STAR-Ghana Foundation has held a learning session on safeguarding for twenty (20) catalyst fund partners under the Civil Society Strengthening Programme Shift The Power (CSSP-#StP).
The two-day session, from Wednesday, 4th October to Thursday, 5th October 2023 took place at Aburi, in the Akuapem South District of the Eastern Region and comprised presentations, group work and the drafting of policies.
Eunice Racheal Agbenyadzi, Head of Programmes, STAR-Ghana Foundation speaking during the session
The CSSP-#StP, an eight-year programme being implemented by STAR-Ghana Foundation and the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), with funding from Comic Relief and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), aims to provide long term support to Civil Society Actors (CSA) in Ghana, contributing to their resilience, responsiveness, and effectiveness in delivering the priorities of their constituents.
It also seeks to build institutional resilience of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Ghana by providing a more progressive, negotiated, participatory and widely owned solution to social development work.
Read more: https://www.gbcghanaonline.com/news/civil-society-strengthening-programme-launched/2023/
Some participants in the training
Why the learning session
Explaining the purpose of the learning session, the Head of Programmes, STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice Racheal Agbenyadzi, said it sought to build on the understanding of safeguarding and practical steps organisations can take to fulfil their responsibilities and duty of care to protect their staff and those benefiting from their interventions from harm, violence and abuse that may arise from their work.
She said every programme supported by (or with funds from) the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) requires that partners meet very high standards for safeguarding.
That, she said. explains why the funding partners, Comic Relief and the FCDO find it very essential that the institutional strengthening plans also encompass safeguarding.
“Even for STAR-Ghana Foundation, because we put gender equality and social inclusion at the heart of everything we do, we have minimum protocols for the organisations we work with and want to enter partnership with.
“It is important to ensure that you pay attention to, and take action to reduce abuse, harm and violence resulting from the work that we do. Safeguarding looks at prevention from abuse, violence, and harm from happening,” she said.
She emphasized that the duty of care demands that the partners recongise the power they have and use it responsibly.
“Having a safeguarding policy is not enough. It demands that you recognize the power that you hold as an organisation and recognise that you have the responsibility to use that power responsibly. As civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) our work must be done to the highest ethical, moral and professional standards,” she said.
Upholding safeguarding
For her part, the Programme Manager of the CSSP-#StP, Sarah Adjei, said the issue of safeguarding has become important for CSOs as development practitioners to uphold dearly in their work, and in working with their partners.
She said that as CSOs work with their constituencies and our constituents, they exude, and it is assumed that they hold power because usually they hold the resources that the local partners engage their constituents with.
Therefore, on the issue of power, it is important that they are engaged on safeguarding so that it nullifies any chances of abuse of that power either from local CSOs to beneficiary or local constituents, or from the local communities to the partners.
“We at the Foundation and WACSI on the programme think it is important we engage our partners through a session on safeguarding, engage on the theories and practically engage for them to write out their own safeguarding policies to ensure they are safe and the constituency they represent are also safe for better community development initiatives and approaches,” she said.
Read more: https://www.ghanaiantimes.com.gh/star-ghana-foundation-launches-5th-anniversary-activities/
Partners hail session
Meanwhile, the catalyst fund partners have lauded the safeguarding training by the Foundation.
Anita Awuku Asare, Project Officer at STAR-Ghana Foundation speaking at the learning session
Anita Ampofo Amoako-Gyimah, Founder, Care for Society Network International, was full of praise for the Foundation.
“STAR-Ghana Foundation is the saviour of NGOs because the CSSP-#StP programme has helped put our organisation on a different pedestal.”
“The CSSP-StP programme has been very impactful on my organisation. Safeguarding is a very important aspect of every organisation. We all know we have women, children, and men who are vulnerable to situations as we go about our activities.
“As NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs), it is important that we have policies that protect all those that we deal with. We need to be circumspect,” she said.