The Strengthen Involvements in Gender -Responsive Climate Adaptation (SIGRA) Project was last Tuesday launched in Accra.
The project seeks to mitigate the impact of climate change on women, girls, and vulnerable groups in the Northern and Volta Regions.
It will improve the resilience of 627,000 residents against the effects of climate change, including 320,000 women and 307,000 men and to support up to five million people indirectly in the Northern and Volta Regions of Ghana.
The Principal Planning Officer of Ministry of Ministry of Local Government Decentralisation and Rural Development, Mr Carl Quist, who launched the project assured stakeholders into the Northern and Volta Regions of the ministry’s support in strengthening the targeted districts to plan and implement climate adaptation initiatives.
The Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is contributing 10 million Canadian dollars towards the implementation of the five –year project expected to be carried out in three districts in the Northern Region and two in the Volta Regions, to be made known during its regional launch.
The project will be implemented by Cowater International in partnership with other relevant stakeholders, including government agencies and institutions, civil society organisations, and international organisations.
The Deputy Director of GAC, Ms Louise Paris, said the project would also provide technical assistance to Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and direct grants to the five Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to plan, implement, and report on climate adaptation initiatives
She said the intervention would focus on three intermediate outcomes, which were to ensure an improved enabling environment for accessing climate finance and the implementation of an inclusive and gender-responsive National Adaptation Plan (NAP) by the government of Ghana.
The other two intermediate outcomes, she noted, were to improve the effectiveness in the planning executing inclusive and gender-inclusive projects on food security and climate adaptation by MMDAs in the Northern and Volta region, and to enhance a faster influence of women, girls and vulnerable groups on expenditure priorities of the government.
The Executive Director of Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), Ms Patricia Blankson Akakpo, said the project would promote the needs and interests of women, girls and vulnerable groups.
For her part, the Chief Economic Officer of the Ministry of Finance, Mrs Adwoa Fraikue, said the government had undertaken various interventions to support climate change adaptation, including two climate finance study in 2015 and 2020.
While acknowledging the importance of the provision of climate finance to the mitigation of climate change at the global level, Mrs Fraikue said, it fell short at the national level, and therefore, called for stronger collaboration towards the mitigation of the impact of climate change.
By Precious Nyarko Boakye
