RISE-Ghana, in partnership with Norsaac, has commenced phase two of the HEARD project in the Bolgatanga and Kassena-Nankana West districts to strengthen the participation of vulnerable women and youth in governance processes.
The project, dubbed Heard Everywhere and Represented Daily (HEARD), brought together three women’s groups and three youth groups for a stakeholder engagement session aimed at building their capacity to develop and refine action plans for funding support.
Speaking in an interview, Project Officer at RISE-Ghana, John Kaguna, said the engagement was designed to equip the groups with the skills needed to prepare strong, evidence-based proposals.
“Today’s engagement is to build the capacity of the groups to refine their action plans that will finally be submitted to Norsaac for review and funding support to carry out their various activities,” he said.
Facilitators took participants through the essentials of developing action plans, including framing project titles, preparing evidence-based proposals and making submissions compelling enough to attract support from state actors and development partners.
“The idea is that by the end of the day, everyone should be able to develop action plans independently, and they should also be able to secure the needed funding to implement them,” Mr. Kaguna explained.
He noted that women, youth and other vulnerable groups continue to face exclusion from governance processes, including representation, appointments and decision-making.
“This project seeks to break those barriers and allow young people, women and other vulnerable groups to participate actively in governance processes at their level, so their voices can be heard and the development they seek can reach them,” he added.
Following the workshop, the groups are expected to submit their refined action plans to Norsaac for review and possible funding support.
Participants welcomed the initiative and expressed optimism that the implementation of their proposed activities would contribute to development in their communities.
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