Ghana Developing Communities Association

Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), formerly Ghanaian Danish Communities Association, was established in the early 80’s as a counterpart to its Danish partners, Ghana Friends. The partnership has been based on friendship mooted by its pioneers led by Dr. Johannes Holm from the Danish side and the late Chairman of GDCA, Prof. Naa Abubakr Al-Hassan on the Ghana side. The partnership was to test direct cooperation between communities on the Danish side and their counterparts on the Ghanaian side. After four years of exchange visits, gifts, books, other educational materials, and other forms of value the partners decided to seek official funding. Consequently, a volunteer was sent from Denmark in 1984 to Ghana to explore the possibility of developing a project proposal. In that regard, the first DANIDA funding was established in 1986. Since then, the partnership has grown through several transformations. The organization has also grown by reaching out to other partners, such as UNICEF, Acting for Life in France, ADICE France, the EU, STAR Ghana Foundation, CARE International, Grameen Foundation, and many others, thus, expanding its scope and engagements. GDCA works mainly works to achieve social justice. In the regard, the organization works to promote citizens participation in development. Specific focus areas include community mobilization, capacity development of organization of community-based organizations (CBOs), supporting CBOs to demand for improved services from duty bearers such as local government authorities, authorities in education, health service delivery, agriculture, and other social services. GDCA also works to improve household incomes by giving capacity for local economic development, establishing groups of mostly poor women to save and get access to financial support from outside the groups.