Malaria Prevention and Management campaign in Nima

We organised today jointly with our partner organisation Infanta Malaria Prevention Foundation (IMPF) a malaria prevention and management event in our community of Nima.

IMPF already helped us design our malaria training curriculum last year and shared with us some of their training tools that we use in our health and hygiene trainings.


This event in Nima consisted in the screening of approximately 150 children through a simple blood test (called Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests) and a training on malaria.
The campaign is the result of a joint effort of both organisations to gather necessary materials to make the tests on one hand (IMPF) and to find a venue and gather the Nima community on that particular day on the other hand (ID-Ghana).

Sodom and Gomorrah to be evacuated

Created in 1979 illegally, the slum of Sodom & Gomorrah as lived under the threat of being removed ever since. But this time, the newspaper relate the strong will of Accra Municipality to move the slum outside of the city in Adzen Kotoku.
If it looks advisable to prevent people from settling on the land occupied today, which is surrounded by the highly polluted Korle Lagoon, many problems are yet to arise. Sodom & Gomorrah is indeed populated by thousands of temporary residents who come down from their village to sell their stock of products at the nearby Makola & Agbogbloshie markets. The land was therefore providing a cheap and central place wherefrom to operate and alternate solution is not part of municipality plan.
As far as ID-Ghana is concerned, we need to anticipate on this move as many of our partners reside or operate a business based on the land that will be relocated...

Kick start loans started at ID-Ghana!

The Kick Start loan project, funded by the French Embassy in Accra, has started on field with the first batch of disbursements at the branch of Chorkor.
After receiving their third training, the 9 selected women were given between GH¢ 40 and GH¢ 50 each. These micro entrepreneurs will pay no fees or interest for these very small loans (for amounts so small, we can talk of nano-loans). They are mostly fuits and vegetable vendors and the aim is to upgrade them in two or three loan cycles at a level of activity that enables them to take a more standard loan through our Onipa Nua groups.
This project is not driven by the financial team but by the social mission team, as a lot of emphasis is put on training and monitoring of micro entrepreneurs (or should I rather say nano entrepreneurs...?)
contrary to our other loan products Onipa Nua, this product is an individual one and is offered only to women. However, Kick Start loan partners are encouraged to join a group as early as possible to facilitate their integration later and they are equally encouraged to save each and every week, even a minimum amount.

ID-Ghana's new Executive Council

Today is a great day for ID-Ghana. The Board of Directors (officially called the Executive Council) has been completely renewed. Such an overhaul has not occurred since 2002, when the previous Council had been formed.
The panel of talents gathered to preside over the destiny of the organization is rich, as it brings together professionals from many sectors: finance and administration, law, health and human resources, microfinance, development. But above all, for the first time, ID-Ghana now has two of its beneficiaries among its Board of Directors! This considerably enriches the governance of ID-Ghana by placing in its highest governing body some representatives of the communities for which the organization seeks to develop relevant and impactful actions.
The programme of day was held in Ramada Resort Accra in Teshie-Nungua (near Accra) and included a presentation of ID-Ghana, followed by the election of the board, whereupon the Council was sworn in. The meal that followed allowed everyone to get to know each other better, and a new working session was scheduled for 25th, July.
The composition of the new council is as follows:
- Bhavana BAGALWADI, Chairperson;
- Margaret CHEBERE, Vice-chairperson;
- Lætitia RAGINEL, Treasurer;
- Anthony NAMOO, Secretary;
- Comfort AGYEMFRA, member (and parter of Glefe branch);
- Christiane MILEV, member;
- Gracelove WILSON, member(and partner of Madina branch).

Visit of ALIDé in Ghana

The team of ALIDé from Benin came to visit us on 18th and 19th, June to benefit from an exposure visit, just like us in May and August 2008 and more recently in May 2009 (see post of May 2008).
If our interest was directed in Cotonou towards the Kick Start loans, ALIDé's interest was to discover all about our Onipa Nua group methodology, which became our exclusive approach in our residential areas since 1st, January 2009.
The programme of visits took us to Agbogbloshie, Chorkor, Dansoman and Glefe. The ALIDé Social Mission team also attended a group leaders' training, a project designed to benefit ID-Ghana's 100 Onipa Nua groups which aims to reinforce the governance of our credit scheme at group level.
This fourth exchange visit was once again the opportunity to witness how beneficial a regional coordination of Entrepreneurs du Monde is. Teams know each other very well by now and exchanges between ID-Ghana staffs and their Beninese counterparts are very lively!
In the context, the Regional Meeting of Ouagadougou scheduled in September is bound to be a success!

ID-Ghana's Annual Report for 2008 is out!

Following the external audit held in ID-Ghana in May, the 2008 annual report of the organization is out. It can be downloaded by clicking here.
This 24-page document includes the major events that marked 2008 and outlines future projects in 2009. A reference document for those who want to learn more about ID-Ghana!

The Mad Masters

Here is a movie by the famous French filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Rouch made in 1955 in Accra, called Les Maîtres Fous (the Mad Masters). The first third of the documentary presented here shows some interesting images of Accra of that period, which is interesting to put in perspective with what Accra is now. Moreover, most of the people shown in the movie were living in Nima, a district where ID-Ghana works today...
"Les Maîtres Fous investigates one African response to colonial oppression. Around 1925 a cult was formed which went by the name of Hauka and whose members were possessed by colonial figures of power. Filmed in Accra, which was at the time the capital of the colonial Gold Coast, Les Maîtres Fous introduces its viewers into the world of Hauka possession ceremonies - a place filled with strange rituals and sometimes shocking practices.
At the request of the Hauka, Rouch attends and films one of their possession ceremonies. As the film progresses and the men in the cult become possessed, the transformation is dramatic. Once possessed, many of the members of the Hauka cult begin drooling, their bodies in a state of paroxysm; some even parade through the compound while burning their own flesh, as proof of the fact that they are no longer human. The apex of the ceremony happens when the Hauka spirits sacrifice and then eat a dog."
Text adapted from maitres-fous.net.You can read more about this movie by clicking here.





YouTube sources: part 1; part 2; part 3.

AFD donates computers to ID-Ghana

The French Agency for Development AFD has donated today to ID-Ghana ten computers to enable us provide better quality services to our partners in the branches. These computers will be mostly used on field, equipped with our loans and savings tracking system (called Loan Performer) as shown on the picture below taken in our Chorkor branch.

Nima in Black & White

We received last December the visit of a photojournalist called Guillaume Binet from MYOP photo agency in Paris.
Guillaume has extensively worked on the expansion of cities in the developing world, in Africa and South America more particularly.

He spent a few days in Accra and explored the area of Nima & Mamobi where he took some shots of the people there, many of whom are ID-Ghana partners.
From the lower part of the area where the gutter flows to the uphill side of Kanda highway, the snaps give an insight of the life in Nima and allow the viewers to sense the atmosphere of this historical popular district of Accra, which received as early as the 1910's its first migrants coming from the Sahelian region to work in the the then economically dynamic Gold Coast.
Come and discover the diaporama on MYOP website by clicking here!

Signature of the FSD funding contract

The contract between the French Embassy in Accra and ID-Ghana was signed today by the French Ambassador in Accra, HE Francis Hurtut (right) and the Executive Director of ID-Ghana (Romain Tevels, center), in presence of the Deputy Director of ID-Ghana (Bruno Achana, left).
As mentioned in a previous article (see this blog on 9th, January), this funding of € 24,000 over one year will enable ID-Ghana to develop an new loan product meant for the most deprived micro entrepreneurs of Accra. This product, named "Kick Start loan", won't have any interest or processing fee.
The idea is to identify potential micro entrepreneurs in a particularly difficult situation that does not allow them to manage a "standard" loan. A reinforced social follow-up would enable them to deal with the financial help (i.e. the loan) that ID-Ghana would give them. In a time span of one to two loan cycles (approximately 3 to 6 months), the micro entrepreneur will be in a position to upgrade herself and take a normal loan through our 'Onipa Nua' group methodology.


See also the related article on the French Embassy web site.

ID-Ghana programme brochure for 2008 is out!

Like last year, the programme brochure relating last year's achievements of ID-Ghana has jut been released.

This document provides in few pages a simple but rather comprehensive overview of progresses made by the programme in 2008 and gives an idea of expected developments for 2009. You can download in pdf format and read it by clicking

here.
Feel free to share it with your contacts!

EdM on air on France Inter!

France Inter, one of the main French public radio, made a live interview in its broadcast called "Allô la planète" in which I was given an opportunity to talk about our actions in Accra. You can downloand the podcast by clicking here to listen to the section that is about us. Go grab your headphones!

To know more about France Inter, you may want to refer to its article in Wikipedia.

ID-Ghana in the newspaper 'Le Monde'

If you read French press, you might have seen an article on the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which ID-Ghana is quoted in 'Le Monde' dated 18 December 2008.
This is for us a great opportunity to have our actions shown to a wide audience of course, but it is also a way to see the usefulness of our work recognized by an independent and objective observer, in this case the journalist Philippe Bernard .
You can download and read the pdf version here.

'Le Monde' ('The World' in English) is a prominent French daily newspaper. Learn more about it by visiting its website or reading its Wikipedia article.

Visit from DED

Today, the Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (or DED, one of the main German development institutions along with GTZ and KfW) visited our branch of Glefe.

Mr. Kay Andraschko, Country Manager of DED and Mr. Peter Schüssler, Coordinator for Sustainable Economic Development, came to visit one of our Onipa Nua* groups called "Dynamics".
The purpose of the visit was for our German hosts to have an opportunity to understand better the nature and the extent of the work done with our partners. More than the provision of microfinance services, ID-Ghana takes indeed great pride in providing its partners with a set of services referred to as non-financial services (i.e. social and business trainings) as well as complementary services, such as referral to a network of social organisations and, last but not the least, linkage to the National Health Insurance Scheme (eq. to our Social Security).
The reason behind this visit of Mr. Andraschko and Schüssler is the probable collaboration that will take place between our organisation and DED. The latter is indeed interested in providing a partial financing over a period of three years enabling the former to recruit as of March 2009 local senior management. A new local Director as well as a Finance and Administration Manager could thus reinforce ID-Ghana team while I would be gradually withdrawing from ID-Ghana leadership and eventually make a final handover to my successor next summer.
Beyond the financial aspect, this project is at the heart of the process of reinforcing of the institutional sustainability of the organisation and as such is a very crucial step in ID-Ghana's development. The possibility that is offered to us today to team up with DED is henceforth of strategical importance for ID-Ghana.

* 'Onipa Nua' is the name we gave to our group methodology derived from ASA methodology. It means in the local Twi language 'mutual care'.

French Embassy visit in Sodom and Gomorrah (Agbogbloshie)

The Agbogbloshie branch received a new visit from the French Embassy this morning.

H.E.Mr. Francis Hurtut, new French Ambassador to Ghana (who arrived last September) and Mr. Arnaud Dornon, Head of Cooperation and Cultural Services (who joined the Embassy at the same time) visited our beneficiaries with Mrs. Marie-Hélène Hoba, the Press Attachée of the Embassy and Mr. Julien Morel, Coordinator of the Social Development Fund (who already visited us last March).
The field visit took us to the slums of Sodom and Gomorrah where many partners (i.e. beneficiaries) of ID-Ghana live and work. Benjamin Sackey, the Branch Manager of Agbogbloshie, guided us in the narrow streets of the slum, one of the biggest in Accra in terms of population (more than 30,000 families live there!) but also probably the most precarious and deprived. It has indeed been threatened with displacement and destruction for many years and has therefore never been on the top list of Accra Municipality to develop the infrastructure and the provision of basic amenities to the dwellers.
The visit was an opportunity to show the Embassy the wide variety of occupations of micro entrepreneurs met: homeopathic pharmacy, grocery store, tailor, etc.
The visit carried on to the yam market where nearly 2,000 vendors sell goods spilled from the trucks coming from the Sahelian regions of Ghana (North).
Three years after the development of a loans and savings methodology for markets supported by the French Embassy, we have applied again today for a support of the Cooperation Services to develop a "Kick Start" loan product. This product, originally developed by ALIDé in Benin, could enable us to reach the poorest families by offering them free of guarantee a loan of about GH¢30 to GH¢40 (€21 to €28 approx) without interest or processing fees. We would then be able to propel within one or two loan cycles maximum these families towards a more classic loan product with interest. This pilot project, which we hope will begin in the first quarter of 2009, would make it possible to propose to the poorest segments of the population of Accra an opportunity to develop an economic activity and provide them with a a long-term partnership by offering them access in a first-time to these "Kick-Start"loans and then in a second time, in addition to training, to our existing products' Onipa Nua' (group loans in residential area) and 'Front Desk' (loans with repayment at the counter, in market areas).

Sodom & Gomorrah is an area located in the heart of the city and officially unpopulated.
It is shown in red on the map above

You can also access the article of the French Embassy in Accra on this visit by clicking here.

Visit of the Director and the Coordinator of EdM

ID-Ghana has received at the end of this month the visit of the Director of Entrepreneurs du Monde, Franck Renaudin, and the West Africa Coordinator based in Ouagadougou, Laëtitia Raginel.

It was Franck's second visit this year on the program and his main objective was to review the group methodology Onipa Nua, which represented at the beginning of the year just over 10% of our active borrowers against almost 50% at the end of October. The deployment of this methodology in residential areas is one of the most important challenges of ID-Ghana in 2009, as it is supposed to answer three fundamental problems of the institution, namely
1 / expand credit and savings activities with the best level of quality (and indeed, Onipa Nua product has maintained a repayment rate of 100% over the two years it has been in place);
2 / reach a sufficient outreach to expect financial sustainability by the beginning of 2011;
3 / merge the social mission with the financial services primarily through the weekly group meetings which are an opportunity for regular exchanges.

The field visits took us to the branches of Dansoman, Glefe, Kaneshie & Nima-New Town. It provided Franck with a good opportunity to identify critical points in the implementation of the methodology and Laëtitia with a chance to share with us her observations based on her extensive field experience in Burkina Faso.

The projects related to social mission were also very much under the spotlight. Franck set with Bruno Achana, the Deputy Director of ID-Ghana in charge of social mission, and the major objectives for 2009.
We should thus be able next year to offer to our beneficiaries trainings each and every week (against once in two weeks presently). This objective will be achieved through the involvement of Branch Managers in the trainings delivery as well as the development of new training modules.
We also want to expand the access of our beneficiaries to health insurance by subsidizing their registration to the government scheme 'NHIS', to which 607 families registered through us over the past 12 months.

The Poverty Assessment Tool, which allows us to take a "picture" of the poverty level of 'our' families at regular intervals (and therefore measure our impact over the months) has been the subject of a review also, and its final implementation expected by the end of the year.
Finally, internal evaluation of our social performance, done with the CERISE tool in October, was discussed with Franck & Laëtitia. Put into perspective with the previous assessment in September 2007, it allowed us to measure progresses made in one year, which remain too low n terms of social mission.

The 5-day visit has helped to make a critical review of our activities, which was particularly beneficial for ID-Ghana. One should not forget that two years ago, the future of the organisation was still considered uncertain. Today the challenges are of importance, but the prospects are more than ever motivating and very much achievable!

ID-Ghana in the books!

Here's an article on ID-Ghana from a book published in 2007 and that we share with our readers today. However the credit policy described in the article has evolved since its author came to visit our program. For instance, We stopped associating savings associated to regular loan installments on a systematic basis but we encourage our partners to develop savings habits on a voluntary basis instead.

Microcredit in Sodom and Gomorrah

From: Cappelaere, Pierre (2007), Ghana, les chemins de la démocratie (Ghana, Paths to Democracy) p. 135-138, Paris, L’Harmattan, coll. « Points de vue concrets »

Graphic Road is the boulevard of broken dreams. But in some places, hidden under the rubbish, there is no more boulevard. And in this cemetery of social condition, many have stopped dreaming long ago. They surrendered. After a long journey, they found there their final destination and lost all hope of finding something better in another neighborhood, or lost the strength to return to their village in the North. We are in Old Fadama, better known as Sodom and Gomorrah, in the district of Agbogbloshie, located near the Korle lagoon waters, polluted by industrial wastes exhaling pestilence and putrid miasma. In this smoky shantytown, one of the most polluted in the world according to the International Development Research Center, four or five tens of thousands of poor people, illegal residents are crammed.
But behind the appearance of this sordid misery, under the rusted metal roofs, in the narrow streets, amid the rubble piled and amongst a ghostly grayish human crowd that suggests an ambiance of besieged city, flushes an intense vitality and a gist of organization. The roles are given, the places allocated. Poor people struggling to break out of their status of pariah, try to reweave the social networks, manage to “make it”. Thanks to microcredit.
Twice a week, Cedric Sassu winds crowded alleys of the market, avoids pots of fried plantains, enters kiosks made of wood planks and old cartons to recover repayments of loans that the microcredit branch has granted few months earlier to petty traders. The operation takes place without pain, sometimes even in a good mood. Cedric counts the bank notes, full of the dirt they accumulated during the numerous transactions they were part of, writes down on the repayment card the amount repaid, notes the remaining balance of the loan and gives a receipt. One does not lend to the rich only. Initiative-Développement, a French NGO, established in Accra this credit scheme for the Poor, simple to operate. Following a short assessment of the living conditions of the residents, the NGO grants small loans, starting from 30 GH cedis (30 euros) and payable every two weeks over two to three months. Only requirements: having an address (which excludes street hawkers) and a guarantor. Most often a picture of a friend or a relative sitting next to the recipient of the loan is taken; the picture is then put into the file and used as guarantee. The interest rate is high because of inflation, but a painless savings scheme is cleverly linked to the credit: a third of the money refunded goes into a savings account, so that at the end of the loan, the borrower has built up a small capital to buy an oven, a refrigerator or a few metal sheets for the roof of her shop.
In Accra, nearly seven thousand families are affiliated with this system. It is competing harshly with Susu, the popular doorstep savings system working like a small bank that does not remunerate deposits collected in the markets but on contrary charges 3% for the custody of the money. With the funds thus gathered, the Susu offers to other shopkeepers short term loans at very high rates. Susu Collectors are many in Accra and five hundred of them have formed an association that determines the rules and regulations for its members.
The loans of Initiative-Development are from all points of view the most interesting. The credit repayment rate eloquently summarize the success of the project: 96%. The secret of this success is to grant loans to women and play on group solidarity. When I visited them, a hairdresser was in the course of her fourth loan cycle with Cedric; with 200 GH cedis, she had bought a dryer and decorated her salon. To avoid irregular deliveries and abrupt changes in prices by traders, a yam seller had increased her stock and was protecting it with a large plastic sheet. Another one was selling soap and beauty products in front of me and pleaded her case with conviction to get a new loan, explaining that she should not be penalized even if she had happened once, just once, not to repay her installment: her husband that time took the money to invite his friends to a chop bar to celebrate the victory of the Black Stars. The credit officer, his specs on his nose and his bag on his shoulder, looks like a conscientious government servant. He goes to join other young members of the NGO in the branch office at the heart of the market. In the branch of Russia, a group of women seated under a straw roof, listen to a trainer who, using posters, is giving advice on how to enhance sales, to greet customers or to keep one’s kiosk clean…
Sodom and Gomorrah, spontaneously created in 1979 by desperate migrants on an unfit site, is to be destroyed. The development of the Korle drain, the source of pollution in this part of the capital, offers no other option than the human "decongestion" and the relocation of squatters on a new ground in Adjin Kotoko, 5 km away. The mayor and three concerned ministries take this relocation on their stride. The government has consulted with local community leaders to hear their views: they agreed to leave. There will be no forced eviction. Construction work will begin with the market and health centers to recreate as fast as possible the business activity and attract people. A consulting firm has prepared the development plan for 50,000 low-cost housing, from 5,000 to 10,000 dollars for two rooms. Certainly far too expensive for squatters, but through well rooted microcredit schemes and savings collections which are now traded between communities under the form of vouchers, some solutions are already emerging. Although one question remains: if the relocation plan turns out to be successful, what will the government do to halt the lurking emigration and stop a new slum being built there or next door?

Diplomat, specialist in development economics, Pierre Cappelaere has extensively travelled in Africa for over thirty years. He occupied a privileged observer position in Ghana between 2005 and 2007. He wrote several books including Kenya, safari, ethnies et politique (Kenya, safari, ethnics and politics) published also by L’Harmattan.

You can download the article by clicking here.

Visit of a board member on field

Today Mr. Abraham Nyako Jnr, a member of the Executive Council, came to visit the Glefe branch.Abraham Nyako, holder of a Master in Public Health from the University of Ghana, has over ten years experience in the field of communications and sexual and reproductive health. He has worked with many NGOs such as the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) and more recently Management Strategies for Africa (MSA), where he is currently holding the position of Country Team Leader. Abraham is a member of our Executive Council since October 2002.The field visit took us to Glefe, in the Eastern part of Accra, where Justice, Core and Paradise groups meet. After an introduction by the Branch Manager Godfred Kumi, our visitor was quick to take over the crowd, engaging them in a dialogue on the Onipa Nua methodology, successfully pilot-tested in Glefe.After gathering the feedback from the beneficiaries on the different steps of the delivery of our services, Abraham tried to form his opinion on the major challenges people of the area face. A wide variety of subjects were tackled, ranging from the National Health Insurance Scheme (or NHIS, to which ID-Ghana is facilitating the access for its beneficiaries) to problems to maintain the homogeneity of a group when, after a few loans, some partners’ business grow well, while others fail to really take off. The need to find good business opportunities and the management of natural calamities (floods, Glefe being a flood-prone area, fire outbreaks, etc.) were also raised by partners.The exchange, that lasted a little more than one hour, was really fruitful. Whatever the position one is holding in the organisation, all issues necessarily boil down to the field at some point or the other. A good knowledge of dynamics and problems happening at that level is therefore the prerequisite for the good management of the whole organisation. We can only be happy to see one of our most senior member of the Executive Council devote some of his time to one of our branch!