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Savannah Project
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Upholding Rights, Dignity, and Combating Witchcraft Accusations and Stigma for Women and Children in the Savannah

The issue of women and children being unjustly accused of witchcraft across the Savannah region of Ghana is a critical issue that requires a comprehensive initiative to address and mitigate its effects. Berecons Development Initiative’s (BDI) Savanah Project will involve short-term and medium-to-long interventions to address the needs of the women and children accused and incarcerated as witches. The project will involve various stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society organisations, and religious leaders. The Savannah Project is planned to run for 24 months (two years), during which it will employ a multifaceted approach encompassing research, advocacy, support provision, and community engagement to address the phenomenon of accusations of witchcraft in Ghana. 

Project Objectives

The primary objective of this project is to mitigate the plight of women and children unjustly accused of witchcraft across the Savannah region. Specifically, the project aims to:

  1. Provide short-term support to women and children in witch camps, including access to water, food, health care, and education for their children.

  2. Investigate the cultural, social, and economic factors contributing to the unjust accusations of witchcraft against women and children in the Savannah region, with the goal of identifying systemic solutions and fostering community-based resilience to inform evidence-based interventions and policy recommendations.

  3. Advocate for the enactment and enforcement of national legislation criminalising witch-hunting.

  4. Engage with key traditional authorities and religious and opinion leaders to outlaw the practice of witch-hunting in their jurisdictions.

  5. Reintegrate inmates back into their home communities through community education and advocacy.

  6. Promote the development of standards, licensing, and regulation of informal camps and shelters.

  7. Ensure continuous close monitoring of such facilities (in collaboration with credible religious authorities/CSOs).

  8. Build a critical mass of advocates for the cause.

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Proposed Activities

The Savannah Project involves a combination of short-term and medium-to-long-term interventions. Short-term needs include providing women and children water, food, health care, and education support in witch camps. The medium-to-long-term interventions comprise:

  1. Conducting ethnographic studies and community consultations to understand the socio-cultural dynamics perpetuating accusations of witchcraft, informing the development of sustainable, community-driven interventions to address root causes and promote social inclusion and justice.

  2. Engaging with key traditional authorities and religious leaders to outlaw the practice of witch-hunting in their jurisdictions.

  3. Promoting the development of standards, licensing, and regulation of informal camps and refugees.

  4. Reintegrating inmates back into their home communities through community education, advocacy, and reconciliation programmes.

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Project Outcomes

The expected outcomes of The Savannah Project include:

  1. Through providing basic needs such as water, food, and healthcare, women and children at the camps will have better access to the necessities of life, improving their overall well-being.

  2. Yield a comprehensive understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics behind witchcraft accusations, informing targeted interventions, including collaborative efforts and policy development with relevant stakeholders to prevent such injustices and promote social inclusion. These efforts aim to reduce the incidence of accusations, empower affected inmates and families, and foster long-term societal change in the Savannah region.

  3. Community education, engagement with key traditional authorities, religious and opinion leaders, and advocacy drives will promote the inmates’ reintegration into their communities.

  4. The advocacy drive to enact and enforce national legislation criminalising witch-hunting will protect future generations of women and children from being unjustly accused and persecuted.

  5. The cooperation of key gatekeeper chiefs such as the Ya Na (of Dagbon) and Na Yiri (of Mamprusi land) in outlawing the practice of witch-hunting in their traditional jurisdictions will serve as a deterrent to the practice.

  6. Educational support for children and regular esteem-building visits will improve the social acceptance of women and children and promote their reintegration into society.

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Impact Monitoring

To ensure that the project is achieving its objectives, the team will conduct impact monitoring and evaluation through the following means:

  1. Regular site visits will be conducted to monitor progress and identify any issues that must be addressed.

  2. To ensure the project’s effectiveness, our M&E activities will include research-based data collection and analysis, incorporating quantitative and qualitative methods to assess changes in socio-cultural dynamics, attitudes, and outcomes related to accusations of witchcraft. Further, community consultations, focus group meetings, and participatory research will inform ongoing adaptations and improvements to interventions, ensuring responsiveness to evolving needs and context.

  3. Feedback mechanisms will allow the women, children, and their communities to provide feedback on the project’s effectiveness.

  4. Performance indicators will be established to measure the project’s impact, such as the number of women and children reintegrated into their communities, the number of communities that have outlawed witch-hunting, and the number of children who have received educational support.

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We aim to secure funding for the project from esteemed development partners (DPs), including new entrants who have already engaged community members or are interested in addressing the problem, such as UNICEF, WHO, DANIDA, USAID, and UNDP. Complementing this, a hybrid funding model will be employed, leveraging internal resources by allocating twenty per cent of profits from Berecons LLC and seventy per cent of profits from BDI’s Snug Haven housing project to support local projects under BDI’s umbrella. 

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This diversified funding approach ensures sustainability and flexibility in addressing the critical issues within our operational scope in the country, including accusations of witchcraft against women and children in the Savannah region.

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