Monitoring, Evaluation and Technical Support Services (METSS) II Project Background
In 2011, following years of strong economic growth, Ghana succeeded in achieving lower middle-income country (LMIC) status. Since then, Ghana’s economic growth has slowed and reaching the next stage, full middleincome country status, will require considerable investments matched with evidence-based strategies at decentralized levels. This is no more apparent than in Northern Ghana where poverty rates are estimated to be more than twice that of the south. (Ghana Statistical Service, 2015)
Source: Feed the Future GHANA, 2015 Zone of Influence Interim Assessment Report, Kansas State University, 2016
In line with the Government of Ghana’s development agenda, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) began implementing the Feed the Future initiative across Northern Ghana in 2011. USAID anticipates the poverty rate in northern Ghana to decline from 22.2% (2012 baseline estimate) to approximately 17.8% by 2017. The 2015 interim population-based survey (PBS) study places poverty in northern Ghana at 19.6%. (Kansas State University, 2016)
Project Summary The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working with Kansas State University, a US land grant university, and the University of Cape Coast, a Ghanaian institution, to implement the METSS project and more precisely, improve evidence based planning, program implementation and reporting through four technical components; monitoring and evaluation, research and special studies, knowledge management & communications and capacity building. The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Component supports USAID and over 50 implementing partners in their efforts to track, capture and report impact from the field; The Research and Special Studies Component plays an important role in generating data and analysis to promote evidence-based decision making; The Knowledge Management & Communications Component ensures that the collective impact of USAID project innovations and results are shared, amplified and leveraged across the sectors; The Capacity Building Component builds and supports productive working relationships with stakeholders, mainly the Government of Ghana and other Development Partners, in order to leverage USAID resources and impact.
Goals The USAID METSS project contributes to USAID’s goal of seeing ‘Ghana’s transition towards established middleincome country status accelerated’. More specifically, the USAID office of Economic Growth (EG) is responsible for the follow-on development objective, ‘Sustainable and broadly shared economic growth’, and METSS’ role is to deliver the necessary backing required to meet that objective. In doing so, METSS provides support services to over 50 USAID implementing partners under the EG office portfolio of projects, and Government of Ghana partners to reinforce collective efforts in the agriculture, nutrition, trade and energy sectors.
Selected Activities
The 2012 baseline and 2015 interim population based survey (PBS) assessing the Feed the Future Initiative to reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition in Northern Ghana. A total of 7,161 households were sampled and data is statistically significant at the district level; M&E training, data verification and upload support for more than 50 implementing partner projects associated with annual Feed the Future Monitoring System requirements; Supporting the Government of Ghana to collect, report and utilize quality data across the agriculture, nutrition, trade and energy sectors; Support to energy and access to credit components of the Partnership for Growth, a joint United States Government and Government of Ghana initiative; Establishment and maintenance of an online knowledge management community that helps USAID implementing partners and other stakeholder’s access and translate data into useful information and knowledge for decision making
Project Overview Project Duration: February 2014 – September 2018 Implementing Partner(s): US Department of Agriculture, Kansas State University & University of Cape Coast Funding: $18,866,353.75 Contact Information: Brian Conklin Deputy Director Office of Economic Growth USAID Ghana bconklin@usaid.gov
Enumerator collecting data during the 2015 Population Based Survey, Northern Ghana Northern Ghana 2015
METSS Project Email: info@metssghana.org
www.feedthefuture.gov