Ghana: Listening Campaign Engages Thousands of People Across Ghana

The FAITH in Ghana Alliance’s regional alliances identified eighteen communities across Ghana to pilot multi-faith community organizing. The regional alliances met with local religious and civic leaders, talked with local residents, and organized trainings for people to learn about multi-faith organizing. During the summer and fall, teams of local residents and religious leaders from Christian and Muslim faiths have begun listening to their neighbors to understand their priorities.

Drawing on the lessons learned from Rwanda, members of the new Community Faith Alliances have been asking people four basic questions: how long they have lived in the community, what development they’ve seen, what change they would like to see, and what role they are willing to play. So far, they’ve listened to the concerns of more than 1,856 people toward a goal of having at least 3,800 one-to-one conversations.

Next, the Community Faith Alliances in each of the eighteen communities are organizing community “Durbars” to select a priority issue. In early November, they’ll gather with FAITH in Ghana’s regional alliances to share their learning and deepen their organizing skills.

The FAITH in Ghana is seeking to build community faith alliances across Ghana and is currently relying on the distributed efforts of hundreds of multi-faith leaders volunteering their time to the effort. The goal is to build public will for investment in education, jobs, health, and other critical infrastructure and create democratic accountability between residents and their elected and appointed officials, which is crucial for overcoming Ghana’s serious economic and social challenges.