UNDP is helping Ghana fight climate change with a $2.7 million project

The United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) is enrolling a $2.7 million project to help mitigate climate change impact on Ghana.

The project will be done in the Black Volta basin by ensuring that the vegetation cover around the basin in Northern and Brong-Ahafo Regions is preserved.

Expected to last for five years, the project is titled “community conservation and management practices.”

It is jointly funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Government of Ghana (GOG) through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD).

The National Coordinator of the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), Dr George Buabin Ortsin revealed that climate change impact was well felt in the beneficiary communities through erratic rainfall, flooding and extreme heat.

He further said the first phase of the project started in 2015 and it is benefiting eight communities in the two regions.

Dr Buabin Ortsin was speaking at the performance and peer review workshop on the project which was held in the country.

He indicated that the project was making significant impact in the communities and commended the project implementing CSOs for their commitment and tasked them to engage the media to highlights the project.

He said, “Under the first phase of the project, 65 smallholder farmers had been introduced to 10 new technologies in conservation, energy and livelihood development whilst 1,100 farmers were actively involved in preserving ecosystems and their services.”

The project has trained and equipped 15 squads of fire volunteers across the landscape for fire management whilst 500 farmers were using improved soil fertility technologies, organic farming and sustainable land management systems.

In addition, 100-bird poultry has been established and operated by community members. About 1,200 beneficiaries are also involved in village savings and credit rotation scheme with operating capital of $95,000 which has about 100 women involved in it.

According to the National Coordinator, 584 hectares of savannah forest had been conserved; 10 hectares natural regeneration created and 50,000 bamboo seedlings had been planted in the local communities.

The workshop saw in attendance 36 Civil Society Organisations (CSO) partnering the UNDP for the successful implementation of the project in the two regions.