The various activities implemented under the Support Project for Meat and Livestock in West Africa and Chad (PACBAO) have helped to empower especially women in communities with alternative sources of livelihoods to generate income for their welfare.
The PACBAO has also ensured that women in the communities now own cattle whilst feed production and feed processing for sale at livestock markets as well as for sale to livestock producers in the communities has also gained ground.
This formed part of the achievements of the PACBAO, which was implemented from June 2019 to June, this year in the Northern and Upper East Regions.
It was implemented by the Ghana Developing Communities Association, a non-governmental organisation, in a consortium with the University for Development Studies and the Pong Tamale Livestock Breeding Station, and the Bawku Livestock Dealers Association.
Mr Lukman Yussif, Director of Changing Lives in Innovative Partnerships, and Coordinator of the PACBAO, who made a presentation on the PACBAO and its achievements at a stakeholders’ workshop in Tamale, said it had made tremendous impact on the lives of the beneficiaries.
Mr Yussif said “PACBAO is an ECOWAS-sponsored project with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and we are working on a project known as intensification of the production of quality slaughter animals in the Northern and Upper East Regions.”
He said ECOWAS, through this intervention, was moving away from ECOWAS of States to ECOWAS of the people, which meant ECOWAS reaching out directly to citizens of Member States.
He touched on activities undertaken under PACBAO saying “What we have done in this consortium and the PACBAO is about targeting livestock breeders, livestock partners, feed producers, butchers and all the key stakeholders in the livestock value chain. We built their capacities on good animal husbandry practices involving training women, especially to engage in livestock feed production because after each harvest, there is a lot of farm residues that are left to go waste. How can we turn it into quality livestock feed? These are some of the interventions we have engaged in.”
He added that “We have selected women, who have been given cattle, small ruminants specifically sheep for breeding, and others were targeted for fattening to target festive seasons such as Eid-ul-Adha, Christmas and Easter.”
Mr Yussif said “I must say that we have seen tremendous changes in terms of the response of the people to this intervention. Some of the women say after receiving cattle, sheep, and training on feed production, it has empowered them in a way that it has become a livelihood source for them.”
He added that “And also speaking with our collaborators in the Gushegu and Bawku Municipalities, the PACBAO intervention is actually reaching the right people in the communities and that the project outcomes in terms of the response of the communities, especially women, who have formed 60 per cent of the project beneficiaries, is actually yielding the needed results.”
He noted that women beneficiaries saw the project as an empowerment for them and said “Because, in this part of the country, it is not common to see women owning, especially cows. But thanks to PACBAO, you now have women, who have cattle that they can call their own. You have women, who own not less than five sheep that they can call their own.”
He encouraged the beneficiaries to continue to put into practice the key capacity building exercise they benefited from saying “We have seen evidence of them applying the knowledge and others replicating from the direct beneficiaries. This is something we want them to continue especially in the midst of climate change. Where the crops do fail us, livestock becomes a cushion to support farmers’ families to be able to adapt to the effects of climate change.”
Madam Abibata Baba, a beneficiary from the Gushegu Municipality lauded the project and said it had helped to keep them busy all-year-round.
Mr Osman Musah, Gushegu Municipal Coordinating Director, said the project had complemented farming activities of the beneficiaries, adding that it was also breaking cultural myths regarding women’s ownership of cattle in the area.
