Objective
'Kasa' means 'speak up' in the local language, twi. The objective of the Kasa project is to enable Ghanaian national and local NGO's to influence environmental policies of the country to the benefit of poor and marginalized parts of the population. This is done by gathering NGO's in meetings that discuss and comment on government policies for the environment and natural resources including how they are being implemented. This is done in direct dialogue with authorities using examples from the work of local organizations in rural areas. Kasa also strengthens relations between NGO's and the press, which previously did not cover environmental issues very closely.
Target group
The direct target group for the project is about 100 civil society organizations and media houses. The organizations hail from all parts of Ghana. In the longer term, improved management of the environment and natural resources will benefit the approximately 60 to 80 % of the population that is dependent on natural resources in their daily lives.
Activities
The primary role of the Kasa project is to strengthen and facilitate activities carried out by Ghanaian civil society organizations. The project provides opportunities for reviewing various parts of environmental and natural resources policies at meetings attended by NGO's, government representatives, and the press. The NGO's jointly publish an annual report on the state of the environment. Kasa supports the development of a 'barometer' for measuring how well the government manages the exploitation of the country's natural resources. The project also supports increased collaboration between civil society organizations and the press. A highly popular clipping service delivers all relevant news about the environment in the press to Kasa participants. Networks of NGO's are important to reinforce their common efforts. The project helps build the capacity of various networks engaged in land issues, oil and gas exploration, mining and forestry. A new NGO working group for climate change is starting up with support from Kasa. The project has previously also been giving grants to individual NGO projects to help them gain and document their own experiences for use in advocacy activities. Additional funding will be sourced to reintroduce the grant scheme.
Area
The Kasa project is by nature national in scope and involves NGO's from all over the country working on national environmental and natural resources issues. Organizations successfully draw on their local experiences. CARE has sought to make sure that the initiative includes actors from the poorer northern parts of the country.
Duration and budget
The first phase of the Kasa project was a two-year pilot with a budget of close to two milllion Euros (about 15 million Danish kroner). The majority of the funds came from the Dutch embassy in Ghana with other contributions from CARE Danmark and Dutch NGO's ICCO and SNV. A new phase of the project has been planned to start in 2011 with a duration of three years and a budget of five million Danish kroner.
Partners
The many local NGO's that participate in Kasa may be considered CARE's partners. Specifically, Kasa is implemented in a partnership between CARE and Dutch NGO's ICCO and SNV with CARE acting as the lead. Phase 2 of the project will involve CARE and ICCO, and CARE will continue to lead the project.
Contact
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Programme Coordinator
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