IBIS in Ghana ibisghana.org Accra (Country Office) 129 Nai Tetteh East Legon +233 302 901 373/4 ibis@ibisghana.org Tamale House No. 105 A Y Block Choggu - Mmanayili +233 372 025 843 Bibiani Opp. Central Mosque Rd. jct. Old Town Bole GES Annex opp. Total Filling Station +233 392 096 457 Bolgatanga ZB 297 Zorabisi +233 382 022 958 Saboba District Assembly Building near Nadmo Office Salaga EGOCSA building behind Kanyiti FM Towards Prosperity for All in Ghana Ghana Country Strategy in short 2012-2016
Welcome to IBIS in Ghana Country Strategy 2012-16 This strategy presents a new chapter for IBIS in Ghana. In 2011, the organisational setup of IBIS changed and IBIS in Ghana became a country programme, instead of the regional hub for West Africa. This has presented new opportunities for working strategically to create synergy between the Education and Governance programmes within Ghana. The objective of the current country strategy is to work to obtain: Consolidation of a genuine democratic culture in which civil society and citizens are empowered and increasingly hold decisionmakers accountable at all levels, ensuring social and economic justice and increased opportunities and access to education, influence and resources, especially for excluded populations of Ghana. The purpose of this summarised strategy is to give a quick overview of how IBIS in Ghana works to obtain that objective. Advocacy for Change In line with IBIS global objective of using advocacy as a tool to achieve concrete results and changes on a structural basis, IBIS in Ghana is committed to support its partners to scale up advocacy for specific and measurable change through development of organisational and thematic competencies. Bole Bibiani Tamale Ghana Bolgatanga Saboba Salaga Accra Between 2012 and 2016, the strategic focus will be on improving the advocacy work of partner organisations with an emphasis on linking the evidence from the work of partners at the local level to the advocacy initiatives of national partners and, when relevant, furthering these at the international level through global campaigns supported by IBIS head office. About IBIS IBIS is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation. It came into existence in 1966 as the Danish branch of the World University Service (WUS) network. In 1991, it became an independent organisation by the name of IBIS. IBIS works for development in partnership with civil society and governments across Africa and Latin America. IBIS and Alliance2015 IBIS work rests on two pillars: Education and governance. The vision is to work for a just world in which all people have equal access to quality education, influence and resources. As of 2014, IBIS has its head office in Denmark and country offices in Liberia, Mozambique, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan in Africa as well as in Nicaragua and Guatemala in Latin America. IBIS is part of the eight-member international network Alliance2015. The other members are: ACTED from France, CESVI from Italy, Concern Worldwide from Ireland, HELVETAS from Switzerland, Hivos from the Netherlands, People in Need from the Czech Republic and WeltHungerHilfe from Germany. 2 3
A rights-based approach Despite the commitment of UN countries to ensure the enjoyment of Human Rights by all, many people still suffer abuse and denial of their rights and IBIS believes the root causes for these hindrances must be addressed. The rights-based approach allows IBIS and partners to frame poverty as a symptom of injustice, and target marginalisation, discrimination and exploitation as the structural causes of poverty. A rights-based approach is inherent in IBIS overall vision, strategy and work. IBIS seeks to address those structural causes of global injustice that reinforce poverty and inequality. The right to participate in decision-making and the right to education are pillars of this approach. The programmes IBIS in Ghana works for structural change through two national programmes: The Education Thematic Programme and the Governance Thematic Programme. In addition, the two regional governance-focused programmes Africa Against Poverty (AAP) and West Africa Human Rights and Democratization (WAHRD) are hosted by IBIS Ghana and both have projects within Ghana. Together these four programmes work to achieve the overall strategic goal of IBIS. Africa Against Poverty (AAP) is an African-wide programme that seeks to strengthen civil society cooperation within the global South as well as between South and North and thereby contributing to more efficient and locally driven development and poverty reduction initiatives. In Ghana, the AAP programme supports projects that empower mining affected communities to claim their rights and confront mining related human rights violations by companies, and support partners to campaign for legislative reforms in the mining sector, promote transparency in contracting, revenue generation and management as well as legislative processes in the oil and gas sector. The West Africa Human Rights and Democratization (WAHRD) programme aims to supplement the national governance programmes by focusing on issues of human rights and democratic influence at the regional level. WAHRD works with regional partners who in turn have local partners in countries of the sub-region. The programme further has the objective of working with structures of the West African regional political body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In Ghana, the WAHRD programme has supported several projects including those that seek to strengthen women and youth participation in politics, women s rights in traditional marriage, radio programming for citizen engagement in politics and advocating freedom of information. 4 5
Education Civil Society groups and their constituents are actively engaging local and central government in ensuring that financing for education and skills training is adequate and efficiently managed, and that marginalised children, women and youth assert their right to relevant, empowering and gender-sensitive quality formal and non-formal education. Access to education Together with partners, IBIS seeks to improve access to quality education through working closely with the Ghana Education Service (GES) on enhancing the application of learner-centred teaching methodologies and securing qualified teachers for marginalised communities. Furthermore, IBIS supports its partners in advocating for youth inclusion, including the education and skills training of young women and men. Girls education A major driver of change is the focus on girls education. IBIS advocates for the right of girls to get an education in all activities and in a specific effort to get more girls through Junior High School and beyond, IBIS has used the Girls Model Junior High School concept which targets girls from rural communities. The model approach has demonstrated how targeted efforts to ensure equal access to education allow children to excel regardless of gender. Complementary education IBIS addresses the large number of out-ofschool children in Ghana through 9 month mother-tongue literacy programmes (Complementary Basic Education) as well as Wing Schools that enable children in remote areas to access primary school. 6 7
Achieving Change: The Change Triangle Governance Civil society is actively influencing pro-poor policy and democratic governance to ensure responsible management of natural resources, equitable redistribution of wealth and fulfilment of human rights for all Ghanaians especially the excluded. Photo: Lotte Ærsøe IBIS believes that structural change is necessary to address global inequalities. To achieve the vision of the organisation, the Change Triangle was developed in a conscious effort to maximise the global impact of interventions. The model illustrates how thematic competencies, organisational capacity, and advocacy targets are interlinked right from the planning phase of a partnership. The change potential of a partnership is only as strong as the interaction between all three elements of the Triangle. Gender and youth A quarter of Ghana s population is between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Despite its potential for contributing to the development of the country, this group is grossly sidelined in development priorities. A large number of youth do not finish senior high school or access formal employment and they are severely underrepresented in politics. IBIS recognizes the potential for young women and men to influence the development agenda in Ghana and will in the strategy period intensify its work to empower youth to claim acknowledgement as citizens and enable them to achieve social and political influence. Special attention is given to the poltical participation of women of all ages. Extractives and climate change Natural resource extraction is a growing industry in Ghana. Though legislation is in place to protect the rights of government and citizens, this is not always followed and many citizens are not aware of their rights. IBIS works for the fulfilment of these rights and supports partners who engage companies and the state to live up to their responsibilities and obligations. Furthermore, IBIS works for transparency in licensing and taxation, to ensure that proceeds from the extractive industries benefit the citizens of Ghana. Ghana is heavily reliant on climate-sensitive sectors, such as hydro power, fishing and agriculture. IBIS is therefore increasing its support to climate-related projects and supporting partners to identify major threats to local livelihoods and advocating for pro-poor climate change policies. 8 9
How IBIS Ghana is funded Achieving long-term results To achieve lasting results, IBIS works in partnership with a variety of civil society and state institutions in its programmes. The partnership approach is intended to achieve: Mutually supportive relationships between IBIS and its partners (civil society and state institutions) resulting in improved capacity of these partners to affect sustainable structural change for individual and collective rights especially for excluded people. For IBIS, the purpose of forming partnerships is thus to identify and work with change agents who influence policy and practice to fulfil the rights of people living in poverty. This will be pursued through building partners capacity in advocacy, organisational development and thematic competencies to enable them to achieve concrete results based on their set objectives. In practice, this means strengthening partners internal procedures, leadership, decision making processes and strategies as well as working to enhance their technical skills in advocating for change and the fulfilment of the rights of the citizens of Ghana. 1. DANIDA funding: The Danida Framework Agreement provides a fixed yearly budget allocation for each of IBIS country offices. 2. Other institutional funding: An increasing part of the funding comes from donors such as the European Union, United Nations, SIDA, and DfID. 3. Private sector funding: IBIS Ghana partners with private companies that have high Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards to improve education access, fight child labour, and provide sustainable energy solutions. THE DIVISION OF THE EXPECTED FUNDING BUDGET FOR 2013-15 IN USD IS: 2013 2014 2015 DANIDA frame funds 1,897,104 1,830,260 1,611,511 Institutional fundraising 1,897,104 1,830,260 1,611,511 Private fundraising 702,940 1,140,681 1,333,589 10 11