Case Study: Seeding Change in Ghana and Peru
Evaluating the Impact of Small Grants and Strong Networks
Industrial mining can be a devastating practice. Nearby communities often suffer from serious social and environmental degradation caused by the extraction and processing of raw materials. In recent years civil society has become active in tackling these issues around the world. Community-based groups are responding to threats to their daily livelihoods and health. National coalitions are advocating for transparency and justice. International networks are promoting a more even playing field between mining companies, host governments, and affected communities. Together, these groups have made strides towards greater responsibility in the mining industry.
Cerro de Pasco mine in Peru (Credit Ottocarotto)
Global Greengrants Fund has contributed to this progress by providing small grants to groups on all levels.
Our strategy is to support social movements for justice and sustainability. These large, loosely organized collections of individuals, organizations, media, and academia come together to bring about change for problems of this scale.
In order to evaluate our approach, Global Greengrants Fund conducted a study of how small grants can support social movements in the mining sector. We endeavored to determine how our grantmaking strategy is strengthening networks and alliances to solve complex social problems.
You can download a PDF of the Executive Summary or the Full Report. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the study, please contact our office: info@greengrants.org or 303-939-9866.
When a company begins mining a region for raw materials, the activity can affect all aspects of community life. While local residents may have been promised jobs and prosperity, the ensuing reality tends to be far more damaging to their social fabric and environmental health.
Social and Cultural Issues:
Farming, a source of livelihood, is restricted in Ghana
- Influx of outsiders into often isolated communities
- Increase in HIV/AIDS due to increased risk of sexual assault
- Conflict and violence
- Loss of farming land and fishing grounds
- Destruction of heritage and traditional ways of life
Environmental Issues:
- Air, land and water pollution
- New health problems from toxic mining waste
- Erosion and land degradation
- Destruction of habitat and productive land
Case Studies
The study focused on two regions: Peru and Ghana.Though seemingly worlds apart, both are home to destructive mining activities. For years, Global Greengrants Fund has funded projects challenging the negative impacts of mining in the two countries. This study sought to evaluate our impact.
Hypothesis
Small grants improve the ability of local organizations to respond to the changing strategies of mining companies and governments seeking to impose a mining project or mute criticism of existing projects.
Process
Consultants in each region examined data and interviewed advisors, grantees, and community members. They constructed an analysis of Global Greengrants Fund’s contribution to the broader changes achieved by civil society, and the role of small grants more generally in bringing about change.
Residents listen attentively at a community meeting in rural Ghana
Support for Infrastructure and Administrative Improvement
Support for infrastructure and administrative improvement is one of the strategies through which movements deploy their resources to improve their effectiveness in advocacy and campaigns. Small grants have helped grassroots organizations to acquire office space, office furniture, computer accessories, public speaking equipment, gadgets for evidence gathering in support of campaigns, and tools for environmental regeneration. Grantees have also been able to employ a relatively good number of people to run the organization.
Examples:
A small grant of US$3,000 enabled Guards of the Earth and the Vulnerable to acquire chairs that facilitate their planning and agenda setting and bicycles and motor-bikes that facilitate their movement and outreach to other communities.
A small grant to Concerned Citizens of Chirano enabled them to establish an office and procure digital cameras. While the office space gave the group social recognition and space for secretarial work, the group was able to use the camera to gather evidence that supported their courtroom litigation against Chirano Gold Mines Limited.
Raising Awareness and Framing the Issues
18 small grants included in the study are related to framing and consciousness raising, which includes research, the training of social leaders and activists in filming and video editing, creating videos on mining, local, national and international awareness campaigns, including informative materials, public forums and workshops. This line of intervention includes the construction of rigorous knowledge that strengthens social movement arguments, awareness campaigns directed to wider populations to generate public pressure on companies and the state, and the raising of awareness of affected populations about their rights.
Examples:
Asociación Guarango Cine y Video used a $3,000 grant to complete a video on the mercury spill that affected and Andean community.
Red de Comunicadores Juveniles is a youth network that used a $5,000 grant to hold workshops educating others on the threats of illegal mining and unsustainable farming.
The following results were found:
Research in both Ghana and Peru supported the hypothesis. The study clearly demonstrates that small grants awarded quickly to the appropriate leaders are key to strengthening grassroots social and environmental movements and protecting natural resources.
We found that the most effective grantmaking has the following characteristics:
- Uses recommendations from advisors close to the communities
- Flexible, consecutive, and long-term
- Responsive, particularly around an opportunity for urgent action
- Sensitive to the current political climate
- Considerate of the most vulnerable populations, as well as those at higher levels in the process
It is worth noting that small grants work best as part of a larger strategy in funding, meaning they work in tandem with larger grants. Small grants are also much more effective at “defensive” strategies, such as protesting a planned mine development, but may be less effective in “offensive” strategies, such as changing governmental policy before mining companies come in. Therefore, funding at all levels remains important.