Implement Activities That Are Relevant And Scalable — USAID RING Advises 17 District Assemblies In Northern Region

The Chief of Party of the Resiliency in Northern Ghana (RING) project, Mr. Philippe LeMay has advised District Assemblies implementing the RING project to identify and select activities which are relevant, scalable and capable of yielding quality social services to the beneficiary households and communities in their districts.

This, Mr. LeMay noted was the only way to build the resiliency of vulnerable populations in Northern Ghana.

Mr. LeMay gave the advice during a three-day Annual Work Planning and Budget workshop organized by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) with support from the Resiliency in Northern Ghana (RING) project for 7 implementing districts of the USAID RING project to guide them in preparation for 2016 activities implementation in Tamale.

The GC RING Chief of Party challenged District Assemblies to look for intervention (activities) areas that are relevant in terms of improving the livelihoods and nutrition in their districts. “So now that you have almost a year of implementation experience in your districts, what you need to do is to ask yourselves, what activities are producing the best results in your districts and think of it in terms of investment, and which activities are giving you the best of return on investment; that is what we really mean by relevancy”. Mr. LeMay emphasized.

Aside ensuring relevancy in activities selection, Mr. LeMay implored the Districts Assemblies to select and implement activities that are least expensive and capable of being scaled up rapidly to benefit more communities. “I strongly encourage you to look at the most scalable activities and try to reach as many communities as you think you can for 2016,” Mr. LeMay underscored.

According to the Chief of Party, some activities are expensive and difficult to scale up within the shortest possible time and such activities should be given less priority in the selection process. “Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) accompanied with financial literacy is an activity that is most scalable and we will like you to scale it up as rapidly as possible. VSLA is not only scalable, but is the foundation on which all other activities can be built on and it is the foundation for improving livelihood in your communities,” the RING Chief of Party stressed.

He also touched on quality in activities selection and explained that the RING project’s activities implementation was procedural and systematic and that assemblies should strictly adhere to laid down guidelines and steps in the implementation of their activities in order to achieve the desired project quality and impact.

Extolling the uniqueness of the USAID RING project, Mr. Philippe LeMay expressed the conviction that the RING project could achieve better results only when partners implement activities in an integrated manner. He noted that agricultural activities was contributing more or better income for the family resulting in a higher purchasing power for them to obtain better nutritious food and provide better health care for the family. He added that, RING was a perfect example of a fully integrated project where there is an overlap between agriculture, livelihood, nutrition, hygiene, wellbeing and good governance.

In his closing remarks, Mr. LeMay challenged Districts Assemblies to endeavor to create an economies of scale in their activity planning, so that they could save resources to invest in other key activities.

A Senior Management Systems Advisor at RING, Mr. Abdul Lateef Umar, speaking on the theme: “Good Governance Challenges Extreme Poverty” expressed the need for District Assemblies to redouble their efforts in building all-inclusive, participatory and accountable systems at the decentralized levels in order to galvanize the support of the people to develop their districts.

He noted that the only way to confront extreme poverty in their districts was to ensure responsiveness in the provision of basic social services, inclusiveness in economic activities and growth, citizen participation in decision making process as well as the provision of relevant social services to the people.

To achieve project objectives and goals, Mr. Umar said it was critical for those in governance to play a key role in ensuring integration, coordination and open communication of activities throughout all levels of project implementation, especially among the decentralized departments at the assemblies.

Mr. Umar said the RING project would continue to provide the needed technical support to all the implementing districts to effectively target vulnerable households as well as enable the assemblies to deliver the much needed social services at the local level.

GC RING is a USAID-funded project. The project interventions are implemented through a collaborative approach between Global Communities (charged with the responsibility of provision of technical support) and 17 District Assemblies (DAs) in the Northern Region, the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) to improve the livelihood and nutritional status of vulnerable households in targeted communities of the region.