By Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey, GNA
Accra, Dec. 4 GNA – Oxfam in Ghana has commemorated the closure of its Fair4All (F4All) project in Accra highlighting improved women participation in the extractive and mining sectors.
The project, implemented in the Western, Western North, Ashanti, Eastern, Ahafo, Central and Greater Accra regions, sought to strengthen civil society’s influence on policies, corporate behaviour, governance of trade and value chains in the cocoa, gold, and petroleum sectors.
The five-year initiative (2021 to 2025) implemented under the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Power of Voices Partnership, was jointly led in Ghana by Oxfam and the Third World Network-Africa, working with six civil society partners across seven regions.
Mr Mohammed Anwar-Sadat Adam, Country Director, Oxfam in Ghana, said at the close-out event in Accra that the Fair4All “shifted power, voice and opportunity to women, youth, and marginalised groups long excluded from decision-making in cocoa, mining and petroleum communities.”
The project data showed that the Fair4All reached 13,234 citizens, including 7,404 women, strengthening their capacity to demand fair treatment, challenge harmful practices, and influence policy processes, he said.
“In lithium and gold mining zones, more than 500 residents, most of them women, were trained to negotiate compensation and resist unfavourable land deals,” Mr Adam said.
He noted that at Ayanfuri, a mining town in the Central Region, evidence-based advocacy by 179 farmers led authorities to reject a mining licence application, a decision celebrated as a major community victory.
“Under Fair4All 80 women small-scale miners received training in sustainable mining technologies through a partnership with the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT),” Mr Adam said.
“Ten others were equipped to operate heavy-duty machinery, leading to one securing formal employment.”
He said through a collaboration between the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) and the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme (NAELP), 150 women farmers were integrated into supply chains of up to 10 mining companies, launching greenhouse agriculture ventures.
In the petroleum sector, 20 women entrepreneurs received business development training in partnership with regulators, the first structured engagement of its kind.
He said the project contributed substantially to Ghana’s first National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, led by CHRAJ.
Civil society groups under Fair4All also mounted strong advocacy against Legislative Instrument 2462, which would have enabled mining in protected forests, Mr Adam said, adding: “The pushback prompted regulators to publicly reject mining applications in forest reserves.”
The Fair4all project also introduced the Resource Impact Dashboard (RID), an online tool tracking corporate social responsibility spending, tax contributions and local content performance of major extractive companies.
He stated that the RID was later showcased at the 2024 Alternative Mining Indaba in South Africa as a model for evidence-based community oversight.
Mr Adam said communities trained under Fair4All submitted petitions that led CHRAJ to implicate a mining firm for human rights and mining law breaches.
A total of 122 young people were trained to track mineral revenues, while more than 300 students received mentorship in extractive governance, he noted.
“Cocoa expenditure reports covering a decade were transcribed into braille, audio and large print to ensure advocacy inclusion for persons with disabilities,” he said.
The six civil society organisations that worked with Oxfam in Ghana were the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, Centre for Public Interest Law, Wacam, Friends of the Nation, SEND Ghana, and WiLDAF Ghana.
The Fair4All project adopted a rights-based and feminist approach to empower marginalised groups especially women, youth, and artisanal producers through advocacy, capacity strengthening, and multi-stakeholder engagement.
Oxfam in Ghana and the Fair4All project implementation consortium urged stakeholders to consolidate the gains made, scale successful models nationally, and sustain civic participation in governance.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe