Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of Ghana’s economy: constituting 70% of GDP and 92% of all businesses. This notwithstanding, SMEs in Ghana face various constraints (including limited access to credit facilities and international markets). A major challenge in a dynamic and interconnected economy is SME’s inadequate access to appropriate information communication technology which, moreover, is a key ingredient for tapping into global markets for business transactions.

The COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to increase global extreme poverty to about 150 million people by 2021. While it is difficult to state the full socio-economic impact of the pandemic, it is envisaged to have adverse effects on vulnerable groups and participants within informal sectors of many economies, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The United Nations report that the achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is being threatened by poverty, inequality, and exclusion; as a result, the most vulnerable are being further marginalized.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is currently collaborating with SNV Netherlands Development Organization under the umbrella of its Voice for Change Partnership (V4CP) in Kenya, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Honduras, and Indonesia. Within this research program, V4CP intended implementing a research project to better understand the nature and consequences of food losses in 12 districts spread across the 3 northern regions – Upper West, Northern and Upper East.

The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) has been engaged to undertake an independent monitoring of the Environmental and Social Sustainability Interventions Project (ESSP), which aims at ensuring environmentally sustainable practices, women’s empowerment and the elimination of child labour in the 50 cocoa producing districts.

mNutrition is a global initiative supported by DFID, organized by GSMA, and implemented by in-country mobile network operators (MNOs) to use mobile technology to improve the health and nutritional status of children and adults in the developing world.

This is a six-year interdisciplinary research project – funded through the “Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development” (r4d programme) by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – that draws on the disciplines of economics, law and political science, to analyse how commodity-trade related Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) from resource-rich countries can be significantly reduced in order to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) is a five-year, Research Programme Consortium funded by UK aid from the UK Government through the Department for International Development (DFID) and will run from 2016 -2022. This project aims at analysing the impacts and outcomes of pathways to agricultural commercialization on rural poverty, empowerment of women and girls and food and nutrition security in Ghana and six other Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a global partnership that brings together government reformers and civil society leaders to create action plans that make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) joined OGP in 2016. This project is designed to report on progress by STMA towards meeting its commitments as stated in their Local Action Plan for 2018-2020.

To address some of the challenges facing the agricultural sector in Northern Ghana, USAID/Ghana awarded a Cooperative Agreement No. AID-641-A-14-0001 2014 to a consortium led by ACDI/VOCA to implement its Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement II (ADVANCE II) Activity, as a follow-on to the successful initial ADVANCE activity which ended in March 2014.

Trade is a central factor in shaping global, regional, and local development. Increased trade, empowered by the growth of Global Value Chains (GVCs), has boosted productivity and incomes in many countries. However, if not fairly regulated, trade might generate increases in inequality and negative impacts on working conditions in developing countries and compromise the environment.