The Vice-President of the World Bank, West and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana, has hailed the spiraling impact of the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project (SOCO) on the lives of people, especially, those in poor rural communities in northern Ghana.
“SOCO”, he noted, “is a game changer”, assuring of expediting action for the release of funds to continue the project and also increase the beneficiary communities.
Mr. Diagana made this observation on Saturday January 11, 2025, when he led a delegation made of the World Bank, Ghana country director, Robert Taliercio O’Brien, the Director for Local Governance and Decentralization, Samuel Seth Passah, representatives from the USAID, UNDP and the UNHCR to inspect some of the SOCO projects in the Northern Region.
The World Bank is the sponsor of the US$450 million SOCO project that is being rolled out in four countries namely: Ghana, Togo, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire.
Livestock Market
Diagana who appears to be a practical person, became more convinced about the impact of SOCO initiated projects in beneficiary communities when he and his team got to the grounds and inspected the Nangbag-Yapala Livestock Market in the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly that has opened up the local economy and boosted economic activities for small-scale business operators. The Livestock Market which has a modern kraal facility and complete with a holding bay, loading ramp, toilets, and offices for a veterinary officer, revenue collector and chief butcher serves as an economic hub, fostering vibrant commerce and creating livelihood opportunities for the community. Farmers who sell their cattle at the Livestock Market which started operations on November 3, 2024, make an income of about GHS400,000 each market day (Sunday), according to data released by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development. Income from the sale of small ruminants each market day is also estimated at about GHS100,000.
During the site visit, Mr. Diagana also inspected other livelihood activities including the production of smock by the Daboya Smock Weavers Association and the Shishagu Soap Makers’ Group, a group of 13 women and two men who have become a symbol of hope for the community. The investments made in these groups, according to the SOCO project implementers, has brought about social cohesion by bringing the people together.
“I am very satisfied. I have seen concrete activities that have been funded by the project. I am very impressed to see that there is a community at large that is a beneficiary of the project – that is the essence of the project. They consider it their project – so there is this sense of community-ownership which is critical”, he noted.
He added “I also understand that this is a need that was expressed by the community themselves. So, it means that we have been responsive to their needs. This is what this type of project is supposed to do. Of course, giving the magnitude of the need, it will be very important to put to good use what exist already – to have a very good communication about what the project activities are so that the partners will be more encouraged to do more”.
More interests
Following the impactful stories, the beneficiary communities are sharing, the demand to extend the project to non-beneficiary communities keep increasing. This places a huge responsibility on the project-funding sponsor and its partners.
In response, Diagana said the numerous requests for the extension of the project to non-beneficiary communities is a sign of the successes of the SOCO project, assuring that the World Bank will continue to support the project to achieve desired results.
He was also optimistic that governments in the four beneficiary countries, Ghana, Togo, Benin and La Cote d’Ivoire, will also do their part to ensure the sustainability of the project.
The World Bank, Ghana Country Director, Robert Taliercio O’Brien with some of the beneficiary MMDAs said feedback from them is very useful to the Bank to understand their need to see how the projects are structured to achieve desired results.
Achievements
The Director for Local Governance and Decentralization, Samuel Seth Passah, speaking on behalf of the Chief Director at the engagement with project stakeholders revealed the interest the SOCO project has attracted among Government and other development partners of the country.
He highlighted some of the progress made so far. “Within two years of the project’s effectiveness date, we have begun to see its impact on the ground across 48 districts, 217 clusters, covering 1,700 communities, representing a population of 1.5 million. The project has also disbursed US$60 million (40%) out of the total US$150 million in the last two years”, he noted.
Minority groupings
The Coordinator of the SOCO project, Elizabeth Ohenewah Agyei, said one challenging issue her outfit had had to battle with was how to get the minority groups in the community to participate in the project. Nevertheless, she said continuous engagement with the minority groupings were yielding positive results, further solidifying the sustainability of the project in the beneficiary communities.
She noted that the project development goals have been achieved within two years of its implementation, anchoring her response on the impact of the project on the lives of the people.
“Going forward, we should see how others who are looking forward to be beneficiaries are attended to. One of the things that we also look forward to is to be very specific to being able to measure the changes that are occurring. This is because if you are not able to measure the impact that these projects are making, then we won’t be able to know where exactly and how the next step will be”, she explained.
