South-south learning challenges gender norms to advance food systems transformation and resilience
30 June 2022
Ghana
Project Name
Sustainable Land and Water Management Project (SLWMP)
GEF Implementing Agency
World Bank
Objective
To improve food security in Northern Ghana using an ecosystem approach that builds on the existing systems and capacities developed through the SLWMP.
Project Targets
9,000 ha
land under integrated and sustainable management
45,411,136 MtCO2e
GHG emissions avoided or reduced
18,000
beneficiary households
In Ghana, the agricultural sector is the largest source of employment and is dominated by smallholder farmers. Less than one percent of cultivated land is irrigated, making agricultural yields highly dependent on rainfall. Although the south of the country experiences two rainy seasons, Northern Ghana, like its neighbouring Sahelian countries, experiences long periods of drought and increasingly erratic rainfall patterns as a result of climate change. There is also a growing divide between those living in the urban areas of the south, where poverty and hunger have been reduced, and those living in the north, where households experience high levels of poverty and food insecurity and have limited access to economic opportunities.
The RFS Ghana project, SLWMP, supports a comprehensive landscape approach to sustainable land and watershed management in Northern Ghana, with planning activities targeted at management of ecosystems at the landscape level, and improved food security and poverty reduction at the community level. The project builds on previous GEF investments in the region, which have benefited over 24,000 people, and helped to reinforce national capacities in spatial planning and implement local platforms at watershed and community levels.
The project aims to generate triple-win situations that combine agricultural productivity enhancement of ecosystem services and improvements of livelihoods, incomes, and food security.
The project is structured around three principal components:
- Integrating spatial planning within the Northern Savannah zone;
- Implementing Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM) focused on systems, capacity, and monitoring; and
- Establishing an effective and functional knowledge management, learning, and monitoring and assessment system. Implementing SLWM in micro-watersheds (sub-projects), including national SLWM and Payment for Environmental Services monitoring and management of riparian and other biological corridors.
The project aims to meet the following targets:
Capacity for integrated spatial planning is developed.
- Produce an integrated spatial development framework for the Northern Savannah zone.
Sustainable land and water management interventions are implemented.
- Develop community watershed plans for 244 communities.
- Reforest 1060 ha. of targeted forest reserves.
- Bring 72,716 ha. under sustainable management plans.
- Establish and operationalise 347 community governance structures.
An effective and functional knowledge management, learning, and monitoring and assessment system is established.
- Establish a monitoring and evaluation system that provides data in a timely manner.
The project is implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (the project coordinating entity) together with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Wildlife Division, and the Forest Services Division of the Forestry Commission. At the national level, the project engages the National Sustainable Land Management Committee, which is responsible for providing overall guidance for implementation of the Ghana Strategic Investment Framework for SLM funded through the TerrAfrica Program.
Project Activities
Each RFS country project conducts activities that fall under common thematic areas within the programme. Explore each project theme relevant to the RFS Ghana country project below to see which activities are being implemented under each theme.
Sustainable Land Management
- Improve soil management
- Establish rangeland management systems
- Improve biological corridors management
- Increase land under SLM and INRM
- Introduce root and tuber crop systems, including input and output incentives
- Support Payment for Ecosystem Services
Integrated Water Resource Management
- Improve riparian vegetation management and riverbank soil erosion control
- Expand watershed management plans
- Construct weirs, wells, and rainwater harvesting technology
Agroforestry & Reforestation
Value Chains & Market Access
- Support post-harvest management activities, including improved crop processing, storage and group marketing
Rural Extension & Capacity Development
- Conduct training in best tillage practices
- Establish demonstration plots and pilot sites
- Build capacity for micro-watershed management
- Conduct local study tours to best practice sites
Science, Policy & Institutions
Monitoring & Evaluation
- Establish an ecological management information system (MIST)
- Conduct training on data collection, management and dissemination
- Conduct vegetation, carbon stock and water quality assessments
Gender
- Improve the financial independence of women through Village Savings and Loans Associations
- Train women forest users
Knowledge & Learning
Stories from the Field
Explore our stories from the field to learn more about the activities, milestones, lessons learned, and achievements of the RFS Ghana project.
Relevant Resources
We have a growing library of reports, briefs, case studies, media, tools and guidelines. Explore all resources related to the RFS Ghana project to get greater insight into our programme activities.
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Country project update: Ghana
21 September 2021More infoThe RFS Ghana project is improving food security in Northern Ghana using an ecosystem approach that builds on existing systems and capacities. During the 2021 country roundtable, Project Coordinator Isaac Charles Acquah Jr provided an update on the project’s activities, achievements, challenges and lessons learned. The presentation was followed by facilitated Q&A session to allow country project and RFS partners a chance to exchange information and learn more about RFS activities in Ghana.
Enhancing food security through forest landscape restoration: Lessons from Burkina Faso, Brazil
02 July 2020More infoThis IUCN report compiles case studies from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, the Philippines and Viet Nam to highlight how forest landscape restoration (FLR) interventions enhance food security. They illustrate the ‘win-win’ solutions that can enhance land functionality and productivity, develop resilient food systems and explore the long-term potential outputs and enabling conditions for FLR interventions. A greater emphasis on the impacts of degradation and deforestation and other indicators are exemplified throughout these case studies in order to better understand the results from FLR interventions and their relationship to land productivity.
Ghana Country Factsheet: Sustainable Land and Water Management Project (SLWMP)
18 March 2020More infoImplemented by the World Bank, the objective of the RFS Ghana project is to build on the existing systems, structures, and capacities developed under the SLWMP in order to improve food security using a landscape/ecosystem approach. This factsheet provides an overview of the project, outlining the various components, stakeholders, and anticipated impacts, as well as key innovative elements within the project design and implementation.
Country Projects
Burkina Faso
Burundi
eSwatini
Ethiopia
Ghana
Kenya
Malawi
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Tanzania
Uganda
Regional Hub
Project Themes
Agroforestry & Reforestation
Gender
Integrated Water Resource Management
Knowledge & Learning
Monitoring & Evaluation
Rural Extension & Capacity Development
Science, Policy & Institutions
Sustainable Land Management
Value Chains & Market Access
© 2020 Resilient Food Systems.