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$10 Spark Igniting Transformation initiative

As part of our efforts to advance women's entrepreneurship and status in Northern Ghana, Grameen Foundation commenced the $10 Spark Igniting Transformation initiative.

By cultivating male champions who advocate and support the growth of their partner's enterprise, we will see 10,000 male champions by the end of this year.

The project, through intra-household dialogues and other male engagements activities, will enable men with the dialogue and skills training they need to go beyond the existing social and patriarchal norms to support their wives in household duties, assist their wives to own a savings or mobile money account, contribute funding to support their wives' businesses, together to create an emergency household fund.

This ensures a greater chance as the couple working together to exit poverty with more urgency and sustainability. This will eventually build the entrepreneurial opportunities in the woman for improved income, drive her agency and build resilience for her and her household over time.

Grameen, with support from its local partners, has recruited 105 Community Based Facilitators (CBFs) to assist in sourcing the over 10,000 men willing and able to change the existing harmful and entrenched social norms against women.

In breaking the obstacles confronting women, a similar project is being launched in Nigeria in line with Grameen's global goals of transforming systems to ensure women show up with their full potential and power.

Facts At A Glance:

• The 105 Community Based Facilitators (CBFs) are spread across 85 communities in 11 districts in both the Northern and Upper East Regions.
• 79% are males and 21% are females with the majority of males located in the Northern Region.
• The majority of the CBFs are within the age range of 30-39 years (59%) followed by 20-29 years (25%) and 40-49 years (13%).
• Over half of CBFs recruited have good proficiency in reading, writing, dialoguing and digital skills as well as good appreciation of issues on gender which is critical for cultivating the over 10,000 male champions.

Reframing Gender Norms

Local project teams were trained on Grameen's Exploring Power Dynamics (EPD) and tailored intra-household dialogues (IHDs) guide developed for the project. Participants were enlightened on better ways to reframe existing gender norms to advance women's status, best approaches to dialoguing and facilitation, managing household financial resources and creation of household emergency plans and funds.

After a two-day Training of Trainers (ToT) session, the staff of our local partners will be expected to cascade the training to 105 local Community Based Facilitators (CBF) who will lead 1,050 intra-household dialogues with 525 men groups and their spouses.