girls from low social economic backgrounds, women and girls in rural communities, women, and girls with little or no formal education, women and girls who have no employment or training. We need to be deliberate to bring on board all categories of women, reaching the furthest behind first,” she said.

Wednesday, March 08, 2023

Partner civil society, stakeholders to achieve quality education for girls. - Gov’t urged

A STAR-Ghana Foundation forum on “Promoting Girls’ Education in Ghana” has called on all stakeholders to help promote access to education for all, particularly girls.

The participants were of the view that improving access to education for girls was a shared responsibility, adding that government alone cannot provide access to quality education for all.

There was therefore a call for increased collaboration among CSOs, and partnership between CSOS and government.

Speaking at the event, the Director of the Girls’ Education Unit at the Ministry of Education, Gifty Asiedu, said although government is doing its part; appointment of girls’ education officers in the regions, districts, in schools, and in some cases, men taking up the role, girls still have issues and need support.

“It is so huge that government cannot carry this burden alone. We need to deliberate on ways to give vulnerable girls the opportunity to access education. Girls need to be given opportunities, and helped,” she said.

Monday, February 13, 2023

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.

Monday, February 06, 2023

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.

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.

https://www.star-ghana.org/latest-news/565-multi-stakeholder-approach-needed-to-promote-girls-education

Friday, February 03, 2023

Shift The Power: Civil Society Strengthening Project (CSSP) team onboarding begins.

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.

Friday, January 27, 2023

Promoting Girls’ Education receive major push

Efforts to facilitate access to quality education for girls continues to be frustrated by avoidable barriers confronting parents, girls and other actors vested in girls’ education.

STAR-Ghana Foundation (SGF) recognizes the need to tackle these pervasive barriers to girls’ continuous access to education, to wit, proposed discussions would be held in collaboration with relevant partners and other stakeholders in the education sector.

Thursday, January 26, 2023

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.

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Songtaba raises funds to support vulnerable groups

Songtaba, an implementing partner of the STAR-Ghana Foundation (SGF’s) Giving for Change (GfC) project, is leading a community mobilization project aimed at empowering communities to take control of their own development.

Known as the Faako (relief) Social Fund (FSF), the project which is currently ongoing in Tamale in the Northern region seeks to raise money, and get in-kind contributions from communities, purposely, to support the less privilege, especially women in the alleged witches’ camp.

The Head of Programmes and Policy at Songtaba, Shani Abdul Kasiru, explained the FSF is a local philanthropic fund that connects Ghanaians, both home and abroad to contribute for purposes of bringing development to the people.

“Since implementation of the project, we have supported women living in exclusion (alleged witches) in food, clothing, and others. We have decided to do that because living in such deplorable conditions they have been neglected and there is no form of social support,” he said.

He said the support has renewed hopes at the camp.https://www.star-ghana.org/latest-news/561-songtaba-raises-funds-to-support-vulnerable-groups