Exploring Faith-based Giving as an Alternative Funding Model for CSOs

Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Ghana are generally fragile and dependent on donor funding mechanisms for survival. Recent studies show that financial sustainability of CSOs is challenging, which has spurred conversations on new alternative funds mobilisation routes, innovative methods and strategies to ensure its sustainability. This scoping report highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with faith-based giving as a domestic resource mobilisation (DRM) strategy that CSOs could explore in Ghana. Specifically, the report highlights the experiences of funds mobilisation, the strategies, the opportunities and successes and the challenges. It draws on in-depth interviews from 6 faith-based organisations (FBOs), three CSOs that have funds mobilisation connections with FBOs and 2 key informants or experts working within the civil society space in Ghana. The report stresses four key messages.First, the key sources of domestic faith-based giving for Faith-based organisations are: (i) Special collections and offerings collected by affiliated religious bodies to support the FBOs; (ii) Individual contributions, appeals, pledges and gifts from members of religious affiliations (local and foreign); (iii) Allocations from headquarters or the 'root' organisations from which the faith-based organisations were formed and (iv) Volunteers and in-kind contributions from partners and stakeholders. However, faith-based domestic resource mobilisation has not been systematically integrated into the core strategy of domestic resource mobilisation efforts of some faith-based organisations as they draw their funding mainly from external sources.Second, religious organisations affiliated to Faith-based organisations use multiple strategies to encourage and mobilise funds and resources from givers. Four commonest approaches identified are: i) using education, doctrines and psychological preparation towards giving; b) instituting 'special days' for collection from givers; iii) being accountable and effectively communicating results and iv) effectively communicating mission to givers.Third, opportunities for mobilising funds and resources from faith-based sources exist because (i) large religious base of the country who are motivated by faith to give; (ii) indigenous systems and culture of giving in Ghana and (iii) growing technologies and digital infrastructure that provide convenience for givers. Strong connections to a 'base'/constituents is important for generation of funds.However, there are some challenges that constrain the prospect of domestic mobilisation of faith-based funds to boost financial sustainability of CSOs while also promoting socio-economic development in Ghana. Six key challenges have been articulated below: (i) general perceptions of CSOs and development actors ; (ii) culture of giving is skewed towards ad-hoc social welfare causes than long-term development actions that address systemic changes ; (iii) The difficulty of working with rising middle class and high-net worth personalities and (iv) weak transparent and accountable systems of CSOs. Some non-faith-based organisations also find it difficult mobilising domestic faith-based resources because of: (i) unfavourable perception and risk of associating with faith-based organisations and ii) clash of religious doctrines and some principles and values held by organisations

Promising Start, but bleak future? Progress of Ghana's National Health Insurance Schemes towards Universal Health Coverage

In 2003 the Government of Ghana, West Africa began implementing a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to improve health care access for Ghanaians and eventually as a cardinal strategy towards meeting the ideals of universal health coverage. After nearly a decade of implementation, this article attempts to examine the progress made in meeting the policy objective of ensuring that all residents of the country get an acceptable quality package of essential healthcare. The major finding from this study suggests that although the NHIS cover a wide range of services as well as absorption of remarkable proportion of healthcare cost , coverage of the scheme could best be described as low after nearly a decade of implementation as over 60% of the population are uninsured, and hence financially unprotected. In progressing faster towards UHC, the paper proposes some strategies for widening NHIS finance and recommends different strategies of expanding membership enrolment including a consideration of commission-based remuneration for NHIS registration staff. Keywords: Ghana, National Health Insurance, Universal Health Coverage, health financin

Occupational Health Hazards and Safety of the Informal Sector in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Area of Ghana

In Ghana, the informal sector comprises over 70% of the labour force and contributes substantially to the poverty reduction objective of the country. Yet most of their activities are often considered hazardous and take place in unhealthy and unsafe environment. This study was conducted to systematically identify the various occupational hazards and risks faced among beauticians, Garage/mechanics, taxi Drivers and head Porters in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Area of Ghana. The study finds that workers are exposed to a range of physical, ergonomic, chemical and psycho-social hazards which cause diseases. Yet nearly 62.5% of them have not registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which can cushion them for paying high medical bills in cases of serious injuries. The paper consequently recommends that an Occupational Health and Safety Policy is formulated and intensive education through the mass media, undertaken to sensitize workers on their work environment and the level of risk exposure. Keywords: Ghana, informal sector, occupational hazards, occupational safet

Saving forests to mitigate climate change: What can microfinance contribute to the REDD+ policy process in Ghana?

Deforestation is estimated to contribute to one-fifth of climate change. The idea of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has been promoted by UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to save tropical forest and mitigate climate change. In Ghana, deforestation is thought to have been driven largely by expansive cocoa production system. In view of this, the policy strategy of the Government has focused on improving cocoa productivity to reduce the expansive forms of agriculture into forest areas. This paper discusses the roles that microfinance can play in this effort. It draws on long-term research on microfinance and semi-structured interviews from hundred households in seven communities around the Kakum National Park in the Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District, Ghana. The paper finds that microfinance can enable smallholder farming communities to reduce deforestation in Ghana through at least three roles. These are (a) agricultural investment (b) technological adoption and (c) agribusiness skills development. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the project implementers   stand a better chance of achieving the project objective if they include microfinance elements into the programme. Given the centrality of REDD+ in the international effort of climate change mitigation, this research adds important insights into one of the ways through which the vision of halting, slowing and reversing trends of deforestation could be achieved in Ghana and elsewhere. Keywords: microfinance, REDD+, climate change, Ghana, agricultur

REDD+ in West Africa: Politics of Design and Implementation in Ghana and Nigeria

This paper analyses the design and implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, conserving and enhancing forest carbon stocks, and sustainably managing forests (REDD+) in the West African region, an important global biodiversity area. Drawing on in-depth interviews, analysis of policy documents and observation of everyday activities, we sought to understand how REDD+ has been designed and implemented in Nigeria and Ghana. We draw on political ecology to examine how, and why REDD+ takes the form it does in these countries. We structure our discussion around three key dimensions that emerged as strong areas of common emphasis in our case studies—capacity building, carbon visibility, and property rights. First, we show that while REDD+ design generally foregrounds an ostensible inclusionary politics, its implementation is driven through various forms of exclusion. This contradictory inclusion–exclusion politics, which is partly emblematic of the neoliberal provenance of the REDD+ policy, is also a contingent reality and a strategy for navigating complexities and pursuing certain interests. Second, we show that though the emergent foci of REDD+ implementation in our case studies align with global REDD+ expectations, they still manifest as historically and geographically contingent processes that reflect negotiated and contested relations among actors that constitute the specific national circumstance of each country. We conclude by reflecting on the importance of our findings for understanding REDD+ projects in other tropical countries

Prospects of Agroforestry as Climate-smart Agricultural Strategy in Cocoa Landscapes: Perspectives of Farmers in Ghana

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is increasingly being promoted by the international community to help farmers adapt to climate change and lift them out of poverty. An essential technique that is promoted under the climatemitigating smart agriculture policy package to reduce forest loss is agroforestry—the planting of woody plants or trees into farming systems. Integrating agroforesty into cocoa landscapes, it is argued, create forest-like habitats which serves as faunal refuges, sequester carbon and therefore contribute to increasing agricultural productivity, resilience (adaptation) and removal of greenhouse gas emissions. This article uses a qualitative data collected from 100 households in seven communities around the Kakum National Park in the Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District in Ghana, where a climate-smart agriculture programme is being piloted. The study analysed the extent of willingness of farmers to participate in interventions that promote increased adoption of agroforestry in cocoa landscapes. The result shows that though farmers have favourable perception about the role of agroforestry on cocoa systems, and are willing to adopt the practice, this does not automatically translate into their willingness to participate in agroforestry program that was asking them to extend the number of trees currently maintained on their cocoa landscapes. The study further reveals that size of farms, the age and height of cocoa trees, extension support and the general ecology of the cocoa varieties as some of the reasons influencing whether the agroforestry practices promoted could be adopted or not

The Golden stool : studies of the Asante center and periphery. Anthropological papers of the AMNH ; v. 65, pt. 1

331 p. : ill., maps ; 26 cm.Bibliography: p. 310-323