Ghana gets $5.5m World Bank support for natural resources management in 52 communities
Over 52 selected local communities in the Brong-Ahafo and Western Regions of Ghana are to benefit from a $5.5 million Ghana Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Local Communities project (G-DGM), the World Bank has announced in a press release copied to ghanabusinessnews.com.
The grant is to strengthen their knowledge and practices towards reducing deforestation and improving the sustainable management of their activities.
According to the release, the project will contribute towards helping the communities better understand REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from deforestation and Forest degradation plus conservation of Forest, Sustainable Forest management and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks).
It adds that the G-DGM project will also enable targeted communities to share their knowledge and farm level practices and lessons learned with others, at the community, national and international levels; thus making them more resilient to man-made pressures and climate change.
The project will further finance capacity building and demand-driven grants to local communities, and community based organizations of the targeted communities which will assist Ghana to sustain economic growth, accelerate poverty reduction and enhance shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. Synergies will also be fostered with two other ongoing projects – the Forest Investment Programme (FIP), which also operates in these two regions and is linked to this project, and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), project.
“This project contributes to the World Bank Group Country Partnership Strategy (CPS), for Ghana and addresses climate change issues through support for REDD+ and other programs related to water management and land degradation,” Henry Kerali, the World Bank Country Director for Ghana was cited as saying in the release.
The release notes that the G-DGM is a key piece in the implementation of the World Bank’s Integrated Forests and Landscape Portfolio, a diverse portfolio comprising several operations (with different sources of financing, including IDA and trust funds).
The project is supported by a variety of sources, including a single-country Multi-Donor Trust Fund established in 2009 under the Climate Investment Fund (CIF) partnership to provide fast-track climate financing to reduce deforestation and degradation.
The project, it pointed out will be managed by a National Steering Committee comprised of representatives of the local communities as well as observers from government and non-governmental agencies.
Solidaridad West Africa will be the implementing agency on behalf of the National Steering Committee, it added.
By Pamela Ofori-Boateng