REACH-STR project is aligned with our commitment – NDA Board Chairman

The Resilience Against Climate Change-Social Transformation Research and Advocacy (REACH-STR) project of the European Union Ghana Agriculture Programme (EUGAP) is well aligned with the Northern Development Authority's (NDA) commitment to leverage learning.Others are to plan interventions from a social transformation perspective and enhance the capacity to develop strategies that promote transformation and climate resilience.Dr Sulemana Abdulai, the Board Chairman of the NDA said this at a stakeholder engagement workshop in Tamale on the theme: 'Resilience against Climate Change in Northern Ghana through Transformative Development Action.''The EU-funded REACH-STR project therefore feeds into the broader efforts to identify alternative pathways for developing tools, which can be used by planners to create transformative interventions,' he said.'Now, at the end of the programme, it is our expectation that the project would have developed, tested, and fine-tuned appropriate tools to support the work of p lanners and development practitioners in the region as they work tirelessly to build resilience against climate change,' he emphasized.Dr Abdulai noted that for the NDA, such a critical output would have space in upcoming digital platforms for it to contribute to effective and efficient development impact and desired change in Northern Ghana.'We need to look at how lessons from Reach-STR can be shared with projects such as SOCO, PFJ 2.0, and WASH, among others that are all aimed at strengthening community resilience to climate change,' he said.Dr William Quarmine, Regional Researcher - Development Economist, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), said since the project's inception in 2019, it had championed and successfully co-developed social transformation research for development framework and tools among other relevant achievements.He explained that the social transformation research for development framework was an analytical tool that provided development officers with a better underst anding of how societies can be transformed to respond to the practical challenges arising from climate change.Dr Quarmine noted that development officers in the Upper West and the Savannah Regions whose capacities had been developed have accepted and adopted the framework saying, 'By utilizing this framework, planners and decision-makers can develop interventions that encourage positive societal transformation while minimizing negative consequences.'He said the essence of the engagement was to disseminate the social transformation for development framework in the other regions of Northern Ghana, to solicit stakeholders' buy-in, and their suggestions as to how they could be supported to adopt and implement the framework in their development planning.Mr Sumaila Ewuntomah Abudu, the Northern Regional Coordinating Director, in a speech read on his behalf, noted that facilitating participatory workshops and training to enhance stakeholders' understanding of climate issues, empowering them to take action, and encouraging collaboration among different stakeholder groups to leverage resources and knowledge were some approaches that would be meaningful, inclusive and effective in addressing climate changes.He commended REACH-STR for developing the framework and taking steps to not only disseminate it across other regions in Northern Ghana but also assuring them of their willingness to provide support in capacity building to enable the adoption of the framework and its related tools to aid transformative development planning.Mr Hudu Abu, the Acting Upper West Regional Director of Agriculture, pointed out that the social transformation for development framework was very critical to especially the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) whose mandate was to drive the general development of their district through the planning and implementation of development policies.Mr Bilattey Bimi, the Wa East District Planning Officer, affirmed that the social transformation approach/analysis was effective, re duced time and cost in plan preparation and enhanced plan responsiveness and robustness.Source: Ghana News Agency