Tax abuses robs poor countries of more than $400bn a year
Tax abuses robs poor countries of more than $400bn a year
Christian Aid has exited Ghana as part of a change programme to deliver greater impact globally.
To reach those most in need, address the root causes of poverty, speak truth to power and raise the voices of the world’s most marginalised people, we are refocusing our work.
In line with our new global strategy, Standing Together, we are deepening our interventions in fewer countries.
This report celebrates the work of the Ghana programme, focusing on tax justice and market development, two areas in which the Ghana programme innovated. It also reflects on the evolution of Christian Aid Ghana's partnerships with national associations and institutions.
We helped Ghanaian citizens to be empowered to participate effectively in decision-making and demand accountability.
We worked with poor farmers to improve their access to services, assets and markets they need for a resilient livelihood.
We improved integration of women and other marginalised into governance and economic policies and increased their participation in formal and informal decision-making structures.
ABANTU for Development worked to change women’s lives by helping them to become more involved in governance. ABANTU worked across six districts in Ghana to complement efforts to support women to be represented and participate effectively at local government levels and other decision-making spaces.
Approaches adopted included the creation of a favourable socio-cultural and gender sensitive environment supportive of women’s participation. Activities also included increasing women’s knowledge and understanding of the electoral governance.
We worked with our partner, Ghana Integrity Initiative, to promote an equitable and transparent tax system in Ghana. Focusing on issues such as the role of tax incentives in Ghana’s development process and the enforcement of national tax laws, we made the links between taxation and good governance visible, and fostered conversations and actions that led to change.
The Youth Harvest Foundation launched the My Price pilot project, which used mobile phones to give poor smallholder farmers access to market information, including commodity prices by crop and market, wholesale and retail prices, and goods available for sale.
This was scaled up to other districts in the My Pharm project, where farmers are being enabled to have an empowered and inclusive role in the market systems.
Our incomes have increased significantly as a result of access to price and market information.
- Mary Anne Akunduya, Smallholder farmer.
The Improving Maternal Health Service Delivery through Participatory Governance project (IMPROVE) was a three-year EU-funded project, which was implemented across 30 districts in the three Northern Regions of Ghana by Christian Aid and SEND Ghana.
The overall objective of this project was to influence and ensure effective delivery of maternal health services in Ghana and progress towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goal five: improve maternal health.
The Growing Rice Market Opportunities for Women (GROW) in northern Ghana was a two-year project that sought to promote Ghana to become completely self-sufficient in rice production by 2018.
The project contributed to poverty reduction and economic development by improving household incomes, food security and employment of beneficiaries across the rice value chain, especially women entrepreneurs who carry out parboiling processing of rice.
Maximising Rice and Key Enterprises in Target Sites (Markets) was a five-year project that sought to capitalise on the rapidly expanding domestic rice market. It targeted an estimated 6,782 beneficiaries (rice farmers and processors as well as vegetable farmers) in the Upper East Region (UER) of Ghana.
The Northern Ghana Green Market (NGGM) project aimed to increase incomes of vegetable farmers through an inclusive ‘green’ vegetable market system. Christian Aid partnered with a local partner (CAOF) to implement this project in the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions, working with 3,000 producers.
Christian Aid Ghana worked with the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) to implement the Women in Governance Project (WIG). This three-year project sought to address the issue of low representation of women and girls at the decision-making levels of the church by developing their capacity for leadership, promoting gender-friendly biblical teachings as well as facilitating the creation of an enabling environment. The project was implemented in the Greater Accra, Northern and Ashanti regions of Ghana.
5 May 2017: Christian Aid in partnership with the Ellembelle District Assembly, GRATIS Foundation, Ghanaian Institute of Welding (GIW), and United Civil Society for National Development (UCSOND) held a national media launch of the GEOP Project.
Electoral Commission (EC) chairperson Charlotte Osei has urged Ghanaian women to be confident in dedicating themselves to a higher cause.