Soaring food inflation and rising debt have eroded Ghana’s progress in reducing poverty and expanding social services. While the economy is growing again, high food and fuel prices persist. Over one million Ghanaians are food insecure, and one million children under five are chronically malnourished.
Climate change is having a devastating impact in northern Ghana, where there is now a single rainy season severely reducing yields, increasing food insecurity, and preventing farmers from investing in sustainable growth.
In 2025, Kinvia and its donors supported 6,269 people in Ghana:
366 people (77% women) took part in agricultural training and 325 people (69% women) received agricultural inputs
75 households received animal husbandry/vet support
36 new business ventures were established
585 people (88% women) are involved in 23 credit/savings groups
570 students participated in after-school clubs/programs
Ghana is committed to reducing poverty and inequality by 50% by 2027. The government has identified several strategies to transform Ghana into a middle-income country by 2030, including increasing access to education and healthcare, promoting economic growth, and improving infrastructure.
United Nations, SDG Summit 2023
The Challenges
POVERTY & FOOD INSECURITY
Ghana continues to recover slowly from record-high inflation in 2023 and 2024. The costs of food and fuel drove many more people into poverty, which was already much higher in the northern regions. Poverty has limited farmers’ abilities to buy agricultural inputs and reduced their yields. Many smallholder farmers in the north are unable to meet their families’ basic needs. Food security and child malnutrition is high and climbing with 4 of 10 children nutritionally-deprived in northern Ghana.
LOW QUALITY EDUCATION
Lack of access to schools, teaching materials, and qualified teachers prevents many Ghanaian children from getting a good education. Many adults have little formal education themselves and lack literacy and numeracy skills to help their children or fully develop their own economic potential. Gender inequalities in education persist: when economic resilience is low, boys’ education is favoured over girls’.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Increases in temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and ongoing deforestation and soil erosion continue to hinder Ghanaian smallholders’ agricultural productivity. There is now just one rainy season, often delayed or shorter. In July-August 2024, a severe drought led to large-scale crop and livestock loss, followed by flooding that did further damage to crops and property. High levels of poverty among Ghana’s rural farm families prevent many from investing in climate-adaptive agricultural techniques and inputs that would improve their yields.
GENDER INEQUALITY
Women in Ghana generally cannot own land and even if they do have access to land, it is less productive and earns them less income. Women lack access to the credit, technology, inputs, training or markets needed to establish and grow their agricultural businesses. Entrenched gender bias curtails girls’ access to education and women’s full participation in their own social and economic development.
Current Initiatives
FOOD SECURITY & CLIMATE-ADAPTIVE AGRICULTURE
Hover or tap to find out moreYou can help smallholder farmers increase their use of climate-adaptive agricultural practices by:
- Fostering the use of climate-resilient agricultural training and techniques
- Providing greater access to community / agricultural extension services
- Increasing women’s access to land, credit, markets, inputs that enable them to fully and fairly contribute to agricultural productivity and share in its profits
- Supporting dry season farming, climate-friendly pesticide and fertilizer use, irrigation systems, ploughing and planting strategies, weather forecasting, indigenous seed preservation and use to better adapt to changing weather, maximize growing seasons, and increase yields
WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
Hover or tap to find out moreYou can help women gain business skills and establish good livelihoods by:
- Targeting women’s involvement in agricultural training and increasing their access to land, credit, markets, and inputs that maximize yields and profits
- Encouraging women to join credit and savings co-ops, income-generating groups, farm-based organizations
- Offering business skills training and linking women to markets and value-addition opportunities, including through business incubation hubs
- Encouraging women to take leadership roles in farm-based organizations, as community/agricultural extension agents, and in demonstration farms
- Engaging communities to understand
YOUTH ENGAGEMENT & VOCATIONAL SKILLS TRAINING
Hover or tap to find out moreYou can help youth gain business skills and good livelihoods in their home communities by:
- Providing seed capital
- Offering business skills training
- Supporting mentorship, apprenticeship and occupational skills training
Children's Education
Hover or tap to find out moreYou can support children’s education by investing in programs that:
- Equip schools and school clubs with textbooks, school supplies, classroom and playground equipment
- Train and support teachers, school-management committees and PTAs to support governance and develop action plans that address the barriers to education for girls and boys
- Engage parents, teachers, and other community leaders in raising awareness about the value of girls’ education and the barriers that prevent girls from attending and completing school (SGBV, harmful traditional practices like early marriage)
Learn more
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Stories of Impact: International
Check out how your support has contributed to food security, women's equality, children's education and more in Kinvia donor-supported communities around the world.Download
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Partner with us
Join a growing community committed to making long-term changeMembers of the leadership
giving circle
giving circle
Food Security
366
people (77% women) took part in agricultural training
325
people (69% women) received agricultural inputs
75
households received animal husbandry/vet support
Livelihoods & Income
36
new business ventures were established
585
people (88%women) are involved in 23 credit/savings groups
Children's Education
1,145
students attend 4 primary schools supported by Kinvia
436
parents/caregivers and 8 teachers trained
570
students participated in after-school clubs/programs
Hearing from communities
About their most significant change
[With the revival of indigenous food crops including Bambara bean and fonio], we are happy [to be able] to provide adequate and nutritious meals for our children but more importantly to revamp our food heritage.
With the weather information, I am now able to make better decisions on the type of crops to plant and the planting time. I am sure of a good harvest and food security for my household this year.
My views have changed. Now, we do everything together. I now involve my wife fully in our farm work and she too supports me. We see ourselves as partners in all family matters and business now and this has raised our farming income.
The team & approach
DELIVERING COMMUNITY-LED RESULTS THROUGH STRONG PARTNERSHIPS AND STRATEGIC ALLIANCES IN GHANA
REGIONAL ADVISORY INFORMATION & NETWORK SYSTEMS (RAINS)
RAINS works in Ghana’s Northern Region, supporting productive livelihoods, access to education, and climate-smart agriculture by providing grassroots capacity-building in the sustainable use and management of natural resources.
Join us to support long-term change
YOUR COMMITMENT TO CHANGE IN GHANA WILL HELP BUILD A HEALTHY FUTURE FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES
Greater access to education through improved infrastructure, teacher training and recruitment, greater community engagement.
Food security, dietary diversity, and better family nutrition through training on climate-resilient agricultural techniques and alternative livelihoods (especially for women).
Economic resiliency is supported via income generation through both agricultural and alternative means, and community-led programs such as Village Savings & Loans Associations targeted especially to women.
Higher school attendance, retention and graduation rates; equity in good educational outcomes for boys and girls; greater valuing of girls’ education.
