The first local dialogue was held on February 22 in Bolgatanga, Upper East region. The dialogue, led by WANEP-Ghana, was attended by stakeholders including the Ghana Police Service, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Traditional leadership, the Shanxii Mining Company, small scale mining groups, the Talensi and Nabdam District Assemblies, the local media (Ghana News Agency) and the Lands Commission.

As a follow-on from the training conducted in December 2015, the dialogue focused on sensitizing the participants to the need to adopt and use Alternative Dispute Resolu-tion (ADR) mechanisms to address threats to security and peace in extractives-affected communities. A group of volunteers amongst the dialogue participants agreed to form a grievance response committee that shall participate in monitoring security and human rights-related threats arising from the mining operations in their area. The volunteer group will receive information on risks from community monitors who will be identified by WANEP-Ghana, and facilitate responses to those risks The group consists of representatives from the mining company, CSO, local government assembly, traditional leadership, community, and small scale mining organization. A follow-up dialogue will be staged next quarter.

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Fostering a more permissive and accepting environment for the implementation of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) within Ghana is the principal goal of the Fund for Peace (FFP) program, implemented in partnership with the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, Ghana (WANEP-Ghana). The project aims to support the formation and rollout of the Ghanaian VPs National Implementation Plan, enhance the capacity of an informed local civil society, particularly on critical human rights issues that impact both men and women, and to develop a sustainable multi-stakeholder forum that can collectively create the conditions necessary for effective VPs implementation in-country.

Commencing in July 2015, our 18-month program centers upon building the awareness and capacity of civil society — including local community members and civil society organizations (CSOs) — about the VPs, as well as more broadly peacebuilding and conflict prevention in extractives-affected communities of Ghana. This involves developing pilot programs at a local level to facilitate training, then dialogue that encourages constructive engagement between local government, communities, and companies to address issues and grievances transparently, and promotes responsible and proportional conduct by public and private security forces.

Equipped with the knowledge and tools to monitor issues relating to security and human rights in these communities, as well as seeking to identify conflict drivers related to extractives, our program will provide civil society with a platform to better mitigate violence and potential for security force abuses in communities. This will feed into a national level multi-stakeholder roundtable, designed to establish a practical working group of stakeholders to further VPs implementation across Ghana.

This briefing on Quarter Three (Q3) provides updates on the second stage of local trainings in Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions, bringing together communities, CSOs, local government, oil/gas and mining companies, media, and public security.  The first local dialogue in the Upper East region was also staged during the quarter.

First Local Dialogue in Upper East

Sustaining multistakeholder VPs engagement

The first local dialogue was held on February 22 in Bolgatanga, Upper East region. The dialogue, led by WANEP-Ghana, was attended by stakeholders including the Ghana Police Service, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Traditional leadership, the Shanxii Mining Company, small scale mining groups, the Talensi and Nabdam District Assemblies, the local media (Ghana News Agency) and the Lands Commission.

As a follow-on from the training conducted  in December 2015, the dialogue focused on sensitizing the participants to the need to adopt and use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms to address threats to security and peace in extractives-affected communities. A group of volunteers amongst the dialogue participants agreed to form  a grievance response committee that shall participate in monitoring security and human rights-related threats arising from the mining operations in their area. The volunteer group will receive information on risks from community monitors who will be identified by WANEP-Ghana, and facilitate responses to those risks The group consists of representatives from the mining company, CSO, local government assembly, traditional leadership, community, and small scale mining organization. A follow-up dialogue will be staged next quarter.

Local Trainings

Building  capacity of local stakeholders on VPs

In February 2016, FFP and WANEP-Ghana delivered the local training workshops in Kenyasi #2 in the Brong-Ahafo Region, and Obuasi in the Ashanti Region. The trainings focused on sensitizing participants to the VPs initiative and guidelines, as well as introducing ways to mitigate conflict through available grievance mechanisms, and promoting peacebuilding and conflict early warning in communities. There were 22 participants at the Brong-Ahafo training on February 24, and 19 participants  at the Ashanti training,  on February 26.

In Brong-Ahafo, the training provided a new platform for dialogue between local NGOs, company representatives and public security. During scoping activities in December to the Brong-Ahafo region, FFP and WANEP-Ghana had met with local NGOs located in one of the major communities on the mining concession at the Ahafo mine. They had expressed concerns about lack of access to grievance reporting centers, and a number of legacy issues related to land compensation and alleged public security abuses.

This training provided a new environment not only for shared learning by the company and NGOs,  but also a chance to air issues and talk through different ways to resolve them. The training component that related to revenue transparency and available grievance mechanisms provided new information and established common ground between the stakeholder groups. For example, the NGOs raised concerns about their lack of faith in the grievance mechanisms available for community members to communicate issues to the company. This provided the company‘s grievance response mechanism representative a chance to explain to participants the transparent process available for the lodging of complaints.

In Ashanti region, the training provided a useful platform for key stakeholders to learn more about constructive means of engagement, following security issues in the area between company and illegal miners. One of the key points raised by the  stakeholders, was the legacy of mistrust  between some community members and company operations. As the area has been home to mining operations for over a century, there are many tensions and past grievances over government land concessions, compensation and employment. This training not only introduced constructive tools for resolving conflict and grievances peacefully, but also provided a new forum for engagement between diverse stakeholder groups. Notably, the training involved local private security providers who supply unarmed guards for mine security. The manager of one of the companies shared how grateful he was to learn more about the VPs and how elements can be better incorporated into his own staff trainings.

A local dialogue will be staged in both regions next quarter with the training participants.

Identifying and monitoring conflict

Supporting local early warning & response

Based on discussions in both the trainings and the dialogue, FFP and WANEP-Ghana were able to develop a series of indicators that can be used to monitor conflict in extractives affected communities, including security forces abuses.  These indicators will be built into the online website resource, where local stakeholders can report incidents  which will be sent to WANEP-Ghana for analysis of patterns and trends, and follow-up. The indicators and sub-indicators are outlined in the graphic above. Participants will be sensitized to the indicators during future local dialogues, supported by WANEP-Ghana who has existing peacebuilding and early warning networks across Ghana.

In tandem with the local dialogues, radio programs are being staged to sensitize the VPs to communities, and demonstrate their relevance to local  stakeholders. The first of these was recorded in Bolgatanga, in February featuring a panel of experts identified by WANEP-Ghana. The program was recoded, and will be replayed over the radio as well as other media and training purposes. Positive peace-messaging and VPs awareness has continued to be featured in the media, following inclusion of local media representatives in the  trainings.

Gender Inclusion in Local Activities

Gender inclusion remains a key challenge for the local dialogues and training activities. As highlighted in research by the United Nations and OECD, the gender gap at post-primary education level in Ghana remains a pervasive issue. Women, especially in rural areas where there are defined gender roles within cultural norms, do not have the same access to education and workforce opportunities as men. This has been evident in the Ashanti and Upper East regions in particular, where the training representation was almost exclusively male amongst community leadership positions, government and company representation.

As we conduct local dialogues next quarter, FFP will work with WANEP-Ghana to identify specific ways for women’s groups to be included in the dialogues, with an emphasis on female breakout sessions where women can feel more comfortable about sharing issues,  such as gender-based violence.

Measuring VPs Awareness

The project has collected baseline monitoring and evaluation (M&E) data for VPs awareness within the four pilot regions. This data was based on survey questionnaires provided to all local training participants prior to the commencement of each training.  Some of the initial data suggests that the Upper East Region had the lowest knowledge of the VPs, while Brong-Ahafo Region had the highest level of knowledge. The historically less developed community areas, Bolgatanga, in the Upper East and Obausi, in Ashanti, had  lower levels of female representation in the training,  and  overall lower levels of VPs awareness.

The M&E baseline is particularly useful in highlighting where the VPs awareness sensitization and training activities will be most impactful, namely Bolgatanga. The Upper East region only had  one respondent who had an awareness of the VPs prior to the training, with 75% of respondents saying that they had never heard of the initiative before.  By contrast Brong-Ahafo had 70% respondents confirm they had a prior awareness of the VPs. This suggests the company in the area, and VPs international initiative member, had undertaken positive education about the VPs, as well as knowledge sharing by NGOs and other stakeholders.

Activities for Next Quarter

Taking place next quarter are the following  project activities:

• The four local dialogues in Upper East (Bolgatanga), Brong-Ahafo (Sunyani) and Ashanti (Kumasi), and Western (Takoradi) regions during May 2016.
• Local VPs awareness media campaigns led by WANEP-Ghana in the Brong-Ahafo (Sunyani) and Ashanti (Kumasi), and Western (Takoradi) regions during May 2016.