Meet Francis Kwame Nassam, the District Agricultural Extension Officer for the Kajebi District in the Oti Region in Ghana. Francis has become a reliable support system for farmers in the district, particularly women farmers. His journey with COLANDEF began in 2023 during the implementation of the WPF Funded project dubbed ‘Securing Women’s Land Rights in Ghana’. Women’s Groups in the Ahamansu Traditional Area in the Oti Region are beneficiaries of this project.  

The project aims at strengthening the knowledge, skill, and capacity of the leadership of the Women’s Groups to educate other women and advocate for secured land rights for women in the Traditional Area. In each area, the project team seeks partnership with officers of subnational agencies and/or Community Based Organizations, to integrate the women’s land rights agenda in their core activities to allow them offer support to the Women Groups. In the Kajebi District, where the Ahamansu Traditional Area is located, Francis was identified as the potential partner as he worked as an enthusiastic Extension Officer of the Department of Agriculture in the District. Despite being a man, Francis works very well with female farmers and has earned the trust of the Women’s Groups. He embraced the project because he believes that land tenure insecurity, especially for women, has been a constant risk that the farmers in his area of operations face. With the education, skills training and awareness raising, Francis has made securing land rights for smallholder farmers, especially women, a big part of his work, integrating awareness raising in all his engagements.  

Members of Joy Ladies, Nutifafa, Unity, and Anane Women’s Groups are a few of the Groups that Francis has been supporting since 2023 following the training he and the members of the Women’s Groups received from COLANDEF. COLANDEF provided training handbooks to the Group leaders, including Francis, empowering them to further sensitize other women’s groups in the district. Since then, he has engaged seven (7) other Women's groups, with membership of over 150 women farmers. The partnership between Francis and the Women’s Groups in the promotion of women’s land rights has energized the women to forge ahead.

Francis’ support to the Women’s Groups goes beyond the one-off face-to-face interactions with members of the Women’s Groups. He utilizes the one-hour slot of airtime that he has every Wednesday on Sankofa radio, a community radio, to raise awareness and educate listeners across the district and surrounding communities, on mechanisms for securing agricultural land rights. His radio presentations have gained popularity as a powerful medium for promoting women’s land rights and encouraging women farmers and customary land authorities to secure women’s land rights.

In May 2024, Francis collaborated with the Paramount Queen Mother of the Ahamansu Traditional Area, Nana Akua Sarfoa III, to facilitate a major media sensitization program on Sankofa radio, with support from COLANDEF. The on-air sensitization program reached about twenty-five (25) communities, impacting over 10,000 inhabitants.  

With support from COLANDEF, many women farmers now have an increased understanding of their land rights. Empowered with knowledge, some have approached their landowners to request formal documentation for their farming lands, taking crucial steps toward securing their future.

We are telling Francis’ story today to acknowledge him as one of our partners in our aim of securing agricultural land rights. We are happy to have a male champion who is dedicated to promote women’s land rights. Indeed, through the dedication of individuals like Francis Kwame Nassam, COLANDEF’s aim to secure agricultural land rights is becoming a reality, one community at a time.