GIMPA to undertake research on One Village, One Dam

The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration(GIMPA) has received a grant of $379,215 to undertake a research on government's flagship programme, One Village, One Dam (1V1D).

The project is christened "The Impact of Irrigation on Improved Productivity and Market Value for Smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana: an Evidence from the 1V1D.

The research is funded by the Feed the Future Advancing Local Leadership and Innovation Networks initiative, an innovative collaboration between the Kenya-based think tank International Centre for Evaluation and Development and the US- based Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk and Resilience at the University of California at Davis.

Professor Charles Amoatey, the Principal Investigator for the project, said the research was important because the effects of climate change globally on livelihoods and food security was of great concern to many nations, which needed urgent attention.

In the agricultural sector, he said, fluctuating and unreliable rainfall, reduction in rainy days, drought and flooding had affected crop yield and the rearing of livestock.

Prof Amoatey said dams were a promising approach in Northern Ghana to secure a water supply for irrigation to increase agricultural productivity, because the use of groundwater was very low.

Government in 2017 launched the One Village, One Dam initiative which seeks to make irrigation accessible to small-scale farmers in the Northern half of the country.

He said the evaluation of the project would include a Randomized Controlled Trial and factual analysis of the 1V1D initiative theory of change.



That approach, he said, would help the team of researchers to identify context-specific issues that supported the social, political and economic setting of the project initiative.

Dr. Andrew Asibey, Senior Technical Advisor to the National Coordinator, Monitoring and Evaluation Secretariat, Office of the President, lauded the partnership opportunities and looked forward to discuss the findings of the results for the benefit of all.

The evaluation of the 1V1D initiative include interviews, focus group discussions and detailed documentary analysis on the theory of change.

The Professor said the team of researchers would work hard to complete the project on time, stressing that the results would provide evidence on the most effective ways to ensure that national-scale investments in dams serving small-scale farming communities yielded the greatest benefits for rural families.

Dr. David Ameyaw, President of the International Centre for Evaluation and Development, commended GIMPA for being among the four Ghanaian Universities out of the 12 in Africa selected for the research grant to build the capacities of researchers for international competitions.

Prof Martin Tuuli, the Deputy Rector, GIMPA said the institute would continue to uphold its tenet of excellence and demonstrate commitment to the project for impact assessment and evaluation.