North Centre For Development Alternatives (Ncda)

The North Centre for Development Alternatives (NCDA) is a people-centred think-and-do-tank, legally registered and headquartered in Tamale, the Northern regional capital of Ghana. Our principal goal is to craft and foster home-grown solutions to address the headwinds of sustainable local economic, political and social transformation of rural communities particularly in the North of Ghana. We are committed to identifying the pathways to transform and drive local economic development, reduce poverty, and ensure social mobility. • Market Systems: As leader of the ‘Market System Development Research Team' I'm responsible for providing leadership in identify the challenges to market systems development at the rural and peri-urban levels of northern Ghana and seek to reveal authoritative and accessible knowledge on how the M4P approach could help improve upon the delivery of public services. We are currently working on developing a toolkit on how local development finance institutions (microfinance, rural banks, and credit unions) can design pro-poor and market-based products and services to clients. • Climate Change: In this capacity, I provide support to the leader of NCDA's ‘Climate Change Action Research Team'. Our team aim to provide continuous collaboration and support to policymakers and help government agencies understand the various indigenous adaptation mechanisms to the headwinds of climate change and its vulnerabilities in the context of rural Ghana. Our action to address climate change vulnerabilities means, we talk to the rural peasant farmers, learn from their lived experiences; build on such solid indigenous knowledge-base on offer to advise governments and other stakeholders. • Policy Incubation: Responsible for providing policy direction and research into applying NCDA's problem-driven policy analysis framework to diagnose and align development priorities with the needs of citizens. In this capacity and together with other fellows at the centre, we work with political parties, entrepreneurs and decision-makers to create impactful and politically smart policies that drive transformation in the poorest regions of Ghana. • Designing Project and Interventions: Together with other fellows of the centre, I lead in providing specialised support to partners in development, such as; NGOs, charities and government counterparts in developing of pro-poor interventions based on evidence from our action-research.
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