Creating a more inclusive Ghana

In Ghana, people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions, continue to face stigma and discrimination. Our UK aid-funded programme, Ghana Somubi Dwumadie (Ghana Participation Programme) and its grant partners, have made significant strides in addressing stigma and discrimination in the country. Since 2020, the programme has supported 20 grassroots organisations through grants, serving as a catalyst for the development of innovative interventions that deliver lasting change.

At its core, Ghana Somubi Dwumadie operates on the principles of partnership and support. Recognising the unique challenges faced by people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions, the programme provided funding support to civil society organisations, including disabled people’s organisations and women’s rights organisations, to develop interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination. 

The programme’s approach:

1. User-led approaches: One of the team’s key strategies was to involve people with disabilities in a collaborative and inclusive manner in the planning, design and implemention of the programme. This participatory process enabled a deeper understanding of the local community context that allowed the team to provide tailored solutions that met their specific needs.

“One of the benefits of involving key stakeholders is that we gained insights into their needs from the local community context, helping us adapt solutions that address their needs. This increased ownership and adaptability of these solutions within the communities we worked in.”

JOSEPH MENSAH, COMMUNITY BASED REHABILITATION GRANT ADVISER, BASIC NEEDS-GHANA (PROGRAMME CONSORTIUM PARTNER)

2.  Language: Recognising that communities often use negative terminologies when describing people with disabilities, the programme’s grantees developed local language guides. These provide alternative, positive terminologies to encourage respectful and inclusive language within communities. Our grantees worked with people with disabilities, traditional leaders, religious leaders, caregivers and language experts to ensure the terminology developed no longer stigmatised people with disabilities or mental health conditions.

“We brought together 162 stakeholders to brainstorm and agree on terminology that can be used for people with disabilities. We pre-tested these terminologies to ensure they were well-received by people with disabilities in describing them.”

FRANCIS ASONG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT AFRICA DISABILITY INSTITUTE (FORMERLY VOICE GHANA)

3.  Including ambassadors and disability champions: To sustain the momentum in reducing stigma and discrimination, some of our grantees like Hope for Future Generations and Africa Disability Institute identified and trained people with disabilities, mental health conditions and allies, as inclusion ambassadors and disability champions.

“What Hope for Future Generations did with funding support from Ghana Somubi Dwumadie, was to identify and train people with disabilities as ambassadors and inclusion champions. These ambassadors were equipped with the essential skills, knowledge, information, and necessary resources to actively engage with community members to raise awareness and appeared on community radio programmes to promote disability equality.”

GLADYS DAMALIN, CONSULTANT AT HOPE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

The Ghana Somubi Dwumadie programme’s commitment to inclusion and user-led approaches is helping to shift the narrative for people with disabilities and mental health conditions in Ghana. This sows the seeds for a brighter and more inclusive future in the country that enables the most marginalised to live free from stigma and discrimination.