Improving Healthcare Delivery

The USAID’s Accelerating Social and Behavior Change Activity (ASBC) is a five-year (5) $29.1million project, implemented by a consortium of FHI 360 (the prime partner), Norsaac, Savannah Signatures, Mullen Lowe, and the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN). ASBC continues USAID’s long investment in the Ghana Health Service (GHS). ASBC will enable Ghana’s Health Promotion Division (HPD) to achieve its Strategic Objective to “lead SBC efforts using tested mass media and community engagement tools,” and to “magnify Communicate for Health learnings” whereby target populations (women of reproductive age, newborns, children <5, adolescents/youth <25) “sustainably adopt healthy behaviors and practices, including timely use of health services and products” (ASBC Goal) across multiple health areas nationally and in 17 zones of influences of the Northern Ghana –where the most severe health disparities persist.

Norsaac’s role: Norsaac is responsible for the achievement of result 2. The organization leads community mobilization and engagement of district structures and communities and will be held accountable for achieving coverage in each of the 17 districts and for progress in achieving measurable behavior change, leading local capacity building efforts and sub awardee management.

Duration: 5 Years 

Donor: FHI360

The Power to choose (P2C) is a seven-year Sexual Reproductive Health and Right (SRHR) project, which seeks to have increased enjoyment of health-related human rights by the most marginalized and vulnerable right holders, particularly women, adolescent girls, and children in the Savelugu and Sagnarigu municipalities.

Currently, Norsaac works with government institution such as GHS, GES, department of Gender, Community development and social welfare to increase knowledge and skills of adolescents and young people on SRHR through awareness creation, increase access and utilization of quality SRHR information among adolescents in Northern Ghana and create an enabling environment for Adolescent Girls and Young Women to exercise their SRHR.

The project is implemented in partnership with five local organizations in Ghana, (Norsaac, PPAG, SEND GHANA, WILDAF and PRADA).

Project Duration: 7 Years 

Donor : Global Affairs Canada through OXFAM IN GHANA

The Championing Nutrition and Gender Equality (CHANGE) project is a 5-year project in partnership with Children Believe and funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). The primary objective of the project is to enhance nutritional outcomes for the most vulnerable populations, with a specific focus on pregnant and lactating women, along with their children, in disadvantaged regions of Ghana and Ethiopia.

The project will be implemented in three regions: the Northern, Savannah, and Upper East Regions of Ghana, encompassing a total of 108 communities.

The Project Objectives are:

Ultimate Project Outcome

Improved nutrition for the poorest and most marginalized (especially women, adolescent girls and children) in Ghana and Ethiopia.

The intermediate outcomes of the CHANGE project are as follows:

Outcome 1: Improved women’s leadership and control over resources for community and individual gender equitable nutrition practices

Outcome 2: Strengthened gender-equitable integrated nutrition and health services for the poorest and most marginalized especially women, girls and children.

Outcome 3: Improved effectiveness of key stakeholders to provide gender responsive community-based nutrition specifics activities for women, adolescent girls and children locally.

Project Duration: 5 Years 

Donor:  Children Believe 

The Informed Choices for Change (IC4C) Project seeks to enhance the provision of age and content appropriate Reproductive Health Education (RHE) to young people by equipping teachers with the relevant knowledge and skills needed to teach RHE in schools. The project aims at equipping teachers with essential skills to teach SRHR using Norsaac’s Alternative Choices Manual. Four teacher training colleges have therefore been identified and partnered with. These colleges are; Tamale College of Education, Bagabaga College of Education, Gbewaa College of Education and St. John Bosco College of Education.  Student teachers numbering a total of 120 have been recruited and trained who are in turn integrating the activities in the manual in their lessons. Again, the IC4C project also focuses on advocating for the implementation of the RHE guidelines for Ghanaian schools. To achieve this, Norsaac is strategically engaging other CSOs to coordinate and convene them to develop a strategy for common RHE advocacy focusing on the same content, participatory approaches and advocating for the approval and implementation of the RHE guidelines. Another approach being employed is strengthening existing youth groups/networks to form a strong movement to advocate for comprehensive information and skills on RHE for all young people in Ghana,

Project Duration: 5 Years 

Donor : by AXIS Denmark

The “Lets Talk Menopause” pilot project is designed to break the silence of menopause as a critical part of the life cycle of women. As a forgotten area, menopause has become a key factor promoting Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) for elderly women. It also perpetrates the cycle of violence where uninformed menopausal women unintentional sexually abuse their sexual partners with such sexually abused sexual partners also sexually abusing younger women. This pilot intervention will work with menopausal couples with a therapy-based approach. It will also explore safe spaces for menopausal women with intergenerational dialogue approaches to change mindset of young women and men around menopause. It will equally document the policy and practice space in Ghana on services and programs around menopause for strategic advocacy and partnerships.

Project Duration: 5 Years 

Donor : Oxfam in Gnana

Young Female Platforms (YFP) was established in 2009 by Norsaac and its partner ActionAid Ghana to address the broad challenges of low participation of women and girls in leadership and decision-making processes especially in senior high schools. It serves as a learning platform for young girls in the Northern and North-East Regions to deliberate on various developmental and governance issues, particularly those affecting their growth, education, and overall development of young girls and women. YFP membership usually consist of 30–40 young females, including girls with disability at the SHS levels with ages ranging from 16 to 19 years. The project is currently implemented in twenty-four (24) schools across the Northern and North-East regions of Ghana.

Over the past years, YFP with funding support from ActionAid Ghana has influenced the leadership of females in 24 senior high schools in the Northern and Northeast regions with over 10,000 young females benefiting in the areas of leadership, human rights, reproductive health, and advocacy skills. The project has designed a training manual with technical guidance from Ghana Health Service and Ghana Education Service on the above topic areas that guides the engagements of YPF members and their selected mentors within the 24 beneficiary schools.

As part of efforts to strengthen the agency of these young girls, the YFP and their alumni have always been supported by ActionAid and Norsaac to identify key issues impacting young women in their schools and create gender sensitive solutions to enhance learning facilities for girls and members of YFP. To promote equal opportunities for all, Norsaac supported the Ghana Education Service Gender to institute the Gender Friendly Leadership Structure in all second cycle institutions in the Northern region and two other schools in the Northeast region to encourage more female participation in school leadership.

Project Duration: 2009 till date

Donor : ActionAid Ghana