Faith in Action is helping the FAITH in Ghana Alliance reorganize to increase its impact on social conditions in Ghana and build multi-faith grassroots participation across the country. Muslim, Catholic, Pentecostal and Mainline Protestant religious leaders and lay people are embracing grassroots organizing to strengthen the ties that connect religious groups in Ghana and address critical local and national issues of youth employment, access to clean water, protecting the environment from mining and improving health and education services and investment in the poorest communities in the country.
In 2015, ahead of a national election, Ghanaian faith leaders from eight Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal religious bodies joined together as the FAITH in Ghana Alliance to assure peaceful voting and that both major political parties would abide by the election results. Their success led to other joint projects to educate students about corruption, protect the environment, and combat land-grabbing.
In 2019, members of the FAITH in Ghana Alliance began a conversation with Faith in Action International about partnering to promote greater grassroots leadership in the Alliance. After a planning process supported by Faith in Action, religious leaders made a decision to re-organize the FAITH in Ghana Alliance for greater impact and to support grassroots organizing in each of the 16 regions in the country.
Today, FAITH in Ghana Alliance supports grassroots organizing in 40 communities across ten of Ghana’s 16 regions. Grassroots leaders and Muslim and Christian religious leaders are working to bring vocational high schools, health centers, roads and bridges, clean water and other improvements to their communities. They are challenging local officials – who are appointed by the President under Ghana’s constitution – to be accountable to the needs of local communities, and pressing Ghana to invest more of its great wealth in development.
