The I-PADEV project seeks to create a resilient and protective environment at home and school for better health and learning outcomes for children, especially girls, through equitable access to and effective utilisation of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), early childhood care and development, education, health facilities, and services.

The three-year project, which ended on December 7, 2025, targeted 20 communities in the West Mamprusi and Jasikan municipalities in the North East and Oti regions, respectively.

Project communities were Akaa, Asele, Lekante, Dzoku, Nanankor, Udey, Atonkor, Atwereboanda, Ketsi-Nkwanta, Koensim, Gbani, Diani, Sagadugu Number 1 and 2, Boayini number 1 and 2, Zanguga, Tinkaya, Manga, and Kpabugu.

Mr Frederick Tei-Nobi, the Head of Operations, Plan International Ghana, said the project significantly enhanced access to safe and reliable water sources across the two municipalities through the provision of 22 water facilities serving an estimated 15,700 people.

It also supported 18 basic schools and two senior high schools with the construction of girl and disability friendly latrines enabling children especially girls to stay in school during menstrual periods and maintain good hygiene.

He said the project provided 3000 reusable sanitary pads to girls and young women in project communities, helping to reduce financial barriers to menstrual health hygiene management and ensure that girls remained in school during menstruation.

Mr Tei-Nobi said the project also established the responsible, engaging and loving (REAL) fathers’ club to promote positive masculinity and gender-responsive parenting.

The step encouraged men to be active participants in caregiving and household decision-making, thereby reducing the workload on women.

Mr Sampson Akwetey, the Acting Director of Environmental Health and Sanitation Practices, Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, in a speech delivered on his behalf, said his office visited the heart of the project and witnessed transformation and not just infrastructure.

“We saw communities that have proudly taken ownership of their health and dignity. The achievement of open education-free status in many of these communities stands as a powerful testament to change mindsets. We met fathers, members of the REAL fathers’ club, who now proudly share domestic responsibilities, strengthening families and promoting gender equality from within the household.

“We observed the vital functionality of village savings and loan associations, where community members, especially women, are building economic resilience and financing their own sanitation needs,” he said.

Mr Akwetey said the foundations had been laid, the structures, both physical and social, were in place and the shared responsibility now was to consolidate the gains.

He called for renewed commitment from all stakeholders, community leaders to sustain the new norms, from municipal and regional assemblies to prioritise and enforce sanitation bylaws, and from development partners to build upon the successful model.

Mr Parke-Davis Magyigbe, the Municipal Chief Executive, Jasikan, said the Jasikan Municipal Assembly as part of its 2022–2025 Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) set for itself an objective to improve safe water coverage and sanitation by 20 per cent by the end of the planned period.

Mr Magyigbe explained that the objectives of the project reflected their ambitions of an Assembly as indicated in their 2022–2025 strategic plan in the sectors of water and sanitation, and it had aided the Assembly in the achievement of its objective.

“The project since its inception in the Jasikan Municipality has resulted in improving institutional latrine coverage by 10 per cent in our schools through the construction of 10-girl friendly latrines with changing room for our girls in 10 schools, improving access to safe water by 10 per cent through the construction of 10 small town water systems in 10 communities.

“It has also improved household latrine coverage through the construction of household latrines under the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme resulting in a general improvement in sanitation in the Municipality especially at the household level,” he said.

The MCE said they were enthused about the partnership as it enabled them to redirect their limited resources to other communities in the Municipality.

Madam Lydia Langah, a representative of beneficiary communities in the West Mamprusi Municipality, North East region, underscored how the project had enabled children from deprived homes to be punctual at school.

“Through the savings groups that were created for us by Plan, the community members have been able to build more latrines for themselves through their sanitation contribution.

Contributors could also take loans from the group and repay later without interest. So, the level of poverty has gone down,” she explained.