Green for Change Ghana with funding support from USAID through the Feed the Future Ghana Trade and Investment Activity (GTI) has on Thursday, 6th April 2023 organized a stakeholder engagement workshop for key players in the cashew value chain within the West Gonja municipality under the “Building Capacity of Smallholder Cashew Farmers on Harvest and Post-Harvest including Nut Quality” project.

The purpose of the event was to introduce the project to stakeholders in the value chain to get their buy-in and cooperation for successful activity implementation.

Ten (10) focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted each with participants ranging between 8 and 12. The FGDs were done using a pre-design guide with a series of follow-up questions based on the responses from participants. To ensure broad consultation, the ten FGDs were held with different types of participants across 5 fringe communities in 2 districts within the MNP. These include 3 adult female-only participants, 3 adults male-only, 1 adult mixed, 1 youth male-only, 1 youth female-only, and 1 mixed youth FGDs.

A total of 90 participants made up of relevant interest groups in the community such as farmers, charcoal burners, opinion leaders, shea processors, CREMA executives, beekeepers, etc. were covered through the FGDs. The purpose of using focus group discussions was to create a room for discussion amongst participants and enrich insights from many different individuals. The FGDs focussed on eliciting information about the beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, and control factors concerning tree planting and nurturing.

Green for Change Ghana recently provided essential protective gear to each of the 32 volunteers participating in our "Mobilizing Volunteers for Community-Based Natural Resources Management" (MOVE-CVN) initiative, funded by the STAR-Ghana Foundation.

This gear, which includes wellington boots, raincoats, and gloves, supports their important role as watchdogs collaborating with range supervisors from the Forest Service Division of Ghana Forestry Commission to combat illegal logging and commercial charcoal production in their communities.

Tree Aid Ghana with funding support from UKAID collaborated with Green for Change Ghana in 2021 to conduct training for 15 AEAs on negotiation, entrepreneurship, and access to improved markets. The training was conducted between 23rd and 24th September 2021 at the conference hall of the West Gonja Department of Agriculture at Damongo in the Savannah Region of Ghana.

The objective of the training was to fully equip members of cashew cooperative and field extension agents with the requisite knowledge and skills in negotiation, entrepreneurship, and access to an improved market. Cashew cooperative members after the training used the knowledge and skills acquired in building a strong and formidable cooperative positioned to effectively liaise and negotiate with buyers for good business deals. The field team on the other hand conducted step-down training by imparting the knowledge and skills they have acquired to the farmers at the Village Tree Enterprise (VTE) group level for greater impact.