The Belim Wusa Development Agency (BEWDA) is empowering community climate change advocacy champions in Ghana's Upper East Region to demand climate-resilient Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities. This initiative, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) through WaterAid Ghana, aims to equip community advocates with skills to identify and document climate change impacts on WASH. The project, called "Civil Society Leadership Mobilising for better WASH," targets five districts in the region, including Nabdam, Bongo, Kassena-Nankana West, Bawku West, and Kassena-Nankana Municipality.
BEWDA and its partners are training at least 100 community advocates to generate evidence and engage duty bearers to address climate change-related challenges affecting WASH and community development. The main objective is to build a movement of community advocates capable of sustaining advocacy for solutions to these challenges. During an engagement with community climate change advocacy champions in the Bongo District, BEWDA's Project Lead, Sebastian Agumah Mbabugri, emphasized the need for communities to lead efforts to strengthen their resilience to climate change.
Climate change has become a reality that communities experience regularly, making it necessary to build their capacity to identify its impacts and lead efforts to strengthen community resilience. The training is designed to equip selected community members with skills to generate evidence on climate change impacts on WASH and use such evidence to engage duty bearers, civil society organizations, and development agencies. The program also aims to enable communities to identify ways of adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change while protecting vulnerable groups.
The communities have been introduced to a scorecarding tool that enables champions to assess WASH challenges from the community's perspective and generate evidence that can be replicated through wider community engagements. This tool will help community advocates to identify gaps in WASH facilities and services and engage duty bearers to address these challenges. By doing so, the project seeks to promote community-led solutions to climate change-related challenges affecting WASH.
Emmanuel Abariga, Head of Programmes at BEWDA, emphasized that duty bearers have a responsibility to establish systems and provide facilities that protect communities and vulnerable groups from the effects of climate change. He urged the champions to hold duty bearers accountable for addressing climate-related challenges confronting their communities. Abariga identified assembly members, unit committee members, chiefs and elders, District Chief Executives, Regional Ministers, and Members of Parliament as duty bearers at different levels.
Authorities must pay greater attention to providing appropriate WASH facilities in schools and health facilities, as addressing WASH gaps would contribute to quality healthcare and community development. Community members, such as Blessing Aloko from Nayorigo, have expressed concerns about the lack of household latrines in their communities, with 90% of households not having access to latrines. This has led to open defecation, highlighting the need for advocacy and action to address this challenge.
The training has received positive feedback from community members, such as Kate Agana from Zorko-Awaa, who lauded the initiative and highlighted the need for more water sources in her community. Many women in her community travel nearly an hour to search for water, emphasizing the need for support to increase access to water. The project aims to promote community-led advocacy for climate-resilient WASH facilities, ensuring that communities have access to safe and sustainable WASH services.
Key points
- BEWDA trains community advocates to demand climate-resilient WASH facilities in Ghana's Upper East Region.
- The project aims to promote community-led solutions to climate change-related challenges affecting WASH.
- The initiative targets five districts in the region, including Nabdam, Bongo, Kassena-Nankana West, Bawku West, and Kassena-Nankana Municipality.
