Project profile — Supporting the Green Economy of Ghana

• Ghana (100.00%)

• Government And Civil Society, General: Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions (15170) (5.00%)
• Business And Other Services: Business support services and institutions (25010) (25.00%)
• Industry: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) development (32130) (45.00%)
• Environmental policy and administrative management:
Environmental policy and administrative management (41010) (15.00%)
Environmental education/training (41081) (10.00%)

• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (principal objective)
• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Climate change mitigation (principal objective)

This project contributes to strengthening Ghana’s ability to respond to the economic and social impacts of climate change by supporting female and male small and medium-scale entrepreneurs to develop profitable and locally-appropriate solutions to mitigate or adapt to climate change. It also increases public awareness of the green economy, and helps to improve the policy environment to effectively contribute to Ghana’s transition to a safer, healthier, more equitable and more prosperous low-carbon, green economy. Project activities include: (1) providing proof of concept grants and business advisory services support to small and medium-scale enterprises through the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre’s (GCIC’s) business incubator; (2) delivering the Women Entrepreneurs’ Transformation Program to support women entrepreneurs to overcome gender-specific business-related challenges more effectively; (3) engaging on the green economy with entrepreneurs and stakeholders through various awareness-raising initiatives; and (4) advocating for a gender and climate-sensitive fiscal policy adapted to the green economy. The Project expects to directly benefit 240 small and medium-scale entrepreneurs (of whom 50% are women) and thousands of Ghanaian households indirectly.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased and more equal participation among male and female climate-smart entrepreneurs in managing and scaling-up profitable and sustainable green businesses; and (2) government policies in Ghana more purposefully and meaningfully respond to the obligations of both government and the private sector for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Results achieved as the end of the project activities (March 2026) include: (1) a total of 140 climate-smart enterprises (73 male-led and 67 female-led), representing 116.7%, successfully graduated from the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre business incubation program with full gender parity achieved in recent cohorts; (2) 100% of entrepreneurs in Cohort 10 reported full decision-making autonomy, with cumulative results exceeding targets for both male 121.6% and female 111.7% entrepreneurs; (3) policy engagement targets were exceeded at 101–102%, with 99–100% of policymakers demonstrating strong knowledge of enabling environments for climate-smart enterprises following three high-level multi-stakeholder policy roundtables; and (4) supported businesses avoided 355,059 metric tonnes of CO2 between January 2025 and March 2026, bringing cumulative emissions reductions to 975,345.31 MT (130% of the end-of-project target).

• Proactive disclosure