Women Integrated Development Organization (WIDO) is an independent local non-governmental organization founded in 2004 to address the prevailing social and economic inadequacies of the Upper West Region in Ghana.
WIDO focuses on women as its primary target and seeks to integrate field work with advocacy for women's rights issues and livelihood security, facilitating their development in rural communities that are socially and economically deprived, and using women's groups as focal points for community based initiatives.
Between 2009-2015, with the support of Plan International Ghana and other donors, WIDO developed the VSLA -Village Savings and Loan Associations across the region, where women groups meet weekly and make regular contributions, used later for emergency needs of the members. What has started in 2004 with 10 women connected in a micro-loan scheme, has now grown to 1,856 associations (each with around 30 women as members). With training and credit support, they support the women in the groups to develop independent means of income, and 85 of the VLSA have developed into independent co-operatives. Over 6,456 women have gained access to community banking and using the savings to invest in green businesses.
In their advocacy programme through the project called Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanism Project-GSAM, WIDO supports the education of individuals about their rights and empower them to oversee, monitor and hold accountable the representative of local government on capital development projects. They specifically monitored how local rural women were involved in the community decisions, empowering them to have a voice and monitoring their continuous inclusion and participation. 700 people became local monitors in charge of overseeing the local government policies for their communities, in 150 villages.
WIDO beneficiaries are agro-based with 85% of them being engaged with agriculture either directly or indirectly. WIDO in partnership with the Food and Agricultural Organization is creating employment among the rural poor families, by increasing the income level of rural women through Shea butter production and soya production, offering training to over 1450 women farmers on the farming, processing and marketing of shea, soya and maize.
Over the years WIDO has had successful partnerships with international donors like UNICEF, USAID, DFID, EU, CARE International, Plan International, World Vision Ghana, as well as created successful collaborations with Government agencies and Banks and other local stakeholders. Their programmes cover now 4 regions in Ghana and noticing the success of the initiatives they are planning to expand even more in the next year.
For more information, please visit their website.
