The Impact of ICCO and Cordaid projects in Northern Ghana Summary of the Ghana Study

Introduction North Ghana can be characterised as the southernmost area with Sahel features. A period of drought may result in major problems, similar to that during the early years of the 1980s. Moreover, parts of North Ghana (particularly Upper East Region) are very densely populated, with marked poverty and the long accumulation of worsening environmental conditions. To study the significance of the NGOs supported by Dutch co-funding organisations, the work of Cordaid and ICCO was examined, along with one partner of each – the Catholic diocesan development office of Navrongo/Bolgatanga and the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, respectively. In the former case, the focus was on the activities of the Bongo Agro Forestry Programme in the district of Bongo (70.000 inhabitants) and, in the latter case, on the activities of the Presbyterian Agricultural Station in the sub-district of Garu (also around 70.000 inhabitants). The information is based on the results of an inception workshop, focus group discussions in four villages, talks with key persons, interviews with individual men, women, youth and the elderly in the four subject villages, two self-study reports, archives and documentation studies, supplemented by regional knowledge from the literature. A detailed country report is currently in preparation.