Community-driven advocacy and awareness-raising strategies for gender-responsive climate adaptation
In Akatsi North and Anloga districts, many citizens, especially women and those from deeply vulnerable backgrounds are unaware of their right to participate in local governance processes. Planning and budgeting exercises are viewed as technical or political spaces reserved for officials.
“I didn’t know I could walk to the Assembly and engage the staff about our community’s needs, but my engagement with SIGRA has made me aware of this” – A woman from Ave Dakpa in Akatsi North District.”
Participants of the Community-driven strategy consultative meetings at Ave-Dakpa-Akatsi North District
This limited awareness and exclusion mean that women’s priorities such as social protection, food security, and climate resilience aren’t always included in district plans and budgets. As part of its activities to address this gap, SIGRA collaborated with Dream Hunt, a women-led CSO, to develop district specific community driven awareness and advocacy strategies for Anloga and Akatsi North in the Volta Region. Songtaba is also implementing the same activity in the Northern region. These processes were not just consultative but owned by the community. Through strategic planning sessions, and engagements with women’s cooperatives, queen mothers, youth and people with disabilities, the strategies were developed to reflect lived realities and amplify local priorities on climate adaptation and gender equality.
Increased capacity and tools for women-led CSOs to target their advocacy
SIGRA worked alongside Dream Hunt to enhance and target their already strong climate advocacy expertise to:
- Develop specific, actionable strategies that are community driven, inclusive, strategic and effectively address the community identified climate impacts and needs.
- Identify specific individuals and organizations at the district level that can be engaged for strategic partnerships and/or who can champion climate adaptation initiatives.
- Provide an easily accessible stakeholder, issue and advocacy map for others working or wanting to work in climate adaptation in SIGRA’s partner districts, or neighboring areas.
Following the finalization of all five partner district strategies, SIGRA will develop a distribution plan so that they are widely accessible and can be actioned by stakeholders beyond the SIGRA project.
Strengthened Citizen-Government Engagement
The participatory process of developing these advocacy and awareness-raising strategies, along with SIGRA supported budget consultation workshops held in the district in October between community citizens, women-led CSOs, and district authorities is already leading to notable strengthened citizen agency. As part of the strategy validation sessions led by Dream Hunt, two sessions were held, one at the community level and one planned for only the District Assembly (DA). Having been made aware of the DA session, a group of women from the community showed up uninvited at the session noting they also wanted to understand the issues from the DA’s perspective. This spontaneous act signaled a shift from waiting to be included to showing up and demanding space.
SIGRA activities are empowering women to approach their DA, actively engage local authorities regarding their needs, and demand accountability for projects in their communities. This transformation reflects early progress under Outcome 3 of SIGRA: enhancing the voice, agency, and influence of women and vulnerable groups in climate adaptation governance.
