IRC SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM VISITS THE ASUTIFI NORTH DISTRICT
A Senior Management delegation from IRC embarked on a field visit to the Asutifi North District from July 4-6th 2021. The objective of the visit was to discuss the current implementation status of the ANAM Initiative; and how local government and partners are fulfilling their roles and responsibilities - with a mix of community visits and interactions with local CSOs.
The seven-member IRC delegation was led bythe Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Patrick Moriarty. Other members of the delegation included:
- Ingeborg Krukkert (Lead New Initiatives & SeniorSanitation and Hygiene Specialist)
- John Butterworth (Director of Global Hub)
- Boukari Ousmane (Lead Technical Assistance, IRC Niger)
- Fabrizio by Georgio Ferrari Trecate (Regional Advisor WestAfrica),
- Afou Bengaly (Country Coordinator, Mali)
- Vida Duti (Country Director, Ghana)
The delegation held a meeting with the management of the Asutifi North District Assembly and had in attendance Hon. AnthonyMensah (District Chief Executive), and Mr. Samuel Badu-Baiden (DistrictCoordinating Director). Other district assembly officials present at the meeting included:
- District Planning Officer
- District Environmental Health and Sanitation Officer
- District Finance Officer
- District Works Engineer
The meeting with the District Assembly offered the delegation the opportunity to explore and understand what the ANAM partnership had achieved so far, the challenges and ongoing efforts to achieve set targets of the WASH masterplan. This learning was intended to feed into the delegation’s subsequent meeting in Accra on the 7th to 9th of July.
Sod Cutting Ceremony for Latter Day Saints Charities Project.
On July 06, 2021, in Bronyakrom, IRC in collaboration with the AsutifiNorth District Assembly and partners hosted the official sod-cutting ceremony for the WASH services to hard-to-reach communities project to mark the start of the initiative in the district.
Following the initial project activities including the selection of the hard-to-reach communities, work had started and the Bronyakrom royal event was to formally announce the initiative and showcase the construction of a new borehole facility to provide the community with access to water services.
Bronyakrom is a farming community with an estimated population of over150 and is located about 8km away from Kenyasi, the district capital of the Asutifi North District. The community has no access to water services. For this reason, community members had to make about 1-hour round trip including queueing to access water in the next community.
With funding from the LDSC through IRC, World Vision International, an implementing partner of the project, drilled a productive well with a depth of36 meters and a yield of 25 liters per minute. The tested water passed all the physicochemical and bacteriological parameters per WHO and Ghana StandardAuthority guidelines.
The LDSC project aims to increase access to clean water, and sanitation in five rural communities, five schools, and sixty households and build the capacity of thirty district officials and 75service providers and stakeholders in Asutifi North district, Ghana benefiting 2,929people
ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS OF SMALL GRANTOPPORTUNITY FOR CSO'S
In April 2021, the Asutifi North DistrictAssembly in partnership with IRC Ghana launched the ANAM Small GrantOpportunity for CSOs in the district to embark on advocacy on equity and inclusion in WASH. In response to the call, 12 proposals were received on May15, 2021. The proposals were duly screened and assessed by an independent jury.
On Monday, July 5 in Kenyasi, five local civil society organisations (CSOs) were announced as winners of the AsutifiNorth Ahonedie Mpuntuo (ANAM) small grant call for CSOs in Asutifi North District.
The five CSOs will receive a totalgrant valuee of fifty thousand Ghana cedis (50,000GHS) for excellence in the development of proposals to carry out public education and sensitization in the district to complement efforts of ANAM partners in the target localities towards achieving universal coverage in the district.
The winners of the competition were:
- Sustainable Development Focus Ghana (SUDEF GHANA),
- Global Alliance for Development Foundation (GADeF),
- Firm Foundation and Environment,
- Phanuel Global Health Foundation, and
- Universal Rehabilitation Centre.
OFFICIALS FROM ANDA PARTICIPATE IN ONBOARDING CONSULTATION SESSION ON SYSTEMS TOOLS FOR ASSESSMENT AND RESPONSE (STAR)WORKSHOP
Selected officials from Asutifi NorthDistrict Assembly participated in an online workshop titled “Getting to the source: Systems Tools for Assessment and Response (STAR)”. The workshop organized by Stanford University’s Program on Water, Health & Development(WHD) seeks to support small teams of local government participants to analyze and develop strategies to resolve a problem that they currently face relating to sustainable water services.
On Wednesday, July 28, an initial online onboarding consultation session with Stanford’s STAR instructors was held at the ANAM WASH HUB office. The purpose of the consultation was to surface the situation that the team’s focus will be on for the Workshop, ensuring that the team will engage with a problem that is timely,relevant, and meaningful.
Participants of the workshop were the District PlanningOfficer, Head of Works Department, Head of Water Unit, Environmental HealthOfficer, SHEP Coordinator, Physical Education Coordinator, Health Promotion Officer, and Assistant Planning Officer.
Participation in this online STAR Workshop is subsidized through the generous support of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’sSafe Water Strategy and in partnership with IRC-WASH.
