Theme: Protecting Children in Ghana’s Cocoa Belt Amid Galamsey: Mobilizing Public, Private and Citizen Action Participatory Development Associates (PDA) is pleased to announce the 8th Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Child Protection (KSWoCP), scheduled for November and December 2025 in the Greater Accra Region and the Ahafo Region.Since 2017, PDA has convened this annual platform, bringing…
Position Title: Ethical Review Committee Member Works closely with: ERC Chairperson and other members of the ERC Duration of Appointment: 2-4 years, renewable Type of Engagement: Honorarium-based About the PDA ERC In line with its professed Vision, Mission and Values Participatory Development Associates’ Ethical Review Committee (PDA ERC) was set up in January 2017…
Mr. Osei Yeboah Asuamah is a distinguished Chartered Accountant celebrated for his unwavering commitment to transparency, accountability, and financial excellence. With over 11 years of expertise in finance and accounting, he has a proven track record of steering organizations toward financial sustainability and operational efficiency. Mr. Asuamah holds a Master of Science in Accounting…
On October 10th and 11th, 2024, the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) in partnership with VENRO convened experts and practitioners in Bonn, Germany, for a workshop that explored “Partner Orientation and Decolonization in Evaluations.” The Managing Director of PDA, Edem Agbe, gave a keynote presentation that highlighted the critical role of African-led approaches in…
Abstract Background: Evaluation in Africa and the Global South has been driven by external, often foreign, actors and focused on meeting donor funding needs, conducted through the lens of ‘others’ other than the affected populations. There is growing interest to change or decolonise this trend in the international development community. Objectives: To address the fundamental question of…
Participatory Development Associates has observed with deep concern reports of an incident of child marriage involving Gborbu Wulomo (a Ga traditional priest) and a 12-year-old girl. PDA unreservedly condemns this act and emphasizes that it is an affront to child rights protection in the country. 4 This case is more troubling, particularly due to the…
2023 was a year of making a difference across so many sectors in West Africa. Download and read about PDA’s impact last year here. PDA 2023 In Review: Our Impact
The much-anticipated maiden Cocoa Community Annual Reading Festival has been held in the Ahafo Ano Southeast district of the Ashanti Region. First of its kind in Ghana, the Annual Reading Festival forms part of Participatory Development Associates (PDA), and Magic Library Foundation’s (MLF) Cocoa Communities’ Library Project in Ghana. The project is intended to ignite…
The maiden Cocoa Communities’ Cluster-Level Reading Competition was hosted by PDA on the 11th and 12th of October 2023. The 2-day event saw ten schools within the Ahafo-Ano Southwest and Ahafo-Ano Southeast districts competing for the winning and first runner-up positions in each district to secure spots in the grand Annual Reading Festival slated for December 2023.…
Young female artisans face a myriad of challenges in their quest to secure appropriate documentation for their businesses and have access to decent work opportunities within the construction sector. Some women who seek to formalize their businesses are sexually harassed, while others are defrauded or forced to offer monetary, sexual and other favours in order…
Wednesday, 26th July, 2023 – The Cocoa Communities Library Project (CCLP) has been launched in Adugyama in the Ashanti Region of Ghana to promote reading in rural communities and improve reading literacy skills among pupils at the basic school level in ten cocoa-growing communities in the Ahafo Ano Southwest and Ahafo Ano Southeast districts of the…
Saturday, July 8, 2023 – Thirteen young Ghanaian professionals, aged between 21 and 35 have graduated from the Young Impact Associates (YIA) Program, a one-year professional development and leadership program in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL). The graduation ceremony was held at the main campus of Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated…
By: Anne L. Buffardi, Victoria Ampiah & Nathaniel Amoh Boateng ABSTRACT In the growing literature on youth transitions, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role that young people play as providers, particularly support for people outside of a nuclear family unit. Based on 92 interviews with 44 young adults living in rural Ghana,…
Understanding the key features of vulnerability and exclusion in Ghana is central to adapting social policy and social protection responses to address the root causes, rather than symptoms, of shock and exclusion. In this study we document and assess the distinct experiences of vulnerability to shock and exclusion in three illustrative areas of Ghana to…
In the third quarter of 2022, a total of 23 child abuse cases were recorded on the PDA Child Abuse Tracker. 76 percent of the total recorded cases were sexual abuse. The data further indicates that a whopping 36 percent of the child abuse cases were perpetrated by guardians and relatives. Click here for more…
The PDA Child Abuse Tracker is an online platform deployed by PDA to track cases of child abuse in Ghana. Data is sourced from selected online and print media outlets in Ghana. In the second quarter of 2022, 22 out of the 26 cases of child abuse were sexual abuse. About 90 percent of the…
The growing prominence of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in Africa’s development sector stems not only from the need to assure accountability and learning but also from the “political recognition of the utility of evaluation to good governance” (Basheka, 2015). Indeed, M&E is recognized as the main instrument for assessing the extent to which the…
PDA continues to demonstrate its commitment towards protecting the Ghanaian child from all forms of abuses, through advocacy. The PDA child abuse tracker has been one of the many avenues the organization is leveraging in this advocacy drive. In the first quarter of 2022, the tracker recorded a total number of 27 child abuse cases,…
In the last quarter of 2021, the PDA child abuse tracker recorded a total of 26 cases of child abuse cases in Ghana. Out of this number, 23 were sexual abuse cases, and the remaining 3 were of physical abuse. As depicted in the infographic, more than 90% of the victims of sexual abuse were…
Dear Partners and Colleagues, What a year it has been! Learning to navigate the uncertainties of another COVID year as an organization has been a humbling but fruitful experience. While many other institutions in the development space in Ghana have unfortunately witnessed a decline and have even been forced to shut down, PDA is…
In the second quarter of 2021, the PDA Child Abuse Tracker recorded a total of 26 child abuse cases. Out of this number, 24 were cases of child sexual abuse. Physical abuse and child abduction recorded only 1 case each. In the second quarter of 2021, the PDA Child Abuse Tracker recorded a total of 26…
This evaluation analyzes the extent to which affiliation with an agriculture business supported by Root Capital’s lending and advisory services—in this case, an oil palm aggregator in Ghana called Serendipalm—improves the wellbeing of smallholder farmers. With insights directly from the business’ supplying producers, the report highlights the impacts of affiliation with Serendipalm on farmer livelihoods,…
Construction work ranks among the three most dangerous occupations in the world (Safe Work Australia 2012). The rapid and dynamic pace of work, high-risk nature of tasks, use of harmful materials and dangerous equipment, and other issues such as personality conflicts and heavy workload expose the construction workforce to significant physical and psychosocial risks (Gunasekaran…
The PDA child abuse tracker continues to record cases of child abuse in Ghana. For the 3rd quarter of 2020, the platform recorded over 30 child abuse cases from selected media outlets. The PDA child abuse tracker continues to record cases of child abuse in Ghana. For the 3rd quarter of 2020, the platform recorded…
Evidence-Based Programming – Updates from the Research Evidence-informed programming is ever becoming important for the development industry as a tool to lift people out of poverty around the world. Consequently, the need for data and evidence is growing stronger as we race towards the attainment of the global development goals by 2030. PDA is committed…
On 28th and 29th October 2020, PDA hosted a 2-day dialogue on the Future of Work for Ghanaian Youth, as part of the Youth Forward Initiative funded by MasterCard Foundation. The discussions on the first day centred on the topic “Is any job a better job?”, while the second day featured the theme “Preparing young…
The worrying trend of child abuse in Ghana continues to dent the country’s effort in addressing the perpetration of abuse against children. The PDA Child Abuse Tracker in the First Half of 2020, recorded 68 cases of child abuse reported in selected media outlets in Ghana. Out of this number, sexual abuse recorded 53 cases,…
During the crisis, young people are innovating and disrupting. These trends should be supported even after the pandemic. The Ndlovu Youth Choir is one of many groups of young people spreading information about COVID-19. Credit: @ChoirAfrica. The world’s youngest continent has not been able to avoid the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Africa,…
Undoubtedly, the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to prompt fears of insecurity within and across countries. Though the virus has left no part of the world untouched, its impact will greatly be felt particularly in developing countries and in economies whose food needs are largely dependent on supplies from other countries…
By: Mohammed Zayan Imoro Late in August 1918, an American ship from Freetown, the SS Shonga, docked briefly in Cape Coast and proceeded to Accra by September 3rd. Onboard the vessel, the influenza virus made its way among the crewmen. Warnings from the Governor of Sierra Leone to the Governor of the Gold Coast…
By: Alexander Afram The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has taken the entire world by surprise, particularly in this era of enhanced economic, scientific, and technological advances. While the outbreak started in China’s city of Wuhan in late 2019, little did we think that the deadly virus will ravage the entire world so rapidly, to the extent…
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great deal of impact worldwide, Ghana inclusive. From the devastating impact on the economy due to the closure of borders and restrictions on human movement and trading activities to its resulting impact on education and socioeconomic life. Ghana’s response, according to the Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparation and Response Project…
The COVID-19 pandemic has created chaos, panic, and hopelessness for people across the world. For the first time in recent years, with few exceptions, infectious disease has ravaged the global north more than the south, defying modern stereotyping of contagious diseases. Since there is no known cure or vaccine for the disease that started in…
In Summary In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have adopted lockdowns, virus testing regimes and social distancing measures. African countries have followed suit, mostly with ‘copy and paste’ versions of these actions, resulting in profound social and economic stresses on their people. What is immediately evident is that without creativity, contextualisation and civil participation…
The PDA child abuse tracker continues to record cases of child abuse in Ghana. For the 1st quarter of 2020, the platform recorded over 40 child abuse cases from selected media outlets. Find the infographics of the cases below.
In the second half of 2019 alone, the PDA child abuse tracker recorded over 70 cases of child abuse. Find the infographics below:
Evidence-informed programming is ever becoming important for the development industry as a tool to lift people out of poverty around the world. Consequently, the need for data and evidence is growing stronger as we race towards the attainment of the global development goals by 2030. PDA is committed to contributing to meeting this ever-growing need…
CMAC/PDA LAUNCH GOVERNMENT SERVICES ACCOUNTABILITY APP (GSAAPP) On Thursday, February 27, 2020, the Citizen’s Movement against Corruption (CMaC) in partnership with Participatory Development Associates (PDA) launched the Government Services Accountability App (GSAAPP), a mobile application designed to receive feedback on the services of state agencies in order to help improve service delivery of public sector…
THIRD ANNUALTHIRD ANNUALKNOWLEDGE SHARING WORKSHOP ON CHILD PROTECTION26th November 2019British Council Auditorium Accra Theme:Protecting the Ghanaian School Child:Improving EffectivePartnerships between State and Non-state Actors The 3rd Annual Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Child Protection was held on the 26th of November 2019 at the British Council Auditorium in Accra. This workshop was in partnership between Participatory…
Where I stand on the 17th December Referendum I am going to vote NO to political parties sponsoring candidates for elections at the local government level in Ghana. This is because there is an urgent need for constitutional, legislative and administrative reforms in the governance architecture of the country. Such reforms are necessary to strengthen…
In the 2nd quarter of 2019, a total No. of 31 child abuse cases were recorded using the @pdaghana Child abuse tracker. Cases were gathered from selected newspaper and media outlets across Ghana Below are infographics showing the distribution of Child Abuse Cases For more information…
Download the executive summary and Final evaluation I Am Aware project CDD-Ghana collects and archives government data on service delivery at the district level. The detailed sector data is provided on the I Am Aware website (Iamawareghana. com). Information products are also created to make the data more accessible and useful. For example, the District League…
Executive Summary The Second Annual Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Child Protection was held at the British Council Auditorium in Accra on 27th November 2018, as part of Participatory Development Associates’ (PDA) strategic themes for 2016-2021. The purpose of the workshop was to provide an environment to share and discuss preliminary findings of a draft Report…
Last year, Participatory Development Associates (PDA) organized its inaugural Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Child Protection, bringing together about 78 participants including state and non-state actors, to critically engage the existing narratives on child protection and explore avenues for effective collaboration among key stakeholders to improve the child protection system in Ghana. Among others, a key…
Background to the Millennium Villages project At a UN Summit in September 2000, world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, which committed nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and address pressing challenges of hunger, gender inequality, illiteracy and disease. The MVP aimed to showcase, ‘…how effective an integrated strategy for health care,…
The 2018 Bi-annual learning meeting of the Youth Forward Initiative was held on 19th April, 2018, in Kumasi at the Royal Lamerta Hotel. The theme for the event was Financial Inclusion and Access to affordable finance for youth. The objective of the meeting was to bring project implementing partners and youth beneficiaries together for a…
Participatory Development Associates (PDA) Ltd wishes to congratulate Sabre Trust and GES and their partners for the recognition given to the Fast-Track Transformational Teacher Training (FTTT) programme they have been implementing in Ghana. They were awarded the UNESCO Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prize for Outstanding Practice and Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Teachers in…
The Board Chairperson of PDA Agri-Industry and Social Enterprise (PASE), Mr. Tony Dogbe, has been invited to be one of the speakers at an international workshop in the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK). The workshop which is on 1st and 2nd May, 2018 is on the theme “New Frontiers of Palm Oil: Tackling the…
As we join the rest of the world to Press for Progress of Women on the commemoration of the 2018 International Women’s Day, PDA Ghana and its Associates do not only wish women well, but encourage more men to rise up to the occasion of empowering their girls whiles teaching their boys to appreciate the…
Accra, Nov 28, GNA – A new research project aimed at tracking and reporting child abuse cases in Ghana was on Tuesday launched in Accra. The project dubbed: “Protect That Child”, which is a flagship work of Participatory Development Associates (PDA) would contribute to continuous research, fill data gap as well as create awareness and…
The Participatory Development Association (PDA), has launched a research project to track and report on child abuse cases in Ghana, using the Ushahidi online tracking platform. The move is to help create awareness and get public support for protection of child rights following reports that child maltreatment, exploitation and child marriages is on the…
Modern slavery is a global issue that affects every country in the world. The NGOs, multilateral institutions, government stakeholders, and law enforcement agencies working to combat modern slavery must be able to identify each other and connect across borders. An effective strategy to combat human trafficking requires a coordinated global response. A foundation to building…
The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) would from next year roll out a new grading system known as Standards for Grading Food Service Establishments, to ensure compliance to hygiene and food management systems. According to Mr Jake Amoaku-Mensah, a Senior Regulatory Officer, FDA, noted that food establishment formed an integral part of supply chain and…
The Carter Center, with its West African Partner Organisations, religious and traditional actors, has initiated a project to address discriminatory practices against women and girls. The Carter Center, therefore, has embarked on a media campaign dubbed, “Mobilising Faith for Women and Girls in West Africa”, to ensure the success of the project, which would be…
The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and Civic Initiative Forum (CFI) would engage 1,100 electoral agents to observe and monitor the December Presidential and Parliamentary elections. They would also establish 10 Civil Society Elections Situation Rooms (CESR) in all the regions with a national coordinating centre in Accra to disseminate credible information on the polls…
The Managing Director for cocoa and chocolate producer Barry Callebaut, Ghana, Charity Sackitey, has said the proliferation of illegal mining, which takes an environmental toll, is negatively affecting the cocoa segment. “Another concern is the proximity of illegal and small-scale mining to cocoa plantations, as heavy metal poisoning and pollution are degrading the land and…
The Ghana Oil Palm Development Company Limited (GOPDC) has introduced a variety of oil palm seedlings that can grow and yield fruits for over 50 year instead of the normal life-span of 25 years, the company’s Managing Director, Gert Vandersmissen has said. Speaking in an interview with the B&FT, Mr.Vandersmissen is hopeful of increasing its…
The recent disasters occurring in parts of Accra like James Town, Bortianor, Tsokomey and Ada areas as a result of coastal flooding have left coastal dwellers, particularly fisher folks, very vulnerable. These events occur periodically during extremely high tides and also when there are high waves and storm events at sea. Climate change resulting in…
One woman established a new law to prevent child marriage, and is enforcing it with serious gusto. Theresa Kachindamoto, senior chief in the Dedza District in Central Malawi, was tired of seeing 12-year-old girls walking around with babies on their hips, according to Al Jazeera. She decided to take a stand and made 50 of…
PDA has held a World Climate event in Accra as part of the World Climate Week. The event which took place on Thursday 13th October brought together over 30 students from three tertiary institution to partake in the event. The World Climate event is a simplified international climate change negotiations meeting. Each participant played the…
Ghana is famously known for its hospitality. However, our attitude as a society towards psycho-social patients (mental health patients) leaves little to be desired. Psychosocial people have fundamental human rights to access basic needs for a dignified living. At Participatory Development Associates , we believe that everyone matters, thus, they must be protected. Social protection…
By: Tim Spector, Professor of Generic Epidemiology, King’s College London A battle is waging about how often and how carefully we should wash our hands. Many allergy experts say it is vital for our future health and that of our children to reduce hand washing and allow friendly microbes back into our mouths. Some authors…
By: Hamish Gordon (Research Fellow in Amospheric Science, University of Leeds) Cat Scott (Research Fellow in Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds) and originally published by The Conversation The pre-industrial atmosphere contained more particles, and so brighter clouds, than we previously thought. This is the latest finding of the CLOUD experiment, a collaboration between around…
By; Kamaldeep Bhui Professor of Cultural Psychiatry and Epidemiology, Queen Mary University of London and originally published by The Conversation Terrorism is frightening. It is in the news on a daily basis, creating fear and concern for everyone. Governments around the world need to develop and share intelligence about people connected to terror networks. Everybody…
The UN estimates that more than half of the global population currently live in cities, and this figure is expected to balloon to five billion urban inhabitants by 2030. In both developed and developing countries, the fast pace of urban growth often overwhelms existing housing and infrastructure. This in turn has led to an expansion…
The Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (AgNRM) Project, which seeks to address issues of environment and natural resource management in Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, has been launched. The five-year project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at 25 million dollars, would work to reduce poverty by addressing local…
Alhaji Abubakar Iddrisu, the Chief of Blind Union at Sabon Zongo in the Ablekuma Central, has appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to provide them with braille for voting in this year’s elections. He also called on the EC to train the blind on the use of the braille to avoid their votes being made…
Borderless Alliance has organized a capacity building workshop for Shea and Cashew stakeholders to enhance intra-regional trade and promote African goods on the global market. The event, held in collaboration with the African Cashew Alliance and the Global Shea Alliance, was to increase the understanding of stakeholders in the Cashew and Shea industry on customs…
An innovative electronic tele-radiography project aimed at aiding quick, ultimate diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB) cases to enhance comprehensive treatment and elimination of the deadly infectious disease, has taken off in the country. Dr Alexander Segbefia, Minister of Health, launching the project at a two-day stakeholder workshop in Kumasi said the 12 year long Public-Private-Partnership project…
Participatory Development Associates has held its first climate change workshop at the University of Ghana, Legon for tertiary students as part of its Change4Climate program in partnership with Climate Interactive. The event was attended by over 50 youth from selected tertiary institutions in Accra namely the Accra Technical University, Ghana Institute of Journalism and the…
The inaugural Africa Summit on Women and Girls in Technology sponsored by the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and the World Wide Web Foundation took place on the 13-14th September, 2016 at the Labadi Beach Hotel, Accra. The summit brought together a wealth of human capital from over twenty-eight different countries with various areas of…
The Draper Hills Summer Fellowship on Democracy and Development Program which was launched in 2005, is hosted annually at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Mrs. Glowen Kyei-Mensah, the Managing Director of Participatory Development Associates (PDA), was among the over-25 mid-career practitioners in law, politics, government, private enterprise, civil society,…
The first Youth Forward biannual meeting in Ghana was held on June 7th, 2016, at the Fiesta Royale Hotel. Youth Forward, an initiative conducted in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation, Overseas Development Institute, Solidaridad, and some other organizations, aims to build the capacity of youth especially in Ghana and Uganda to get jobs and/or grow…
The Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment (YIEDIE) held a summit on Youth in Construction on August 10, 2016. Attended by over 350 frontliners in the construction sector, stakeholders from public, private and non-governmental organizations who are working specially with youth or the construction industry, as well as representatives from a slew of media…
