The Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD) of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Thursday organised a day's capacity building workshop on grant proposal writing for Sene East District at Kajaji in the Bono East Region.
The workshop was aimed at strengthening the capacity of the district assembly and the decentralised departments and agencies to learn grant proposal skills to enable them seek funding to address prioritised needs of the district.
It was attended by unit heads of the district assembly, representatives from the District Health Directorate, Department of Agriculture, education, Department of Social Welfare, traditional council, and assembly members, among others.
Participants were taken through stages of proposal development namely; overview of grants, concept note, identifying relevant calls and funders, problem statement, goals and objectives, implementation plan, financial proposal, evaluation and sustainability.
Dr Ebenezer Owusu-Addo, the Director of BIRD, KNUST, said strengthening the institutional capacity of the district assembly and other development actors was outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the district on July 2022.
He indicated that through the workshop, participants had gained enhanced knowledge and capacity in grant proposal writing, which has placed them in a better position to seek for funds and networking.
The director stated that the university-community engagement towards sustainable and inclusive rural development would ensure the steady institutional and infrastructural growth of Sene East District.
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Dr Owusu-Addo disclosed that the workshop identified high rate of teenage pregnancy and child marriages as some of the critical social challenges in the district which needed urgent attention.
"It was resolved that BIRD-KNUST and Sene East District will develop a joint grant proposal to address the challenges. All the decentralised departments were charged to draft grant proposals to seek funding and technical support," he added.
The Sene East District Co-ordinating Director (DCD), Mr Eric Saabome Kangdem, noted that the workshop would enhance their capacity in grant writing to enable them write winnable proposals for developmental projects.
He thanked BIRD-KNUST for kick-starting the operationalisation of the MoU by building their capacities, saying that the university-community engagement will be a game changer for the district's development agenda.
Mr Kangdem assured the commitment of the Sene East Assembly and the decentralised departments and agencies to work tirelessly on the assigned task of drafting their respective grant proposals.
