This section provides a comprehensive review of the consultancies undertaken by Radix Consult Limited in 2024, highlighting its efforts to promote gender inclusion, sustainable governance, and community development across various programs. Key projects include enhancing women’s leadership and decision-making through the PMI-WILL program in Ghana, assessing the Rural Enterprise Program’s impact on women’s empowerment, and supporting the governance and sustainability of Adom Cocoa Buying Company. Additionally, Radix conducted a Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) assessment to improve financial inclusion among cocoa farmers and facilitated breast cancer awareness to promote community health. Each project reflects a commitment to empowering marginalized groups and fostering sustainable development through tailored interventions and evidence-based recommendations.
. Supporting NALAG to enhance Gender and Social Inclusion with the Local Government Service.
The Partnership for Local Innovation – Women in Local Leadership (PMI-WILL) is a six-year Programme aimed at enhancing the enjoyment of rights of women and girls from marginalized (groups) communities, by empowering women to participate in leadership and decision-making at community level, and by increasing local governments’ ability to deliver municipal services. The project’s main implementing partner in Ghana is the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), and is financed by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). The project is also implemented in Benin, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Zambia.
In line with Component 1100, which aims at increasing the capacity of women (particularly those from marginalized groups) to run for local offices:
- Radix trained 90 aspiring Women Assembly members to enhance their capacity to stand for the November 2024 Local Government elections.
- Radix took the women aspirants through a series of topics including: fundraising, election monitoring, the use of social media as a tool for election campaign.
Under component 1200, which seeks to build the capacity of the staff of the LGs in the discharge of their duties, and thus provide inclusive and gender responsive services to their constituents at the local level, Radix undertook a number of trainings for selected MMDAs. This included:
- Training of 150 Assembly officials on gender responsive, inclusive, and participatory local government consultation tools for service delivery. This training, focused on the basic gender concepts, the importance of citizen consultation for gender responsive and inclusive service delivery, and practical exercises in using feedback mechanisms/consultative tools to ensure effective gender responsive and inclusive service delivery.
- Gender sensitization of 200 Assembly staff from 5 District Assemblies to promote inclusive and safe spaces to advance gender equality.
- Training on enhancing gender sensitive work environment for 267 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Coordinating Directors
- Training on sexual harassment at the workplace for 160 staff of 10 Local Assemblies and supported them to develop strategies for a ‘harassment-free’ workplace
Positioning Local LBCs to be a critical player in the new cocoa marketing space. (IDH’s support to Adom Cocoa Buying Company)
In line with its role as the Farmfit Technical Assistance Facility (TAF), IDH contracted Radix Consult Limited to strengthen Adom Cocoa Buying Company’s governance systems. Adom CBC is a farmer-owned Licenced Buying Company (LBC), whose mission is to become the leading farmer-centred cooperative LBC in the internal marketing of cocoa in Ghana. It aims to achieve this while enhancing members’ livelihood and incomes through gender equity and sustainable cocoa production.
A mix of tools including Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT) and Focused Group Discussions (FGD), was employed for this assignment. Through these tools, we engaged Adom CBC’s Management, Board of Directors, Shareholder Unions and Non-shareholder Unions, to review their governance charter, by laws, and key policy documents guiding their operations. We also participated in their Annual General Meeting. These gave us a first-hand insight into their organization which consequently informed us on better ways to support them. At the end of the assignment, Radix with support from The Migration and Rights Lab (MRL):
- Developed a robust constitution which provides clear governance structures for ADOM CBC and transparent relations with cooperatives/unions and employees.
- Developed financial and procurement manuals to strengthen their internal control systems.
Reviewed other policies of Adom CBC such as the Child Protection, Gender and Social Inclusion, and Grievance Mechanism.
Assessing the contribution of women’s empowerment programmes to women’s voice, agency and equitable workload (REP)
Radix Consult Limited was contracted in August 2024 by the Rural Enterprise Program (REP) of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) to assess ways in which the REP has contributed to Voice, Agency and Equitable workload of the women beneficiaries. This assignment was against the backdrop of an International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supervision Mission which found the REP has surpassed its gender targets, with 63% percent outreach to women and substantially higher percentages of women benefitting against most outcome indicators compared to men. Specifically, Radix was to;
- assess the contribution of the program to women’s active participation in decision making processes, leadership, purposefully taking action, and pursuing goals.
- assess how equipment and technological solutions had helped the women improved working conditions and equitably distributed workload in businesses and at home.
The study conducted over 10 weeks, covered the 16 Regions, 40 Districts, and sampled 399 respondents. Quantitative data was gathered through structured surveys, while qualitative data was collected via semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs).
At the end of the assignment, Radix found among other things that:
- REP has significantly contributed to Women’s Voice, as beneficiaries indicated elevated involvement in household, business, and community decision-making. More than 93.7% of women reported increased participation in community activities, with the programme supporting leadership roles within Local Business Associations (LBAs) though there were regional disparities.
- Women’s Agency was enhanced as they could make independent decisions regarding their economic and personal lives. About 77.3% of respondents reported significant autonomy in managing assets. About 77.3% of respondents reported significant autonomy in managing assets.
- Additional business development support such as financial literacy and mentorship programmes have been critical in transitioning the women beneficiaries into leadership roles within their households, businesses, and communities boosting their social capital and confidence.
These achievements notwithstanding, regional disparities persist, with some areas experiencing slower progress due to socio-cultural barriers. We subsequently made the following recommendations for consideration in future programming; expansion of access to labor-saving technologies, tailored interventions based on regional dynamics, clearer and more coherent partnerships with the Programme to ensure holistic support to beneficiaries.
How are VSLAs functioning what innovations would support their growth – an assessment of 660 VSLAs
The Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) Categorization Assessment was launched to assess the operational and financial performance of 660 VSLA groups on Barry Callebaut-Nyonkopa Cocoa Buying Limited’s cocoa supply chain in Ghana. Launched between 2022 and 2023, they aim to increase financial inclusion among cocoa farmers, empower marginalized groups, and drive community-led financial services. VSLAs provide a platform for members to save money, lend to one another, take out loans, and engage in Income-Generating Activities (IGAs). Building these groups’ ability and digitizing their operations is essential to the program’s goal of empowering them financially, improving their financial management, and making them more sustainable.
The assessment was conducted in five regions and across ten sectors, focusing on profiling and categorizing VSLA groups by governance structures, financial health, and performance.
The results, with their potential to shape the future of VSLAs, will help Nyonkopa meet the needs of the VSLAs and develop inputs for future support and interventions.
Some of the key findings of the study include:
- Variations were observed across the Savings and Share values of groups in the assessment.
- Loan distribution practices exist across the groups (although default rates are common in most of them).
- Almost all the VSLA groups charged interest rates ranging between 50-78% per annum.
- Most groups do not own a constitution, let alone one that all members have signed.
- The quality of record-keeping was a significant problem in almost all the groups, where delays, misplacement and falsification in financial reports were found to slow down the progress of the group.