History and Operations of the Ho Diocesan Development Office

The Development Office, which is now headed by Rev. Fr. Terence Edwin Adzimah was established in December 1978, the department of Socio-Economic Development also popularly known as Ho Diocesan Development Wing or Arm through which the Ho Diocese has tremendously promoted self-help initiatives of the rural and urban poor, primarily to empower the poor and to harness their potentials to improve their living conditions.
The operations of the Ho Diocesan Development Office is guided by the principle of “integral” development of the human person and committed to the values of Justice and Peace and Solidarity.

Prior to the establishment of the Diocesan Development Office, individuals, mainly the expatriate Clergy and Religious serving in the diocese had made separate efforts in building Schools, Churches while contributing to Health, Water and Sanitation as well but without any centralized medium of coordination. To promote a concerted and coordinated system of operation in human development gave birth to the Development Office.
The focus of the development process in the diocese continued to widen according to the need of the times and also the available resources and the level of the existing capacity at the office to confront such needs. Thus preliminary areas such as enhancing capacity at subsistence Agriculture, Micro Finance, Provision of Good Drinking Water in Communities mainly Boreholes were systematically promoted.

Similarly, Basic Education and provision of Vocational training for the Youth in terms of employable skills featured in many communities. Thus what can be termed as pastoral projects and socio-economic building and programmes were promoted. Already at its inception, building the baseline for self-reliance was very paramount.
The contributions of Rev. Fr. Sylvester Mawusi, the first development Coordinator effectively collaborated with Rev. Fr. Tony Byrne in promoting this collective consciousness of “self-reliant Church” among the Clergy and the Religious and the Laity in Parishes through intensive development education workshops and seminars organized at various institutions and parishes throughout the diocese, funded by Caritas Internationalis, Rome. The first working vehicle “Toyota Pick-up, was granted the Development Office in 1979 by Misereor, Germany.

The Universal Catholic Church’s stand and in particular, the Ho Diocese’s stand ties in all categories of responses in serving the victims of poverty which takes concrete expression in development initiatives we now operate as our priority.
a. Development Education with emphasis on awareness creation and non – formal education.
b. Agriculture with emphasis on production, conservation and sustenance in respect of joy of work and reward other than only food for the farmer.
c. Income generating activities with emphasis placed on sustained investment by the rural poor and awareness of income generating opportunities for women in particular.
d. Gender (women) and Development Programmes: specifically, capacity building and creating gender awareness, preventive health, education on justice for women and environmental activities, literacy programmes that meet the needs of women, strengthening Vocational Institutions that provide skills training for girls and women. Catholic Women programmes similarly promote the above activities with religious and spiritual focus on Catholic women in particular.
e. Environment and Biodiversity Conservation, emphasizing integration of environmental concerns into productive activities of the rural poor. It is aimed at reducing degradation due to deforestation, water pollution, bush burning etc.
f. Community water Development and Sanitation, seeks to improve access to safe drinking water to reduce illness caused by water – related diseases, spare women and children the time and energy used to walk long distances in search of drinking water. More so, promoting practice or personal hygiene and ensuring provision of toilet facilities in schools and colleges and in communities.
g. Peace Building initiatives- the office seeks to promote peaceful co-existence between and among communities through conflict transformation and meditation strategies. Practically, development thrives well in peaceful environment. The Peace Building efforts will embrace establishment of Peace Center with trained personnel which will cater for conflicts in Volta Region and beyond. A good and result oriented entry point is currently the Alavanyo – Nkonya conflict.
h. HIV/ AIDS Programme which emphasizes abstinence and fidelity in relationships, while promoting simultaneously preventive education to the populace, ensuring Counseling and care giving and providing food assistance to People Living with the HIV / AIDS disease and orphans of the deceased patients.
i. Basic Education (Infrastructure Development): Preoccupation in this area includes facilitating provision of school buildings and toilet facilities for Nursery and Kindergarten schools, Primary and Junior High Schools irrespective of creed, soliciting funds for equipment such as furniture and learning and instructional materials.
j. Vocational Training Programmes: the office seeks to equip the Youth with employable skills for sustainable livelihood, provide a Catholic environment for acquiring life-long learning skills, instill in the youth, skills and values for responsible citizenship; improve relevance and quality of vocational training to the needs of the labour market, strengthening Career Guidance and Counselling Services to trainees, strengthen their studies in Vocational and Technical Institutes while improving networking and advocacy as well as providing adequate physical structure to facilitate learning and teaching.
Establishing linkage among Catholic Vocational and Technical training Centers by the diocese has recently led to the adoption of the Technical and vocational education and Training policy for the Catholic Church in Ghana.

OTHER EXIGENCIES
1. Emergency relief where people have an urgent and pressing need for help following natural or man – made disasters, only short-term direct execution of relief work in situations where no organization is well equipped to deal with emergencies to alleviate sufferings.
2. Emergency preparedness with emphasis on updating skills and knowledge on information related to historical sequence of disasters, crucial situations such as water supplies, food security etc. Early warning or monitoring systems to assist prediction of either long – term problems such as food shortages, or short – term problems such as flood, bush fires etc.

3. Pastoral Projects such as provision and maintenance of churches, religious houses, residential units for priest, pastoral and conference centers for social and spiritual programmes.

EXISTING STRUCTURES AND LINKAGES:
Development Structures for the promotion and facilitation of development initiatives are defined as follows:
At Diocesan level, the Department of Socio-Economic Development known generally as Development Office exists to give active expression to the Christian obligation of responding to the human needs of the people by coordinating and facilitating the development initiatives of other local structures.
Our policy directions are informed by diocesan Curia headed by the Bishop and his close collaborators such as College of Consultors, the Senate (Presbyteral Council) while Diocesan Development Committee serves as an Advisory body on development issues to the Local Ordinary (Bishop)
Programme Focal Persons (as being tested in the deaneries / parishes) are to be key focal persons in promoting development work and especially helping in programme or project implementations and adequate monitoring and evaluation.
The Diocesan Development Office facilitates and coordinates activities of the following departments related to it namely:
• Diocesan Health Administration
• Youth Department
• Vocational Training Programme
• Gender and Development Programme
• Catholic Women Programme
• Faith and Culture
• Social Communications and
• Catechetics

About us

Ho Diocese is located in the Volta Region of Ghana and constitutes ten Administrative Districts, namely: Ho, Kpando and Hohoe municipal areas. Others include, North Dayi, South Dayi, Adaklu, Agortime-Ziope, Ho-West, Afadjato-South Districts and parts of Asuogyaman District in the Eastern Region.  [Read More]

Contact us

Patrons: Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Conception
Bishop: Most Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Fianu, SVD.

Address: Bishop’s House Box HP 380, Ho (V.R.)
Phone: +233 54 313 0413
Email:  hodiocese@gmail.com or hodiocese@cbcgh.org

© 2024 Catholic Diocese of Ho.