STAR-Ghana Foundation with funding from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Ghana is seeking competent suppliers/providers to deliver the underlisted interventions under its Community Livelihoods Empowerment Project:
Kindly find below, uploaded documents in the link. This contains further details for your information.
document INVITATION FOR TENDERS CONSTRUCTION OF SMALL SCALE COMMUNITY LIVELIHOOD PROJECTS (30 KB)
All Tenders (submissions) should be e-mailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The deadline for the submission of tenders is the 6th of June 2024 at 12 Mid-night prompt. Tenders submitted after 12:00 midnight will not be considered.
Related projects
Driving Inclusive Development Forward --STAR-Ghana Foundation facilitates stakeholder engagements on PWD Bill
STAR-Ghana Foundation under the Action for Voice and Inclusive Development (AVID) project is making strides in influencing reforms that secure the rights of persons with disabilities.
AVID is an initiative funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and aims to create an inclusive society where everyone’s voice is heard and valued.
With a focus on building consensus within the disability community on the final Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2024, the Foundation in collaboration with the National Council of Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) organised a feedback engagement in Accra on Wednesday April 17, 2024.
The feedback session is one of the support the NCPD is receiving from STAR-Ghana Foundation. The council is also receiving support to develop the cabinet memo ahead of the bills laying before Parliament.
The engagement brought together various stakeholders, including organisations for and of PWDs, representatives from the Attorney-General’s Department, ministries, civil society organisations and parasports.
Sarah Adjei, who is the Project Manager of AVID, recalled that the Foundation and NCPWD have had a long history of collaboration. Between 2017 and 2020, STAR-Ghana provided technical and financial support to the Council on the amendment to the Disability Act. Under the partnership, the amendment of the Act was drafted, and consultations held with key groups to build consensus.
She reiterated the Foundation’s dedication to working closely with the Council and others in promoting the rights of PWDs.
“The success of the Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2024, hinges on the collective efforts of all stakeholders in ensuring the bill’s timely submission and presentation to parliament. We also hope that the bill would pave the way for a more inclusive society.
“I call on all stakeholders to continue advocating for the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities,” she said.
In an address, the Chief Executive of the NCPWD, Esther Gyamfi, commended STAR-Ghana Foundation for the efforts in advocating for inclusive development through the AVID project and emphasised the importance of the initiative in promoting the rights and welfare of PWDs.
She highlighted the need for continued collaboration and communication to address challenges faced by PWDs and to create a more inclusive environment for all.
Fact sheet
- The National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) is leading the amendment processes for the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2006 (Act 715).
- The amendment aims to make Act 715 “more comprehensive and broaden the benefits of the law for the interest and well-being of persons with disabilities and stakeholders in the disability field.
- Additionally, the amendment aims to ensure compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and further establishes National Commission on Disability inclusion to provide for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities and for related matters.
Esther Gyamfi, Chief Executive of the NCPWD
Parliament’s Committee on Education pledges more engagement
Parliament’s Select Committee on Education has pledged to engage the Ministry of Education to convene a national conversation on education delivery as one of the ways of enhancing space for citizen-state dialogues on issues of importance to citizens.
This follows a strategic dialogue held between CSOs and the Education Committee of Parliament. The meeting, convened by STAR-Ghana Foundation brought together CSOs including the African Education Watch, Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition, International Child Development Programme, and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, to dialogue with Parliament’s Select Committee on Education on key issues in basic education. The meeting discussed “Memorandum of Issues in the Basic Education Sector” put together by the Foundation and and its partners.
In his opening remarks, Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, acknowledged parliament’s work with the Foundation, stressing the importance of the relationship between the two.
“For us, your presence is a testimony of the importance you attach to working with us, which is to help improve the quality of education and make it accessible to all students of this country, regardless of your social status” he said.
He added, “We believe that strengthening the nexus between civil society, Parliament, and duty bearers is critical to any improvement in the country.”
According to him, STAR-Ghana Foundation, has previously under the program supported and worked with Parliament around strengthening the oversight responsibility of the house to ensure its effectiveness as well as brokering the relationship between Parliament and civil society.
He added that the Foundation’s work with Parliament has been narrowed down to three committees, namely the Education Committee, Health Committee and Gender Committee. Ibrahim-Tanko argued that critical to any nation’s development are the issues of quality health, education, and the empowerment of those who are disadvantaged.
On behalf of Civil Society, Head of Programmes for STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice Racheal Agbenyadzi, presented the “Memorandum of Issues in the Basic Education Sector” put together by the Foundation and and its partners (Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition).
She commended the committee for its work on the issue of textbooks for the new curriculum, arrears on school feeding and feeding grants for special schools, education financing in the medium-term expenditure framework.
Her presentation focused on key issues in the memorandum that led the meeting to deliberate on the other issues and proffer recommendations on how the committee can collaborate with civil society to find solutions.
For his part, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, reiterated the share decline in the rate of discretionary financial allocations to basic education compared to that of the senior high school allocations.
The poor financing of basic education has adverse effect on the management of teaching and learning, contributing to the poor learning outcomes recorded in the public basic school.
The Committee emphasized the need for targeted data on out-of-school children to supplement civil society information. This data will serve as a basis to hold duty bearers accountable and inform policy decisions to address access gaps.
Vincent Assafoah, a member of the Committee, said although government expressed commitment to introduce a systematic decision-making process for grant allocation increments, clarity is needed on the frequency of these increments and whether they can be indexed to inflation.
Concerns were raised regarding the allocation of resources, particularly in providing laptops over essential needs like desks. Suggestions were made to redirect funds towards critical areas such as textbooks provision and teacher accommodation.
The Committee and CSOs resolved to collaborate to influence the Ministry of Education to adopt a user policy/manual for education assets acquired by the government for learners/schools to ensure stewardship.
CSSP Partners inception meeting - Shifting the Power for collective impact
Since last year, STAR-Ghana Foundation and the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) have been implementing an eight-year Civil Society Strengthening Programme – Shifting the Power (CSSP – #StP) which seeks to enhance the effectiveness, responsiveness, and resilience of Civil Society Actors (CSAs).
With funding from Comic Relief and the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), there are three main grant components under the CSSP-#StP): the Catalyst fund, Civil Society Strengthening Fund (CSSF) and Resource Matching fund.
The CSSF aims to partner civil society organisations (CSOs) and movements for the implementation of their strategic directions and missions through flexible and restricted funding.
Ultimately, the CSSF is hinged on the sustainability of partner organisations.
An inception meeting to discuss in detail the CSSP/StP, aim of the CSSF and expectations of the partnership ahead of a contractual agreement with partners was held in Kumasi from 27th to 28th February 2024.
It provided space for STAR-Ghana and WACSI to interact and build relationships with the CSSF partners, and foster peer connection among them.
A central theme of the meeting was the concept of ‘Shift the Power’ which resonated deeply with all participants.
Facilitated conversations centred on practical strategies for operationalizing the StP philosophy within the organisations and collaborations.
Read more: https://www.gbcghanaonline.com/news/civil-society-strengthening-programme-launched/2023/
Unequal aid architecture
Speaking at the meeting, the Head of Programmes at STAR-Ghana, Eunice R. Agbenyadzi, noted that the work of most CSOs is heavily dependent on external funding sources, with those locally funded in the minority.
Thus, affecting the flexibility of CSOs to undertake initiatives that are truly in sync with their mandate.
“So, there are shifting priorities because we are funded by donors. We go where the money is. When donors withdraw, our work crumbles. So, dependency affects our ability to stay true to our mandate, and our sustainability. That is what the CSSF programme seeks to address.”
Again, she said that civil society in the global south is under resourced in terms of its ability to attract long-term financing and is getting weaker because it is financially starved. Also, the percentage of core funding as part of grant making has dropped, and a lot of support civil society receives is project-based funding.
“Organisations are not being funded to build themselves and their systems to be able to continue implementing projects. Only seven percent of the fund dedicated to civil society support from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries reach CSOs in the global south. A lot of that money is sitting with International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs). That is why Shift the Power has become a global slogan at the talk of humanitarian and aid financing.”
According to Eunice, the whole aid architecture; the distribution, the decision around who gets money for what, is unequal.
Read more: https://www.star-ghana.org/latest-news/609-in-search-of-shift-the-power-red-nose-day
Why Shift the Power
Eunice explained the CSSP comes under the umbrella of ‘Shifting the Power’ with a key task to move money directly to global south CSOs.
The programme, she said, is designed to address some main gaps in how civil society is being supported.
“There is focus on capacity and sustainability of local organisations. That is why we have not asked for project ideas but for strategic plans. A key part of the work we will do is on financial sustainability and not only social sustainability (how organisations are valued by their communities and constituents).”
“The way civil society is funded can have constraints on its capacity and ability. So, we will work with organisations to diversify their income sources to reduce the over reliance on donor funding,” she added.
CSO collaboration
Reflecting on the need to find mechanisms that can incentivise collaboration among CSOs to ensure that they make a sustainable impact on the problems that communities face, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, said, “Competitive calls do not incentivise collaboration. There are silos of projects due to limitations with project calls that are focused on thematic areas that force organisations to specialise in areas where there is money or funding.”
“Grant-making organisations hardly do institutional funding calls with 99 percent of calls put out focused on targeted projects.
“So, moving away from providing core funding did a lot of damage to civil society. They were not responsive and lost a bit of their rootedness that make them able to intervene or interact on issues.”
“Donors and the mechanism through which they provide support begins to drive the agenda of what civil society should be doing. We forget that to achieve those thematic results we need an organisation that is sustainable, effective, efficient, and is rooted in the community.”
Alhaji Tanko urged all stakeholders in the development sector to move away from top-down approaches and put communities and social groups they serve at the centre of all that they do.
“We need to co-create with them, co-implement with them and be mutually accountable to each other. We need to pay equal attention to the vehicles (organisations) that we are going to use to achieve results -organisational strengthening is as important as the results we seek to achieve in the thematic areas.”
Watch more: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1976673826023964
The meeting
Through collaborative exercises, partners conveyed a collective vision for a more just and equitable society. Themes of resilience, sustainability, and financial sustainability emerged as guiding principles underscoring their shared commitment to advancing social justice and amplifying the voices of marginalized communities.
Watch more: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3618359848431877
Fact sheet
- 26 out of about 120 applicants were selected when the call for proposals in relation to the CSSF.
- The fund seeks to support organisations in the implementation of their strategic direction and mission.
- This support will prioritise organisations whose strategic objectives and thematic areas of focus align with the CSSP-#StP prioritized sectors: access to services (health and education); Gender justice; Climate change and livelihoods; and Enabling Peace and Security.
- It will also support organisational strengthening.
