Integrated Watershed Management Pilot Studies in Ghana

In most developing countries, the piece-meal approach often adopted for water supply and food production schemes has not yielded the sustained socio-economic development that is often the primary objective. Such schemes often do not directly involve important stakeholders particularly local communities. At best, they are involved without adequate emphasis on well-focused capacity building for their effective participation. Also other local natural resources are often left untapped during the implementation of the schemes. Where they are considered, their negative impacts are left unattended. The paper will attempt to describe the key features in terms of design, focus, and implementation of the Watershed Management Project currently being piloted in Ghana. The lessons learnt so far will be elucidated with the view of enriching experiences for improving similar projects elsewhere especially in developing countries.