By Kingsley Webora Tankeh
Ghana has joined the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) to provide funding for counter-terrorism activities in the country. The partnership was announced in a meeting at the Ministry of National Security, in Accra, on February 2, by the chair of the governing board of GCERF who led a delegation to Ghana. The country has consequently received an initial disbursement of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in emergency funding, while the fund engages with civil society organizations, donors and government to develop an investment strategy for the country.
GCERF which is the first global effort to support local, community-level initiatives aimed at strengthening resilience against violent extremism and terrorism, based in Geneva Switzerland, stands ready to support Ghana to mobilize expertise and resources to counter violent extremism and radicalization at the grassroots level.
“The objective is to put GCERF’s expertise and experience at the service of the Ghanaian government. We will intervene to counter the threats that are coming increasingly from the tensions that exist in the Sahel. We will collaborate with government to mobilize resources and expertise to empower the grassroots in countering terrorism and violent extremism,” the chair of the governing board of GCERF, Stefano Manservisi, spoke about GCERF’s commitment to support Ghana in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism.
The chief director of the Ministry of National Security, Ambassador Sena Siaw-Boateng, iterated the need for collaborative fight against terrorism and violent extremism, “We must employ non-kinetic approaches to address the root causes of these issues including socioeconomic disparities, marginalization and ideological differences. By working together, we can develop comprehensive strategies that promote peace, tolerance and resilience in our communities.”
Ghana is expected to receive the main GCERF grant of three million dollars this summer for a three-year period to support community level engagements to counter terrorism threats. The investment can be extended to six or nine years based on a need’s assessment. “We are trying to develop a strategy that is heavily consulted to make sure that from the outset we are doing something original and unique. The engagement is long term and sustainable. We will start with an initial three million investment for a three-year period which is subject to change depending on your needs and requirements,” the executive director of GCERF, Mr. Khalid Koser, stated.
The West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism, WACCE, has been engaged by GCERF to conduct a needs-based assessment of the vulnerabilities of terrorism and violent extremism in northern Ghana, which will then form the bases for designing and implementing the preventing violent extremism programs, PVEs. In the findings of the research, which was presented by Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar, executive director at WACCE, lay the major causes of conflict and violent extremism in the five northern regions, where the research has been concentrated. “Chieftaincy disputes, religious clashes and marginalization along ethnic lines” stood out as the major causes of violent extremism in northern Ghana, he emphasized. The researcher also added that, “there’s been lingering issues of reprisal attacks due to unsuccessful prosecution of perpetrators of violent crimes.”
Violent extremism has moved a bit further from the traditional causes in northern Ghana, as deep-seated factors including political affiliations, settling of personal scores also have the tendency of resulting in violent extremism. He is therefore worried about the current dynamics in northern Ghana and issues of unresolved conflicts adding that, “extremist groups are very exploitative. They take advantage of existing issues and conflicts either to recruit or engage in attacks.” WACCE under his leadership is currently undertaking a number of projects especially in northern Ghana aiming to prevent violent extremism through social cohesion; notably, BRAVE – Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism in partnership with the USA embassy in Ghana and Mining for Peace in partnership with the Australian government to build resilience in mining communities in the southern part of Ghana.
Despite the huge presence of NGOs in northern Ghana, Mutaru complains that there haven’t been any “sustainable gains in terms of checking for vulnerabilities and countering violent extremism.” Mutaru believes that there should be more action plans to counter the “eternal factors, that is, the potential spillover of the crisis in the Sahel region as Ghana is experiencing an influx of thousands of refugees from our neighboring terrorists plagued Burkina Faso.
Ghana is partnering Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) as part of an existing framework- the Accra Initiative. The initiative was adopted in 2017 to prevent a spillover of terrorism from the Sahel and to address transnational organized crime and violent extremism in the five member countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and Ghana, especially along their shared border areas. The trajectory of violent extremism and terrorism in the West Africa and Sahel region and the evolving security landscape make clear the need for Ghana to take proactive steps to improve coordination and collaboration among all stakeholders, including international partners.
