Project profile — Food Security Through Cooperatives in Northern Ghana

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased economic stability and higher level of gender equitable economic productivity for women and men in target communities; (2) increased levels of services / support to women and men members provided by credit unions and cooperatives; and (3) increased awareness and responsiveness of government to food security issues raised by smallholder women and men farmers.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2018) include: (1) 51,959 direct beneficiaries (of which 29,244 were women) have improved their knowledge in good agronomic practices, financial services and business management skills; (2) food security with the proportion of food secure households (for up to 12 months) increased by 28% (from 70% in 2013 to 98% in 2018); (3) nutritional status of beneficiary households have improved due to more diverse diets introduced by the project, including the utilization of soybeans; (4) malnutrition was reduced, especially for children under five years old, with the proportion of underweight, stunted and wasting decreasing substantially between 2013 and 2017 (underweight children decreased from 15% to 7.6%, stunted children from 32% to 15.7% and wasting children from 8.7% to 3.1%); (5) the annual incomes of project beneficiaries have increased with men's average revenue increasing from $137 in 2013 to $1,208 in 2017 (representing an increase of more than 780%) and women's average revenue increasing from $79 to $856 over the same period (equivalent to an increase of more than 980%); (6) operational self-sufficiency of nine credit unions have increased, with the credit unions being able to cover all of their operational costs and generate a net profit of 86% of their expenses (compared with 44% of them that were in financial distress and the other 66% that could only cover 67% of their operational costs in 2013); (7) customer satisfaction of credit unions’ services have improved from 30% in 2013 to 70% in 2017; and (8) support provided to improving gender equality using the concept of a "gender-model family/households" led to 95% improvement in spousal relationships and 86% in joint decision making between husbands and wives for the 284 targeted families. These results have cumulatively contributed to increased gender-equitable food security and incomes for targeted households in Northern Ghana.