The West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) has mobilised 120 agricultural extension workers, 56 programme officers and 56 district directors of agriculture to disseminate and encourage environmental and social risk management (ESRM) practices among farmers in the southern, central and northern zones of FSRP project sites in Ghana. They also improved their knowledge of gender concepts and the analysis and handling of gender-related incidents.
The FSRP is required under the World Bank's Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) and Ghana's national environmental requirements to ensure that all project activities comply with the requirements of the framework by conducting all project activities in an environmentally sustainable and socially acceptable manner. Where there are gaps in any of the policies, the most stringent policy will be applied. In addition, to competently manage stakeholder expectations, the scope of the project must be sufficiently detailed for stakeholders to understand it.
Participants will in turn be responsible for guiding farmers to comply with the ESRM requirements and integrate gender dimensions into all project activities. They are also expected to play a monitoring role in this regard and alert the PRSF project implementation unit to respond in a timely manner to stakeholders' concerns regarding project activities.
To this end, participants were introduced to the World Bank's Environmental and Social Framework (ESF), Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP), Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP), Labour Management Procedure (LMP), Integrated Pest Management Plan (IPMP), Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment (SEA/SH).
The FSRP is expected to achieve a 40% inclusion rate of women in all project activities, in line with the gender strategy developed for the project. Ghana's gender action plan to achieve this goal requires that all implementing partners be trained to intentionally mainstream gender in all project sub-projects.
The session on gender, which covered basic gender concepts, gender analysis tools, the seasonal calendar, the daily activities table, the gender division of labour and extension advisory services, provoked emotional discussions among the participants, particularly on the stereotyped domestic roles of the two sexes.
The PRSP's environmental risk specialist, Emelda Adii, pointed out to participants that some stakeholders see projects as risk factors to be avoided and are therefore unwilling to participate in project activities. It is therefore necessary to involve them with clearer messages, in a transparent and regular manner, taking into account their fears and expectations.
The FSRP's social risk specialist, Adu Nyarko Andorful, pointed out that project sites cannot use bonded labour, such as prisoners, even if they are willing to do the work. He also pointed out that child labour is not permitted on project sites and that such cases must be reported to the FSRP.
