The intervention in the Bawku West District in Upper East Region. dubbed "Livelihood Enhancement and Agricultural Development for Sustainability (LEADS) project" is under the broader project "Enhancing Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience of the most food insecure and vulnerable host communities and asylum seekers in the Upper East Region project."

It is being implemented with funding from the French Government through the World Food Programme (WFP) and would benefit the asylum seekers at Tarikom and five host communities namely Tarikom, Sapeliga, Tilli, Widnaba and Timonde.

The project would directly benefit 245 households resulting in 2,254 individuals and it is expected to improve food and nutrition security of the beneficiaries, build their resilience and foster social cohesion among host communities and asylum seekers.

The project will further compliment efforts of government to provide the needed support to the asylum seekers and host communities to live dignified lives and ensure resilience.

Speaking during a stakeholder engagement and needs assessment validation workshop in Zebilla as part of implementation of the project, Dr Isaac Kankam-Boadu, Country Director, ADRA Ghana, said 80 percent of the interventions would go to the asylum seekers while 20 percent would benefit the host communities.

He mentioned that the project would provide support and empower the beneficiaries to venture into climate-smart agriculture including vegetable, grains and legumes production, livestock and guinea fowl farming, aquaculture and vocational training and skills development.

"We are involving the host communities because we want to ensure social cohesion," Dr Kankam-Boadu, who is also the Project Manager of LEADS project stated.

"It's always not pleasant that you have foreigners in your community, and they are the ones always receiving support and benefit, when indeed the host communities are sharing their resources with them, that is why the LEADS project is allocating 20 percent of the total project beneficiaries to the host communities".

The Country Director explained that beyond the initial support to venture into livelihood and income generating activities, the project would link the beneficiaries to value chain actors to ensure viable market linkages were created for their products.

To ensure effective roll out and proper targeting, a needs assessment was conducted, and the stakeholder engagement was an avenue for the relevant stakeholders to validate the findings, adopt it for future use and partner them in the implementation process.

The engagement brought together stakeholders from the Department of Agriculture, Water Resources Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Fishery Commission and other NGOs, host chiefs and community members and some leaders of the asylum seekers, among others.

Mr Joseph Kpamka Dindiok, Monitoring and Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Manager, ADRA Ghana, sharing the findings with the stakeholders indicated that, the research revealed that most of the beneficiaries were into crop farming including maize and rice, adding that lots of the resources would therefore go into supporting them to go into
agriculture activities.

He expressed optimism that due to the partnership with the relevant state stakeholders, the project would be sustained after it ends September 2025 and lessons replicated by other stakeholders.

Mr Alhassan Ahmed, Bawku West District Coordinating Director, lauded ADRA Ghana and its partners for their support over the years and added that the support would go a long way to improve food and nutrition security of beneficiaries and promote social cohesion.