Residents of Mframafaw, Ashanti Region, Ghana, claim that participation in a Cash for Work initiative has revolutionized their farming community.
Building a culvert, or small bridge, that keeps the route to their town open all year long, paid community members a daily pay.
With the neighborhood market now more accessible, several locals invested their earnings in their farms by buying cattle or hiring threshing machines and tillers in an effort to increase profits.
The neighborhood is now able to take advantage of economic prospects that weren’t available until recently because Mframafaw is once again connected to the rest of the district.
For the first time that anyone can recall, town inhabitants are able to travel and employ a corn thresher to de-husk their locally produced maize.
The thresher dehusked the whole crop of maize grown in the village in 30 minutes, a task that was formerly completed by hand and required more than two weeks.
“Thanks to the bridge economic activities in Mframafaw are at the highest they have ever been in the town’s history.
We’re able to earn more from our labour since we can now farm on a larger scale.
Thanks to the culvert, it’s possible to hire tractors [for] our farms to assist with the weeding and harvesting of crops,” said Ahmed Issah, a resident, farmer and Cash for Work participant who has lived in the town his entire life.
“Previously we had to farm only what we could physically carry as it was impossible for trucks to access the farms to pick up the crops,” he said. “Whatever excess crops we had would be left to rot.”
The Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana project, or GrEEn Project, is a four-year initiative from the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana, SNV Netherlands Development Organization, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and it includes the Cash for Work initiative.
The project is funded by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa, SNV, and UNCDF. By supporting and encouraging environmentally friendly, sustainable companies in Ghana’s Ashanti and Western Regions, GrEEn hopes to increase the economic and job prospects for young people, women, and returning migrants.
The GrEEn Project uses the Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) method to distribute funds to local governments for locally driven adaptation to climate change.
Through the nation’s intergovernmental fiscal transfer system and LoCAL, local governments can obtain performance-based incentives for climate resilience.
Following community planning and consultation, investments in adaptation are chosen, managed, and supported by technical help from the UN Capital Development Fund.
All around Ghana, people are experiencing the hard reality of climate change, and for rural villages like Mframafaw, which have few means to deal with the impact, the impacts are catastrophic.
The Ashanti Region of Ghana’s Mframafaw District had been suffering the most from the consequences of climate change for years.
Due to sporadic and unexpected flooding, the town’s economy had all but died.
Farmers were unable to transport their goods to markets because the unsealed road connecting the community was impassable.
Before the construction of the culvert began, another resident of Mframafaw Ms Sulemana some months ago, described the state residents found themselves in as dire.
“The situation has gotten so bad that we leave the fruits to rot in the farms since we do not see any point in harvesting them when we know there’s no way to get them to market” said Ms Sulemana, speaking before the construction of the culvert.
“In the past I used to make enough money from my farm and was even able to save but now I barely earn enough to feed my family.”
After six months, the situation of Mframafaw inhabitants has greatly improved because to the GrEEn project’s participation.
A climate resilient culvert and a borehole were given to the Mframafaw community as part of the GrEEn project’s implementation.
This community is located in one of the four districts in the Ashanti Region.
SOS Children’s Village, a locally based NGO, operated in the Ashanti Region and GrEEn’s other project locations in the Western Region, offering skills training to community people to assist them have the confidence and skills to start small companies and seek new economic opportunities.
“From SOS I have learnt how to become a better entrepreneur through trainings on topics such as how to identify business opportunities in my town, how to maintain proper bookkeeping, how to raise capital to invest in my business, how to be disciplined as an entrepreneur, how to be accountable to myself among others,” said Steven Kwesi Amisah, one of the GrEEn Project Community Facilitators in Ahanta West Municipal in Ghana’s Western Region.
“We also received practical training on climate change and how to operate a green and sustainable business operation.
For instance, because of the lessons we received on recycling, some of the women in the community are now into the business of collecting plastic waste and selling them to recycling operators,” he added.
Residents were asked to participate in a community consultation process to assist determine the adaptation investments their neighborhood needs in addition to receiving skills training.
Following the determination of priorities, locals were given the option to enroll in a Cash for Work program in exchange for a daily salary to work as laborers on the construction project—in this case, the construction of a culvert.
Mr. Issah received a daily wage of US $2, which is a competitive rate for unskilled labor.
He combined this income with existing savings to launch a cattle farm.
“I saved the money I earned and bought a cow to start a farm. Other residents in the town also invested their funds into their farms to purchase seeds and fertilizers to improve yields.
Others used the wage they earned from the Cash for Work programme to hire tractors for the weeding of their farms and threshers to de-husk their corn,” he said.
“Since we now have easier access to the market, we’re able to store our crops during bumper harvests and sell them at better prices during the lean season,” said Mr Issah, who also worked as one of the labourers on the culvert construction. “We no longer have to sell at whatever price buyers dictate.”
The investment in a nearby borehole, intended to offer year-round access to safe drinking water, has proved as substantial as the effect of the culvert. For the first time, residents of Addaikrom, a separate little town a few kilometers from Mframafaw, have access to potable water.
Previously, people had to either go a distance to Mframafaw or get water from a stream that was also used to water livestock.
Dorcas Abugri, a resident of the Addaikrom settlement who asked for the borehole’s construction during community meetings, claims that her quality of life has substantially improved.
“It was always a struggle getting clean water to drink and cook as our only source of water was the stream.
The stream was regularly polluted by animals, and we had no option but to use the same water.
I also had to rely on my children to get me water due to the distance from my house to the stream but with the borehole so close to my house, I am self-sufficient and able to achieve more during the day,” said Ms Abugri.
More applicants than the projects can handle are seeking to join Cash for Work teams that are presently recruiting in Ghana’s Western and Ashanti Regions.
With another round of hiring slated for later in the year, it is anticipated that everyone who is interested in boosting community resilience while receiving a daily income will have the chance.
“Cash for Work is proving to be an effective means of tackling the impacts of climate change while also addressing some of the underlying limitations of rural communities in Ghana – namely lack of jobs and access to funds coupled with the local authorities’ limited resources for investment in climate-proof infrastructure,” said Angela Yayra Kwashie, Technical Specialist (Local Government Finance) UNCDF in Ghana.
“I strongly urge others to look at this whole of society approach when planning adaptation interventions.”