Project beneficiaries and implementers
A project has been rolled out for women along the Eastern Corridor in the Kpandai District of the Northern Region to ensure their improved access to economic empowerment opportunities.
The Promoting Resilience for Improved Income through Capacity Enhancement for women (PRICE) project is also to reduce gender inequalities in traditional communities, and targets 1,000 women directly and over 28,000 indirect beneficiaries, leading to increased rights, agency and capacity for decision-making.
This is the second phase of the PRICE project, which also seeks to improve access to rural financial services for 1,468 rural women in the Eastern Corridor of the country and enrol them into Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) where at least 800 of them will access loans and savings services from the VSLA.
It will also work to promote gender sensitive practices towards reduced inequalities.
The project
The PRICE project, which runs until May 2023, is an initiative of the Catholic Archdiocese of Tamale, and is sponsored by Misereor, a German organisation.
Very Reverend Matthew Yitiereh, Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Tamale, who on behalf of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale, launched the project at Kpandai, said it is in line with the Church’s human development efforts to make lives better.
Access to financial services is very low among women along the Eastern Corridor of the country, and they are unable to raise the needed collateral to enable them access loans from the formal financial institutions.
There is also inequality between men and women in the area, while domestic violence is predominant in homes and communities where women are not economically empowered.
Therefore, through the PRICE project, 15,000 community members will be educated on gender equity promotion, and at least two men volunteers will serve as gender models and advocates in each community to, among others, help reduce gender-based violence by 70 per cent in the project communities.
The first phase of the project, which was implemented in the area from 2018 to 2020, ensured improved access to economic empowerment opportunities for some 250 vulnerable women and promotion of gender sensitive practices in 10 communities, targeting over 1,000 people in the broader context of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Very Reverend Yitiereh is confident that through the project women along the Eastern Corridor will be empowered to better manage their resources for the benefit of all.
He expressed gratitude to Misereor for funding the project, assuring that the funds would be judiciously applied to ensure that they ultimately develop the beneficiaries and the Church.
Reverend Father Sebastian Zaato, manager of the PRICE project, said
the project is anchored on the transformative principle of the SDGs, which stipulates that all development efforts must ensure that “No one is left behind.”
Commendation
Mr Emmanuel Tatablata, District Chief Executive for Kpandai, who was represented during the launch, commended the church for initiating the project in the area to better the lives of women in the district.
Mr Tatablata assured that the Assembly would create the enabling environment to ensure the success of the project, which would empower the people for self-development in line with the government’s ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ agenda.
Source: dailystatesman.com.gh
