West Africa

We have been working in the West Africa region since 1996, with activities initially focussed on forest sector development and institutional reform. This led to our increasing engagement in land administration, biodiversity conservation, natural resource governance and civil society strengthening, as well as working in the unique circumstances of post-conflict and fragile states.  We have a strong track record for implementing large scale forest and land sector policy reform programmes, as well as in biodiversity conservation and environmental governance.  Other key competencies in the region include the design of mechanisms for civil society strengthening programmes and policy research funding facilities; innovative financing and incentives for forest and biodiversity conservation; and agricultural policy sector planning. We have experienced in-house staff and associate consultants who contribute to the company’s record of world class consulting in policy development and implementation.

Examples of our recent and ongoing work in the region include:

Feasibility study on Civil Society Support in Ghana for the European Commission: to identify the best way for the EC to support non-State Actors in Ghana under the 10th EDF programme, on the basis of a broad mapping of the existing civil society structures in the country and the environment in which they operate.

Technical Assistance to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Liberia to conduct a conflict mapping study throughout the Republic of Liberia in support of the national peace, security, unity and reconciliation objectives of the TRC and consistent with the mandates of both the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (ACPA) and the TRC Act 2005, as well as the peace building aspirations of the Government and people of the Republic of Liberia.

Ghana Rights and Voice Initiative (RAVI): support to the monitoring and evaluation component of this 5 year, £9 million programme, which provides grants to a wide range of NGOs and CSOs, including those working in the forest and natural resources sector and northern based NGOs.

Facilitation of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programme in Ghana: technical and process facilitation support to trade negotiations for the EU-Ghana Voluntary Partnership Agreement under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programme for DFID.

Sierra Leone, Drivers of Change Study: which facilitated better understanding of the context for pro-poor change and identified key operational implications to inform DFID’s Country Assistance Plan, with particular emphasis on the political economy of public sector reform and “up country” decentralisation.

In 2005 we established a regional office in Accra to facilitate our work in Ghana, and more broadly throughout the West Africa region.  We have three permanent staff members based in our West Africa office, as well as dedicated project support staff and consultants who visit regularly on a short term basis.  We have recently upgraded our office and moved to a new location in Ringway Estates, conveniently situated not far from the amenities of Oxford Street and Osu.  Click here to view a location map of our office.