BY HANNAH BLYTH AND J.J. MESSNER

In July 2015, Fund For Peace (FFP) began what would become a crucial contribution to the security and human rights landscape in Ghana. Partnering with the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) Ghana, we set out to implement a three-year program on the Voluntary Principles in Security and Human Rights (VPSHR) through the support of the Democracy Rights and Labor Bureau of the U.S. Department of State.

The VPSHR seeks to mitigate the risks of human rights abuses by public and private security forces in extractives operations, which remains a pertinent issue for Ghana’s vast natural resource sectors. Through this grant we built local capacities for constructive dialogue in affected communities across five regions, launched a national awareness campaign with cartoons and an online knowledge hub, and established a sustainable national working group to address key security and human rights issues.