Past Programs

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The Young Urban Women project was a 3-year project with funding support from ActionAid Ghana. The Project with over 1,000 young women (15 to 25years) in 9 peri-urban communities within Tamale Metropolitan and Sagnerigu Municipal areas were mobilized and put into groups as safe spaces for discussion and finding solutions to common issues of adolescents especially around; reproductive health, rights of adolescents, care burden and access to decent work.The project was to ensure that young women have safe and decent work and livelihoods and can exercise greater control over their income.

It was also to create spaces for young women to have informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health increasingly realized.

The project also focused on how the young women in the areas are empowered and supported by allies and responsible stakeholders to effect change in their own lives, their families, their communities and different levels of government.

Project Duration: 2013- 2015

Donor: ActionAid Ghana

Key Achievement 

The YUW have grounded into a movement of over 4,000 members across the Northern region. These YUW are still vibrant offering mentorship and coaching to their rural and peri- urban counterparts.

80% (800) of young women in the programme reported a greater sense of well-being, pride, happiness and greater control over their own income and resources.

The Strengthening Health Outcomes for Women and Children (SHOW) project was a four and a half year (2016-2020) gender-transformative initiative aimed at increasing the quality, availability, utilization and accountability of essential Maternal, Newborn and Child Health/Sexual and Reproductive Health (MNCH/SRH) services.It was also aimed to reduce maternal and child mortality amongst marginalized and vulnerable women, specifically adolescent girls, and their children in targeted regions across five countries (Bangladesh, Ghana, Haiti, Nigeria and Senegal).

In Ghana, the SHOW project was implemented in eight (8) districts with high poverty and vulnerability index: Adaklu and Afadzato South in the Volta Region; Afram Plains North and South in the Eastern Region; Karaga, Mamprugu Moaduri, Nanumba North and North Gonja in the Northern Region.

Norsaac implemented the project in 120 communities within Karaga and Mamprugu Mogduri districts in the Northern and Northeast regions.

Project Duration: 2016-2019

Donor: PLAN Ghana

Norsaac with funding from UNICEF, implemented a 6-month pilot project on child marriage dubbed “Let the girls smile: say no to child marriage” The project was piloted in 10 communities in each of Tolon and Mion districts. In the 6 months period, focus was on awareness creation, research and building/reviving community-based structures to consciously target child marriage issues.Moving ahead, Norsaac received funding for 1 year roll-out of the project in the same districts but in 15 communities each (5 old and 10 new communities each). The goal was “to the eliminate child marriages in Mion and Tolon Districts of the Northern Region of Ghana”.

Project Duration: 2014 – 2017

Donor: UNICEF 

Key Achievements 

The LEGs Project1.     Birthed the Model Gendered Household Model; A gender transformative model focused on promoting positive gender norms and protecting children at the household level.

2.     Department of children, DOVVSU, CHRAJ, Department for community Development, NCCE, Ghana education service and Department of social welfare have written guide for working closely together against child marriage practice in Mion and Tolon Districts.

3.     30 Children against Child Marriages (CCM) demonstrated the ability to fight child marriage through community-based methodologies developed in solidarity with 5,430 children to prevent and eliminate child marriage practices in communities.

4.     2 CCM networks established in two districts.

The Ghana’s Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) was a USAID-funded project which sought to “strengthen citizens’ oversight of capital projects to improve local government transparency, accountability and performance”. The project was implemented in 100 MMDAs by the GSAM consortium CARE, IBIS now OXFAM in Ghana, and ISODEC – together with 25 Civil Society Organization (CSOs).Norsaac implemented GSAM project in four (4) districts in Northern Region of Ghana; 3 SA districts (Gushegu, Zabzugu, and Tatale-Sanguli) and 1 GAS district (Karaga) by empowering citizens with the information on Metropolitan, Municipal, District Assemblies (MMDAs) planning, budgeting, procurement, and execution processes and how to use the scorecards and the ICT tools to monitor capital projects in their communities in the first phase of the project (2015 -2019). During this phase, the project made meaningful impact both at the Assembly and community levels. A number of outcomes and impacts were recorded from beneficiary contact monitoring of capital development projects. The Planning Officers and other DA officers acted with intense energies to ensuring that the project concept was sold out appropriately in implementing districts.

The second phase of the project (2020 – 2022) had two consortiums with CARE as the lead focused on social service delivery in 3 SA districts. This phase of GSAM project continued to deepen, consolidate, and build on strategies to ensure a successful implementation. The approaches adopted on the project include the rights-based, behavioural change, leveraging knowledge, skills, and capacity of CSOs, community score-carding and building on lessons learned & documentation for learning. The project empowered the underprivileged, marginalized and vulnerable segment of society. The overall goal of the second phase of the project was “to strengthen citizen oversight of MMDA development programs to improve local government transparency, accountability, and social service delivery performance in 50 Districts”.

Project Duration: 2015-2020

Donor: USAID

Key Achievements 

1.     The project supported undertaking financial audits and also translate the findings of audit reports into performance scorecards. This led to increased accountability of service providers to citizens.2.     The project contributed to increased citizen’s awareness and knowledge on the performance of their District Assemblies on the implementation of selected capital projects

3.     Norsaac strengthened Citizens’ capacity to Monitor MMDAs’ Capital Development Projects in 3 SA Districts

4.     Improved performance of DAs in capital project delivery. DAs responsive mechanisms increased with regards to addressing the concerns of citizens. Key DA staff (DCEs, DCDs, etc.) committed time and visited some project sites to interact with citizens.

5.     The project also supported 872 citizens in 3 Social Accountability districts in developing Community Action Plans (CAPs) in 30 communities that were integrated into the 2022-2026 MTDPs.

6.     The project also increased citizens oversight on value for money and increased decision making through bottom up approach. Through the project, there was increased access to details of capital projects with citizens, and broadened citizens’ inclusion during site handing over.

7.     Both the DAs and citizens now apply the knowledge gained for future execution of capital projects.

8.     The project empowered the underprivileged, marginalized and vulnerable segment of society through increased access of their participation in implementation.

Digital Property Tax Initiative (DPTI)

As Ghana attained middle-income status in 2010 there has been a major shift in foreign donor attitudes on support for the country as most are moving from aid to trade and subsequent decline in donor support has significantly narrowed the fiscal space for the government despite increases in revenues from oil and gas. The coronavirus pandemic has also exacerbated the weak revenue situation and compelled the country to resort to borrowing from the local and international markets to meet its immediate revenue needs.

The shortfall in revenues resulting in the decline of donor support has put a strain on the country’s economic and development indicators which still reflect the status of a low-income country. Ghana’s tax system is highly disproportionate as many Ghanaians, especially women and young people are burdened by high indirect taxes and do not have enough information, power, expertise, or formally organized voice to hold local and national governments to account. Entrenched political and economic power among privileged people (usually men), and structural exclusion of women act as a deterrent to addressing gender gaps in budgeting, spending and revenue-raising measures. Oxfam and Norsaac consider implementing DPTI imperative to increasing revenues for the government while reducing the unfair tax burden on women and young people.

This work fits within Oxfam’s overall global programming on fiscal accountability for inequality reduction.

Duration: 2 years

Donor: Oxfam

Women Economic Advancement for Collective Transformation

The Women Economic Advancement for Collective Transformation (WEACT) project, a cornerstone of Norsaac’s Economic Interest Area, stands as a beacon of economic empowerment specifically designed to create opportunities for women while dismantling barriers that have traditionally impeded the realization of their full economic potential. This transformative initiative operates across six regions in Ghana, employing collaborative efforts to instigate profound changes in attitudes, behaviors, and societal norms.

WEACT tackles gender-specific obstacles hindering women’s participation in economic growth, with a focus on recognizing, reducing, and redistributing unpaid care work. The project employs innovative community-based approaches, including the introduction of the Gender Model Family, Legal Literacy Volunteers, and the monetization of care work concepts. These strategies are instrumental in engaging communities and influencing government institutions, paving the way for sustainable change.

Duration: 4 years

Donor: Oxfam

SIIE-IR

The Strategic and Impactful Implementation of Electoral and Institutional Reforms in Ghana (SIIE-IR) 2023-2025 project was implemented by Norsaac and IDEG with funding support from the European Union (EU). The project was designed in response to the recommendations of the EU Election Observer Mission (EOMs) after the 2020 general elections in Ghana. Out of the 18 recommendations the Observe Mission made, Norsaac and IDEG through the project were tasked to work towards the implementation of five (5) of the recommendations identified herein as priority areas/objectives.

Objectives:

  1. To assess the status of implementation of the EU-EOM 2020 recommendations following the 2024 elections.
  2. To develop strategic measures and a roadmap for completing and institutionalizing outstanding reforms.
  3. To promote awareness and citizen engagement around the implementation of the Affirmative Action Law.

Key outcomes:

  • Contributed greatly to the advocacy towards the Parliament of Ghana passing the AA Bill into an Act on 30 July 2024
  • Through the collaborative efforts with other stakeholders during the implementation of SIIE-IR) the Executive, President Nana Akuffo Adoo assented to the Act into AA Law, 2024 on 18th September 2024.
  • To enhance equity in governance and the political landscape, the bill was renamed “Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Bill 2024”.
  • The intervention also contributed to the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) reducing the cost of filing fees for female candidates vying for Presidential and Parliamentary positions in this year’s elections. During the first year of the SIIE-IR project, as part of the campaign we advocated for the reduction in the filing fees for female candidates to lessen the financial burden on women candidates and to allow many more capable women who would face difficulty paying the usual filing fees charged by the EC.

The EROP Project was a joint proposal for funding to the Dutch Embassy in Ghana by Members of the Ghana SRHR Alliance (GH Alliance), Africa Centre for Human Rights and Sustainable Development (AfCHuRSD) and WOMEN IN NEED (WIN).The EROP project sort to address Gender Based Violence through economic empowerment of women and promotion of human right including SRHR in selected communities within the Gushegu Municipality. It contributed to an improved environment for women’s and girls’ participation in decision making by the end of July 2021 in Ghana.

The project also sorts to promote women and girls’ economic empowerment through livelihood and entrepreneurial skills development in the EROP Project Districts. It was envisaged that an increase in the capacities of Social Justice Institutions would enhance delivery of services to women and girls by the end of July 2021 in the EROP Project Districts.

Project Duration: 2020-2021

Donor: Dutch Embassy 

Key Achievements 

The project has improved the lives of women economically by given them training on innovative production of clean and hygienic share butter in commercial quantities.Over 180 women capacities have been built on human right including Sexual Reproductive Health and Right (SRHR).

The VYA project targeted 900 vulnerable girls between the ages of 10-14 years from 30 communities across 3 districts in the Northern and Northeast regions. These included; girls engaged in informal work, girls living in unsafe homes, married, disabilities, in and out of schoolgirls, teenage mothers, kayaaye (Migrant girls) returnees and girls from LEAP (Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty) households.These girls were grouped under safe spaces in each community, to provide opportunity for these girls to learn and build their self- confidence and esteem through regular engagement with both state and non- state agencies. These empowerment sessions revealed the limited knowledge VYAs had with regards to sexuality education especially in areas relating to menstrual and personal hygiene management. The project sought to achieve the following results;

Results 1: Increased confidence, self-esteem and access to services by VYAs

Results 2: Enhanced capacity of both state and non-state actors on very young adolescent girl sensitive programming

Results 3: The sensitivity of communities around issues of very young adolescent girls built.

Project Duration: 2020-2022

Donor: Empower USA

Key Achievements 

  1. The VYA safe spaces promoted learning and experience sharing for girls in these safe spaces. 900 VYAs obtained relevant knowledge and information on reproductive health, particularly on personal and menstrual hygiene management. This knowledge informs their choices, as well as empowering them to respond to questions and guide their peers both in school and in the community on misconceptions and management of Menstruation.

2. The project also enhanced active participation of VYAs beyond their safe spaces into leadership positions in their schools. Through VYAs participation in the project, they developed relevant leadership skills, including public speaking, to occupy key spaces in their school’s student governance system. 18 VYAs across the implementing districts occupied the girls’ prefect position and about 62 girls occupied other positions including the health prefect, office girls, general prefects, among others.

3. The VYA safe spaces also resulted in the VYAs sustained interest in education, and their ability to take initiatives to promote girlchild education. For instance, in the Kpene community, a disturbing trend that was noticed was the deliberate efforts from young girls with support from their parents dropping out of school to engage in informal work (skills training). All 23 in school Girls in the VYA safe space have remained in school, with 2 out of schoolgirls expressing interest to go to school, because of the content they receive from the safe spaces.

The project ‘Live Births: Smiling Mothers’ was implemented across 24 communities in 4 districts: Gushegu, Karaga, Tolon and Sagnarigu districts of Northern Region over a two-year period.   

Norsaac launched the Live Births: Smiling Mothers Project in February 2013 to address the maternal and child health care issues within communities of the four districts where it was reported by GHS that 10% of pregnant women delivered in health facilities. It was recorded that, a low percentage of women attended antenatal care from health facilities and only 36% went for post-natal care from health facilities.  

Norsaac’s aim was to increase pregnant women’s access to antenatal, facility-based and post-natal care services in 24 communities within 4 districts (Gushegu, Karaga, Tolon and Sagnerigu) in the Northern region of Ghana compared to current rates of 10%. 

Project Duration: 2013-2015

Donor: STAR Ghana

Key Achievements 

  1. The project made significant contribution to improving access to quality maternal health services to difficult to access areas.  

2. The project created a platform to address maternal health issues amidst the cultural practices in the area. The development of community structures such as Community Health Teams (CHTs), Male Maternal Health Champions and Pregnancy Support Group enhanced community-based surveillance on maternal health issues.  

 3. The project actively involved men at the community level to help address cultural myth preventing pregnant women to access antenatal services in health facilities.  

 4. The project contributed a lot to changes in the project area. For instance, decrease in maternal causalities, increased attendance in health facilities by pregnant women, etc. were all as result of Norsaac interventions.  

The Very Young Adolescent (VYA) project is a one-year project that is funded by EMPOWER and implemented in three District of Northern and North-East regions of Ghana. Specifically, Karaga, Sagnarigu and Mamprugu Moaduri. The project coverz 10 communities in each district, making a total of 30 communities. The VYA project seeks to address the challenges of Very Young Adolescent girls (10 to 14) in Northern Ghana who are living at the intersection of multiple opportunities and extreme vulnerabilities, due to lack of safe spaces, low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence.

Donor: Empower

Project Duration: One year

Institutional Alert on Violent Extremism (IAVE) Project

The Institutional Alert on Violent Extremism project is a partnership between Littorals Regional Initiative, Norsaac and Ghana Education Service that aims to empower students, school authorities and education management authorities to help counter extremist narratives and or prevent violent extremism in Northern Ghana.

Objectives

  1. To examine the level of knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of students, teachers and education management authorities on violent extremism in Northern Ghana.
  2. To develop interventions to educate and sensitize students, school authorities, education management authorities, and other stakeholders in the education sector to prevent violent extremism in schools in Northern Ghana.

Live Tomorrow Today (LiToTo) project

Live Tomorrow Today (LiToTo) project seeks to put the future of young women and girls in their own hands by supporting girls and women groups to be consciously and actively involved in decisions that affect their lives. The project recognizes the existence of vibrant women/girls’ groups and therefore seeks to support these groups to become bold change makers.

Project Duration: 1 year

Donor: EMpower

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

USAID-ASBC

The USAID-ASBC activity is recognized as the flagship Social and Behavior Change (SBC) project. It aims to address key health priorities, including maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH), malaria, nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP), and public health emergencies. USAID envisions a comprehensive and inclusive ASBC project that leverages mass media and community-led SBC initiatives to shift norms and foster healthier households and care-seeking behaviors as a routine practice.

The USAID-ASBC’s Theory of Change and Result areas focus on:

  1. Empowering the Government of Ghana (GOG) to lead SBC programs at all levels.
  2. Enabling communities to identify issues and design and implement practical SBC solutions.
  3. Engaging private sector actors to promote healthy behaviors and practices that support public health goals.

Norsaac was tasked with achieving Result Area 2. The organization spearheads community mobilization and engagement with district structures and communities, ensuring coverage across 62 districts and progress in measurable behavior change.

Norsaac also led local capacity-building efforts and managed three (3) sub-awardees while onboarding of additional four (4) sub-awardess were in process before the USAID stop work order. The Community Engagement for Health and Wellbeing (CE4HW) initiative, modeled on the Community-Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) concept of the Ghana Health Service, aims to ensure access to health services for underserved communities nationwide.

Key outcomes:

  • Improved CHPS Zone Functionality: With USAID-ASBC’s capacity-building support in the Upper West Region, all CHPS zones achieved full functionality (100%) by March 2023, as verified by the Regional Health Director during a monitoring visit by Norsaac’s senior management team.
  • Strengthened Community Health Systems: In 2023, the project trained 7,904 Community Health Management Committee (CHMC) members across North East, Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions within 15 zones of influence. Additionally, 1,542 CHMC members were trained across six districts in the Western Region, leading to the development of 108 Community Health Action Plans (CHAPs) scheduled for implementation in Q3 2024.
  • Enhanced CHPS Staff Capacity on CE4HW: A total of 1,563 CHPS zone staff in the Northern Region and over 600 staff in other regions were trained on the Community Engagement for Health and Wellbeing (CE4HW) strategy, improving their skills in community engagement.
  • Strengthened Data Management Capacity: During Q4 2025, 683 Ghana Health Service personnel—including CHOs, sub-district leaders, and Health Promotion Officers—were trained on the DHIS2 platform to ensure accurate data collection and reporting.
  • Expanded Community Health Outreach: GoodLife Health Fairs were organized across North East, Upper East, and Upper West regions, reaching over 25,000 participants with services such as contraceptive education, nutrition demonstrations, blood screening and donation, vital checks, hepatitis B testing, and breast cancer screening.

USAID Trust2Peace

The USAID Trust2Peace Activity was a 5-year project designed to play a vital role in advancing peace, gender equality and preventing violent extremism in northern Ghana. Funded by USAID, the implementation of the project was led by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) at the University of Maryland (UMD) in partnership with Washington State University (WSU), Norsaac and WANEP Ghana. Aiming to foster inter-group relations across potentially conflicting groups with a view to mitigating the risk of violent extremism in 21 districts in the northern part of Ghana.  The project seeks to achieve two specific objectives:

(1). Peace actors and institutions enhance capacities to sustain peaceful communities and prevent violent extremism.

(2). Citizens strengthen mechanisms to resolve conflict and build peace in Northern Ghana.

Overall, the main goal of the project was to have citizens sustain peaceful communities.

Key Outcomes

  • Established Youth Peace Ambassadors network to lead pre-election peace advocacy in communities.
  • Formed Gubkatimali VSLA group in Zanduli (Mion District) after women empowerment workshops, providing financial literacy and loans for small businesses.
  • Historically divided communities (Kananto/Kabampe, Kaaha/Ombo) united through sports, fostering trust and even discussions on inter-community marriages.
  • Increased participation of minority groups and PWDs in peacebuilding activities resulting in Fulbe women included in VSLA leadership roles.

Strengthening Civil Societies and Media for Fiscal Justice (FAIRTAX)

The Strengthening Civil Societies and Media for Fiscal Justice (FAIRTAX) Project is a project implemented in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda under the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation Funding.  

In Ghana, the project is being implemented by Norsaac, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).

Project Goal: The program will see to it that Tax revenue and public budgets are expanded and made significantly more progressive and gender sensitive by increasing the capacity of Civil Societies and Investigative Journalists to demand fiscal justice, increase Progressive and Gender sensitive Domestic Revenue Mobilization and enhance pro-poor and public budgets and address the debt crisis. 

Duration: 3 years

The Power to You(th) Programme connects Ghana to 6 other implementing countries with a strong focus on southern leadership and a principle of co-creation. In co-creating the programme at the country level, varied strategies were used to scope the context, map out key stakeholders to support the program. Based on the context of the implementing areas, the Ghana Power to You(th) program focuses on the following key areas.

  •  Teenage pregnancy
  • Child marriage
  • Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
  • Kayayei (girls head porters)
  • Adolescent economic empowerment – linkages to government and CSOs (including implementing partners) on-going economic empowerment programs for adolescents
  • Gender job stereotyping
  • Unpaid care work – as part of the inter-generational dialogue strategy
  • Gender transformative families, communities and governance systems

The programme has four partners with Norsaac leading as partner A.

Project Duration: 5 years 

Donor: Rutgers