Thursday 2 November 2017

ASSESSMENT FOR ACTION!



Wondering what “assessment for action” means?  If yes, then trust me it will interest you to journey with me to the end of this blog. It was a very exciting day for us at Pagsung. We visited three communities and interacted with the women groups in these communities. It was a very long awaited day that we couldn’t have waited any longer to have. I know you don’t mind coming with me to Bognayili, the first community because that is where you will begin finding the meaning to “Assessment for action”. “Ti bom yem” is a women group that engage in various economic activities to improve their livelihoods, families and the people around them. Outstanding among these economic activities they do is Shea butter processing. Others are black soap making, groundnut cake making, soya bean kebab, dawadawa (a local spice) and farming.
Ti Bom Yem Women Group - Bognayili


Ti Bom Yem Women Group – Bognayili.
You are warmly welcome to Bognayili in the northern region of Ghana. Just as I have welcomed you to the community, the same way we were welcomed to the community in a very special way. Looking at us from the picture you can already see the excitement on our faces. That was just a bit of it showing physically. Now take a look at the picture again. This is what I see, we were not just the people with the smiley faces but the women as well. Behind this smiles were a lot of challenges of Ti bom yem women group regarding their economic activities per our interactions with them. These challenges often limit these smiles on the faces of the women you are seeing from the picture. Below were some of the challenges they listed;

  •  Delays in the supply of shea butter packaging materials from Accra.
  • Limited number of clients for their shea butter, shea products and other products.
  • The group also luck some skills regarding the various activities they do.

These were the outstanding challenges we gathered at Ti bom  yem. After this, personally I actually thought these challenges were not going to be any different from the next community since they were closer to each other. Believe me we had a variety show when we got to the next community. I don’t think you would want to miss this show! You know what? I don’t want you to miss it either, so sit with us in our yellow bus as we move to Cheshegu, the next community.

Cheshegu Women Group

Cheshegu Women Group
Now I don’t get to welcome you to Cheshegu because I believe we went together. However, I can at least tell you who they are and what they do. Who they are is not very different from the first group but what they do is quite different. They do farming, a few of them process shea butter, some sell a particular plant part which is used to give shea butter the yellow color and finally they do rice processing. Are you now ready for the variety show? Yes, I know you are…here we go then;

  • The most challenging issue in this group was insufficient water supply. Water is a very important resources when it comes to shea butter processing. Basically without water one cannot process shea butter.
  • The group also didn’t have grinding mill to grind their nuts after roasting and they always travel very far to a different community to mill. 
  • The group again luck clients to purchase their products
  • They also mentioned that they luck the requisite skills needed to produce a high quality better. They associated the luck of clients to this problem of their inability to produce quality butter. Because they are not able to produce quality butter clients shy away from their butter.

Now I need you to come with me to Kochim, our last community to hear what they have to say.


Kochim Women Group
Though we were tired already after visiting two communities, we became stronger when we got to Kochim and saw the women. They were very enthusiastic and ready to receive us. What can you see from this picture? Do you see the same smiley faces as you see in the first two pictures? Well I guess not! This was because we had a lot to talk about. Apparently members of this group also make groundnut cake, shea butter and farming. These were the challenges they listed regarding these economic activities.
  •  Just like the second group they do not have a grinding mill and they had to travel to a different community to mill.
  •  Also they do not have a reliable water supply, their source of water is the community river which often dry up in the dry season.
  •  They travel very far away to the bush to look for fire wood which is often very difficult for them.
  •  They also don’t have clients for hence no ready market for their products.
  •  No means of transport to the market to sell their products.
  •   Most of them also mentioned they cannot process high quality shea butter.
This was how we draw curtains on assessment.
Coming soon is the action…
Keep watching out for the action!!!  

                                                                              PAGSUNG – ICS
                                          Ready for action!!!!

Richard Danaa
Written By
Richard Danaa

1 comment:

  1. This is having a reality base for action which involves the people. Thanks Richard for this well written and informative assessment for action.

    We wait for the action!

    ReplyDelete