HATOF FOUNDATION
The problem statement
The Government through the various ministries and departments handle different aspects of the GEF focal areas activities. These institutions include: the Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (Environmental Protection Agency, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Water Research Institute, Forest Research Institute of Ghana, Aquatic Biology); Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (Forestry Commission); and the Ministry of Power (Energy Commission, and Renewable Energy Division). In keeping with its international obligations and international diplomacy, Ghana has ratified a number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements which jointly seek to bridge the gap between economic development and environmental conservation.
A review of the implementations of the various conventions and the national policies identified gaps, issues and of which the civil society are kept in darkness. The main environmental challenges identified are the continuous dwindling of the national forest cover; biodiversity degradation due to over exploitation of forest and wildlife resources; inconsistent and inadequate involvement of local communities and CSOs in forest management; excessive droughts and floods due to climate variability; inadequate expertise at the locality levels to execute activities in the climate change and biodiversity conservation focal areas; unsustainable farming practices and increasing use of persistent organic pollutants chemicals in agricultural production and increasing pollution of the international waters.
The SGP has responded to these challenges by providing technical and financial support to local communities and CSOs in the GEF focal areas. The programme has also been working to connect technical expertise from the government institutions (policy, practitioners, academic and research) to local communities and CSOs to address some of the environmental challenges. However, the capacities of the CSOs to participate effectively in policy formulation and implementation have remained very weak.
For communities and civil society to be able to demand their rights to services (environment and natural resources), they first have to gather baseline reference data on current service provision, which will also provide a benchmark for measuring progress so they can monitor and assess whether or not the situation is improving. Such data do not exist. They also need to find out what the problems and bottlenecks are that stifle progress in service provision so they know how and to whom they should target their advocacy activities when calling for their rights to services to be met. This information and the ability to undertake continuous monitoring of service provision and quality will serve as a basis for targeting CSOs/citizens’ groups’ advocacy activities, which will begin by focusing on the most underserved areas.
The continuing and increasing global environmental challenges (including climate disasters, land degradation, biodiversity loss and increasing chemical pollution), demands the full participation of the civil society groups. The adoption of the GEF 2020 Strategy calls for a more integrated multi-sectoral approach to safeguarding the global environment including addressing drivers as well as impacts. The growing trend for integrated multifocal area programmes in the GEF portfolio to be balanced with the continued relevance of the Core GEF related conventions.
The growing importance of GEF Operational Focal Points (OFPs) at country level in the identification of projects and allocation of resources demands the active involvement of CSOs and local communities. The continuing challenges for the effective engagement of CSOs in GEF projects and programmes and declining GEF resources to support CSO led activities for the basis of this project. The broadening of GEF agencies to include CSOs offers new opportunities for CSO engagement in GEF programmes. The declining resources to support the activities of the GEF CSO Network necessitating enhanced efforts to soliciting for financial and in-kind support to meet administrative and operational requirements.
1.3.2 Project objectives
The main objective of this project is to build the capacities of civil society to contribute to the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and national and sub-national policy, planning and legal frameworks and to gain knowledge in best innovative practices and systems for community landscape conservation, climate smart innovative agro-ecology, low-carbon energy access co-benefits, and soil, land and water management.
Specifically, the project seeks to
? To build the capacity of civil society organizations working in the field of environment and natural resources to research, monitor and evaluate government progress on service provision.
? To strengthen the advocacy capacity and build strong partnerships of communities and civil society to establish “CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue Platform”.
? To enhance the capacity of existing CSO networks to engage government and demand accountability from service providers, development partners and local governments.
? Train CSOs as “Barefoot Consultants” to access non-GEF funds such as with bilateral and in the “direct access” modality of the Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund;
1.4 Project Rationale
The overall aim of this project is to develop a dynamic civil society influencing policies and actions at all levels of governance to safeguard the global environment and promote sustainable development. The civil society impact is critical with the emphasis on empowerment of local communities in defence of their rights over natural resources and valuing their indigenous knowledge. The purpose is to safeguard the global environment through strengthening civil society partnership with GEF by enhancing informed participation, contributing to policy development and stimulating local action.
The project seeks to:
• Develop new capacity and skills for gathering data, assessing local governments’ provision of services and monitoring future service provision and quality over time, as well as identifying bottlenecks in service delivery; this will help them focus and target their advocacy accordingly.
• Strengthen existing CSO Coalitions and developing links with the media so they have more capacity to call on DAs to ensure communities’ access to services are fulfilled.
• Increase capacity and skills for developing and managing advocacy campaigns
• Increase technical capacity and skills of CSOs and local communities for engaging policy makers in policy dialogue to ensure the rights of communities to basic services are fulfilled
• Establish platform (Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees) as a citizen-government interface to enable CSOs and local communities to engage policy makers, participate in policy decision making and advocate for state agencies to be accountable in providing health, water and sanitation services to communities.
Final beneficiaries of the projects are poor rural communities currently lacking access to services. The project will seek to develop;
• New capacity and skills for gathering data, assessing DAs’ provision of services and monitoring future service provision and quality over time, as well as identifying bottlenecks in service delivery; this will help them focus and target their advocacy accordingly;
• Communities that will be aware of their rights to service provision and that DAs are accountable for fulfilling those rights, thus they will be willing to support CSOs advocacy activities demanding for these rights to be met;
• Opportunities for broadcasting and sharing issues important to their communities;
• Ultimately the communities will benefit from provision of water, sanitation and health services by their DAs, which will improve their health, welfare and ability to participate actively in their communities, schools and work places, and to contribute to family well-being and local community development.
1.5 EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND ACTIVITIES
Objective 1: To build the capacity of civil society organizations working in the field of environment and natural resources to research, monitor and evaluate government progress on service provision
The Government through the various ministries and departments handle different aspects of the GEF focal areas activities. These institutions include: the Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (Environmental Protection Agency, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Water Research Institute, Forest Research Institute of Ghana, Aquatic Biology); Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (Forestry Commission); and the Ministry of Power (Energy Commission, and Renewable Energy Division). In keeping with its international obligations and international diplomacy, Ghana has ratified a number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements which jointly seek to bridge the gap between economic development and environmental conservation.
A review of the implementations of the various conventions and the national policies identified gaps, issues and of which the civil society are kept in darkness. The main environmental issues identified are the continuous dwindling of the national forest cover; biodiversity degradation due to over exploitation of forest and wildlife resources; inconsistent and inadequate involvement of local communities and CSOs in forest management; excessive droughts and floods due to climate variability; inadequate expertise at the locality levels to execute activities in the climate change and biodiversity conservation focal areas; unsustainable farming practices and increasing use of persistent organic pollutants chemicals in agricultural production and increasing pollution of the international waters.
The SGP has responded to these challenges by providing technical and financial support to local communities and CSOs in the GEF focal areas. The programme has also been working to connect technical expertise from the government institutions (policy, practitioners, academic and research) to local communities and CSOs to address some of the environmental challenges. In this way, the capacities of the CSOs are being built and communities are being assisted to work towards achieving their developmental aspirations including improvement in their livelihoods while providing global environmental benefits.
For communities and civil society to be able to demand their rights to services (environment and natural resources) are met by the state agencies, they first have to gather baseline reference data on current service provision, which will also provide a benchmark for measuring progress so they can monitor and assess whether or not the situation is improving. They also need to find out what the problems and bottlenecks are that stifle progress in service provision so they know how and to whom they should target their advocacy activities when calling for their rights to services to be met. This information and the ability to undertake continuous monitoring of service provision and quality will serve as a basis for targeting CSOs/citizens’ groups’ advocacy activities, which will begin by focusing on the most underserved areas.
Output 1: 60 CSOs and community groups acquired skills for conducting surveys to assess problems in, and quality of, the implementation of multilateral environmental agreement and national plans and policies.
The preliminary visits to selected communities indicate that the CSOs and citizens groups in these communities have limited skills for conducting surveys of DAs’ service provision within the rural communities and of recording the information in any formal and consistent way. It is fragmented and limited. CSOs/ local community groups therefore do not have the information they need to develop a strong, coherent and targeted advocacy campaign to demand communities’ rights of access to services are met or to be able to monitor DAs’ service provision.
The training will therefore improve this situation by giving 60 CSO/community groups in the targeted communities the skills to research and conduct surveys to assess problems and bottlenecks in service provision and monitor and assess service provision and quality over time. This information will enable them to target their advocacy towards demanding their rights of access to services, which initially will focus on the most underserved communities. The CSOs/community groups will also gain skills and capacity in discussing issues with the DAs and service providers to find out where bottlenecks exist in the provision of services, which again will help them target their advocacy where it will be most effective. For example, if the bottleneck is that central government does not provide adequate budgets for proper provision of services in the environment and natural resources sub-sectors, the CSOs/citizen’s groups can target their advocacy at the national government with the help of new links with the media and the strength of the CSO/ existing CSO coalitions. If it is found that the bottleneck lies with the state agencies and their budgetary requests being inadequate or focused on other areas such as provision of roads, then CSOs/ community groups can focus their advocacy accordingly at the DAs. The information will bring them knowledge, power and a stronger voice to ensure communities’ rights are met.
Result 1.1: Effective monitoring of progress in the implementation of MEAs by establishing a consistently updated website.
Information will be added regularly to the website for monitoring and comparing of MMDAs progress in the implementation of MEAs. CSOs/community groups would be using the information to target advocacy at overcoming bottlenecks and getting services to underserved communities. The website established will enable CSOs/community groups to add information about the progress of implementation of the MEAs and national plans and policies including the national climate policy and plan, Forestry Policy and Master Plans and National Biodiversity strategy. It will allow communities to compare progress on the field and to know and publish which ones are doing well and which are doing poorly. The website will be accessible for anyone to see, so will expose MMDAs that are making the poorest progress in fulfilling their communities’ rights to basic service provision. When these activities are rolled out across Ghana in the future, the website will cover every District so that progress can be compared across all the Regions.
Result 1.2: Baseline assessment of service delivery and implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and national and sub-national policy, planning and legal frameworks. MEAs and to identify bottlenecks in service delivery has been completed
At the moment, there are no good data on service delivery and quality in the implementation of MEAs. The few are fragmented at best, so CSOs/community groups do not have the knowledge and information on which to build a strong advocacy campaign demanding accountability from state institutions for service provision. This baseline study will have two benefits for the CSOs/community groups: first, it will provide the necessary data on current levels of service provision across the country so that CSOs/community groups know where to target their advocacy, and provide the baseline data to begin their monitoring activities. The second benefit is that CSOs/community groups will understand where the bottleneck exist in service delivery so they know where and at whom to target their advocacy. This will strengthen their activities in demanding accountability for service provision.
Objective 2: To strengthen the advocacy capacity and build strong partnerships of communities and civil society to establish “CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue Platform”.
Research has indicated that civil society are neither aware they have rights to basic services and are accountable for ensuring their rights are met by providing those basic services under the implementation of MEAs. If they do not know their rights, they are not empowered to demand what they are entitled. This objective will be achieved in two ways: by building the capacity of communities and CSOs to know and defend their rights through broad awareness raising; and by strengthening CSOs/community groups by bringing them together in CSO/community group coalitions and building partnerships with the media. The broad awareness raising activities will be achieved through the following specific outputs and results:
Output 2.1: CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue Platform”.
Results 2.1.1: CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue platform established and operational to facilitate the implementation of MEAs and national planning frameworks.
Output 2.2. At least 60 CSOs are aware of their rights to service provision under the MEAs and national environmental policies and programmes
Results 2.2.1: At least 5 community radio stations have been facilitated to incorporate issue on the implementation of MEAs and national environmental programmes on their radio programmes.
Result 2.2.2 Training workshop organized for at least 60 CSOs to build their capacities in advocacy and dialogue
Result 2.2.3: More than 5000 community members empowered to support CSO and citizens’ group activities demanding service provision (they will share their knowledge with many others) under the implementation of MEAs and national policies
The outputs and results here will empower CSOs and communities by ensuring they know their rights to services and that the State agencies would provide those services for them. This will ensure communities support any actions demanding accountability by the state agencies in their service delivery.
Output 2.3: 60 CSOs and community support groups organized into a coalition with collective voices to strengthen civil society advocacy capacity, and partnerships developed with media support delivering advocacy messages
Results2.3.1: 10 media encounters and editors’ forums undertaken on the implementation of MEAs and national policies and programmes on environment
Result 2.3.2: CSOs/community groups have a strong collective voice, supported by the media delivering messages on lack of service provision
Only a few CSO/community groups have strong voices, and most are not united in advocating for the rights of communities to be met. Through the CSO/community group coalitions, the voices of civil society will be strengthened and united to call for MMDAs to be accountable in the provision of services to the rural communities. The media encounters and editors’ forums will raise awareness amongst the media about the lack of service provision in rural areas and about the rights of communities for services to be provided by the DAs. The new links between the media and the CSO/community group coalitions will enable the CSO/community groups to call on the media for support in getting their advocacy messages across to the DAs and national government. This will strengthen the campaigns and increase the pressure on DAs to fulfil communities’ rights to services.
Objective 3: To enhance the capacity of existing CSO networks to engage government and demand accountability from service providers, development partners and local governments.
Many CSOs community leaders do not have the capacity, skills and knowledge to engage MMDAs effectively in demanding that communities’ rights to services are met. This is a huge stumbling block for them, and one of the most important ways of ensuring they can effect change for their communities is to build their capacity and develop their skills for policy dialogue. Not only will this help them advocate for provision of water, sanitation and health services for their communities, but it will also help them build effective advocacy actions around other issues important to their communities, and even to take their advocacy to the national level. So this action will have much broader positive implications beyond the scope of this action. Hence we will enhance the capacity of existing CSO and community groups in each project community. The following expected results and outputs will achieve this objective:
Output 3.1: Enhance the capacity of CSOs and community groups in each GEF project community. These will be formed of potential community leaders and help facilitate the project activities and participate in the durbars and workshops.
Output 3.2: At least 4 members of 20 CSOs/community support groups have been trained in advocacy skills and tools so they can confidently discuss problems directly with MMDAs and demand accountability in the provision of basic services. The trained members will share their skills with the other members in their CSOs.
Achieving this output will ensure CSOs/community support groups have the requisite skills and tools for engaging policy makers effectively, and actively participating in policy dialogue at both the District and the national levels. This will help them advocate for development in their communities.
Results 3.2.1: 20 CSOs/community support groups are engaging MMDAs in the Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees to demand that their rights to basic services are met
Results 3.2.2: 4 Meetings of the ‘Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees’ involving CSOs/ community support groups, MMDAs, traditional authorities and a facilitator completed in each of the selected Districts and municipalities.
Result 3.3.3: CSOs/community groups are confidently discussing problems with their MMDAs at the committee meetings and in other meetings, and MMDAs are more willing to listen to and act on their concerns.
The final outputs and result will be a citizen-government interface established as a platform for CSOs/community groups to demand service provision through policy dialogue. These will be the Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees. The committee meetings will also provide a forum for other issues to be discussed that are of concern to communities and relevance to the DAs. Thus they will have broader benefits and effect much wider change beyond the provision of water, sanitation and health services.
Objectives 4: Train CSOs as “Barefoot Consultants” to access non-GEF funds such as with bilateral and in the “direct access” modality of the Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund;
Output 2.1: Capacity of 60 CSOs enhanced to access multilateral and bilateral funds including the Green Climate Funds to help facilitate their project activities.
Results2.1.1. CSOs identify multilateral and bilateral fund windows and access funds to facilitate the implementation of MEAs and national planning frameworks.
1.6 PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Initial process and justification for selection of activities
Initial consultations with stakeholders have revealed that there are no strong environmental CSOs or community groups. So, to support project facilitation as well as participate in the planned activities, there is the need to establish a community support group in each project community. These will be gender balanced and made up of potential community leaders (from herein, these groups are included in the general term of citizens’ groups). Formation of these groups will ensure sustainability when the donor project closes.
HATOF will hold discussions with CSOs, citizens’ groups, community leaders, women’s groups, faith based groups, youth groups, to determine levels of need (focusing on environment and natural resources), levels of awareness of their rights to services, and identify their limitations for monitoring and assessing MMDAs’ progress on the implementation of MEAs and relevant environmental policies and programme.
HATOF will discuss in more depth with the CSOs/citizens’ groups their limitations for advocacy and policy dialogue with MMDAs. They will assess the needs of communities and CSOs/citizens’ groups for capacity building in advocating for communities’ rights of access to services to be met, and also CSOs/citizens’ groups capacity needs to enable them to participate in policy dialogue with MMDAs on the implementation of MEAs and national programmes.
Following the consultations with stakeholders and the CSOs/citizens’ groups, HATOF will design a four-step approach to addressing their needs. The four steps are:
i. Support CSOs/community support groups/citizens’ groups with the skills to research local service provision (environment and natural resources, according to the policies) and determine the bottlenecks that exist in service delivery so they have the baseline data and information on which to build and target their demands for accountability in service provision.
ii. Strengthen capacities for advocacy through broad awareness raising amongst communities so they know their rights to services; forming CSO/citizens’ groups coalitions so they have strong collective voices to demand accountability from MMDAs in service provision; and developing partnerships with the media so they can carry their messages to policy makers. Information, knowledge and collective voices bring the requisite power to effect change.
iii. Empower CSOs and citizens’ groups – as representative voices of their communities – by giving them the skills, capacity and confidence to access multilateral and bilateral funds and to dialogue with policymakers and advocate for the needs of communities to be met.
iv. Establish a citizen-government interface that will provide a platform for CSOs and citizens’ groups to actively participate in policy dialogue and decision making with MMDAs and, where necessary, national government, so they can demand accountability in the provision of services and ultimately improve the lives of their local communities.
The CSOs and citizens’ groups targeted by this action will be those active in the environment and natural resource sectors. A total of 60 CSOs and citizens’ groups will be involved.
Activities to achieve Objective 1: To build the capacity of civil society organizations working in the field of environment and natural resources to research, monitor and evaluate government progress on service provision
1.1. Train CSOs and citizen’s groups in skills to monitor and evaluate MMDAs’ progress in service provision especially the implementation of
? The Rio Conventions + national planning frameworks
? CBD National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP)
? UNFCCC National Communications (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
? UNFCCC Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA)
? UNCCD National Action Programmes (NAP)
? Stockholm Convention (SC)
? SC National Implementation Plan (NIP)
? World Bank Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)
? GEF National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA)
? GEF-6 National Portfolio Formulation Exercise (NPFE)
? Strategic Action Programmes (SAPs) for shared international water-bodies
? Minamata Convention on Mercury
? National Policies and Plans (Climate change Policy/Plan; Forest and Wildlife Policy and master plan
The CSOs and citizens’ groups are generally aware that communities have rights to service provision under these conventions and that DAs should fulfil those rights, but they do not have the capacity to fulfil the demand side of service delivery and hold state agencies accountable. To help fulfil that role, they need to first gather the baseline data to know where services are lacking and the bottlenecks that exist to service provision. For this they need to be trained in basic research skills so they can survey, monitor and assess gaps in service delivery and DAs’ progress in delivering basic services to poor underserved rural communities. They will also learn methods of gathering communities’ opinions on priorities for service provision within communities, as well as opinions on the quality of services provided. The training will include:
• Basic social research skills such as questionnaire surveys and interviews (The CSOs/citizens’ groups will need interview skills for the next activity, 1.2)
• Focus group facilitation (for implementing the Community Scorecard process)
• Methodology for implementing Community Score Card process as a tool for Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation to enable communities to monitor and evaluate the provision of public services and the quality of those services provided by government and service providers
• Data analysis and data use in advocacy planning and implementation
1.2. Train CSOs in analysis and formulation of policy briefs, project and programme design, presentations, negotiation, and other key skills, and guidelines to promote CSO engagement in implementation of MEAs and national environmental policies.
1.3. Produce guidelines/manuals on MEAs and national planning frameworks for CSOs engagement in policy and programming discussions for implementation.
The CSOs will be equipped with brief manuals and guidelines to support the implementation of MEAs and national planning framework to determine:
? Existing levels and quality of service rendered under these conventions, policies and plans
? Identify bottlenecks in service delivery and how best they can overcome.
1.4. Establish monitoring system and website
Together with the CSOs and citizens’ groups, the project will develop a system for monitoring service provision and quality over time. The system will have a uniform format so that CSOs can easily compare progress in the implementation. The monitoring scheme will include Community Scorecards so community members can rate progress in their districts. These would be designed to facilitate a simple website where CSOs and citizens’ groups monitor progress of their DAs services delivery.
Activities to achieve Objective 2: To strengthen the advocacy capacity and build strong partnerships of communities and civil society to establish “CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue Platform”.
2.1. To facilitate community radio to empower communities to know their rights to service provision
HATOF will facilitate a community radio to empower communities and build the capacity for the ‘demand side’ of service delivery by ensuring communities are made aware of their rights to services. If they are aware of these rights, they will feel compelled to participate in activities advocating for those rights to be met. The aims of the durbars will be:
• To raise awareness about communities’ rights to service provision and that their DAs are accountable for ensuring these rights are met.
• Make CSOs/communities aware of other activities this project is facilitating, such as the Community Scorecards, so they can be involved with the research and advocacy and ensure stronger voices.
2.2. Organize a collaborative workshop for sector ministries and CSOs for policy dialogue to encourage more participatory structures of governance
The workshops will address a range of issues:
• The importance of transparency, accountability and access to information as a fundamental human right (e.g. access to MMDA budgets so CSOs/citizens’ groups can monitor budget requests and expenditure)
• Introduction to a range of participatory governance tools and approaches, such as Public Opinion Polling, People Centred Advocacy, Public Dialogue (e.g. Public Hearings and Poverty Hearings), Participatory Policy-making, Public Revenue Reporting and Monitoring, Public Expenditure Tracking, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
• Introduction to HATOF own method of Policy Dialogue – the ‘Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees’ – as a citizen-government interface to provide a platform for CSOs to demand service provision .
2.3. Form CSO and citizens groups’ coalition and develop partnerships with the media to strengthen civil society’s voice and advocacy capacity
HATOF will hold two-day workshops with around 60 CSO and citizens’ groups participants (one member from each of the target CSOs and citizens’ groups) so they can be introduced to one another and collectively develop ideas on how they can work together to strengthen their advocacy efforts, and also how they can partner with the media to make their voices stronger. The project will encourage and facilitate the groups to establish one CSO/citizens’ group coalition is registered officially to formalized with a constitution and Memorandum of Understanding to help strengthen and sustain their activities over the long term. Media personnel will attend day 3 of the workshop to share and exchange ideas on how the media can contribute to drawing local government’s attention to the needs and concerns of underserved marginalized rural communities. We will build a database of all the CSO/citizens’ groups and media names and contacts so they can easily communicate with one another.
Days 1-2 of the workshop will cover:
• Introduce participants to the benefits and strengths of combined action as a coalition
• Building and sustaining a coalition
• Potential limitations of working in a coalition
• Understanding the causes of, and how to manage, disagreements and conflicts in coalitions
• Accountability and shared governance in coalitions
• The dynamics of power relations in coalitions
• Developing an advocacy strategy when part of a coalition
• Discuss ways of working with the media.
Day 3
• Overview of issues the issues (rights to services and MMDAs’ accountability for providing those services)
• Breakout sessions to discuss ways of working effectively with the media
• Establish a plan of action for the CSO/citizens’ groups-media partnership.
2.3. Hold media encounters and editors’ forums
HATOF will organize an Editors’ Forums to solicit support from and partnerships with the media to help draw local government’s attention to the needs of underserved rural communities and maintain pressure on the MMDAs to provide basic services. The project will invite the Editors from print and electronic to learn about the issues on the environment and natural resources as Experts share their knowledge with the Editors. HATOF will facilitate discussion and questions. After the forums, the Editors will write publications and report on the issues addressed, which will raise awareness and help civil society put their messages across to policy makers.
The media encounters will be meetings to update the media on the issues and continue to discuss how they can lend support to the CSOs’ and citizens’ groups’ advocacy activities, and develop a plan of action. Contacts will be shared and stored in a database to ensure they can be easily accessed. The links with the media will also be useful for other activities the CSOs and citizens’ groups are involved in, besides those advocating for communities’ rights of access to services to be fulfilled.
Activities to achieve Objective 3: To enhance the capacity of existing CSO networks to engage government and demand accountability from MMDAs on the implementation of MEA and national policies and programmes.
3.1. Enhance capacity of existing CSO networks and coalitions.
Existing CSO networks and coalitions (gender balanced) composed of potential leaders will be identified to help facilitate project activities and participate in the training workshops. This will ensure every project community has a strong voice when calling for MMDAs to be accountable to the rights of citizens to water, sanitation and health services. From previous experience with establishing similar groups for other projects, this also ensures project sustainability because the groups will have the capacity and strong voice to continue the activities after the official close of the project.
3.2. Training in advocacy skills and tools for CSOs and citizens’ groups to build their capacity for advocacy and policy dialogue with MMDAs.
Two members from each of the 60 CSOs/citizens’ groups/community support groups and will be trained in advocacy so they can call for the rights of their communities for service provision to be met (total 120 people) will be trained in rights-based advocacy and skills and tools for policy dialogue so they can confidently engage the policy makers, represent the views and opinions of their communities, effectively influence policy making and advocate for the rights of communities to the provision of services to be met. The training will also empower them to demand more open and participatory governance in Ghana. It will cover:
• Communities’ rights to environment and natural resource services in Ghana
• Policy making processes and cycles
• Understanding the role of civil society in local policy making
• Learning a range of rights-based advocacy skills and tools and how to use them
• Introducing a range of policy dialogue tools and processes and how to use them to engage with policy makers Public Opinion Polling, People Centred Advocacy , Public Dialogue (e.g. Public Hearings and Poverty Hearings), Participatory Policy-making, Public Revenue Reporting and Monitoring, Public Expenditure Tracking, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation.
• Building capacity to articulate and discuss CSO/community views and opinions comprehensively with the policy makers
• Advocating and negotiating effectively in a policy making process
• Designing a policy advocacy action
3.3. Establish and organise meetings of the ‘Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees’ where CSOs/citizens’ groups will meet MMDAs to discuss priorities, concerns and needs for the provision of basic services.
HATOF will establish Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees that will involve CSOs, citizens’ groups, MMDAs, Traditional Authorities and a facilitator. The committee will enable civil society to get their voices heard by local decision makers and ensure the DAs are aware of communities’ priorities for service provision and other relevant community development issues. This access to decision makers will ensure civil society is participating in decision-making about priorities for service provision to marginalized rural communities. They will also be able to discuss other important community development issues with their MMDAs. The project will then convene at least four meetings of the Committees in each District over the duration of the project. Where necessary, HATOF will train a facilitator (a member of the community support groups) to facilitate these meetings.
Activities to achieve Objective 4: Train CSOs as “Barefoot Consultants” to access non-GEF funds such as with bilateral and in the “direct access” modality of the Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund;
4.1. Organize workshops for 60 CSOs on the fiduciary requirements and other eligibility criteria to access multilateral and bilateral funds including Green Climate Funds to help facilitate the project activities.
4.2. Produce brief factsheets on selected non-GEF funds to equip CSOs ability to access funds.
1.6.1 Project Strategy
The project will be implemented in the all the regions concentrating on places where GEF project are implemented. The selection of CSOs/citizens’ groups will be by their focus areas (i.e. those focusing on environment and natural resources), size, capacity, past achievements, and length of time of establishment. CSOs will be invited to apply for participation in the project and required to complete a simple form with these details.
Using the GEFCSO network as the starting point, the project will establish a Project Steering Committee to oversee project implementation, and a Project Support Group to help with community mobilization and project monitoring and implementation.
The project will use six main methods of implementation:
• Training workshops (CSOs/citizens’ groups)
• Social research with sector ministries
• Community scorecards for communities’ participation in assessment and monitoring of provision and quality of services
• Community radios for awareness raising
• Media Encounters and Editors’ Forums
• Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees
1. Training workshops for CSOs/citizens’ groups, and media
There will be 4 different workshops organised:
• Research skills training to monitor and evaluate MMDAs’ progress in service provision and quality (3days workshop for 60 participating CSOs)
• Coalition building (2 days workshop for 60 CSOs/citizens’ groups, and 10 media personnel to join them on day 3 of workshop)
• Rights based advocacy and policy dialogue ( 2-day workshop for 2 members each of the 60 CSOs/citizens’ groups)
• Policy dialogue for participatory governance (2-day workshop for CSOs and MMDAs)
The project will ensure training materials are prepared for each of the workshops so that participants have the necessary guidance to help them implement what they have learnt. The training materials will also help them share their skills with other members of their CSOs/citizens’ groups. The new Coalition will work with organisations such as the West Africa Civil Society Institute, which also have expertise in training civil society actors and policy makers in policy advocacy and engagement, to facilitate some of these workshops.
2. Social research with MMDAs and service providers e.g. EPA, MESTI, FC
With assistance from the research skills trainer/facilitator, the project will work with the CSOs/citizens’ groups to develop a research project to find out where the bottlenecks exist in service delivery and how they can be overcome. It is envisaged this will involve in-depth interviews and focus groups with relevant local and national government staff (in the sectors of environment, forestry, energy and agriculture). The different data sources and methods used will enable the project to validate the data through cross verification. Other sources and methods will include audits of MMDAs’ budget expenditures and budget requests to national government, which will help the project to understand whether or not MMDAs and national government are prioritizing MEA service provision in their budget requests and provisions. These will provide further data sources for triangulation and verification of findings. The results of the research will be used as a basis for building the CSO/citizens’ groups advocacy strategies to focus at key problem areas when demanding accountability from DAs in the provision of basic services.
3. Community scorecards for communities’ participation in assessment and monitoring of provision and quality of services
The method used to research the provision and quality of basic services in rural communities, and of communities’ priorities for service provision, will be the Community Scorecard (CS). This is a tool that allows citizens to monitor and evaluate the accessibility, quality and efficiency of public services, and results in an improvement in service provision and quality, thereby improving the health and welfare of communities. The CS process will be facilitated by the CSOs/citizens’ groups with support from a consultant
4. Facilitate community radio for awareness raising.
We will also facilitate awareness raising on community radios in the project communities to reach the widest number of people.
5. Media Encounters and Editors’ Forums
The Editor’s Forums will be meetings of media Editors where they will learn about the issues we are dealing with – communities’ rights to services, DAs’ accountability for service provision, policy dialogue, and the rights-based advocacy approach for communities to hold their DAs accountable. Experts will be invited to address the Editors. They will then publish articles about the issues covered during the forums. The Media Encounters will be meetings with the media to update them regularly on the issues we are addressing and the progress of DAs in service provision and quality.
6. Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees
These will be a form of public dialogue where CSOs/citizens’ groups, as representative voices of their communities, will meet local government face to face, and have been selected because they will be an effective means for policy makers to be informed about community concerns, needs and priorities. For the CSOs/citizens’ groups, they will provide a means to make the voices of their communities heard, to be involved in decision-making about issues that affect communities, and to participate in development planning. The committees will bring together the main stakeholders: CSOs/citizens’ groups, Traditional Authorities, DAs and a facilitator
The Government through the various ministries and departments handle different aspects of the GEF focal areas activities. These institutions include: the Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (Environmental Protection Agency, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Water Research Institute, Forest Research Institute of Ghana, Aquatic Biology); Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (Forestry Commission); and the Ministry of Power (Energy Commission, and Renewable Energy Division). In keeping with its international obligations and international diplomacy, Ghana has ratified a number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements which jointly seek to bridge the gap between economic development and environmental conservation.
A review of the implementations of the various conventions and the national policies identified gaps, issues and of which the civil society are kept in darkness. The main environmental challenges identified are the continuous dwindling of the national forest cover; biodiversity degradation due to over exploitation of forest and wildlife resources; inconsistent and inadequate involvement of local communities and CSOs in forest management; excessive droughts and floods due to climate variability; inadequate expertise at the locality levels to execute activities in the climate change and biodiversity conservation focal areas; unsustainable farming practices and increasing use of persistent organic pollutants chemicals in agricultural production and increasing pollution of the international waters.
The SGP has responded to these challenges by providing technical and financial support to local communities and CSOs in the GEF focal areas. The programme has also been working to connect technical expertise from the government institutions (policy, practitioners, academic and research) to local communities and CSOs to address some of the environmental challenges. However, the capacities of the CSOs to participate effectively in policy formulation and implementation have remained very weak.
For communities and civil society to be able to demand their rights to services (environment and natural resources), they first have to gather baseline reference data on current service provision, which will also provide a benchmark for measuring progress so they can monitor and assess whether or not the situation is improving. Such data do not exist. They also need to find out what the problems and bottlenecks are that stifle progress in service provision so they know how and to whom they should target their advocacy activities when calling for their rights to services to be met. This information and the ability to undertake continuous monitoring of service provision and quality will serve as a basis for targeting CSOs/citizens’ groups’ advocacy activities, which will begin by focusing on the most underserved areas.
The continuing and increasing global environmental challenges (including climate disasters, land degradation, biodiversity loss and increasing chemical pollution), demands the full participation of the civil society groups. The adoption of the GEF 2020 Strategy calls for a more integrated multi-sectoral approach to safeguarding the global environment including addressing drivers as well as impacts. The growing trend for integrated multifocal area programmes in the GEF portfolio to be balanced with the continued relevance of the Core GEF related conventions.
The growing importance of GEF Operational Focal Points (OFPs) at country level in the identification of projects and allocation of resources demands the active involvement of CSOs and local communities. The continuing challenges for the effective engagement of CSOs in GEF projects and programmes and declining GEF resources to support CSO led activities for the basis of this project. The broadening of GEF agencies to include CSOs offers new opportunities for CSO engagement in GEF programmes. The declining resources to support the activities of the GEF CSO Network necessitating enhanced efforts to soliciting for financial and in-kind support to meet administrative and operational requirements.
1.3.2 Project objectives
The main objective of this project is to build the capacities of civil society to contribute to the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and national and sub-national policy, planning and legal frameworks and to gain knowledge in best innovative practices and systems for community landscape conservation, climate smart innovative agro-ecology, low-carbon energy access co-benefits, and soil, land and water management.
Specifically, the project seeks to
? To build the capacity of civil society organizations working in the field of environment and natural resources to research, monitor and evaluate government progress on service provision.
? To strengthen the advocacy capacity and build strong partnerships of communities and civil society to establish “CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue Platform”.
? To enhance the capacity of existing CSO networks to engage government and demand accountability from service providers, development partners and local governments.
? Train CSOs as “Barefoot Consultants” to access non-GEF funds such as with bilateral and in the “direct access” modality of the Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund;
1.4 Project Rationale
The overall aim of this project is to develop a dynamic civil society influencing policies and actions at all levels of governance to safeguard the global environment and promote sustainable development. The civil society impact is critical with the emphasis on empowerment of local communities in defence of their rights over natural resources and valuing their indigenous knowledge. The purpose is to safeguard the global environment through strengthening civil society partnership with GEF by enhancing informed participation, contributing to policy development and stimulating local action.
The project seeks to:
• Develop new capacity and skills for gathering data, assessing local governments’ provision of services and monitoring future service provision and quality over time, as well as identifying bottlenecks in service delivery; this will help them focus and target their advocacy accordingly.
• Strengthen existing CSO Coalitions and developing links with the media so they have more capacity to call on DAs to ensure communities’ access to services are fulfilled.
• Increase capacity and skills for developing and managing advocacy campaigns
• Increase technical capacity and skills of CSOs and local communities for engaging policy makers in policy dialogue to ensure the rights of communities to basic services are fulfilled
• Establish platform (Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees) as a citizen-government interface to enable CSOs and local communities to engage policy makers, participate in policy decision making and advocate for state agencies to be accountable in providing health, water and sanitation services to communities.
Final beneficiaries of the projects are poor rural communities currently lacking access to services. The project will seek to develop;
• New capacity and skills for gathering data, assessing DAs’ provision of services and monitoring future service provision and quality over time, as well as identifying bottlenecks in service delivery; this will help them focus and target their advocacy accordingly;
• Communities that will be aware of their rights to service provision and that DAs are accountable for fulfilling those rights, thus they will be willing to support CSOs advocacy activities demanding for these rights to be met;
• Opportunities for broadcasting and sharing issues important to their communities;
• Ultimately the communities will benefit from provision of water, sanitation and health services by their DAs, which will improve their health, welfare and ability to participate actively in their communities, schools and work places, and to contribute to family well-being and local community development.
1.5 EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND ACTIVITIES
Objective 1: To build the capacity of civil society organizations working in the field of environment and natural resources to research, monitor and evaluate government progress on service provision
The Government through the various ministries and departments handle different aspects of the GEF focal areas activities. These institutions include: the Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (Environmental Protection Agency, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Water Research Institute, Forest Research Institute of Ghana, Aquatic Biology); Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (Forestry Commission); and the Ministry of Power (Energy Commission, and Renewable Energy Division). In keeping with its international obligations and international diplomacy, Ghana has ratified a number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements which jointly seek to bridge the gap between economic development and environmental conservation.
A review of the implementations of the various conventions and the national policies identified gaps, issues and of which the civil society are kept in darkness. The main environmental issues identified are the continuous dwindling of the national forest cover; biodiversity degradation due to over exploitation of forest and wildlife resources; inconsistent and inadequate involvement of local communities and CSOs in forest management; excessive droughts and floods due to climate variability; inadequate expertise at the locality levels to execute activities in the climate change and biodiversity conservation focal areas; unsustainable farming practices and increasing use of persistent organic pollutants chemicals in agricultural production and increasing pollution of the international waters.
The SGP has responded to these challenges by providing technical and financial support to local communities and CSOs in the GEF focal areas. The programme has also been working to connect technical expertise from the government institutions (policy, practitioners, academic and research) to local communities and CSOs to address some of the environmental challenges. In this way, the capacities of the CSOs are being built and communities are being assisted to work towards achieving their developmental aspirations including improvement in their livelihoods while providing global environmental benefits.
For communities and civil society to be able to demand their rights to services (environment and natural resources) are met by the state agencies, they first have to gather baseline reference data on current service provision, which will also provide a benchmark for measuring progress so they can monitor and assess whether or not the situation is improving. They also need to find out what the problems and bottlenecks are that stifle progress in service provision so they know how and to whom they should target their advocacy activities when calling for their rights to services to be met. This information and the ability to undertake continuous monitoring of service provision and quality will serve as a basis for targeting CSOs/citizens’ groups’ advocacy activities, which will begin by focusing on the most underserved areas.
Output 1: 60 CSOs and community groups acquired skills for conducting surveys to assess problems in, and quality of, the implementation of multilateral environmental agreement and national plans and policies.
The preliminary visits to selected communities indicate that the CSOs and citizens groups in these communities have limited skills for conducting surveys of DAs’ service provision within the rural communities and of recording the information in any formal and consistent way. It is fragmented and limited. CSOs/ local community groups therefore do not have the information they need to develop a strong, coherent and targeted advocacy campaign to demand communities’ rights of access to services are met or to be able to monitor DAs’ service provision.
The training will therefore improve this situation by giving 60 CSO/community groups in the targeted communities the skills to research and conduct surveys to assess problems and bottlenecks in service provision and monitor and assess service provision and quality over time. This information will enable them to target their advocacy towards demanding their rights of access to services, which initially will focus on the most underserved communities. The CSOs/community groups will also gain skills and capacity in discussing issues with the DAs and service providers to find out where bottlenecks exist in the provision of services, which again will help them target their advocacy where it will be most effective. For example, if the bottleneck is that central government does not provide adequate budgets for proper provision of services in the environment and natural resources sub-sectors, the CSOs/citizen’s groups can target their advocacy at the national government with the help of new links with the media and the strength of the CSO/ existing CSO coalitions. If it is found that the bottleneck lies with the state agencies and their budgetary requests being inadequate or focused on other areas such as provision of roads, then CSOs/ community groups can focus their advocacy accordingly at the DAs. The information will bring them knowledge, power and a stronger voice to ensure communities’ rights are met.
Result 1.1: Effective monitoring of progress in the implementation of MEAs by establishing a consistently updated website.
Information will be added regularly to the website for monitoring and comparing of MMDAs progress in the implementation of MEAs. CSOs/community groups would be using the information to target advocacy at overcoming bottlenecks and getting services to underserved communities. The website established will enable CSOs/community groups to add information about the progress of implementation of the MEAs and national plans and policies including the national climate policy and plan, Forestry Policy and Master Plans and National Biodiversity strategy. It will allow communities to compare progress on the field and to know and publish which ones are doing well and which are doing poorly. The website will be accessible for anyone to see, so will expose MMDAs that are making the poorest progress in fulfilling their communities’ rights to basic service provision. When these activities are rolled out across Ghana in the future, the website will cover every District so that progress can be compared across all the Regions.
Result 1.2: Baseline assessment of service delivery and implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and national and sub-national policy, planning and legal frameworks. MEAs and to identify bottlenecks in service delivery has been completed
At the moment, there are no good data on service delivery and quality in the implementation of MEAs. The few are fragmented at best, so CSOs/community groups do not have the knowledge and information on which to build a strong advocacy campaign demanding accountability from state institutions for service provision. This baseline study will have two benefits for the CSOs/community groups: first, it will provide the necessary data on current levels of service provision across the country so that CSOs/community groups know where to target their advocacy, and provide the baseline data to begin their monitoring activities. The second benefit is that CSOs/community groups will understand where the bottleneck exist in service delivery so they know where and at whom to target their advocacy. This will strengthen their activities in demanding accountability for service provision.
Objective 2: To strengthen the advocacy capacity and build strong partnerships of communities and civil society to establish “CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue Platform”.
Research has indicated that civil society are neither aware they have rights to basic services and are accountable for ensuring their rights are met by providing those basic services under the implementation of MEAs. If they do not know their rights, they are not empowered to demand what they are entitled. This objective will be achieved in two ways: by building the capacity of communities and CSOs to know and defend their rights through broad awareness raising; and by strengthening CSOs/community groups by bringing them together in CSO/community group coalitions and building partnerships with the media. The broad awareness raising activities will be achieved through the following specific outputs and results:
Output 2.1: CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue Platform”.
Results 2.1.1: CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue platform established and operational to facilitate the implementation of MEAs and national planning frameworks.
Output 2.2. At least 60 CSOs are aware of their rights to service provision under the MEAs and national environmental policies and programmes
Results 2.2.1: At least 5 community radio stations have been facilitated to incorporate issue on the implementation of MEAs and national environmental programmes on their radio programmes.
Result 2.2.2 Training workshop organized for at least 60 CSOs to build their capacities in advocacy and dialogue
Result 2.2.3: More than 5000 community members empowered to support CSO and citizens’ group activities demanding service provision (they will share their knowledge with many others) under the implementation of MEAs and national policies
The outputs and results here will empower CSOs and communities by ensuring they know their rights to services and that the State agencies would provide those services for them. This will ensure communities support any actions demanding accountability by the state agencies in their service delivery.
Output 2.3: 60 CSOs and community support groups organized into a coalition with collective voices to strengthen civil society advocacy capacity, and partnerships developed with media support delivering advocacy messages
Results2.3.1: 10 media encounters and editors’ forums undertaken on the implementation of MEAs and national policies and programmes on environment
Result 2.3.2: CSOs/community groups have a strong collective voice, supported by the media delivering messages on lack of service provision
Only a few CSO/community groups have strong voices, and most are not united in advocating for the rights of communities to be met. Through the CSO/community group coalitions, the voices of civil society will be strengthened and united to call for MMDAs to be accountable in the provision of services to the rural communities. The media encounters and editors’ forums will raise awareness amongst the media about the lack of service provision in rural areas and about the rights of communities for services to be provided by the DAs. The new links between the media and the CSO/community group coalitions will enable the CSO/community groups to call on the media for support in getting their advocacy messages across to the DAs and national government. This will strengthen the campaigns and increase the pressure on DAs to fulfil communities’ rights to services.
Objective 3: To enhance the capacity of existing CSO networks to engage government and demand accountability from service providers, development partners and local governments.
Many CSOs community leaders do not have the capacity, skills and knowledge to engage MMDAs effectively in demanding that communities’ rights to services are met. This is a huge stumbling block for them, and one of the most important ways of ensuring they can effect change for their communities is to build their capacity and develop their skills for policy dialogue. Not only will this help them advocate for provision of water, sanitation and health services for their communities, but it will also help them build effective advocacy actions around other issues important to their communities, and even to take their advocacy to the national level. So this action will have much broader positive implications beyond the scope of this action. Hence we will enhance the capacity of existing CSO and community groups in each project community. The following expected results and outputs will achieve this objective:
Output 3.1: Enhance the capacity of CSOs and community groups in each GEF project community. These will be formed of potential community leaders and help facilitate the project activities and participate in the durbars and workshops.
Output 3.2: At least 4 members of 20 CSOs/community support groups have been trained in advocacy skills and tools so they can confidently discuss problems directly with MMDAs and demand accountability in the provision of basic services. The trained members will share their skills with the other members in their CSOs.
Achieving this output will ensure CSOs/community support groups have the requisite skills and tools for engaging policy makers effectively, and actively participating in policy dialogue at both the District and the national levels. This will help them advocate for development in their communities.
Results 3.2.1: 20 CSOs/community support groups are engaging MMDAs in the Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees to demand that their rights to basic services are met
Results 3.2.2: 4 Meetings of the ‘Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees’ involving CSOs/ community support groups, MMDAs, traditional authorities and a facilitator completed in each of the selected Districts and municipalities.
Result 3.3.3: CSOs/community groups are confidently discussing problems with their MMDAs at the committee meetings and in other meetings, and MMDAs are more willing to listen to and act on their concerns.
The final outputs and result will be a citizen-government interface established as a platform for CSOs/community groups to demand service provision through policy dialogue. These will be the Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees. The committee meetings will also provide a forum for other issues to be discussed that are of concern to communities and relevance to the DAs. Thus they will have broader benefits and effect much wider change beyond the provision of water, sanitation and health services.
Objectives 4: Train CSOs as “Barefoot Consultants” to access non-GEF funds such as with bilateral and in the “direct access” modality of the Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund;
Output 2.1: Capacity of 60 CSOs enhanced to access multilateral and bilateral funds including the Green Climate Funds to help facilitate their project activities.
Results2.1.1. CSOs identify multilateral and bilateral fund windows and access funds to facilitate the implementation of MEAs and national planning frameworks.
1.6 PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Initial process and justification for selection of activities
Initial consultations with stakeholders have revealed that there are no strong environmental CSOs or community groups. So, to support project facilitation as well as participate in the planned activities, there is the need to establish a community support group in each project community. These will be gender balanced and made up of potential community leaders (from herein, these groups are included in the general term of citizens’ groups). Formation of these groups will ensure sustainability when the donor project closes.
HATOF will hold discussions with CSOs, citizens’ groups, community leaders, women’s groups, faith based groups, youth groups, to determine levels of need (focusing on environment and natural resources), levels of awareness of their rights to services, and identify their limitations for monitoring and assessing MMDAs’ progress on the implementation of MEAs and relevant environmental policies and programme.
HATOF will discuss in more depth with the CSOs/citizens’ groups their limitations for advocacy and policy dialogue with MMDAs. They will assess the needs of communities and CSOs/citizens’ groups for capacity building in advocating for communities’ rights of access to services to be met, and also CSOs/citizens’ groups capacity needs to enable them to participate in policy dialogue with MMDAs on the implementation of MEAs and national programmes.
Following the consultations with stakeholders and the CSOs/citizens’ groups, HATOF will design a four-step approach to addressing their needs. The four steps are:
i. Support CSOs/community support groups/citizens’ groups with the skills to research local service provision (environment and natural resources, according to the policies) and determine the bottlenecks that exist in service delivery so they have the baseline data and information on which to build and target their demands for accountability in service provision.
ii. Strengthen capacities for advocacy through broad awareness raising amongst communities so they know their rights to services; forming CSO/citizens’ groups coalitions so they have strong collective voices to demand accountability from MMDAs in service provision; and developing partnerships with the media so they can carry their messages to policy makers. Information, knowledge and collective voices bring the requisite power to effect change.
iii. Empower CSOs and citizens’ groups – as representative voices of their communities – by giving them the skills, capacity and confidence to access multilateral and bilateral funds and to dialogue with policymakers and advocate for the needs of communities to be met.
iv. Establish a citizen-government interface that will provide a platform for CSOs and citizens’ groups to actively participate in policy dialogue and decision making with MMDAs and, where necessary, national government, so they can demand accountability in the provision of services and ultimately improve the lives of their local communities.
The CSOs and citizens’ groups targeted by this action will be those active in the environment and natural resource sectors. A total of 60 CSOs and citizens’ groups will be involved.
Activities to achieve Objective 1: To build the capacity of civil society organizations working in the field of environment and natural resources to research, monitor and evaluate government progress on service provision
1.1. Train CSOs and citizen’s groups in skills to monitor and evaluate MMDAs’ progress in service provision especially the implementation of
? The Rio Conventions + national planning frameworks
? CBD National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP)
? UNFCCC National Communications (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
? UNFCCC Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA)
? UNCCD National Action Programmes (NAP)
? Stockholm Convention (SC)
? SC National Implementation Plan (NIP)
? World Bank Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)
? GEF National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA)
? GEF-6 National Portfolio Formulation Exercise (NPFE)
? Strategic Action Programmes (SAPs) for shared international water-bodies
? Minamata Convention on Mercury
? National Policies and Plans (Climate change Policy/Plan; Forest and Wildlife Policy and master plan
The CSOs and citizens’ groups are generally aware that communities have rights to service provision under these conventions and that DAs should fulfil those rights, but they do not have the capacity to fulfil the demand side of service delivery and hold state agencies accountable. To help fulfil that role, they need to first gather the baseline data to know where services are lacking and the bottlenecks that exist to service provision. For this they need to be trained in basic research skills so they can survey, monitor and assess gaps in service delivery and DAs’ progress in delivering basic services to poor underserved rural communities. They will also learn methods of gathering communities’ opinions on priorities for service provision within communities, as well as opinions on the quality of services provided. The training will include:
• Basic social research skills such as questionnaire surveys and interviews (The CSOs/citizens’ groups will need interview skills for the next activity, 1.2)
• Focus group facilitation (for implementing the Community Scorecard process)
• Methodology for implementing Community Score Card process as a tool for Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation to enable communities to monitor and evaluate the provision of public services and the quality of those services provided by government and service providers
• Data analysis and data use in advocacy planning and implementation
1.2. Train CSOs in analysis and formulation of policy briefs, project and programme design, presentations, negotiation, and other key skills, and guidelines to promote CSO engagement in implementation of MEAs and national environmental policies.
1.3. Produce guidelines/manuals on MEAs and national planning frameworks for CSOs engagement in policy and programming discussions for implementation.
The CSOs will be equipped with brief manuals and guidelines to support the implementation of MEAs and national planning framework to determine:
? Existing levels and quality of service rendered under these conventions, policies and plans
? Identify bottlenecks in service delivery and how best they can overcome.
1.4. Establish monitoring system and website
Together with the CSOs and citizens’ groups, the project will develop a system for monitoring service provision and quality over time. The system will have a uniform format so that CSOs can easily compare progress in the implementation. The monitoring scheme will include Community Scorecards so community members can rate progress in their districts. These would be designed to facilitate a simple website where CSOs and citizens’ groups monitor progress of their DAs services delivery.
Activities to achieve Objective 2: To strengthen the advocacy capacity and build strong partnerships of communities and civil society to establish “CSO-Government Policy and Planning Dialogue Platform”.
2.1. To facilitate community radio to empower communities to know their rights to service provision
HATOF will facilitate a community radio to empower communities and build the capacity for the ‘demand side’ of service delivery by ensuring communities are made aware of their rights to services. If they are aware of these rights, they will feel compelled to participate in activities advocating for those rights to be met. The aims of the durbars will be:
• To raise awareness about communities’ rights to service provision and that their DAs are accountable for ensuring these rights are met.
• Make CSOs/communities aware of other activities this project is facilitating, such as the Community Scorecards, so they can be involved with the research and advocacy and ensure stronger voices.
2.2. Organize a collaborative workshop for sector ministries and CSOs for policy dialogue to encourage more participatory structures of governance
The workshops will address a range of issues:
• The importance of transparency, accountability and access to information as a fundamental human right (e.g. access to MMDA budgets so CSOs/citizens’ groups can monitor budget requests and expenditure)
• Introduction to a range of participatory governance tools and approaches, such as Public Opinion Polling, People Centred Advocacy, Public Dialogue (e.g. Public Hearings and Poverty Hearings), Participatory Policy-making, Public Revenue Reporting and Monitoring, Public Expenditure Tracking, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
• Introduction to HATOF own method of Policy Dialogue – the ‘Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees’ – as a citizen-government interface to provide a platform for CSOs to demand service provision .
2.3. Form CSO and citizens groups’ coalition and develop partnerships with the media to strengthen civil society’s voice and advocacy capacity
HATOF will hold two-day workshops with around 60 CSO and citizens’ groups participants (one member from each of the target CSOs and citizens’ groups) so they can be introduced to one another and collectively develop ideas on how they can work together to strengthen their advocacy efforts, and also how they can partner with the media to make their voices stronger. The project will encourage and facilitate the groups to establish one CSO/citizens’ group coalition is registered officially to formalized with a constitution and Memorandum of Understanding to help strengthen and sustain their activities over the long term. Media personnel will attend day 3 of the workshop to share and exchange ideas on how the media can contribute to drawing local government’s attention to the needs and concerns of underserved marginalized rural communities. We will build a database of all the CSO/citizens’ groups and media names and contacts so they can easily communicate with one another.
Days 1-2 of the workshop will cover:
• Introduce participants to the benefits and strengths of combined action as a coalition
• Building and sustaining a coalition
• Potential limitations of working in a coalition
• Understanding the causes of, and how to manage, disagreements and conflicts in coalitions
• Accountability and shared governance in coalitions
• The dynamics of power relations in coalitions
• Developing an advocacy strategy when part of a coalition
• Discuss ways of working with the media.
Day 3
• Overview of issues the issues (rights to services and MMDAs’ accountability for providing those services)
• Breakout sessions to discuss ways of working effectively with the media
• Establish a plan of action for the CSO/citizens’ groups-media partnership.
2.3. Hold media encounters and editors’ forums
HATOF will organize an Editors’ Forums to solicit support from and partnerships with the media to help draw local government’s attention to the needs of underserved rural communities and maintain pressure on the MMDAs to provide basic services. The project will invite the Editors from print and electronic to learn about the issues on the environment and natural resources as Experts share their knowledge with the Editors. HATOF will facilitate discussion and questions. After the forums, the Editors will write publications and report on the issues addressed, which will raise awareness and help civil society put their messages across to policy makers.
The media encounters will be meetings to update the media on the issues and continue to discuss how they can lend support to the CSOs’ and citizens’ groups’ advocacy activities, and develop a plan of action. Contacts will be shared and stored in a database to ensure they can be easily accessed. The links with the media will also be useful for other activities the CSOs and citizens’ groups are involved in, besides those advocating for communities’ rights of access to services to be fulfilled.
Activities to achieve Objective 3: To enhance the capacity of existing CSO networks to engage government and demand accountability from MMDAs on the implementation of MEA and national policies and programmes.
3.1. Enhance capacity of existing CSO networks and coalitions.
Existing CSO networks and coalitions (gender balanced) composed of potential leaders will be identified to help facilitate project activities and participate in the training workshops. This will ensure every project community has a strong voice when calling for MMDAs to be accountable to the rights of citizens to water, sanitation and health services. From previous experience with establishing similar groups for other projects, this also ensures project sustainability because the groups will have the capacity and strong voice to continue the activities after the official close of the project.
3.2. Training in advocacy skills and tools for CSOs and citizens’ groups to build their capacity for advocacy and policy dialogue with MMDAs.
Two members from each of the 60 CSOs/citizens’ groups/community support groups and will be trained in advocacy so they can call for the rights of their communities for service provision to be met (total 120 people) will be trained in rights-based advocacy and skills and tools for policy dialogue so they can confidently engage the policy makers, represent the views and opinions of their communities, effectively influence policy making and advocate for the rights of communities to the provision of services to be met. The training will also empower them to demand more open and participatory governance in Ghana. It will cover:
• Communities’ rights to environment and natural resource services in Ghana
• Policy making processes and cycles
• Understanding the role of civil society in local policy making
• Learning a range of rights-based advocacy skills and tools and how to use them
• Introducing a range of policy dialogue tools and processes and how to use them to engage with policy makers Public Opinion Polling, People Centred Advocacy , Public Dialogue (e.g. Public Hearings and Poverty Hearings), Participatory Policy-making, Public Revenue Reporting and Monitoring, Public Expenditure Tracking, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation.
• Building capacity to articulate and discuss CSO/community views and opinions comprehensively with the policy makers
• Advocating and negotiating effectively in a policy making process
• Designing a policy advocacy action
3.3. Establish and organise meetings of the ‘Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees’ where CSOs/citizens’ groups will meet MMDAs to discuss priorities, concerns and needs for the provision of basic services.
HATOF will establish Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees that will involve CSOs, citizens’ groups, MMDAs, Traditional Authorities and a facilitator. The committee will enable civil society to get their voices heard by local decision makers and ensure the DAs are aware of communities’ priorities for service provision and other relevant community development issues. This access to decision makers will ensure civil society is participating in decision-making about priorities for service provision to marginalized rural communities. They will also be able to discuss other important community development issues with their MMDAs. The project will then convene at least four meetings of the Committees in each District over the duration of the project. Where necessary, HATOF will train a facilitator (a member of the community support groups) to facilitate these meetings.
Activities to achieve Objective 4: Train CSOs as “Barefoot Consultants” to access non-GEF funds such as with bilateral and in the “direct access” modality of the Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund;
4.1. Organize workshops for 60 CSOs on the fiduciary requirements and other eligibility criteria to access multilateral and bilateral funds including Green Climate Funds to help facilitate the project activities.
4.2. Produce brief factsheets on selected non-GEF funds to equip CSOs ability to access funds.
1.6.1 Project Strategy
The project will be implemented in the all the regions concentrating on places where GEF project are implemented. The selection of CSOs/citizens’ groups will be by their focus areas (i.e. those focusing on environment and natural resources), size, capacity, past achievements, and length of time of establishment. CSOs will be invited to apply for participation in the project and required to complete a simple form with these details.
Using the GEFCSO network as the starting point, the project will establish a Project Steering Committee to oversee project implementation, and a Project Support Group to help with community mobilization and project monitoring and implementation.
The project will use six main methods of implementation:
• Training workshops (CSOs/citizens’ groups)
• Social research with sector ministries
• Community scorecards for communities’ participation in assessment and monitoring of provision and quality of services
• Community radios for awareness raising
• Media Encounters and Editors’ Forums
• Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees
1. Training workshops for CSOs/citizens’ groups, and media
There will be 4 different workshops organised:
• Research skills training to monitor and evaluate MMDAs’ progress in service provision and quality (3days workshop for 60 participating CSOs)
• Coalition building (2 days workshop for 60 CSOs/citizens’ groups, and 10 media personnel to join them on day 3 of workshop)
• Rights based advocacy and policy dialogue ( 2-day workshop for 2 members each of the 60 CSOs/citizens’ groups)
• Policy dialogue for participatory governance (2-day workshop for CSOs and MMDAs)
The project will ensure training materials are prepared for each of the workshops so that participants have the necessary guidance to help them implement what they have learnt. The training materials will also help them share their skills with other members of their CSOs/citizens’ groups. The new Coalition will work with organisations such as the West Africa Civil Society Institute, which also have expertise in training civil society actors and policy makers in policy advocacy and engagement, to facilitate some of these workshops.
2. Social research with MMDAs and service providers e.g. EPA, MESTI, FC
With assistance from the research skills trainer/facilitator, the project will work with the CSOs/citizens’ groups to develop a research project to find out where the bottlenecks exist in service delivery and how they can be overcome. It is envisaged this will involve in-depth interviews and focus groups with relevant local and national government staff (in the sectors of environment, forestry, energy and agriculture). The different data sources and methods used will enable the project to validate the data through cross verification. Other sources and methods will include audits of MMDAs’ budget expenditures and budget requests to national government, which will help the project to understand whether or not MMDAs and national government are prioritizing MEA service provision in their budget requests and provisions. These will provide further data sources for triangulation and verification of findings. The results of the research will be used as a basis for building the CSO/citizens’ groups advocacy strategies to focus at key problem areas when demanding accountability from DAs in the provision of basic services.
3. Community scorecards for communities’ participation in assessment and monitoring of provision and quality of services
The method used to research the provision and quality of basic services in rural communities, and of communities’ priorities for service provision, will be the Community Scorecard (CS). This is a tool that allows citizens to monitor and evaluate the accessibility, quality and efficiency of public services, and results in an improvement in service provision and quality, thereby improving the health and welfare of communities. The CS process will be facilitated by the CSOs/citizens’ groups with support from a consultant
4. Facilitate community radio for awareness raising.
We will also facilitate awareness raising on community radios in the project communities to reach the widest number of people.
5. Media Encounters and Editors’ Forums
The Editor’s Forums will be meetings of media Editors where they will learn about the issues we are dealing with – communities’ rights to services, DAs’ accountability for service provision, policy dialogue, and the rights-based advocacy approach for communities to hold their DAs accountable. Experts will be invited to address the Editors. They will then publish articles about the issues covered during the forums. The Media Encounters will be meetings with the media to update them regularly on the issues we are addressing and the progress of DAs in service provision and quality.
6. Inclusive Policy Dialogue Committees
These will be a form of public dialogue where CSOs/citizens’ groups, as representative voices of their communities, will meet local government face to face, and have been selected because they will be an effective means for policy makers to be informed about community concerns, needs and priorities. For the CSOs/citizens’ groups, they will provide a means to make the voices of their communities heard, to be involved in decision-making about issues that affect communities, and to participate in development planning. The committees will bring together the main stakeholders: CSOs/citizens’ groups, Traditional Authorities, DAs and a facilitator
Loading map...
Project Snapshot
Grantee:
HATOF Foundation
Country:
Ghana
Area Of Work:
CapDev
Grant Amount:
US$ 21,800.00
Co-Financing Cash:
US$ 12,000.00
Co-Financing in-Kind:
US$ 14,400.00
Project Number:
GHA/SGP/OP6/Y2/CORE/CD/2016/005
Status:
Satisfactorily Completed
Photo Gallery
Project Characteristics and Results
Policy Impact
CSOs and community groups acquired skills for conducting surveys to assess problems in, and quality of, the implementation of multilateral environmental agreement and national plans and policies.
Linkages gef projects
Not yet
+ View more
Indicators
Empowerment
Number of CBOs / NGOs participated / involved in SGP project
60
Empowerment
Number of CBOs / NGOs formed or registered through the SGP project
5
Empowerment
Number of women participated / involved in SGP project
100
Empowerment
Number and type of support linkages established with local governments/authorities
4
Empowerment
Number and type of support linkages established with national government institutions
4
SGP Country office contact
Dr. George Buabin Ortsin
Phone:
233-242-977980
Email:
Ms. Lois Sarpong
Phone:
+233 505740909
Email:
Address
UNDP, Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme P.O. Box 1423
Accra, Greater Accra, 233-302
Accra, Greater Accra, 233-302
Visit the Ghana Country Page