The projects are being undertaken and monitored in collaboration with Friends of the Nation (FON), a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO), under the 'Fair 4 All Agriculture and Extractive Value Chains projects'.

Out of the 15 projects, 11 have been completed and two are on-ongoing, with the additional two yet to commence.

The joint project, dubbed, "Gender-Responsive Tracking of Minerals Development Fund (MDF)," is the brain child of OXFAM International, being implemented by a consortium in Ghana with FoN being the main implementers in the Western Region.

Mr George Edusei Gyebi, an Assistant Development Planning Officer at the Ellembelle District Assembly, at a two-day capacity building workshop, said the engagement centered on how to utilise the MDF in terms of projects allocation, and gender-mainstreaming in the exercusion of these projects.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Team of the MDF also paid a visit to the project sites in the various beneficiary communities including Salman, Bomoakpole, Edwakpole and Akoto.

At Salman, the team discovered that although an MDF-funded Junior High School (JHS) classroom block had been completed it was still under lock and key.

Mr Stephen Angate, the Headteacher of the Salman District Assembly Basic School, said the school's enrollment had increased over time, leading to congestion in the old structure and appealed to the District Assembly to hand over the JHS their block for use.

Mr Gyebi, who is also an Assistant Project Office, said the Assembly had paid the contractor fully and that measures would be taken to hand over the new classroom block to the school.

At Bomoakpole, the team inspected a completed three-unit classroom block for the JHS which was already in use. However, the team was not happy that ten computers supplied to the ICT Laboratory under the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), were yet to be used because the school was yet to be connected to the National Electricity Grid.

Madam Jennifer Akua Afriyie, the Assistant Headteacher of the school, appealed for the urgent intervention of the Assembly to liaise with the Electricity Company of Ghana to connect the school to the national grid.

The Chief of Ambainu, Nana Nyameke Fofole, during the visit by the team, appealed to the Assembly to help repair a dysfunctional solar water tank installed by Sun Power Innovation almost four years ago, to provide water to the community.

Later at Edwakpole, the team observed that a five-unit seater water closet toilet and five-unit bathhouse for the community was nearing its completion, while at Akoto at the Community Center built by the MDF had been turned into a Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound.

The Chief of the town, Nana Nyanzu Amihere IV, said the place was being used as a temporal health facility and appealed to the Assembly to help the community build a CHPS Compound.

Mr William Augustine -Denkyi, a Project Officer with FON, entreated the communities to follow up on MDF- initiated projects in their communities.
He said the inspection afforded the team the opportunity to assess the impact of MDF projects in the communities.