In partnership with A Rocha Ghana, PDA’s Research Evaluation and Learning Unit is strengthening the capacities of nine (9) partner organizations (NGOs & CBOs) to support their quest to rally communities to combat the exploitation of natural reserves. This activity forms a component of a three-year project, “Strengthen the Roots” (StR), being implemented by A Rocha Ghana, which aims to strengthen local communities living in or around threatened wildlife areas so that they can mobilize local support, funds, and political power to better protect their natural resources and dependent livelihoods.
The project targets communities around the Atewa forest (Eastern Region) and Mole (Northern Region) landscapes, which are being threatened by illegal logging of timber, hunting and charcoal production, and illegal gold mining (galamsey). These activities endanger biodiversity and the availability of drinking water through land degradation, forest decline, loss of land, and overexploitation of natural resources.
Participatory Development Associates (PDA) has been contracted to design and provide organizational development support services to partner organizations by:
- Conducting organizational capacity needs assessments
- Training and building capacity for organizational development
- Building capacity for the design of strategies that promote organizational development in terms of structure and project.
The organizational capacity needs assessment led to the successful identification of capacity gaps within the internal mechanisms of partner organizations, which in turn will inform the development of tailor-made training interventions for each organization. PDA is currently drafting the capacity needs assessment report and will implement training programs for the 9 organizations within the Greater Accra region.
The nine partner organizations which will undergo the training are located in three regions of Ghana, namely, Northern, Eastern and Greater Accra regions. They include:
- Facilitating Learning of Women in Emerging Regions (FLOWER)
- Concerned Citizens of the Atewa Landscape (CCAL)
- NorthCode Ghana
- Social Initiative for Literacy and Development Programme (SILDEP)
- YouthAlliance for Green Ghana (YAGG)
- Ghana Environmental Advocacy Group (GEAG)
- The Environment Report
- Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM)
- Youth Volunteers for the Environment (YVE-Ghana)
This assignment is being led by Arnold Kwesi Bediako and Ernest Adu Owusu, who are evaluators and Organisational Development experts with PDA.
