Marnix van Rij, Chairman of PSO's blog

Visit to Ghana with Margo Kooijman (Director of PSO) from Monday 22 to Wednesday 24 February 2010. Visited various organisations, the embassy and a Tripartite Partnership Project (TPP) in the field of sanitary facilities in Ashaima, a slum in Accra's urban agglomeration.

Monday 22 February 2010

We had a Monday morning meeting with Trend. Trend is a NGO in Ghana and our member IRC's partner. Trend plays an important role in the field of water management and the improvement of sanitary facilities. Eugene Larbi, the team leader, met us first. We were then given an excellent presentation by Abu Wumbei, the network's coordinator for water and sanitation. Concrete discussions took place concerning the necessity for knowledge sharing in the field of water, sanitation and hygiene (washing) in Ghana. The Resource Centre Network (RCN) was set up to this end.

Alongside Trend (Ghanian) and IRC (Dutch), WaterAid (British) was one of the initiators of the network which only took off properly after more Ghanian organisations started participating such as Water Aid Ghana, the Water Research Institute and the KNUST Department of Civil Engineering, and after funds were sourced for a proper secretariat.

Good water supplies and acceptable sanitary facilities are a major problem in Ghana. Many poor urbanites and people in rural areas have (almost) no access to healthy water. This is high on the government's list of priorities. The Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Albert Abongo therefore organised the first Ghana Water Forum: 'Accelerating Water Security for Ghana's Socio-economic Development' from 20 – 22 October 2009. It is in part thanks to the Resource Centre Network that the subject has become so prominent on the political agenda.

PSO fulfils a positive role in this because we (partly) enable the Resource Centre Network and support it as its members learn to operate effectively in a knowledge network.

The presentation provided information on the Tripartite Partnership Project. As part of this project, Trend carries out research into alternative management models for water and sanitary facilities in poor neighbourhoods. In Ashaima, a slum which is home to approx. 200,000 people, clean, public sanitary facilities will be built over the coming 18 months with support from the African Development Bank. We requested to be able to visit the project and were taken there on Wednesday the 24th of February.

Before visiting four locations in the slum, we were received by the elected municipal chief executive Numo Adinortey Addison and a number of councillors. Municipal elections are to be held later this year. Approximately 60% of the population votes, so we were told.

The inhabitants have named their 'neighbourhoods' with a certain sense of humour: Jerusalem, Jordan, but also Norway. There are a large number of churches, some 60% of the population is Christian and 40% is Muslim. They live in harmony in very adverse conditions.

The sewer situation is abominable. People defecate and urinate into smelly, open sewers or in one of the few public toilets which are totally unhygienic. The project is therefore crucial to improving living conditions for the very poor. The emphasis is on management, because it is easy to build a public toilet, but it has to be properly maintained and used in a hygienic manner. This is however an example of the Netherlands truly being able to provide added value thanks to its specific knowledge in the field of water and sanitary facilities. It has become clear to me that the chances of success increase if the following preconditions are met:

• embed project in national, regional and local policy;

• support and commitment from strong, local NGOs;

• technical knowledge from the North (in this case: the Netherlands and the UK);

• a local network in which parties can learn from one another. PSO contributes to this;

• strong management aimed at implementation;

• a reliable private party that supplies (water, facilities).

The fact that we saw two burst water mains wasting precious water along the route between Accra and Ashaima emphasised the severity of the situation. I was given to understand that some 50% of the water produced never reaches its intended recipients. Another ironic observation were the enormous villas being built across the motorway from the slums.

On 22 February 2010, we also had a meeting pertaining to the Sustainable Forest Management Programme Ghana and Liberia. This initiative is facilitated on location by ICCO, represented by Esi Sey Johnson. ICCO has brought together six different parties who are all committed/interested in using the land in a responsible, sustainable manner. Deforestation occurs in certain areas in Ghana in connection with timber production. Ghana's main exports are gold, timber, cocoa and, more recently, oil. Mining gold and other ores (bauxite) is also detrimental to nature.

The group ICC0 has gathered together consists of, among others, Friends of the Earth, Rural Development and Youth, Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plan Products and a representative from a traditional council. These councils decide on the use of agricultural land in large parts of Ghana. PSO supports this ICCO initiative. Although the networking idea seems worthwhile for the excellent goal, the initiative is still in its start-up phase. Later on, communication concerning goals will become very important. Ultimately, this relatively small group will have to develop into an influential party at a national level when it comes to the issue of deforestation and other land degradation.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Tuesday morning early, we visited the IWMI's (International Water Management Institute) Theophilus Otchee Larbi. Though they are also involved in the Resource Centre Network project, the morning focused on the RUAF Foundation in particular. The RUAF Foundation's secretariat is in the Netherlands. RUAF cooperates on three continents and in 18 countries with various partners. It has four regional centres and one global one.

The objective is the stimulation of local urban agriculture initiatives, among other things, by cooperating with local, regional, national and international parties. When it comes to the latter, think of, for example, IDRC (Urban Poverty and Environment Programme), FAO (Food for the Cities Initiative), CGIAR (Urban Harvest Programme) and UNDP/Habitat (Sustainable Cities Programme).

Urban agriculture is the production and marketing of food (vegetables, fruit, milk, eggs, meat, mushrooms, etc.) and other crops and seeds in urban areas. In Africa, an estimated 90% of the vegetables consumed are grown by urban growers. Water supplies are often limited, conditions are unhygienic and land rights have not been properly laid down.

In Ghana, IWMI has put the issue of urban agriculture on the political agenda. Furthermore, growers and farmers are given information as well as courses (From seed to table). A lot of knowledge and information is shared and exchanged. All-in-all very worthwhile, but, here too, I wonder whether goals could not be more concrete. Talking and exchanging ideas are good, exchanging knowledge is great, but sometimes a concrete timetable with milestones to be achieved is also very pleasant. This project is professional though. Very much so.

Later on in the afternoon, we visited the SNV's British counterpart, VSO (Volunteers Service Overseas). The Dutch wing is a PSO member. The project PSO contributes to is the introduction of organisational learning at, among others, the Ghana Association of the Blind. There are an estimated 500,000 blind people out of a total population of 26 million. The national administration has its offices in Accra, as does the secretariat.

We spoke to director Peter Obeng and the regional learning programme's advisor Alfred Kuma. Peter provided an explanation of how the Ghana Association of Blind is organised. Alfred provided detailed information on the learning programme. Furthermore, two volunteers were present. It became apparent that there are a considerable number of points for improvement for providing the actual support required by blind people in the field, in the villages. Obviously, the distance between central and local is huge.

We also noticed that local NGOs such as the Ghana Association for Blind do no local fundraising. Quite rightly, they wish to do a lot themselves on location and in cooperation with their Northern partner(s) in the shape of support, but sooner or later more independence will be required; a shift South should also occur financially. I was deeply impressed by the fact that the VSO's forty volunteers work throughout Ghana often in reasonably primitive conditions.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Finally, on Wednesday morning, we met Michiel Bierkens at the Dutch embassy. He informed us – in a professional, comprehensive manner – about the Dutch development cooperation aid to Ghana. He was properly informed and interested in the work of NGOs in general and that of PSO in particular.

Naturally, we also briefly touched on the development cooperation debate in the Netherlands and the WRR report 'Minder pretentie, meer ambitie' [Less pretension, more ambition].

Although three days is a relatively short period, we gained a good impression of the PSO projects.

The importance of the civil society was repeatedly underlined during this trip. Government (national/regional/local) involvement is however required to allow good initiatives to gain stability from the bottom in more institutional changes.

Development is very country/region-specific, complex and diffuse, sometimes also very hard to measure, but above all more than worthwhile working on.

Marnix van Rij