BACKGROUND
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), organized a one-day capacity-building session for members of the Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) in the Chereponi District Assembly of the North East Region. The event formed part of the ongoing project titled “Strengthening Farmers’ Voices to Promote Accountability and Inclusive Decision-Making in Ghana,” supported by the Star Ghana Foundation.
The MSP comprises representatives from the Chereponi District Assembly, PFAG district executives, Civil Society Organisations, processors, aggregators, traditional authorities, and youth and women’s groups, and was strategically constituted as part of the project to engage duty bearers and rights holders to tackle bottlenecks affecting smallholder farmers and deepen inclusive governance and accountability.
SESSION HIGHLIGHTS
Safeguarding & Inclusive Engagement
Dr. Roger Akanbisik, project office of PFAG led participants through principles of safe, respectful, and inclusive engagement, covering safeguarding concerns, stakeholder commitments, and reporting mechanisms. In his presentation, he stressed that all actors must protect children, vulnerable adults, and community members from abuse, exploitation, and discrimination. To end his presentation, he urged members to ensure that any safeguarding concerns are addressed promptly, confidentially, and with dignity.
District Composite Budget Analysis
Dr. Benjamin Sarfo, Programmes Officer of PFAG, led the presentation of the 2026 Chereponi District Assembly composite budget. The analysis revealed a big structural gap, where Agriculture, which employs 81% of the district’s active population, received only 1.81% of the total budget, making it the second lowest funded sector, behind Infrastructure (33.3%), Social Services (37.0%), Trade, tourism, industry (15.7%) and Management & Administration (12.0%). Interestingly, 86.8% of the agricultural budget allocation goes to salaries, leaving just 13.2% for actual agricultural field activities. Critical priorities such as WIAD unit to support woman specific interventions, storage & warehousing, small scale irrigation scheme, youth agro-entrepreneurship training & grants and Good Agricultural Practices had no budget lines in the district composite budget. Dr. Sarfo therefore, used these findings to anchor a strong advocacy agenda for the MSP going forward.
Advocacy for Accountability
Dr. Sarfo further equipped MSP members with advocacy tools and frameworks, emphasizing that effective advocacy messages must be clear, fact-based, solution-oriented, concise, and respectful. In his presentation, he called on the MSP members to leverage its collective voice, and strength in numbers to demand improved policy responsiveness, enhanced accountability in service delivery, and sustained constructive engagement with local governance structures.
The participants expressed satisfaction with the insight gained and indicated their willingness to work with each other to ensure that priorities of farmers within the municipality are addressed. Mrs. Latifu Afushetu, PFAG national vice president and a farmer in Chereponi indicated that ” the unwrapping of the district assembly composite budget has given her insight about how the budget was drafted and submitted, leaving Agriculture with only 1.81% of the total share. To her, she viewed this session as an eye-opener.” Many participants, including Nana Wenherka from the Tambong traditional area also expressed shock over the total neglect of women and youth budget lines for specific programmes in the district composite budget.
Other stakeholders including the District Director of Agriculture, Mr. Kingsley B. Gandaa, indicated that “the kind of information shared during the session can serve as a powerful advocacy tool for farmers to demand what they deserve from duty bearers. He opined that, the MSP must be sustained beyond the project lifespan“, while Mr. James Ayambire, from the department of cooperatives added that “We will support the MSP in driving the inclusive agricultural growth we all aspire to achieve in this Municipality.”
NEXT STEPS
In the end, all participants pledged their commitment to track every amount in the budget, using the PFAG scorecard and the provisions of the Right to Information Act, to ensure allocations are used for their intended purposes. Dr. Sarfo tasked MSP members to disseminate insights from the training to community members at the grassroots level, deepening awareness and strengthening collective advocacy across the district.
