NGIDP supports female extension officer volunteers with bicycles

The Northern Ghana Integrated Development Project (NGIDP) has presented bicycles to 60 community women extension officers in the Nanumba South district. The effort is to complement the inadequate extension services in the project districts.

The Northern Ghana Integrated Development Project is a multifaceted project that contributes to both ActionAid Ghana’s Mission Priority to Strengthen Resilient Livelihoods and contribute to Secure Climate Justice; and to address the root causes of violence against women and girls, reduce unpaid care work and promote decent work.

The objective of the project is “To contribute to rural poverty reduction in Ghana through economic development, adoption of environmentally-sustainable agriculture policies and practice, and greater access to social protection”.

In achieving this goal, the project has built the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) in 15 districts of Ghana to play an active role in the development of sustainable agriculture practices and policies, support poor, rural communities to enjoy greater access to social protection services and decent work opportunities.

The project is a four-year project that started in June 2019 and is in its final stages. The project has achieved five result areas within the period:

• CSOs and local movements leading joint community advocacy initiatives and research, supporting the formation of innovative farmer-led extension services.
• Increased smallholder farmers’ resilience to the impact of climate change through more effective biodiversity preservation and sustainable agricultural practices that contribute to the green economy.
• Increased income levels of women and young people through the processing of non-timber forest products, agricultural value chain business, and social enterprises.
• Increased access to quality social protection schemes for people living in poverty in rural agrarian areas.
• Gender-responsive decent work principles integrated into national and regional agricultural employment, programmes and policies.

The project has empowered 13,500 marginalized women smallholder farmers, young people and people with disabilities, strengthened 300 women farmer groups, 15 farmer networks and trained 1,050 CSO and group leaders.

The female extension volunteers were trained by the district agriculture department to help them in the communities. The project has reached a total of 825,000 people directly or indirectly in the 15 districts of implementation, through the improved delivery of extension services, increased awareness on rights to land, social protection and decent work.

In its final phase, the project has provided 60 female extension volunteers with 60 bicycles. This is to help them move easily and reach out to farmers, especially smallholder women farmers in distant communities. The bicycles are in addition to earlier tools provided, including a pair of wellington boots, raincoat, a pair of hand gloves, cutlass, measuring tape, notebook, waterproof bag, pens and pencils. The volunteers were trained by the district’s agriculture department to provide information to farmers and to pass on new sustainable agriculture practices developed by agriculture research institutes. These efforts under the NGIDP are to complement the inadequate extension services in the project districts.

At the short presentation ceremony, the project officer for the Northern Ghana Integrated Development Project, Mr Daniel Nyaglojo, admonished the beneficiaries to ensure good maintenance of the bicycles. He also advised the district agric officers to monitor the activities of the volunteers as the project is ending.

“I would like to advise our beneficiary female volunteers to take good care of the bicycles to ensure their lifespan. Again to the district agric officers, please ensure you monitor them so the objectives of the project could last,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Madam Kofi Diana thanked the Northern Ghana Integrated Development Project for the project, saying it has improved their lives. She pledged to ensure that the project continues.

“We thank NGIDP for the project. In fact, our lives were not like this before they came. Women’s access to farmland was something difficult as the men own most of the lands. But now there is significant improvement, women now own farmlands and are able to farm to meet their needs,” she said

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