STAR Ghana Foundation Holds First Annual General Meeting

The Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness in Ghana (STAR – Ghana) Foundation has held its First Annual General Meeting to update Shareholders on the activities of the Foundation a year after its incorporation.

The said event took place on February 28, 2020, at the Tomreik Hotel, East Legon, Accra.

The Executive Director for the Foundation, Amidu Ibrahim – Tanko in his submission indicated that there had been some challenges in its first year as expected when setting up a new organization in terms of staffing and funding; nonetheless, it has been satisfying.

He disclosed that they are looking forward to seeing how they can continue to work with Ghanaians to begin to support their own development efforts and that the donors are not going to be there forever. So there is the need to explore opportunities for local fundraising.

Dr Charles Abugre, Vice-Chair noted that STAR Ghana Foundation is seeking to stimulate local philanthropy so Ghanaians can take care of matters of interest for themselves. And this can be achieved by creating institutions that are accountable which Ghanaians can trust.

Building upon the work started by the STAR-Ghana Programme around convening catalyzing citizens’ actions on key local and national issues; the Foundation organized various convenings in partnership with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Parliament around key issues such as youth unemployment, education and health, involving over five million citizens.

Over GH₵5,170,400.00 has been committed to supporting the work that the Foundation has engaged with 26 CSOs, including Faith-Based - Organizations (FBOs), Community - Based Organizations (CBOs) and national think tanks to develop and implement actions aimed at contributing to inclusive, credible and peaceful elections and a smooth transition.

Through a grant from Christian Aid meant to support citizens’ actions towards increased accountability and responsiveness of government at all levels to citizens’ issues and needs, over GH₵17,913,000.00 has been raised for the cause.

An Election 2020 Call was developed and implemented with funding from Department for International Development (DFID) and support from the STAR-Ghana Programme Management Team (PMT). As it was the first to be implemented by the Foundation outside of the STAR-Ghana Programme, the Call is meant to support citizens’ actions at all levels of governance towards achieving peaceful, credible and inclusive elections in December.

The Foundation which was launched in November 2018 as a centre for active citizenship and inclusive development also envisaged as a self – sustaining civil society support mechanism that would be embedded within Ghanaian civil society and with the leverage to facilitate coordinated civil society action.