Four Climate Change Adaptation Projects launched in Bongo

Our Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have launched four climate change adaptation projects in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region.

The NGOs include META Foundation, LINK Ghana, Rural Education and Agriculture Development International (READI) and the Community Self Reliance Centre (COSREC).

The Adaptation Fund Sub Projects, made up of Dry Season Gardening, Integrated Beekeeping and Environmental Protection (IBEP), Fishing and Tree Growing Projects would benefit selected communities such as the Yidongo, Gorigo, Adaboya, Vea, Amanga, Kunkua and Aliba all in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region.

The one year sub projects, with emphasis on women are aimed at increasing households’ incomes and ensuring food security.

The projects had funding support from the Adaptation Fund Project (AFP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) through the Upper East Regional Directorate of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the institution in charge of monitoring and supervising the projects.

Launching the project at the Aliba Community, Mr Peter Ayamga Ayinbisa, Bongo District Chief Executive (DCE), lauded the projects and stated that the District experienced adverse effects when it came to climate change.

He expressed optimism that not only would the interventions help empower the communities to adopt to climate change, it would also help contribute to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of addressing hunger, poverty and climate change.

Mr David Amozebega, the Programme Manager of META Foundation, said his outfit which was in charge of the Dry Season Gardening would build the capacity of the communities to establish seedlings in the areas of tomatoes, pepper and onions and support them with modernized agricultural practices to conduct farming activities during the dry season.

He indicated that considering the role of women in food security and household livelihoods interventions, the project would at least have 60 percent of the beneficiaries being women and added that, the project would work to ensure that the youth and the vulnerable groups, such as physically challenged persons become integral part of the project.

Mr Daniel Kansake, the Northern Regional Manager of LINK Ghana, stated that LINK Ghana with its Bee Project, would implement some key activities including the procurement of beehives and accessories for the beneficiary communities, conduct beekeeping training, sight, clear and install hives, build the capacity of the communities members to trap bees, the management of hives, harvesting and marketing as well as conduct Gender Baseline Analysis.

He said the project, which would target 150 farmers made up of 100 females and 50 males, had the overall objective to improve environmental sustainability and household income of about 150 farmers through bee keeping.

The Regional Manager expressed worry about the situation where many farmers set fire in the bush in attempt to trap bees for honey and indicated that the practice often led to contamination of the honey and bush burning.

He said the project would promote environmentally friendly methods of honey production and apiculture and increase the production of high quality honey for both local and international markets.

The Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, Bonaba Salifu Atamale Lemyaruum, who is also the Vice President of the Regional House of Chiefs, impressed upon the beneficiary communities to embrace the project and stressed that the selected projects for the District had the greatest potentials of creating wealth.

UE/R workshop on Agriculture Technology Transfer ATT Project ends

Statistics has shown that only 10 per cent of farmers in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions of Ghana used certified seed for farming.

The remaining 90 per cent still rely on the saved seed for crop production. Ghana’s Agriculture will not thrive well and compete favorably in food production if farmers continue to rely on uncertified seeds for farming. Seed is considered key and a basic technology for crop productivity.

There is therefore, the need to look at ways of increasing technologies that can help bring about improved farming, and sustainable crop production, that will increase smallholder farmers’ income in Northern Ghana and for that matter Ghana as a whole.

It is based on this that, the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented a project known as Agriculture Technology Transfer (ATT), in Ghana.

The 5-year project did not only increase the utilization of certified and agriculture technologies which resulted into increased maize, rice and soybean production in Northern Ghana, but it has developed a solid seed sector for Northern Ghana.

A day’s learning event organized under the theme “Celebrating ATT Contributions to Agriculture Transformation in Northern Ghana” and held in Bolgatanga to herald the end of the project, call for investment in agriculture sector.

The implementation of , Agriculture Technology Transfer ATT started in 2013, in Northern Ghana which comprises Northern, Upper West and Upper East Region.

With funding support from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Feed the Future (FTF) initiative, a US Government’s global hunger and food security programme, which focuses on global agriculture transformation.

The 5-year project led by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), an international public research-based organization working to alleviate global hunger by introducing improved agricultural practices and fertilizer technologies to farmers and linking farmers to markets, did not only improved accessibility to certified seed and agriculture technologies for smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana but it has improved seed value chain in Northern Ghana.

The workshop brought together researchers, directors of agriculture, representatives of farmer groups, seed growers and processers’ and agriculture related Non-Governmental Organizations among others.

The aim of the learning event was to bring partners together to learn from the project’s best practices, share ideas about how to sustain the project successes and legacy left behind.

It was also to stimulate discussions among stakeholders about agriculture transformation and investment in Northern Ghana to increase productivity and farmers’ income level and make necessary recommendations to improve agriculture productivity in Northern Ghana. .

Chief of Party, ATT Project of IFDC, Musah Salifu Taylor

Speaking to Radio Ghana, the Acting Chief of Party (Ag. COP) of ATT Project Musa Salifu Taylor indicated that, since its inception in 2013, ATT has been transferring various agricultural technologies and innovations to smallholder farmers including the use of certified seeds which are high yielding, drought tolerant and early maturing varieties.

Also, the project has also transferred best agronomic practices, agriculture mechanization, integrated soil fertility management approaches, soil testing and analysis that have helped increased productivity in the project’s focus crop of rice, maize and soybean.

Mr. Taylor stated further that, erratic rainfall pattern fueled by climate change is one factor the project considered in its interventions.

This explained why the project adopted multi-faceted approaches such as the promotion of high yielding crop varieties such as Sansasema and Wandata, introduction of Urea Deep Placement (UDP) technology, construction and furnishing 3-ultra modern seed laboratories in Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions, support to private seed companies and capacity building to private and government agencies in seed production among others.

Mr. Musa Taylor Regarding the five year mandate, working to transform Agriculture in Northern Ghana, Mr. Salifu explained further that ATT have been able to help established about five private seed processing companies, increased the number of farmers that used certified seed from 11 percent to 38 percent, established an Irrigation Dam for Savannah Agriculture Research Institute, (SARI).

The Executive Director of Meta Foundation David Azupogo

The Executive Director of Meta Foundation, agriculture related Non-Governmental Organization, David Azupogo and a beneficiary of ATT, expressed satisfaction of how his organization is strengthened by ATT’s assistance.

He indicated that, his outfit has benefited through capacity building for data management in the office and field, integrated soil fertility management that will help farmers adapt good agronomic practices that could lead to improve yields, access to improved seed and input to farmers and climate change issues among others.

A Cross Section of the participants of the ATT IFDC workhope in Bolgatanga

Bongo District Gets 4 Climate Change Adaptation Projects for Food Security

Four Adaptation Climate Fund Sub-Projects have been launched at the Aliba Community in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region to increase incomes and guarantee food sufficiency. They are dry season gardening, Integrated Beekeeping and Environmental Protection (IBEP), fishing and tree growing. The one year sub-projects being implemented in Yidongo, Gorigo, Adaboya, Vea, Amanga, Kukua and Aliba communities are climate change adaptation focused and aimed at increasing household’s incomes and reducing food insecurity especially among women.

The projects are being implemented by META Foundation, LINK Ghana, Rural Education and Agriculture Development International (READI) and the Community Self Reliance Centre (COSREC), all Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with funding from the Adaptation Fund Project (AFP) of the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP). The Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) through the Upper East Regional Directorate of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing monitoring and supervisory services.

NGOs and CBOs in Bolgatanga given leadership training

Some Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region have been given free Leadership and Communication skills training.

The one week training organized by the Libre Foundation, a Netherland Based Organization, was aimed at equipping staff and workers of the NGOs and CBOs with needed leadership and communication knowledge and strategies that would enable them improve upon the performance of their work.

The training which benefited 50 persons was done in series and organized in different parts of the region.

Mr Paul Van Warm, one of the facilitators, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, said the training sessions in the Upper East and the Northern Regions were part of the 126 such programmes organized so far across the world.

He attributed the poor performance of some NGOs to lack of effective leadership and communication skills and said the Libre Foundation would continue to offer such voluntary and humanitarian services to save organizations around the globe from collapsing.”

Mr Ivo Spanjersberg, another Trainer and Facilitator of the organization, said Libre Foundation was aimed at empowering the NGOs and CBOs to effectively operate and make a good impact.

Speaking to some of the beneficiaries of the programme, majority of them indicated that it was refreshing and would help reshape their organizations to become vibrant.

Mr Hillary Adongo, the Local Project Coordinator of the Libre Foundation in charge of the Upper East Region, said the training has made an impact in the region as many organizations were now progressing steadily and gaining good results.

Ms Amiyine Finela Asoke, the Director of Literacy Base NGO known as “Asoke Frafra”, one of the beneficiaries, said communication used to be a hindrance to the smooth operation of the NGO but the training had improved its communication and marketing skills and methods.

Another beneficiary, Mr James Adoctor Aganda, a Project officer of another NGO called META Foundation, said “the training programme has been so refreshing, it will enable me to restructure my organization to make it more vibrant to attract more development partners to champion the cause of the organization”

NGO unhappy about low birth registration in Upper East

Siniensi (UE), March 31, GNA – The Meta Foundation, a local non-governmental organisation (NGO), operating in northern Ghana, has expressed concern about the low birth registration of infants at the Birth and Death Registry.

The Programme Manager of the Foundation, Mr David Amozebega, who expressed the concern at a durbar at the Siniensi community in the Builsa North District of the Upper East Region, said a baseline survey conducted by his outfit, indicated that many parents were not paying attention to the birth registration of their new born babies.

He said birth registration, which was a government policy was crucial for policy formulation and implementation particularly in the area of health, education, agriculture and nutrition and should not be neglected.

The Programme Manager said child marriage was another challenge in the Region and the NGO with support from UNICEF was implementing a project dubbed: “Sustaining Human Progress and Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience,” in 80 communities in the Builsa North and the Nabdam Districts of the Region.

Mr Amozebega said the project which was working in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service, the Birth and Death Registry, the traditional authorities, opinion leaders and assembly members, was aimed at promoting birth registration, ending child and forced marriages, promotion of skill delivery at health facilities, exclusive breastfeeding and increase school enrolment among others.

Educating the communities about the relevance of birth registration, Mr John Yalmon Badengbanoya, the Birth and Death Registrar for Builsa North and Builsa South Districts, said birth certificate was important in one’s life as it is needed for processing documents.

“The importance of birth registration cannot be overemphasized. It establishes the accurate age of the child particularly in accessing education and health, determines the voting age, provide an avenue for judges to ascertain the true age of rape cases as well as use it as a basis for gaining employment as well as used for policy formulation,” he said.

He told the people that it was free of charge to register a child from zero to 12 months old.riod.

The Chief of Siniensi, Nab Gilbert Apig-Jiak Afulang, commended the NGO and UNICEF for implementing the project in the area.

He said the incidence of child marriage was a human factor rather than poverty, and pledged that plans were far advanced by the traditional council to constitute a committee to address the phenomenon and to also help ensure that parents patronise the Birth and Death Registry.

Mrs Georgina Amidu, the Communication for Development Officer of UNICEF, said the high incidence of child marriage gave the country a bad image and called for collective efforts from stakeholders including traditional rulers, civil society organisations, Municipal and District Assemblies to join hands in fighting the canker.

Most of the community members at the durbar said they were not aware of the fact that it was a criminal offense to give out their daughters below the age of 18 for marriage and did not also know the relevance of the birth registration.L

Meta Foundation commended for organizing Child Health Promotion Week

A Non-Governmental Organization(NGO) , operating in northern Ghana and known as Meta Foundation, has been commended for complementing the effort of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to undertake activities to mark this year’s Child Health Promotion Week(CHPW) in the Upper East Region.

The CHPW instituted by the GHS in 2004 aimed at scaling up a number of priority interventions to reverse the morbidity and mortality trends in the country is marked in the second week of May every year, aimedat creating the awareness and intensifying efforts to increase knowledge, improve health coverage for children especially those who would not usually be covered under the normal routine outreach services.
The NGO apart from contributing financial resources for monitoring and supervision of nurses carrying the health activities in the health facilities in the region , also took part in the monitoring and supervision activity, built the capacity of eighty- four volunteers to conduct home visits to promote exclusive breastfeeding , encouraged mothers and women in labour to go for antenatal and post-natal services at the various health facilities, encouraged parents to register their new born babies with the Department of Birth and Death as well organized health talks using the community radio.

Mr Rexford King James Adjei, the Regional Health Promotion Officer of the GHS, made the commendation during joint monitoring visits by some of the Senior Staff of the Regional Health Directorate of the GHS and some staff of the NGO to some health facilities in the Builsa North and the NabdamDistricts in the Region.

The Regional Health Promotion Officer who expressed happiness about the high turnout for the five day event , commended the NGO for its contribution towards the event , and appealed to other development partners and Corporate bodies to support the GHS in delivering quality health care to women and children so as to help Ghana fast-track the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

He stated that Community members need much information on health to enable them to access health care services affectively, but mentioned that one of the major challenges facing the Regional and District Health Directorates was inadequate funding undertake Social Mobilization and community activities to empower the communities with health information.

Among some of the health facilities the team visited included the Sadema District Health Hospital , the Chuchuliga Sub District Health facility, AchanyireGoayie CHPs Compound where majority of mothers with children under the five years were seen accessing essential services including immunization against childhood diseases , vitamin A supplementation , weighing of children, giving bed nets to children aged below 18 months, conducting of free birth registration for babies under 1 year, receiving advice on exclusive breast feeding and complimentary feeding through demonstrations.
MrAboziah Ernest , the District Health Promotion Officer in charge of the Builsa North , attributed the success story of this year’s event to the high level of the awareness creation embarked by the NGO in many of the communities through sensitization and community radio.

“Unlike before, it was very difficult getting people to register their newborn babies with the Department of Birth and Registry ,but now many parents are now patronizing the services. This will provide reliable and accurate data for proper planning and programme implementation. We are also happy that the NGO through community durbars is engaging with the communities to stop negative cultural practices such as early marriages and open defecation which have health implication “ , he stated
The Programme Manager of the Foundation, Mr David Amozebega, said Health, Sanitation and Agriculture were among the core mandate of his outfit and indicated the NGO in collaboration with the GHS, the Birth and Death Registry, the traditional authorities, opinion leaders and assembly members with support from UNICEF- Ghana was implementing a – one- year project dubbed: “Sustaining Human Progress and Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience,” in 80 communities in the Builsa North and the Nabdam Districts of the Region , aimed at the promotion of skill delivery at health facilities, exclusive breastfeeding promoting of birth registration, ending child and forced marriages, increase in school enrolment among others.

This year’s theme: “Healthy Child, Start Right, Do It Right for Total Growth and Development” is aimed at improving access and efficiency in service delivery, quality of care and increase coverage of children under the ages of five.

Some of the mothers with their babies accessing health services for their babies in the Builsa North District.

META Foundation

INTRODUCTION

META Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) established in June 2007 and incorporated in March 2009 with the Registrar General Department of Ghana. The organisation is also registered with the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana as a Non-Governmental Organisation.

1.1 VISION

Our vision is to see “a society of dignity devoid of poverty, ignorance and diseases.”

1.2 MISSION

The mission is “Working actively with disadvantage communities in partnership with other organizations and agencies to empower the poor and vulnerable towards reducing poverty, discrimination and marginalization.”

1.3 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

To promote food security and resilience among smallholders farmers in rural and peri-urban communities. To enhance Agro-Enterprise development, Livelihoods and Advocacy To promote Primary Health Care Services in rural and peri -urban communities To improve Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in rural and peri -urban communities

1.4 ORGANISATIONAL MANDATE AND FIELD OF WORK

The thematic interventions include; “Agriculture and Climate Change”, “Natural Resource Management and Biodiversity”, “Health, Nutrition and Sanitation”, “Local Economic Development, ICT and Financial Inclusion for Women and Youth”, “Governance, Migration and Peace-Building”, “Education and Child Development”, and “Research and Advocacy”. The organisation works and partner with local and international partners/donors, government agencies, private sector, communities and individuals to carry out development interventions.

SHEA VALUE CHAIN

META Foundation has been working to improve the economic empowerment of women in Northern Ghana through shea. META has been working with some shea women groups in a bit to help address some of the key challenges faced by women collectors and processors in Northern Ghana and in an effort to improve their food security and economic development
The work of META Foundation on shea is focused on five (5) pillars and these include:
• Women Cooperative Development
• Sheanuts Aggregation
• Value Addition and market access
• Financing of women cooperatives and;
• Environmental Sustainability

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