Inception Workshop

A project inception was held on 28th September 2023. The workshop brought together over one hundred stakeholders and partners from government, international development organisations, civil society, national media, social commentators, private sector, academics, researchers, and other actors working on forced displacement issues in the West African sub-region (Kindly refer to the full report). 

The stakeholders included, the IOM, Ministry of Gender and Children Protection, Ministry of Interior, Ghana Refugee Board, GIZ, Ghana Police Service, OXFAM, RECFAM, National Disaster Management Board, UNHCR, The Ministry of Education, representatives from embassies such as British High Commission, Togo, Nigeria and Benin, private sectors such as Free the Slaves, Ghana Integrity Initiative. 

Female stakeholders were adequately represented and played a key roles in asking questions and making contributions. Usually, the workshops we have at CMS records higher presentation of men, this launch and inception workshop was well attended by women.  

The workshop was held at the University of Ghana’s campus and provided the opportunity for the research team to introduce the forced displacement in West Africa project to the stakeholders. The workshop was used to provide stakeholders with the overall goal of the project, objectives, research questions, methodology and planned activities, expected outputs and the steps and pathways to disseminating the project results and achieve impact. 

The meeting was used to also strengthen ongoing collaboration between CMS and the relevant institutions and to provide a platform for the stakeholders to make input into the overall design and implementation of the project activities. The next steps of the project’s implementation activities were outlined to the stakeholders and their feedback on how to enhance the impact of the research were also received.

The inception workshop also provided opportunity for key project partners namely, the the International Organisation for Migration, the Ghana Refugee Board, and the National Disaster Management to present current initiatives being undertaken to enhance the wellbeing and integration of refugees in Ghana and West Africa at large. 

Best practices, innovative solutions, and challenges in dealing with forced displacement situation were discussed among the workshop participants. A key issue that was discussed extensively during the project inception meeting was that there are various organisations and actors working in silos on forced displacement issues in west Africa. Therefore, stakeholders emphasised the need for collaboration of efforts of different stakeholders as part of efforts to address forced displacement in the sub-region.

During the inception workshop, the project was launched using Kɛkɛ dance to depict the challenges of displacement men and women and how everyone, whether at the grassroot or top level should be involved in finding efficient protection to IDPs and refugees. This artistic performance of the launch was well commended by all participants.