Activity 1: Stakeholder consultation and consensus building on the project:
This activity was undertaken to consult and rally support for the project implementation. A number of municipal stakeholders were consulted in West Mamprusi Municipal and districts in northern Ghana. These include the Department of Agriculture (DoA), Planning and Coordinating Units of the Municipal Assembly, Rural Enterprise Development, Business Advisory Units, Social Welfare, Community Development Department, Information Services, etc. Others include community leaders, opinion leaders, chiefs, youth groups, farmer groups, community-based organizations, etc. The activity came in the form of small gatherings and meetings in their various offices, communities, farmers? farms, and other places of work. The activity informs stakeholders and seeks their support for the project implementation.

Activity 2: Train and network women farmers
A total of 250 women have been selected, trained, and supported to network for neem seed collection and oil production value chain development in Northern Ghana. These women are grouped into 25 per group and given basic networking techniques. A total of 16 women groups are formed and networked as project beneficiaries in northern Ghana. They are trained with networking tools such as exchange of contacts, purposes of networking, advantages of networking, benefits, organizing annual gatherings, sharing of information, experiencing, and how to make networking work effectively.

Activity 3: Build women?s capacities in neem seed processing protocols
A total of 251 women have been trained in neem seed processing protocols as part of the project implementation in Walewale using the CEAL training resource centre. As part of improving the income status of women, CEAL successfully conducted training for 251 women on neem seed collection, processing, drying, and storing. The activity is aimed at empowering the poor rural women in northern Ghana to become self-reliant and contribute to the household decision-making process. The exercise was geared towards helping women farmers to generate sustainable income to help support their families. The training workshop took participants through the importance of neem seeds, their uses, collection, processing, drying, and storing. This was done through video screening. The Neem trees are in abundance in Northern Ghana. The neem seeds, the raw materials from which the oil is extracted are readily available in the local communities but often left to root due to less value placed on it by the communities. Therefore, this initiative creates additional value for the neem seeds, provides sustainable management of the neem tree at the same time, and creates new job opportunities for the poor rural women giving them economic income apart from subsistence farming. Through this support, women and their daughters in the local communities are prevented from migrating to southern Ghana cities i.e. Accra and Kumasi in search of non-existing jobs.

Activity 4: Support neem seed nursery establishment
In order to support women in increasing tree population, especially neem, a central nursery was established by the project to raise and supply seedlings of different varieties to women farmer groups in northern Ghana. In all 6721 seedlings were raised and distributed to 7 women groups for planting. In all a total of 21 acres of land have been planted with trees of different species. These include cassia, cashew, neem, and teak among others. In addition, the women were trained in nursery establishment and management to enable them to help in the management of the central nursery.

Activity 5: Establish a multi-stakeholder platform (MSP) and train members to support and promote neem tree protection, management, and advocacy to save the neem tree.

In order to effectively manage and implement project activities on the ground, a multi-stakeholder platform (MSP) was constituted. The constituted MSP provided the CEAL project implementing team with the needed human resources and expertise necessary for the implementation of project activities. The MSP members were representatives of the Municipal Department of Food and Agriculture, District Assembly Planning Unit, Forestry Commission of Ghana, Rural Enterprise, Business Advisory Unit, Social Welfare, Community Development Department, Information Services, etc. Others include community leaders, opinion leaders, chiefs, youth groups, farmer groups, community-based organizations, etc. The activity came in the form of small gatherings and meetings in their various offices, and communities. Others are Representatives of Women?s Group Associations. These stakeholders were chosen because they have the expertise and directly related to the project and can easily be used to achieve project outputs. Members of the MSP also received capacity building to increase their understanding of the project objectives, activities, outputs roles, and responsibilities. A total of 47(27M: 20F) stakeholders attended the meeting and got trained. Out of this core advocacy team is established to help promote advocacy strategy to protect trees and management of tree resources in our local communities in northern Ghana. Through this activity, the project was able to mobilize the necessary skills and expertise required to support the project activities implementation in Northern Ghana.