source: GARID Communication

The Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project has organized a 4-day capacity building workshop on social safeguards for officials of the project implementing institutions to sensitize them on the the World Bank and Government of Ghana (GoG) Safeguards Policies and other project related safeguards issues.

In his opening remarks, the Project Coordinator, Dr. Kwadwo Ohene Sarfoh, underscored the importance of the workshop to the sustainable implementation of the GARID project. He stressed that the World Bank is particularly strict on safeguards issues, hence the need for all project staffs to be equipped with the Bank and GoG Safeguards Policies to ensure that the project is implemented at all levels without any breach to the Bank or the country’s safeguards policy. The coordinator, therefore, entreated all participants to apply the knowledge gained during the workshop to the day-to-day implementation of the project in their respective institutions.

Mr. Abdul-Rahim Abdulai, the Social Safeguards Specialist on the GARID Project, took participants through the overview of the topics to be discussed during the workshop and highlighted the key safeguards issues that participants must pay attention to. He explained that the training would cover two broad areas – “Effective Planning and Execution of Involuntary & Voluntary Resettlement and Stakeholder Consultations under the GARID Project” and “Participatory slum upgrading in developing countries: The case of the GARID Project”.

The Social Safeguards Specialist also informed participants that the GARID project has developed a Gender Based Violence Code of Conduct to be signed by all staff, consultants and firms working for the Project. This, he explained, will serve as a standard code of conduct on Gender Based Violence issues for everyone working for or on behalf of the GARID project.  

The facilitators, drawn from varied safeguards field of knowledge, took participants through a wide range of topics including the World Bank safeguards policies, development and management of project Grievance Redress Mechanism, land acquisition, compensation, stakeholder’s engagement, slum upgrading and Gender-Based Violence.

Participants expressed huge satisfaction about the training programme. Isaac Lamptey, the Director of Works at Korle Klortey Municipal Assembly, was full of praise for the GARID Project for organizing the training workshop for them. According to him, the knowledge and skills they have acquired during the training programme will be beneficial to them even beyond the GARID Project. As he puts it, “This training is very relevant to me as a local government administrator. The lessons learnt are very deep and enormous. The valuable knowledge gained in the areas of land acquisition, compensation, grievance redress mechanism, stakeholders’ engagement and host of other topics taught at the workshop will be very useful to me as Head of Works Department in my assembly.  Even though my Municipality does not have any slum, I believe the lessons learnt in slum upgrading can also be used when I’m transferred to any Assembly that has a slum.”

On her part, an Assistant Development Planning Officer at the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly, Ms. Vivian Ama Broni, was very pleased with the highly interactive and practical nature of the training programme which made it very easy for her and her colleagues to follow all the topics discussed. Ms Broni said the workshop has aroused their consciousness towards safeguards issues.  “…this workshop has made us more safeguard sensitive and I believe this will help us successfully implement the GARID project without going against the World Bank Safeguards standards.”   

The GARID Project is a World Bank-funded project that seeks to improve flood risk and solid waste management and access to basic infrastructure and services in the targeted flood prone low-income communities in the Greater Accra region. The project focuses on four strategic components – Climate Resilient Drainage and Flood Mitigation Measures being implemented by  the  Ministry of Works and Housing (MWH); Solid Waste Management Capacity Improvements being led by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), and Participatory Upgrading of Targeted Flood Prone Low-Income Communities and Local Government Support which is jointly being implemented by the Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development (MICZD) and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). The Ministry of Health leads the Implementation of the Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC).

GARID Project