STAR-Ghana announces end of its five year programme

STAR-Ghana, a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism supported by DFID, DANIDA, EU and USAID to increase the influence of civil society organizations and Parliament in the governance of public goods and service delivery comes to the end of its five years of programme implementation.

The overall goal of the programme was 'to increase the accountability and responsiveness of government, traditional authorities and private enterprises to Ghanaian citizens'.

For the past five years, STAR-Ghana implemented the programme through a range of support to partners (made up of CSOs, including media, and parliament) to enable them to better influence government business. This included analyses of areas for intervention, linking partners, funding partners through grants, building partner capacity, and fostering linkages and collaboration between and among the partners and with various stakeholders. In all its programmes, STAR-Ghana emphasised gender equality and social inclusion, and ensured value for money.

From its inception (2010) to date, STAR-Ghana has awarded grants totalling $37,200.000 (thirty-seven million and two hundred thousand US Dollars) to over 172 organisations, 10 Parliamentary Committees, the Parliamentary Service and the Leadership of Parliament to advocate for, and oversee the improved delivery of public goods and services, as well as to mobilise citizen engagement in governance. The supported organisations cut across five (5) key thematic areas: Health (30 grant partners), Education (21 grant partners), Access to Justice (15 grant partners), Democratic Governance (30 grant partners), and Oil and Gas (20 grant partners.).

In addition to its support to civil society organisations, STAR Ghana has provided targeted support to 21 media organisations and houses to the tune of $1,710,000.00 (one million, seven hundred and ten thousand US Dollars). It also funded 51 CSOs and the media to implement actions around the 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary elections to promote inclusive, credible, peaceful and issue-based elections. The total funding for this special call was $5,930,029.80 (five million, nine-hundred and thirty thousand and twenty-nine Dollars, eighty cents) including interventions around the August 2013 election adjudication.

As the current phase of the programme comes to an end in April, 2015, STAR-Ghana seeks to share the results, lessons and contributions of its partners to national development and governance. STAR-Ghana is therefore organising a days' convention on the theme: 'Looking back, Looking forward; Learning from STAR-Ghana' on Wednesday, 15^th April, 2015 at the Alisa Hotel, North-Ridge, Accra at 8:30am.

The purpose of the convention is to pprovide a space for joint learning between programme actors and other stakeholders around the role of civil society in promoting sustainable and inclusive national development, focusing particularly on enhancing transparent, accountable and responsive governance at all levels. Being the last convention for this phase of the programme, the convention will specifically seek to:

• Harvest and share good practices and learning on civil society sustainability and effectiveness; and
• provide an opportunity for surfacing and sharing learning from programme implementation, including how to sustain its results; and
• Provide input for programme closure