Help us give digital access to women in rural Ghana

The Hunger Project (THP) is a global, non-profit, strategic organisation committed to ending hunger and poverty by pioneering sustainable, grassroots, women-centred strategies and advocating for their widespread adoption in countries throughout the world. Their programmes throughout Africa, South Asia and Latin America are based on an innovative, holistic approach and Vision, Commitment and Action (VCA) methodology, which empowers women and men living in rural villages to become the agents of their own development and make sustainable progress in overcoming hunger and poverty.

In Africa, The Hunger Project has developed and implemented an approach to ending chronic hunger called The Epicentre Strategy. This strategy brings together a cluster of villages (5,000 to 25,000 people) to create a holistic, dynamic centre of community-led mobilisation with social infrastructure in the form of elected, gender-balanced committees and physical infrastructure in the form of a multi-function building. Epicentres follow an integrated four-phase plan that puts development in the hands of local people -- who generate measurable outcomes across all sectors of development. By implementing the proposed project within the existing work and locations of THPs communities, it will benefit from unique knowledge of the local context -- including locally-identified needs and locally-generated priorities, in which women and girls have had a voice. These needs and priorities will be integrated into the implementation from the beginning. In that setting and context, a sustainable program for rural women's digital inclusion will be co-developed -- both with The Hunger Project and their local partners -- including women leaders -- at epicentre sites. Through the project, Internet access will be extended to the THP Epicentres in each community. Here, a Community ICT Centre (CIC) is established with 10 workspaces including computers, furniture and other inventory, dedicated for project participants.

The project aims to increase young women's (ages 15-34) economic opportunities by providing meaningful connectivity and eliminating digital inclusion barriers for 6,000 women in five rural and semi-urban communities in the Eastern Region in Ghana.

This project will build on Bluetown's extensive experience providing Internet access in previously unserved or underserved rural communities in several countries in the Global South during the past seven years. The gender digital divide is significant across these markets, which must be addressed to digitally include the remaining 37% of the world's population, which still lacks access to connectivity.

Through the project, Bluetown and partners will implement a rural connectivity model, which incorporates cost-effective rural Internet infrastructure solutions, cost-free access to digital educational content, and local engagement and partnerships. Further, the project aims to give women the skills, tools, motivations, and enabling environment for digital inclusion while facilitating the use of digital content, training, and services for digital skills, workforce development, entrepreneurship and small business management, financial services, agricultural practices, and health and nutrition awareness to improve the livelihoods of the participating women and their families.

The project will serve as a pilot for creating a sustainable approach for enabling women's digital inclusion that can be adapted and scaled across rural and semi-urban Ghana over the next decade.

The goal of the project will be achieved through three objectives.
*1. Provide and/or enhance access to Internet connectivity.

*2. Facilitate an enabling environment for women to gain meaningful Internet access in their communities.

*3. Offer opportunities for women through access to digital services, content and training.

Based on seven years of learning, Bluetown has developed a holistic rural connectivity model, ensuring that services offered go beyond connecting the unconnected, to also enable impact. In order to create sustained impact through digital inclusion, in LMICs, Bluetown applies an innovative, self-sustaining commercial model that not only provides affordable Internet, but also focuses on building the capacity and relevance for the Internet in those areas.

Bluetown's approach to enabling young women's meaningful Internet access combines Bluetown's rural connectivity model, with partners expertise, proven programs, methodologies, content and services as well as their knowledge of local context and needs, and is delivered through the following Inputs:

*1. Bluetown's rural Internet solutions

*2. Digital portals on Bluetown's Local Cloud

*3. Community ICT Centres

4. Digital financial services and smart device leasing in rural settings

5. Local community organisation and training

6. Marketing and awareness initiatives

The program in the rural communities will be implemented in partnership with The Hunger Project in Adonkwanta, Akode and Supreso, three of their total of 37 Ghanaian Epicentre locations.

To find out more visit - thehungerproject.org.uk/

Photo by - ©Tina Forslund-The Hunger Project-Ghana, 2020