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Community Contribution

Promoting Fulbe Inclusion in Upper West Ghana through Action-Research

Published
Authors
Dao Daouda, Divina Varghese, Adrienne Todela
Description

The Littorals Regional Initiative (LRI) program supports local counterparts across three West African coastal states - Togo, Ghana, and Benin - localized conflicts, ethno-religious marginalization, limited understanding of the VEO threat, local grievances against governance structures, and threats to social cohesion. LRI complements the broader USAID presence in the region by providing short-term, targeted programming that reduces windows for violent extremist organization (VEO) expansion and supports prevention capacity. Given the fluid nature of the environment in which LRI operates, a Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) approach is embedded in the design of the program. LRI's implementation structure facilitates a continuous feedback loop where learning from its ongoing grant activities informs the design of future activities as well as provides useful recommendations for decision-making at the programmatic and strategic levels. The integration of these learnings contributes to the efficacy of the initiative's work and further the overall aims of the project in the region.

This case study focuses on the work in northern Ghana where conflicts between farmers and herders are often seen through the lens of competition for water and land. Herders are equated with members of Fulbe (Fulani) community, who are the subject of persistent stereotypes. Research by LRI and its grantees underscored the social and economic marginalization of Fulbe herder communities in coastal West Africa as a vulnerability for conflict and violence. LRI awarded a local NGO named SAVE-Ghana to conduct action-research, in the form of a participatory mapping of community relationships between Fulbe herders and settled farmers in six districts of the Upper West Region. Findings from the study informed the integration of several inclusive practices related to community engagement not only in the Upper West Region but also across Northern Ghana.

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