Institutional Innovation: Enabling Decentralised Extension in Ghana

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Francis NeindowSavelugu/Nanton Municipal Director of AgricultureGhana Ministry of Food and Agriculture

Stacie IrwinSNEDIP Project ManagerEngineers Without Borders Canada

MEAS Symposium, June 4, 2015Session: Public Sector Service Provision, Policy Making, and Enabling Environment

Institutional Innovation: Enabling Decentralised Extension in Ghana

Project Motivation & Objectives

• 2012, the USAID/Ghana Mission commissioned MEAS to carry out a rapid assessment of the agricultural extension system in Ghana.

• Savelugu/Nanton engagement builds on these Ghana Country Report findings.

SNEDIP Objectives:

1. Farmers receive improved extension services in order to improve resiliency, livelihoods and productivity.

2. Strengthen capacity of key actors for stronger district public sector extension services.

3. Strengthen linkages and lines of communication to support decentralized agricultural extension processes.

4. Document, disseminate and communicate best practices and lessons learned in strengthening public extension services at the district level.

SNEDIP Approach

1. Co-identify and coordinate training priority areas with district. – Training to strengthen farmer-based organizations’ capacity in

agricultural business and marketing skills– Farmer group training on effective post-harvest management

practices– Using ICTs to improve agricultural extension processes and outreach

to farmers2. Develop training curriculum in priority areas.

– Agriculture As a Business Facilitators Cards3. Provide capacity building training in priority areas for extension agents.

– AEA Peer-to-Peer bi-weekly training meetings4. Facilitate the delivery of extension services that build the capacity of

FBOs.– Transportation resources

5. Monitor implementation and evaluate impact to generate lessons learned and best practices.

1. Group Strengths2. Group Meetings3. Group Finances4. Group Project 5. Group Marketing6. Market Planning

7. Business Planning8. Record Keeping9. Value Addition10. Loan Preparation11. Post-Harvest Loss Reduction12. Business Analysis

Investing in Public Extension: What Do We Need to ‘Get Right’?

1. Holistic, participatory-developed, local context training materials. 2. Facilitation as a tool for demand-driven extension.3. Getting the timing right. 4. Focusing on every opportunity for capacity development in the system.

– Peer-to-peer learning.5. Support vs. inputs – thinking about sustainability.6. Targeted investments in key operational activities.

Opportunities for complimentary investments. • Coordinating activities - lack of coordination ‘might’ at the district level.• Farmer-citizen advocacy and rights-based activism – AEAs ill-suited for this.