Teiko Sabah
Related projects
Head of Finance
Harriet Asomani
Harriet Asomani, is responsible for the financial management and control of the Program. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACCA UK) as well as a certified Financial Modeller. She holds a certificate as a Master Project Manager and an MBA in General Administration.
She has over 16 years of experience in Financial Management of International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) including Marie Stopes International (MSI) Ghana and WaterAid Ghana. She is a high performing Finance executive with a proven track record of accomplishments in setting up effective and practical internal controls systems.
Harriet has demonstrated strong vision and financial leadership and authority over an $8m annual budget. She combines strategic/tactical financial expertise with strong flair in review and the implementation of financial management systems and effective protocols.
She is experienced in the development of training modules for non-finance staff and is skilled at coaching, mentoring and providing leadership for the team members to develop their full potential.
Harriet is personable, enthusiastic and committed and particularly passionate about training others and capacity building. She has a fair but firm management style.
Programme Director
Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu
Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu is the organization’s principal technical advisor, ensuring that STAR-Ghana is utilizing, developing and applying best practices and providing inspired thought leadership within the organization. Ibrahim-Tanko has been involved in development management, civil society strengthening and social development for over 20 years.
He has extensive experiences that span from facilitating strategic planning processes, design and implementation of monitoring, evaluation and learning systems, institutional strengthening of state and non-state actors at all levels of governance and programme management. He has led in the development and implementation of social development and voice and accountability programmes and projects at all levels of governance, ranging from small integrated rural development projects to the multi-donor pooled national governance fund, STAR-Ghana. Ibrahim-Tanko is a seasoned development professional and has worked extensively with the Government of Ghana, local and international Civil Society Organizations and Bilateral Aid Agencies in Ghana. He was the Team Leader of the first phase of the STAR-Ghana programme, a multi-donor pooled fund.
He was at various times the Ghana Country Director of VSO Ghana, the Northern Ghana Programmes Coordinator of CARE International in Ghana and Project Manager for a number of CIDA and DANIDA funded projects. In recognition of his work and achievements, Ibrahim-Tanko was awarded the ‘Global Partnerships for Social Accountability (GPSA) Award for Leadership in Social Accountability, Africa Region’ by the World Bank Group in May 2015.
Gender, equality and social inclusion
Many citizens are trapped in an inter-generational cycle of poverty because of their gender, disability, age, ethnicity or simply because of where they live. We want to help change that and ensure that every citizen has equal access to the opportunities, resources and services they need to reach their full potential. Gender equality and social inclusion are, therefore, at the heart of the STAR Ghana Foundation.
Our perspective on gender equality is focused on ensuring that women and men, boys and girls are empowered to pursue their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and are valued as equal and active participants in the wellbeing of their households, workplaces, communities and societies.
International Women's Day march 2018
Our approach
Our approach includes investments and initiatives targeted towards the removal of barriers to participation, power and governance, and advancing access of individuals and groups to development opportunities. We are contributing to this through grant support and technical assistance for partners to build collective action and movements for advocacy, learning and engagement. STAR Ghana has brought together grant partners working on similar issues to carry out joint policy work and share best practice around themes including economic rights and empowerment; access to health and essential services; human rights promotion and protection; and inclusive governance, accountability and participation.
Youth speak out
Youth Empowerment for Life, a local civil society organisation, created a project that combined community journalism with a Youth Parliament to provide a voice and representation of youth views covering five districts and 25 different communities in the Northern Region.
The project is empowering a generation of young people with the confidence to raise issues and concerns with local authorities. Furthermore, our partner reports an increasing responsiveness of local duty bearers to the issues raised by the young parliamentarians or reported by community journalists leading to positive change in communities. For example, the Youth Parliament and community journalists in Sagnarigu Municipality encouraged the Municipal Environmental Health Unit to run a community campaign about the health risks associated with open defecation, resulting in the communities taking the initiative to construct household latrines.
“Youth Parliament has given me voice to participate and engage stakeholders in developmental issues, such as education, sanitation, health and issues affecting persons with disabilities.” Mary Issah Nnyeyam a youth representative at the Sagnarigu Youth Parliament.
Land rights for women
By custom, women have reduced opportunities to own land and many women are limited to leasing land through husbands or other male family members. Therefore, they are excluded from investing in land to grow their own enterprises especially in the farming sector in rural areas. We supported three grant partners to engage with the Lands and Forestry Select Committee and to influence the drafting of the national Land Bill ensuring that the clauses around ownership work in favour women and people with disability. We are supporting our cluster of grant partners to engage with traditional leaders around land rights.
A movement for change
STAR Ghana Foundation aims to bring together like-minded organisations to work together to address pressing social challenges. We have fostered the development of a civil society movement for citizens on inclusion, drawing together over 140 organisations and individuals to campaign for disability-friendly access to buildings. Through their joint action they are raising public awareness and demanding that Government keep to its promise to ensure that all new and existing buildings are accessible to people with disabilities.
Mission Ghana on TV
STAR Ghana has supported civil society and citizens to have their voices heard through the media and supported media programming on issues of social exclusion.
Our grant partner TV3 broadcasts a regular prime time report called Mission. Their reporters have travelled across the country listening to the voice of citizens and exposing stories where people have faced barriers to accessing quality education and health services. By spotlighting these issues, TV3 has helped to trigger action by decision makers, which has led to improvements in service delivery in many cases.
To date, there have been 972 Mission stories and 402 Mission Gets Results where reporters have followed their initial reports to showcase positive changes, along with eight Mission awards.
Challenging stereotypes in Ho
Voice Ghana’s 'Stronger Voice' project supported local groups of people with disabilities to persuade traditional authorities to use their considerable influence to promote the rights of the disabled in local development planning.
Our partner has seen a change in attitudes and behaviour towards people with disability as a result of the many positive interactions between traditional authorities, Voice Ghana and local people with disability.
There are several local examples of further positive changes where traditional leaders have spoken out on disability rights issues such as on the need for special education teachers and disability-friendly access to services. Togbe Korsinyi Agyeman IV, Chief of Adidome in the Central Tongu District, has gone beyond speaking out and took action by providing land for the construction of a new kindergarten which will include provision for children with special needs.
Please click on the link below for the full list of STAR Ghana's grant partners working on gender equality and social inclusion.
List of STAR-Ghana Gender Equality & Social Inclusion Partners
