A three-day annual learning and reflection workshop under the auspices of the Giving for Change (GFC) Programme opened in Accra yesterday.
The workshop organised by Star-Ghana Foundation and the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) aimed at creating opportunity for implementing partners of GFC to reflect on what has been achieved over the last 18 months of implementation.
It would also help facilitate networking and bonding among partners as well as identify additional opportunities for follow-on action that would help amplify the needs and recommendations that would surface from the meeting.
Opening the workshop, the Executive Director of Star-Ghana Foundation, Mr Ibrahim TankoAmadu, explained that the GFC was a five-year project funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and being implemented in 10 countries in Africa and Asia.
He explained that the focus of the project was to support countries explore ways of promoting community philanthropy and looking at how resources could be mobilised to support development purposes.
MrAmadu said for so long, development on the continent had been funded by external donors, stressing that “But we do know that external donor support to Africa and part of Asia is declining due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis and also changes in priority.”
However, he said the country’s development wasn’t going to stop because others were not going to fund us and that was why other ways were being explored to find ways of mobilising these resources locally.
He said the project was in this direction to find ways of supporting locally the people to raise resources to fund their own projects.
“When we say resources, we are not just looking at funds but even efforts to promoting development. So that is what GFC is about,” he explained.
He noted that the project had been implemented for 18 months and it was time to come together to assess and share lessons on how it was going with all the implementing countries.
Mr Amadu said the GFC was working with five Civil Society Organisations as partners who were helping in mobilising community resources to undertake different projects.
He noted that the time had come for Ghanaians to change their views on philanthropic work in Ghana and support in developing the country.
He explained that even though that was part of our culture, over time it had diminished and now was the time to rekindle that spirit again.
Mr Amadu noted that with a concerted effort Ghana could raise the resources locally to undertake its own development.
“This particular project goes beyond money but even a change in mindset is the deal,” he said.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
