Environmental Governance and Regulation Needs Assessment and Capacity Building Plan, Ghana

Acorn International was commissioned to lead a multi-stakeholder study of Ghana’s needs in relation to environmental governance and regulation of its growing oil and gas industry.

The study, performed on behalf of Ghana’s Ministry of Environment under sponsorship of an oil company operating a portion of the Jubilee Field, involved evaluating current conditions, benchmarking global best practice and peer performance, identifying priority capacity building needs and developing and presenting a capacity development plan for meeting the highest priority needs.

Acorn International’s core team of consultants worked with our in-country partner plus two Ministry representatives to perform research, conduct interviews, lead workshops, develop recommendations and present findings to a multi-agency assembly charged with implementing the recommended developments.

Ghanaian agencies, NGOs and oil companies are coming together to support the capacity building plan because of its strong basis in the global benchmarking and collaborative, multi-stakeholder work methodology and its ability to help the Ministry of Environment.

Acorn International’s work gave the Ministry and other agencies the plans and foundations needed to take advantage of $58 million in funding that was made available from the World Bank for capacity building related to the increase in oil industry activities in Ghana.

Acorn International subsequently performed an Independent Assessment of Marine Environmental Conditions in Ghana under a joint initiative by an oil company, Ghana EPA and Ghana Ministry of Fisheries in response to high-profile complaints by fishermen about the alleged impacts of offshore E&P on fisheries. See study here. We then helped the government form a facilitate a multi-stakeholder Marine Fisheries Task Force to help maintain productive dialogue and solutions on marine resource use conflicts.