IICD supported project: Women and Development Project (WADEP) - Ghana

Countries: Ghana [GH]
Sectors: livelihoods

Summary

Agricultural market access for small producers in the Volta Region, like elsewhere in Ghana, is poor and frustrating. Through this project, small-scale producers (the pilot starts with yam, cassava and cowpea producers) are given support by the Women and Development (WADEP) organisation with technical information regarding production, marketing skills and opportunities, and access to timely information. The knowledge they acquire allows them to improve their negotiation position with buyers and traders, which in turn contributes to the improvement of their livelihoods.

Update

Updated: 2008-06-02

The project started in November 2007 with a 12 month pilot period. It seeks to actively involve other local stakeholders including the District Assemblies (DAs), the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), existing producer organisations and other governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Introduction

In the Volta Region at least 80% of the people derive their livelihoods from small-scale agriculture. This is very complicated due to the bad road networks (worse during the rainy season), limited telecommunication facilitates (telephones or even traditional radio) and high levels of illiteracy.

A number of government institutions at the district level such as the Ministry of food and Agriculture (MoFA) provide traditional and modern agricultural services to the farmers in the Volta region. They are challenged by high ratios officers to farmers i.e. 1:3472. Further, the Volta Region contains a large surface area with scattered districts and difficult terrain. The added limited public and private means of travel make it very difficult for the officers to reach the rural farmers.

The Diocesan Development Office (DDO) of the Jasikan Diocese provides social services for marginalized people and productive poor in society, irrespective of their religion, ethnic or social status. One of the units of the DDO is the organisation called Women and Development Project (WADEP), which is the project owner of the IICD supported ‘ICT Support for Rural Agric Literacy’ project. WADEP plays an intermediary role between beneficiaries of the project and the Jasikan DDO.

Objectives

WADEP raises awareness among women and girls in the region of their own possibilities, their talents and their rights. What agricultural produce are wanted on the market? And how can you use ICT to have better and wider market access? This approach has proven to be an investment, both for men and women, which is surely worth the effort.

For this project to use ICT to support rural agricultural literacy, WADEP has the following objectives:

• To improve information, communication and dissemination channels on agricultural information between the Jasikan DDO and WADEP to support agric extension services to farmers;
• To build capacities within both organizations to use appropriate technology/(i.e.) to produce, repackage and disseminate agricultural information for the target groups.

Development Impacts

The beneficiaries are processors of yam, cassava and cowpeas who will gain knowledge and skills that will help them diversify their produce, reduce vulnerability to external social and environmental risks and support them in improving their economic position.