Akwatialine Scrap Sellers Association, a crucial partner under the Actions for Voice, Influence and Inclusive Development (AVID) project, is making strides in enhancing the capacity of scrap dealers in Kumasi.
The initiative focuses on the management of electronic waste (E-waste), while promoting entrepreneurial skills and the overall wellbeing of the dealers, particularly emphasizing the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and the youth.
The project aims to create an enabling environment for effective E-waste management in Kumasi, specifically targeting the areas of Akwatialine-Asokore Mampong, and the broader Kumasi Metropolis.
Alhassan Mohammed, Akwatialine Scrap Sellers Association
Through improved capacity-building efforts, the association is equipping scrap dealers with the necessary skills and knowledge to manage E-waste responsibly, with a special focus on their health and safety.
Alhassan Mohammed, a leader of the Akwatialine Scrap Sellers Association, expressed profound gratitude to STAR-Ghana Foundation for its intervention and support.
He noted that the assistance provided has been instrumental in streamlining the association's activities, helping to foster a more organized and sustainable approach to E-waste management.
This initiative not only addresses environmental concerns but also empowers the community, providing scrap dealers, especially the youth and PWDs, with the tools they need to thrive in their trade while safeguarding their health and wellbeing.
Scrap sellers at work
Fact sheet
- AVID project aims to improve access to social services and economic resources for #Underserved groups including #fulbes, rural women, persons with disabilities, youth, informal sector workers (market women) and #smallholder/peasant farmers.
- The project is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Related projects
Countering Violent Extremism through VSLAs: STAR-Ghana Foundation Empowers Women in Northern Ghana.
As part of its Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism (BRAVE) project, STAR-Ghana Foundation has formed and enhanced the capacity of ten new Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) for two hundred and two women across three border communities in Northern Ghana: Sapeliga and Garu (Upper East Region) and Fielmou (Upper West Region). The initiative seeks to build the resilience of these communities against economic drivers of radicalization and violent extremism by empowering women through financial inclusion and entrepreneurship.
The women beneficiaries have undergone comprehensive training covering modules on group dynamics and management, constitution development, decision-making, conflict resolution, record-keeping, and VSLA operations, including savings and loans principles.
During a community sensitization event, Khadijah Abdul-Samed, Project Officer for STAR-Ghana Foundation, highlighted the critical role of economic empowerment in countering violent extremism. "Supporting women and young people in establishing sustainable businesses and attaining financial independence is one of the most effective strategies to mitigate the economic drivers of radicalization," she emphasized. The VSLA initiative encourages beneficiaries to mobilize savings for business investment, strengthen household financial security, and foster social support. Each group will also receive a revolving fund from STAR-Ghana Foundation, reinforcing their financial sustainability.
Beyond economic benefits, the initiative is designed to enhance social cohesion, self-reliance, and leadership skills—key elements in countering violent extremism. Frederick Nuuri-Teg, Northern Ghana Projects Manager for STAR-Ghana Foundation, urged beneficiaries to uphold the principles of VSLAs and ensure inclusivity within their groups. He officially presented VSLA kits and constitutions to the management committees of each group and encouraged the women to remain committed to the savings requirements. Additionally, he appealed to men in the communities to support the women’s livelihood activities for the benefit of their households.
The Chief of Kugri (Garu) expressed gratitude to STAR-Ghana Foundation for empowering vulnerable groups within the community and pledged his ongoing support.
A refugee beneficiary also shared how the initiative has fostered inclusion and strengthened community ties. “I am happy about the training because I have never belonged to a VSLA group. Now, I’m part of one and can relate much better with many of my sisters. I feel more connected to the community because of this,” said Salamata Hamdu, a refugee from Garu.
STAR-Ghana Foundation stresses collaboration, accountability among civil society organisations
The Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, has underscored the significant role of civil society organizations (CSOs) in achieving justice and equity in society. He emphasized the importance of effective collaboration among CSOs to achieve their goals.
Importance of unity, accountability
Speaking at the opening of a two-day Civil Society Forum in Accra, held on the 25th and 26th of June 2024, Mr. Amidu rallied CSOs to unite, support, and hold each other accountable in their collective mission. He highlighted the complexity of development, noting that “development is not a straightforward process but rather a messy one that requires adaptability and collective action.”
The forum, themed “Civil Society at an Inflection Point: Strategizing for Increased Legitimacy, Effectiveness, and Sustainability,” brought together CSOs from across the country. The event focused on three critical sub-themes: ‘Ensuring Legitimacy with Constituents and Stakeholders,’ ‘Achieving Effectiveness as Organizations,’ and ‘Ensuring Sustainable Operations, Revenues, and Impacts.’
Point of reflection
The convening served as a common platform for CSOs in Ghana to discuss and reflect on their work as facilitators of good governance and inclusive development. Mr. Amidu emphasized the need for CSOs to focus on common values and goals despite their diverse backgrounds. “This forum is a call to action,” he said, urging civil society to organize, unite, and push forward collectively for more effective development outcomes.
Value-Driven legitimacy, effectiveness
Mr. Charles Abani, the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Ghana, also addressed the forum, urging CSOs to prioritize value-driven legitimacy and effectiveness in their actions. He emphasized that legitimacy should be derived not only from constituencies but also from the values and principles civil society stands for.
Effectiveness, Mr. Abani noted, should be measured by the level of influence civil society exerts on various issues and the outcomes it achieves. By maintaining legitimacy and focusing on effectiveness, he argued, civil society could enhance its credibility and impact.
Mr. Abani called for a shift towards constructively challenging existing norms and narratives to drive progress and shape a more sustainable future. He stated that by critically examining current systems and advocating for change, civil society could play a vital role in addressing global challenges like the current global economic crises and climate change. He urged CSOs to focus on building an active climate movement that extends to the grassroots level, involving relevant communities.
CSOs and electoral legitimacy
A development economist, Charles Abugre, joined the forum via Zoom and called on CSOs and the media to recommit supporting the country in securing the legitimacy of the December 7 elections at the polling station level. He stressed the importance of reflecting the will of the people, which he argued, would reinforce the legitimacy of civil society organizations and build a stronger civil society.
Mr. Abugre also highlighted the need for CSOs to offer better economic policies that would help the country break free from the cycle of reliance on the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He critiqued the current economic policies of the two major political parties, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), stating that they have been ineffective in addressing the challenges facing ordinary Ghanaians.
He urged CSOs to advocate for a “civil economic agenda and restructuring policies” that would address growing inequalities fuelled by excessive taxation and the capture of those taxes by a small aristocratic and political elite. He warned that the current policies have divided the country, leading citizens to identify more with political parties than with the nation itself.
The forum concluded with a call for continued collaboration, accountability, and strategic planning among CSOs to enhance their effectiveness and impact in Ghana.
Fact sheet
- The two-day forum was the 2nd edition
- It provided a platform to facilitate collective and inclusive actions towards the effectiveness, legitimacy and sustainability of the civic sector and its organisations.
- It was birthed after several rounds of inclusive consultations involving a diverse array of CSOs operating in Ghana and provides a space and mechanism to facilitate collective and inclusive actions towards the effectiveness, legitimacy, and sustainability of the civic sector and its organizations.
- The forum, which attracted about 400 participants in the civil society space
Building Equitable Partnerships: Moving from Rhetoric to Action
By Eunice R. Agbenyadzi and Anita Awuku Asare
Partnerships are a unique feature of humanitarian and development work. Organizations build partnerships to optimize complementarity in achieving goals that they may not be able to achieve alone.
There is never a dispute about the importance of partnerships for achieving development outcomes; The debate is about what kind of partnerships is needed to create the societies that we want.
In the discourse on shifting power, it is believed that equitable partnerships foster local ownership, enhance mutual accountability, and lead to sustainability.
From right: Eunice R. Agbenyadzi, Head of Programmes, STAR-Ghana Foundation, Abraham Owusu Antwi, Projects Manager, Care International, and Eugenia Ayishetu Ayagiba, Women's Rights and Campaign Manager, ActionAid Ghana
In contribution to practice and peer learning, STAR-Ghana Foundation has introduced a learning café, dubbed ‘Conversations with Development Actors’ to harvest insights from individuals and organizations involved in charting new pathways for promoting community development.
For this series, the topic was Building Equitable Partnerships for Results: Working with Grassroots Organizations. We chose to spotlight partnerships with grassroot organizations for several reasons. Grassroots organizations directly work on the ground, thus earning them trust of their communities.
They are most likely to understand best solutions to challenges faced by their communities and are well-placed for frontline actions in emergencies. While some are organized, many remain informal, which can be both a strength and a gap.
Comparatively, they are also the most underfunded. For some funders, working with grassroot organizations presents too many risks for them. Yet, there are funders navigating this challenge and building meaningfu
l collaboration with grassroot actors and have experiences we can learn from.
We were joined by three organizations - Plan International, Care International and ActionAid Ghana - to discuss the topic.
Some participants during the learning event
In this piece, we share highlights and insights from the conversation.
What does equal partnership mean to your organization?
To the panelists, it means engaging on equal terms, leveraging community resources, seeing things from the perspectives of communities and finally, recognizing and honoring local partners and communities’ contribution to development.
“Equal partnership means mutually agreed partnership on equal terms, from project ideation to implementation”, says Sarah Edris Asiedu, the Local Fundraising and Partnership Specialist of Plan International. This means ‘we see each other as contributing and agreeing to how we work together on an initiative”.
“Equal partnership could also mean leveraging on the available resources that communities may have for the desired change, Abraham Owusu Antwi, Project Manager of Care International adds.
“We see our organization as part of the community, thus we work hand-in-hand to challenge the system of injustice, as the communities may perceive it to be”, says, Eugenia Ayagiba, the Women’s Rights and Campaign Manager of ActionAid Ghana.
Eunice Agbenyadzi of STAR-Ghana Foundation adds, “equal partnership is a recognition on the part of parties that it takes people’s knowledge, interest, ability and money to bring about change, thus it appreciates the value that partners bring to co-creating and implementing ideas for change”’.
Describe a typical way of establishing partnership in your organisation. Would you say you are engaging your partners differently? In what ways?
“We facilitate communities to act on their needs”, says Abraham Owusu Antwi. Eugenia adds that AAG works with ‘value-based partnership principles. We are an organization that fights against injustice and poverty; therefore, we partner with organizations of people living in poverty and their representatives’.
she explains, “We start thinking about exit right from the start of a partnership. We work towards weaning off.”
Sarah adds that Plan International has appetite for risk. “We work with small organizations once there is mutual alignment. We adopt a mutual appraisal where we jointly assess existing gaps and strengthen their capacities with locally led organisations. Mutual oversight is established through feedback mechanism where partners report to Plan and Plan in turn reports to partners.
There are also instances where we are invited by local organizations to partner to deliver a project; in this case, we become a sub-grantee, and the local organization becomes the prime.
From the STAR-Ghana perspective, Eunice shares that about 70% of the Foundation’s partnerships are with grassroots organizations. Like others, STAR Ghana Foundation builds partnerships on shared interest where mutual alignment is key.
She adds also that the Foundation supports local organizations to thrive through partnering and learning around the development of alternative financing, for example, local philanthropy and volunteerism.
Additionally, the Foundation’s learning is in two-ways. On one hand, partners are supported to strengthen their capacities, and some partners act as technical advisors to the Foundation. The Foundation also learns to transform its systems and improve partnerships through feedback from partners.
What are some of the barriers, in your experience to nurturing equality in partnership?
Some of the barriers flagged include restrictive funding, poor negotiation of local organizations due to survival needs.
Sarah shares that the ‘unwillingness of donors to fund institutional strengthening leaves INGOs little room to invest in the growth of organizations. We also join in advocacy for flexible funding, so that at our end, we can commit to the institutional strengthening of our partners.
Eunice adds that from the angle of grassroots organizations, there is a sense of acceptance of the status quo, without questioning or challenging norms, even when the opportunity is available.
This can be attributed to the fear of losing out on opportunities. To address this challenge, she adds that STAR-Ghana Foundation proactively reaches out for feedback and builds in assurances during partnership development process to encourage honest conversations.
“Building equitable partnership is difficult and requires time to allow for participatory processes. Donors are often not willing to support these processes, but we must continue to negotiate.”
From your experience are there things that grassroots organizations should be doing to proactively influence their partners?
• The conversation on Shifting Power is for grassroots organizations to own their voice, own the space and constructively challenge things that must be changed. Organizations should challenge donors in ways that reconstruct partnership. This implies that grassroots organizations must be interested and involved in shaping donor practices, supporting campaigns that target and call for donors to act on their commitments to locally led development.
• Organizations should also reimagine their mobilization. They must recommit to constituency building to ensure that the issues of constituents are adequately addressed and build partnership around issues, while strengthening their communication to increase their support base.
