E4L PHASE 3

A REPORT ON THE BASE LINE STUDY/CAPACITY ASSESSMENT OF THE

SELECTED GROUPS IN THE MION DISTRICT.
For any development practitioner to effectively provide/offer an intervention to any
community/group, there is the need for the practitioner to carry out a capacity
assessment/baseline study to determine the current operational capacity of that
community/group. This will inform the practitioner the kind of help the
community/group required to function effectively. It is in the light of this therefore
that the E4L PHASE 3 programme designed and carried out group capacity
assessment in its six working districts. The Mion district carried out this assessment
from the 16th of March to the 4th of April 2015.
Below are the areas under consideration in this report.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CAPACITY ASSESSMENT/ BASE LINE STUDY.

The objectives of the baseline study include;
a. Asses the current organizational status of the selected groups
b. Determine the intervention needs of the selected groups
c. Provide bases for comparism at the end of the programme.

THE CAPACITY ASSESSMENT PROCESS

During the group capacity assessment process, three data collecting tools were
used to collect data from three set of groups. The tools were the Technically
Organizational Capacity Tool (TOCAT), self-administered questionnaire and an
interview guide which were used to gather data from the selected groups, the
district assembly and other decentralized departments and the community leaders
from the identified communities respectively.
Before the administering of the said tools, an itinerary was drawn by the Mion team
on when each group was to be assessed. Then, information was sent to the group
leaders/contact persons of each group.
During the assessment process, the team took each group and the community
leaders through the TOCAT and the interview guide respectively. They (groups and
community leaders) answer to the questions per the standards of the group. This
process was made simple for the mion team because each member from the team
understood the local language of the group members and also understood the
content of the TOCAT and the interview guide.

After taking the groups through the content of either the TOCAT or the interview
guide, the team also wanted to find out the groups challenges outside the content
asked them. The common issue that came out from almost all the groups was that,
they needed financial support in their area of operation, citing a case was the fact
that the farmers said their yield was in the decline because of their inability to meet
the high cost of farm inputs to boost their yield.
On the part of the self-administered questionnaire for the district assembly and the
other decentralized departments, much difficulty was not encountered since each
department could understand the needs of the questionnaire and provide them as
such. This was also as a result of the fact that the group had met each of these
departments during the groups identification and selection process and assured
them that the programme was to partner with them but not to compute with them.

VISITS TO THE TEAM DURING THE CAPACITY ASSESSMENT PROCESS

All the technical officers of the E4L progrmme visited the Mion to observe the
progress of work done in the district and also to offer any assistance to the team
should there be any encountered cases.
The first officer to have visited the team was the Organizational Capacity Building
Officer, Mr. Ibrahim Abudu followed by the programme Advocacy and
Communication Officer (PACO) Madam Rosemond Kumah who was met in the field
by the monitoring and Evaluation officer, Mr. Peter Porekuu.
All the officer visited the team express satisfaction with the work done by the team.

CHALLENGES AND SUGGESTIONS.

The team encountered so many problems with regards finance. For instance, most
of the groups had membership turn out of more than the thirty (30) member ceiling
giving by the programme, hence posing a challenge in meeting the snack needs of
the extra members.
Another challenge with regards the finance was the amount allocated for fuel. The
team exceeded the five hundred Ghana Cedis (GHC 500) allocated for fuel due to
extra movements such as the to and fro Tamale to transport the programme
advocacy and communication officer to the field.
The above challenges encountered can be attributed to the absence of a member
from the district in the budgeting process for the exercise.

From the above challenges due to managerial lapses, the team therefore advises
management to find an alternative means of conveying offices to the field for
monitoring instead of relying on the district team vehicle without extra fuel.

CONCLUSION
Despite the challenges mentioned above and others which have not been
mentioned in this report, the group was able to carry out the exercise successfully
and it is therefore the hope of the team that the suggestions provided above will be
considered for further successful carrying out of such exercises so as for the
programme to succeed.
Thank you.