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3. INTEGRATION OF CROSSCUTTING ISSUES AND USAID FORWARD PRIORITIES
3.1 Gender Equality and Female Empowerment
Please see IR5 for information on activities directly related to this issue.
3.2 Sustainability Mechanisms
Emphasis is placed on: Involvement of relevant government officials in project planning and implementation to
ensure continuity. Continued capacity building and development of local stakeholders and partners will greatly
assist project sustainability. HM leveraged existing partnerships and good relationship with local authorities in the Western
region during field activity implementation. Opportunities for tailoring interventions to support implementation of district MTDPS and spatial plans were explored with beneficiary district
assemblies and regional coordinating councils. Furthermore, hiring of local leaders from fishing communities for data collection has fostered improved communication and buy-in of fisher folks
into project objectives refer to success story below.
SpS has actively involved people from the communities and the district assemblies as field officers who assisted in data collection and in the data analysis. It is envisaged that this process
of local involvement will create ownership for the project and it sustenance will be on a sound footing.
3.3 Environmental Compliance
All training documents and training curricula were reviewed to ensure that they were environmentally sound. The points outlined in the mitigation measures were also strictly
followed. CEWEFIA has also monitored the activities of the MSMEs. The monitoring revealed that some MSMEs were using the safety measures they acquired from the training.
The environmental compliance officer visited some of the sites selected by partners and women beneficiaries for construction of demonstration stoves. There were a few problems with site
selection as noted below and partners are being re-trained and reminded of environmental mitigation measures required in the EMMP.
To ensure that environmental compliance measures are in place, CEWEFIA in collaboration with the Environmental Compliance Officer Hen Mpoano visited the sites where the construction
and renovation of the smokers would be done. The Project team visited Moree on 5th September 2015, Elmina on 31st August 2015 and Anlo on 31st August 2015. In Moree, the site proved not
to be environmentally feasible and therefore a new site is being looked out for, to enable CEWEFIA to construct a demonstration oven for the women. Elmina and Anlo sites meet the
Site Selection Criteria and were approved by the Environmental Compliance Officer. Construction of the improved smoking ovens is ongoing in Elmina. The compliance officer
ensured that all safety and health measures were followed.
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3.4 Global Climate Change