Background:
Ghana’s 20.5 million population is growing at a rate of 2.6 percent a year. Despite the huge economic potential of this West African country, more than 42 percent of the population still lives in acute poverty on less than $1 per day, (Ghana Living Standards Survey, 2000).

Ghana’s main exports are cocoa, timber and gold. However, high unemployment, a 12 percent inflation rate and poor investment makes Ghana heavily dependent on aid. More than 40 percent of Government spending is externally funded.

Civil society are increasingly gaining ground, as the Government begin to recognize the value of their input into decision making processes. However, the World Bank and IMF continue to shape and direct the Government’s social and economic policies under the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative.

The liberalisation of markets has led to the dumping of Western agricultural goods, especially rice and tomatoes, onto local markets. This is having a disastrous impact on the livelihoods of local farmers, resulting in increasing youth unemployment and destitution.

Ghana remains troubled by several conflicts, especially in the Northern region where poverty is rife. Land ownership and access to resources have become major issues. The complexity of chieftaincy succession and political wrangling continue to increase the potential of conflicts in the country.

Oxfam GB in Ghana:

Oxfam started working in Ghana in 1986 in an area of West Mamprusi district called ‘Overseas’. It came by this name because the area floods during the rainy season, cutting it off from the rest of the country for up to four months every year; only accessible by boat and helicopter.

Oxfam’s work in Overseas focused on tackling chronic water and sanitation problems faced by thousands of people. Over 15 years, we invested close to £600,000 providing water and sanitation, small credit schemes and health/hygiene education facilities for over 700 farming families.

Today, Oxfam’s work is focused in the three poorest regions in the North of Ghana, where 70 percent of people live on less than $1 a day. Our programme specializes in livelihoods peace-building and education. However, gender and diversity, and advocacy and campaigns are integrated throughout all aspects of our work.

Ghana Livelihoods Programme:

The aim of Oxfam’s livelihoods work in Ghana is to help poor people to have a secure food supply and/or income, by increasing their production capacity, and improving their access to local, national and regional markets.

Over six years we have worked with local partners and communities to help them to identify problems with building sufficient livelihoods, and to develop appropriate and long-lasting solutions to these problems.

Through our partnerships, over 215 communities and several hundred producer groups have improved their crop production, livestock management and food processing, thereby increasing their power and competitiveness in markets. They have also developed new skills and diversified their production activities.

We have also worked successfully with women to enable them to own assets, raising their economic status and power within society.

Advocacy and campaigns are at the heart of our livelihoods work in Ghana. Oxfam played a major role in the creation of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG). With a growing membership of over 2 million male and female farmers, PFAG lobbies the Government for greater investment in agriculture, and for fairer trade and market access. We also work hand in hand with the Market Access Promotion Network (MAPRONET), who support over 42 producer groups with training in business planning and quality control, and how to improve access to markets in the sub-region and across the world.

Oxfam’s nationwide campaign against rice dumping in Ghana calls for all Ghanaians to consume local rice and protect local farmers. Since its launch in 2005, the campaign has had a significant impact on local rice consumption and government investment in the rice sector. The campaign is set to continue until 2010.

Our partners who continue to work tirelessly to make all of this happen include:

• New Energy
• Trade Aid
• Zuuri Organic Vegetable Farmers Association (ZOVFA)
• Partners in Rural Empowerment and Development (PARID)
• Presbyterian Agriculture and Rural Integrated Programme (PARIP)
• Nandom Deanery Integrated Rural Development Programme (NANDRIDEP)
• Rural Aid Action Programme (RAAP)
• Single Mothers Association (SMA)
• Peasant farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG)
• Market Access Promotion Network (MAPRONET)

Education:

Oxfam works to promote gender equality in education. Girls in Ghana, especially in poor communities, are discriminated against when it comes to sending children to school.

When there are limited resources, boys are prioritised over girls who are considered more useful in the home. Also, parents often feel that they will lose the investment made in a girl’s education when she marries and leaves to join her husband’s home. Boys remain contributing members of the household, especially in the more patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana.

Oxfam’s education work in Ghana is twofold. Ghana have signed up to the Dakar Declaration, pledging to achieve gender equality in education by 2005, and free compulsory basic education for all by 2015. Therefore, we campaign and lobby for the government to provide the educational resources to help meet these goals. At the same time, we raise awareness within communities to increase enrolment in schools (especially for girls), and encourage pupils to stay on longer at school.

In the Upper West Region of Ghana, Oxfam’s education work has significantly increased the retention of boys and girls in school, and has also contributed to increasing the number of teachers to 1 teacher for every 35 children in 2005, in comparison to 1 teacher for every 70 children in 2003.

Oxfam’s support to civil society organisations and their engagement with the Government on education issues also greatly contributed to a Government grant, which made free education in Ghana a reality in 2005.

Oxfam’s Key partners driving the Education programme are:

• Radio Progress: a radio programme that aims to change the attitudes, beliefs and practices that prevent girls from going to school. Radio Progress reaches over 500,000 listeners and successfully encourages people consider girls’ education as a positive investment for the nation.
• Professional Network: a grassroots organisation that aims to increase girls' enrolment and retention in schools through support to School Management Committees. Over 24 communities now have active School Management Committees.
• Northern Network for Education Development (NNED): A vibrant network of local organisations and individuals who work to bridge the education gap between the north and the south of Ghana through advocacy and campaigns.
• Ghana National Education Coalition (GNECC): A national coalition of civil society organisations, individuals and institutions who campaign and lobby the government to make education accessible and affordable to all.

Conflict Reduction and Peace Building:

Ghana’s vast Northern region is home to over 17 ethnic groups, with seven out of ten people living under the poverty line. The erosion of traditional social organisation, combined with severe poverty have made the region extremely vulnerable to conflict, the most notable being the unresolved Dagbon chieftaincy dispute that erupted in 2002.

Oxfam works with local organizations to educate communities in the Northern region about peace, tolerance and alternative ways of resolving disputes. Our main activities include training workshops, community drama, weekly radio discussion programmes in local languages and the facilitation of regular dialogue between communities.

Oxfam’s Ghana programme is also part of the Oxfam International Control Arms Campaign, championed by the Ghanaian Government. We work with the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) and the Ghanaian section of the West Africa Network on Small Arms (WANSA) to support national civil society groups and journalists to lobby against the proliferation of small arms and to call for the adoption of an international arms trade treaty.

Oxfam’s partners for conflict reduction and peace building are:

• The West Africa Network for Peace building (WANEP)
• Ghana Network for Peace Building (GHANEP)
• The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE)
• Foundation for Security Development in Africa (FOSDA)
• The Centre for Social Policy Studies of the University of Ghana
• Ghana Network on Small Arms (GHANSA)

Right to be Heard:

Lack of accountable governance continues to be a fundamental barrier to overcoming poverty in Ghana. Poor peoples’ demand for policies and resources which take their needs into account have not been satisfied. The government has its own priorities and neglects its accountability to poor people who are unable to participate effectively, or to campaign for their rights.

Oxfam work to ensure that marginalised poor people have an effective voice to influence decisions affecting their lives and achieve their civil rights. Our Right to be Heard programme reinforces our work on livelihoods and education, and is focused in the three Northern regions, Brong-Ahafo region and Volta region of Ghana. Our main activities focus on strengthening local governance and budget-monitoring processes, increasing people’s understanding of their civil rights and responsibilities, and strengthening the capacity of local civil society organisations.

Oxfam’s work has significantly contributed to increasing civil society organisation’s confidence and capacity to monitor and expose inadequacies in poverty reduction programmes, and to hold the government accountable to its citizens. Today, civil society organisations are tracking budgets, monitoring the expenditure of funds for poverty reduction, and also raising issues of national concern for government action.

Campaigning is again a major part of our Right to be Heard work. Oxfam have lobbied international finance institutions and diplomatic representatives in Ghana for debt relief, and are active members of the Global Campaign Against Poverty (GCAP).

Partners under this programme include:

• Integrated Social Development Centre
• Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL)
• Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa (SEND Foundation)
• Third World Network (TWN)
• Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU)
• GCAP Coalition – Ghana Chapter

Last updated: March 06