agm - GrowthAid

GROWTHAID ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2022

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of GrowthAid was held on Thursday 15^th December 2022 at 10:00 am at the City Escape Hotel in Prampram. Notice of the AGM was distributed to all the board of Directors, partners, auditors, Associates, and other stakeholders prior to 15^th December 2022.

In accordance with the Company Act of Ghana, 2019, Section 157, Act 992, the AGM was called and chaired by the chairman of the board of Directors, Mr. John Tanko Bawa who also inaugurated the new Board of Directors.

The participants of the AGM were; the Board of Directors (BOD), Partners, GrowthAid Interim Country Director in Uganda, Staff of GrowthAid Ghana and other stakeholders. The meeting started at 9.30am with an opening prayer from Mr. Fred Ohene. 

Overview of GrowthAid Programme Strategy

The Executive Director (ED) gave an overview of GrowthAid Programme. Among the key points he highlighted were:-

• A humble beginning in 2002 when GrowthAid was established in response to the need to contribute to alleviating poverty through provision of WASH services and NTDs case management in deprived communities in Ghana.
• The poverty level of most people in the deprived communities in Ghana presented both a challenge and an opportunity for a humanitarian intervention.
• He indicated that faith couple with professionalism gave birth to GrowthAid to respond to humanitarian issues identified in the marginalized communities in Ghana.
• Building on faith in God and His greatest commandment of ‘Loving Your Neighbour as Yourself’ (Mark 12: 28-34) and the belief that Charity is an important source of access to Heaven were some of the foundational beliefs that gave birth to GrowthAid.
• These beliefs resulted in the birth of GrowthAid, a Not -for- profit organization with a vision of a world where everyone has adequate safe water and sanitation on a sustained basis, and where no one dies from preventable diseases and a mission to contribute to transforming the lives of the poor and marginalized, in collaboration with like-minded organizations to provide essential humanitarian services as well as building capacities for poverty reduction initiatives.
• He reiterates that to stay focus on our vision and mission, our core values of Respect, Transparency, Accountability, and Integrity are important ingredients of our approach to work and engagement with our stakeholders.
• He told the audience, that the early approaches to work have been to resort to short contracts, consultancy jobs, engagement of core human resource, and putting in place basic structures, controls, and systems.
• GrowthAid has grown both internally and externally and it is becoming a go to organization in WASH and NTDs, he noted. However, he stressed that the growth is relatively slow due to lack of sustainable funding.
• The ED concluded with a call to all stakeholders to support the vision and mission of GrowthAid to expand both to new territories in Ghana and outside Ghana.
• The ED appreciated Mr. Daniel Yirenya-Tawiah of Latter-Day Saints Charities, GrowthAid Trustees, GrowthAid Auditors- Suglo and Associates, the Staff of GrowthAid, Partners and all stakeholders of GrowthAid for their immense contributions to the cause of GrowthAid, urging them to keep the faith burning.
• He called for a new strategic direction, innovative funding mechanisms and good governance to keep GrowthAid a Going Concern Organization

New Board of Directors for GrowthAid

New Board of Directors was confirmed and inaugurated at the AGM 2022 with Mr. John Tanko Bawa as Board Chairman.

Mrs. Jacqueline Amoako was appointed a new board member. The new Board of Directors is as follows: – Dr. Joe Lambongang(Executive Director, Mr. John Tanko Bawa(Chairman), Mr. Solomon Dabuak Laar(Member), Mr. Deladem Loglo(Member), Mrs. Jacqueline Amoako(Member), Mr Budali Issahaku(Member).

Mr. John Tanko Bawa was appointed Chairman of AGM. In his acceptance speech, the AGM chairman called on all stakeholders to be prepared to grow the mission of GrowthAid and imbibe into the core values of the organization. The chairman expressed the need to move forward in a new strategic direction, develop innovative resource mobilization mechanisms to garner funds to implement WASH & NTDs projects and irradicate poverty.

Audit Report

The Audit report for the year ended 2021 was read by the representative of Suglo and Associates audit firm.

Matters arising:

• The auditors were asked to start the auditing process early so that the organization does not run into payments of penalties because submissions of returns to statutory bodies were not done on time.
• Their presence at GrowthAid office was requested so that their discussions on financial matters will be properly addressed on time.
• The auditors requested to be engaged on subsequent audit early so that they have enough time to complete their work.
• Meeting notices should reach the auditors in time for planning purposes.
• Subsequent Auditing should start early to avoid challenges encountered in the last audit.

The Audit Report was unanimously adopted as a true reflection of financial transactions and performance of GrowthAid for the period indicated.

Mid-year review of GrowthAid Ghana Programme Strategy 2020-2024

• GrowthAid Country Programme

The Programmes Manager gave an overview of the activities of the Operations Department focusing on services provided in accordance with GrowthAid Programme Strategic Objective 1 (SO1), Improve access to sustainable, safely managed WASH services for all, and SO2, Support the prevention and management of NTDs, highting the achievements and the challenges encountered as follows;

Activities

• Provision of access to sustainable basic WASH services in communities, healthcare facilities and in in institutions, such as simple boreholes, mechanized boreholes, boreholes with iron removal plants to improve health and educational outcomes,
• Contributing to reduce incidence of WASH-related diseases such as Buruli Ulcer, Chagas Disease, Yaws, Cysticercosis, Trachoma and others in endemic communities.
• Engaging Government and sector stakeholders through integrated approach for the delivery of WASH and management of NTDs.
• Creating awareness, identification, confirmation, and management of cases of NTDs.

Achievements

    GrowthAid programme provided WASH and NTD services to

• 28,300 people in 29 communities
• 20,000 pupils/students in 8 Schools
• 6,600 patients in 7 Healthcare facilities
• access to safe water increased from 71% to 97% though 3% to 10% access still needs to be provided.
• Improved sanitation increased from 8% to 80%

though 20% to 92% work needs to be done.

• Handwashing with soap improved from 67% to 83%

Though 17% to 33% work needs to be done.

Challenges

• The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdown delayed progress on project outcome.
• The cost of iron removal plant was quite high.
• unmotorable nature of the road networks which made it difficult for the drilling rig to get to beneficiaries’ communities.
• Difficult geological formation made drilling exceedingly difficult and expensive.
• Political interference in project communities was hindering project success.
• But for Lack of adequate donor funding, our impact would have been greater.

• GrowthAid OD-Governance, systems, and funding

The HR and OD advisor gave an overview of efforts the Support Services, Finance and IT Departments have made towards achieving the strategic objective (SO3), Strengthen GrowthAid Governance and Organizational effectiveness. These include:

• Recruiting and retaining the right human resource,
• Procurement of a Server for GrowthAid for mass and long period storage
• Group life and medical insurance for all staff
• Development of Organizational policies to foster conducive workplace for staff.
• Provided Health Insurance to staff.
• Efforts to register a country programme in Uganda, develop a partnership in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinee Bissau.
• Efforts to promote employee engagement and wellbeing.
• Plans to start learning French.
• Staff capacity building
• Working to have a Head office in Ghana.
• Working to have an Office in Ndamase in Ashanti Region pending anticipated grant from USAID,

As part of the AGM, a plenary session was held to review the Programme Strategy wholistically and to inform the way forward for GrowthAid. The BoDs formed one discussion group that looked at key shifts that should be considered for the remaining period of the CPS: 2023-2024 as follows.

1. What key shifts should we be looking at to remain relevant?
2. What mix of funding portfolios should we be looking at?
3. What can we do to improve staff retention, talent management and succession planning?

While the rest of the participants formed three groups to discuss the following questions.

1. As an organization, what will make our programmes more sustainable?
2. How can we mobilize more funding to sustain program delivery?
3. What changes do we want to make to programme implementation approaches
4. Which enablers will we give more attention to?

Fallout from the plenary session

1. Board requested that more pictures of our work should be used in our communication efforts on all platforms
2. The donor landscape has changed so should GrowthAid, to develop innovative strategies to mobilize resources
3. Issues on moral decadence and funding trends from LGBQ+ donors are pausing a challenge to donor funding. BoD advised not to take positions in LGBQ+ issues in our fundraising efforts. Fundraising team were advised to revert to Management Team on such issues.
4. BoD advised to prioritize our fundraising, communication, and visibility efforts
5. Effective stakeholder engagement at the district, regional and national levels will facilitate the implementation of our projects and meet donor expectations

Recommendations

By the end of the plenary session, the BoDs recommended the following.

1. Prioritized our fundraising efforts
2. Staff and Management Team to revert to Board or Executive Director on issues regarding LGBQ+ that might affect our opportunities to get funding
3. Representing GrowthAid on Ghana Health Service platforms and events and contributing to reviews will better inform GHS leaders at the district and communities about GrowthAid services and disabuse their minds from expecting financial gains when we go to provide service in their respective communities
4. Staff capacity building, health care, policies, and team bonding activities were some recommendations to get staff engaged for maximum productivity.

In his closing remarks, the AGM Chairman urged all stakeholders to support GrowthAid’s mission. He advocated for the development of robust fundraising mechanisms amidst current social dynamics and Ghana’s status as a middle-income country.

There were no further matters to discuss and the Chairman for the AGM moved the motion for the meeting to be closed. The motion was seconded by Boris Malinka Kombat.