1 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

Quarterly Digest

Country Directors Opening comment (Even it Up, Inequality in the world)

Oxfam as a leading international organisation is passionate about fighting poverty and injustice in the world. Our pro-grammes and interventions are geared towards empowering people especially women to lift them out of poverty and

demand their rights as citizens.

Oxfam launched the Even it Up campaign in October 2014 to raise the awareness of the increasing inequality that the

world is suffering. In the second edition of Oxfam in Ghanas Quarterly Digest, we take a keen look at the issue of ine-quality as expressed from different perspectives in addition to other stories from our country strategy planning, gender

training for our partners and field stories from our climate and extractive programmes.

IN THIS EDITION Regional Director, Aboubacry Tall briefs the Media on Oxfams Ebola

response in West Africa

Gender Training for Partners

Climate Resilient Agricultural and Food System launched in Northern

Ghana

Queen mothers speak up at a land rally for traditional leaders

International Day of Peasant Struggle marked with rice farmers

Agriculture has the highest returns in terms of productivity-ACEP

Exe. Dir. stressed

Having Fun with Oxfun

GHQ002 - May 2015

2 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

OXNEWSOxfam Country Strategy Workshop

The Country Strategy Development workshop brought partners affiliates together to chart a new path, a path that will

determine Oxfam in Ghanas programme focus for the next five years. The discussions, sharing of ideas and experiences

gathered from the past years were heart warming.

One thing became clear in all deliberations.

The enthusiasm and agility of participants

to understand Oxfams new vision and the

anxiety exhibited to welcome this change.

All of the pointers indicated a sense of

willingness of both our national and local

partners to contribute to the Oxfam vision.

At the end of the country

strategy, the onus now lies

on Oxfam, partners and

communities to take lead

in the implementation of

the commitments we have

all agreed on, in order to

continually fight poverty

and injustice but probably

this time round in a more

connected manner.

One of our partners expressed his opinion

after the whole process. Making a little

contribution to lessen the burden on our hard

working farmers across the country through

advocacy and getting deeply involved in

the development process of Oxfam Country

Strategy is a rare opportunity and a great

experience for me, Pascal Kudiabor of SEND

Ghana intimated.

Group discussions during the Oxfam Country Strategy workshopPhoto Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

Clara Osei-Boateng of SEND Ghana making a presentation for her group Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

Making a little contribution to lessen the burden on our hard working farmers across the country through advocacy and getting deeply involved in the development process of Oxfam Country Strategy is a rare opportunity and a great experience for me,

Group assisgnment for participants at the OCS workshopPhoto Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

3 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

According to the Regional Director, Oxfam as an organisation

has committed about 20 million to the Ebola emergency

case and classified it as category one. We are still not

done yet because we are also concern about the aftermath

of the epidemic, what happens to the three West African

countries? We need to continuously work hard to improve

their living conditions and livelihoods, he added.

He emphasised that the poor health infrastructure in affected

countries; the fear surrounding the disease were some

factors that posed a huge challenge to the fight against the

Ebola epidemic

at the initial

stage of the

outbreak.

Oxfam in Ghana had the opportunity to host the Regional Director to share some of Oxfams emergency response on Ebola

with the media and the public.

http://www.ghana.gov.gh/index.php/media-center/regional-news/262-oxfam-mobilizes-28-million-pounds-sterling-towards-evd-prevention-and-reduction-gt-r

Regional Director, Aboubacry Tall briefs the Media on Oxfams Ebola response:

We are still not done yet because we are also concern about the aftermath of the epidemic

Country Learning Review;

The Country Learning Review (CLR) meeting

is one of the Monitoring, Evaluation,

Accountability and Learning (MEAL) strategies

used by Oxfam country programmes to review

performance, learn from the past year and

foster accountability of Oxfam to partners. The

2015 Ghana Country Learning Review brought

together all Oxfam partners and allies to assess

its collective work in the financial year. Partners having an energizer at the OCS Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

The Regional Director granting interview to TV3 Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

Aboubacry Tall addressing the media on Oxfams Ebola response Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

4 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

Gender Training for Partners

Oxfam continues to imbibe gender issues into partners to help them mainstream it in their programmes. The second dose of

the Gender at Work training was given to Wacam, Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPiL) and some staff of Oxfam.

The training came as a follow

up to an earlier one to help

deepen understanding of change process and build

the confidence of partners as

change agents.

The process helped to create

a linkage between our work as

Oxfam and partners to give a

deeper understanding across

programmes.

The process offered the country team a time to pause for a

retrospective look at activities in the year. Partners and allies

supported Oxfam in Ghana to deeply reflect on its work as they

dished out their successes, challenges and aspirations in the

new financial year.

Partners across programmes indicated

that key lessons they have learnt to

improve their work were;

Using evidence produced by Campaign members enhanced the

credibility of the advocacy work.

Engaging the media were helpful in bringing to light advocacy issues

raised Networking strategically and

building partnership provided

alternative platforms for advocacy

across the different programmes.

A debate on gender issues Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

A section of partners at the OCS Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

The process offered the country team a time to pause for a retrospective look at activities in the year

5 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

Apart from partners some key community members also

benefitted from the training. Joanna Manu, an Assembly

Woman at Dumasi in the Western Region was one

such person. According to her, all the training she has

received from Wacam, an Oxfam partner organisation

has offered her the knowledge and confidence to

quote the mining act and all related legislation to

challenge mining companies to ensure that her people

are not taken for granted. The mining companies were

doing their own thing without any consultation with

the community members in the past but the story is

different now, she explained.

In a related development,

GROW and other national

partners were introduced

to the Oxfam gender toolkit.

Some participants shared their

experiences.

Theophilus Boakye Yiadom,

Friends of the Nation; It is

very useful as I have learnt a

lot from what other partner

organisations are doing with

gender and the gender tools

offer a chance for intuition and

proper planning to implement our work on gender.

For Aisha Mohammed of SEND Ghana, two key things that come to mind from what

she learnt from the training are that gender issues are broad and complex and

need to be tackled with an objective strategy; again gender issues continue to

evolve therefore there is the need to continually renew gender policies to reflect

new issues.

Freda Opoku, Africa Centre for Energy policy (ACEP); The training has taught me

so many things about applying gender mainstreaming at both the programme and

organisational level.

It is very useful as I have learnt a lot from what other partner organisations are doing with gender and the gender tools offer a chance for intuition and proper planning to implement our work on gender

Partners at the Oxfam gender toolkit training showing their gender lens Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

Joana Manu, making a point on the impact of the training Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

6 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

The project hopes to educate over 4,000 small-scale

women and men producers in four districts of Northern

Ghana understand the impact of climate change on their

lives and livelihoods in order to practise environmental-

friendly farming; as well as demonstrate climate sensitive

models of livelihoods.

It also intends to share local Climate Change adaptation

models with districts and communities for wider replication

by the end of the three year project. The CRAFS follows a

successful implementation of the Enhancing Livelihood

through Climate Change Adaptation and Learning Project

(ELCAP) in Northern Ghana.

Zogilgo, one of the beneficiary communities under the ELCAP Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

Climate Resilient Agricultural and Food System launched in Northern Ghana

The project which is termed Climate Resilient Agricultural

and Food System (CRAFS) has the overall goal of fighting

against poverty and effect of climate change by enhancing

the livelihood security and capacity for adaptation

measures for the most vulnerable in Northern Ghana.

Our partners, Presbyterian Agric. Station-Garu (PAS-G),

Partners in Rural Empowerment and Development (PARED),

Nandom Deanery Integrated Rural Development Programme

(NANDIRDEP) and Professional Network, North (ProNet North)

will be implementing the project in the Garu Tempane, East

Mamprusi, Nandom and Nadowli-Kaleo districts respectively

in the Northern, Upper East and West Regions. Some

partners shared their insight about the new project.

Solomon Atiga, Manager Presbyterian Agric Station-Garu

thinks Project Direct holds a lot of hope for the farmers

especially the rural poor giving the devastating impact of

climate change with clear signs of floods, droughts and

storms. This project therefore requires total commitments

of all partners to achieve the expected results, he

emphasised.

Augustine Liebo Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for

Nandom Deanery Integrated Rural Development Programme

(NANDIRDEP) has this to say: It is people centred and would

contribute to lessen the negative impact of climate change

in our part of the country as the impacts are obviously

showing in all over our communities.

Martin Dery, Director of Professional Network North

added that; There is great emphasis on community level

knowledge in relation to climate change and this would

promote land ownership.

Partners from PAS-G designing their project activities Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

7 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

The land rally follows CICOLs interventions in victims of

commercial land acquisition across the country using

special cases in Zoogu in the North, Amantin in the Brong

Ahafo and Ofadaa in Central regions to get the dynamism

and the different perspectives on issues surrounding large

scale land acquisition.

The Chief of Yeji and the President of Brong Ahafo regional

house of chiefs didnt mince words in his attempt to justify

their decision to sell land out to commercial farmers. He

explained that the small holder farmers are not ready to pay

for the use of the land hence its profitable giving it to the

commercial farmers who take large portions, he added.

This was followed by a response from the Queen Mother of

Agogo traditional area Nana Afrakoma who cautioned the

chiefs to beware of such practice. The way the chiefs are

selling the lands are abhorring as they give out large chunk

for peanuts.

The way the chiefs are selling the lands are abhorring as they give out large chunk for peanuts

PARTNER INTERACTIONQUEEN MOTHERS SPEAK UP AT A LAND RALLY FOR TRADITIONAL LEADERS

Ensuring that peasant farmers get land tenant security is a key component of the GROW campaign. In view of this, Civil

Society Coalition on Land (CICOL) a member of the GROW campaign organised a land rally to get all relevant parties to

dialogue on land governance.

President of Queen Mothers Association was worried about the situation where women mostly become victims but queen

mothers are sidelined when issues of land are raised

Some land regulations being handed to the queenmothers to assist them in arbitrations Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

8 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

Our source of seed should be regulated to get the right seeds for our farming activities

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEASANT STRUGGLE MARKED WITH RICE FARMERS

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) under the GROW campaign commemorated the International Day of

Peasant Struggle (IDPS) with farmers from Ashaiman and Asotuare under the theme; 58 years of independent; call for food Sovereignty not Food Security

She pleaded that the chiefs acknowledge them in the

transactions so they can also suggest or give their advice.

The discussions and revelations that came out during the

engagement were very intriguing.

The chiefs were however advised that if they dont guide against indiscriminate sales of lands, they will one day become tenants on their own lands.

The Day was marked to share

their plans and initiatives to

improve farmers access to

credit, fertilizer and other

machinery. PFAG over the past

month has initiated discussions

with some financial institutions

and Accra compost to assist

their members to access

flexible credit and organic

manure respectively.A march to commemorate the IDPS at Ashaiman Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

Traditional Leaders present at the land rally Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

Nana Afrakoma, Queen Mother of Agogo Traditional AreaPhoto Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

9 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

AGRICULTURE HAS THE HIGHEST RETURNS IN TERMS OF PRODUCTIVITY- ACEP EXE. DIR. STRESSED

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) organized the

forum for various stakeholders to deliberate on responsible

investment for the oil revenue. This was to involve citizens

as well as create awareness on the oil money while soliciting

support for the agricultural advocacy campaign.

The Oil4Agric Campaign has a goal of maximizing Ghanas

oil wealth for economic development, improvement in

the wellbeing of citizens and achievement of balanced

development. The campaign is aimed at influencing

three investment decisions for the use of oil revenues.

These areas include increase allocation to agricultural

investments with special focus on improved extension

services, input subsidy, agriculture mechanization, post-

harvest management and access to credit and markets.

Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the Executive Director of ACEP,

pointed out examples of some nations that were successful

in using oil money for agriculture. He explained that Indonesia

used oil money to facilitate green revolution, Malaysia used

oil money for oil palm and forestry development, Chile used

money from copper proceeds for successful development

of salmon for export.

The rice farmers believe with the support of machinery

like power tillers and combine harvesters, the made in

Ghana campaign calling for patronage of local rice will be

more feasible as they will be able to produce more to cut

down on the excessive rice importation.

With the advancement of technology, we still cannot live

a life that merits the advancement of time due to harsh

agriculture and trade policies, our government should be

serious with agricultural sector and stop playing politics

with the sector; the National Coordinator of PFAG Victoria

Adongo remarked.

The farmers from the discussion realised the need to

generate support from within as governments over the

years have disappointed them.

I believe we have to adopt our own way of tackling our

issues as peasant farmers because the law makers in this

country sometimes behave as if they dont even eat, a

disgruntled farmer questioned.

Our source of seed should be regulated to get the right

seeds for our farming activities, another farmer requested.A march to commemorate the IDPS at Ashaiman Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

Victoria Adongo of PFAG leading the march on the IDPS celebration at Ashaiman Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

10 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST

http://www.modernghana.com/news/599239/1/stakeholders-call-for-equal-distribution-of.html

BST CORNER A budget tells your money where it should go; otherwise you wonder where it went- J. Edgar Hoover

A budget can be viewed as the amount of money an individual or organisation intends to generate and expend

for a given purpose over a period of time. When you prepare a budget, you are creating a plan to spend your

money and this will enable you determine whether your money is enough to do the things you need to do or not.

Budgeting is a very important aspect of a project and is relevant at every stage. At the planning stage, it helps

us determine whether there is enough money to complete the project or whether we are making the best use

of the money available.

When negotiating with donors, the budget enables us determine what we will do with the grant and

what we intend to achieve. At the implementation stage we need to compare our actual cost to the

budget. We can also use the budget to evaluate the project by determining whether the project

actually achieved what it set out to achieve.

Agriculture has the highest returns

in terms of productivity.

With an investment of 1 Ghana cedi into Agriculture, feeder roads, and health, the corresponding returns are 16.8, 8.8, 1.3 Ghana cedis respectively.

Despite these potentials of the

Agricultural sector, public expenditure

is 8.5%, lower than the minimum set

by Maputo Declaration, which is10 %;

he argued.Maize Farmer Photo Credit/ Naana Nkansah Agyekum/Oxfam

OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST11

For the past months there has been a

strong debate and social media presence

of the new Oxfam global campaign, Even it

Up. What at all does this campaign mean?

Well if only 80 people of the worlds richest

equals half of the people on the planet

then that is a big issue.

Even it Up is a campaign to raise this awareness and commit governments, companies and the

public to rise up and join Oxfam fight this canker. So we ask our partners and allies in Ghana to

gauge their opinion on what in their world constitutes inequality.

OXFUN

12 OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGESTOXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST12

Hajia Alima Mahama, Former Minister, Gender and Childrens Affair:

where there is differential treatment or disparity between persons or two categories

of people, states, institutions to the disadvantage of the other.

Moses Tampuri,Project Coordinator PARED:

It is about leadership and power; the difference between the haves and have nots.

It can also be the ability of some people to hold assets like land and other vital items in

life to the detriment of others.

Lillian Bruce, National Coordinator CICOL:

Its the imbalances muted towards men and women using systems, procedures,

resources and time.

Benjamin Boakye,Operations Manager, ACEP: Its the extreme disparity in access to the necessities of life. In a typical situation in a country, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer

Miriam Oyebisi, Gender Desk Officer, PAS-G:It refers to the disparities that exist among people. Thus people enjoying different levels of power, resource ownership etc

Lois Aduamoah Addo,Programmes Officer WiLDAF Ghana:Inequality is when people are denied equal opportunities to particular resources based on various discriminatory reasons.

OXFUN

Here we go...

13

Oxfam has been advocating for increased transparency and

accountability in how public funds, particularly extractive

revenues, are prioritised and expended for pro-poor investments

in agriculture, health and education as part of a broader drive for

enhanced Public Finance Management in Ghana through effective

citizens participation. This drive became even more imperative as

Ghanas economic woes deepened in 2014. As part of the Active

Citizenship program, we have undertaken consistent advocacy

aimed at influencing International Financial Institutions (IMF & WB)

in Washington and Government of Ghana (GoG) officials in Accra.

Therefore the GoGs request in August 2014 for an Extended Credit

Facility aka Bailout from the IMF was a welcome opportunity to

mobilise CSOs to advocate for the priorities of citizens to define

what goes into such an agreement. A common voice was also

necessary to secure citizens interest because of the harsh

socio-economic experiences that previous IMF conditionalities

meted out to Ghana and other countries. Oxfam thus supported

the formation of a CSOs Platform on the IMF Bailout with members

comprising some of the leading CSOs in Ghana.

The Platform used various popular mobilisation strategies to

collate views culminating in a national event and a communique

copied to the negotiating teams in Ghana and IMF as well as the

Presidents Office. Leading members also met the IMF country

leadership and government officials both in Accra and DC to press

home the interest of citizens.

In sum, the key areas were:

1. Make broad consultation with Ghanaian citizens an integral

part of the package negotiation process. Build broad

consensus on the measures being negotiated, and on how to

fairly distribute their economic and social impacts.

2. Set transparency and accountability measures that address

underlying causes fuelling undisciplined public spending. Use

the bailout as an opportunity to strengthen transparency and

accountability by government institutions e.g. introduce a

Fiscal Responsibility Law to regulate fiscal decisions.

3. Protect strategic pro-poor and pro-development spending.

The burden of a fiscal adjustment should not be placed

over the shoulders of the most vulnerable, and already

underserved; nor should it be done at the cost of strategic

investments on long term development.

4. Improve revenue collection, especially from large economic

actors. This would imply not only generally addressing weak

tax administration and doing a better job at tax collection,

but more specifically to focus attention on big payers such

as extractives companies including better oversight of the

Ghanas National Petroleum Company (GNPC) and audits of

foreign oil companies.

The IMFs agreement with the GoG was eventually sealed last April

with some important advocacy wins as reflected in the agreement

document (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.

aspx?sk=42865). The agreement did take into account either

partially or fully all the recommendations made. There are thus

good things about it to be celebrated, however, there are also

issues that require further influencing (full analysis coming up

later).

The next stage is the monitoring of the implementation of the

agreement and Oxfam has had commitments from IMF officials to

maintain CSOs, particularly the Platform, as a key ally in doing this.

The Platform has also decided to align its own monitoring to that of the IMF.

CITIZENS ALERT with Abdulkarim Mohammed, Active Citizenship Advisor

IMF BAILOUT & CSOs PLATFORM

We will appreciate your comments, suggestions and any feedback so reach the media and communications officer on nagyekum@oxfam.org.uk or on twitter @naana_nkansah or on our face book page https://www.facebook.com/OxfamInGhana

OXFAM IN GHANA QUARTERLY DIGEST