The Australian High Commission in Ghana hosted an event to launch 24 development projects benefiting from funding under the 2016-17 round of its Direct Aid Program (DAP).

The event, held at the residence of the Australian High Commissioner in Accra, doubled as a training session for grant recipients.

Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr. Andrew Barnes, congratulated participants on being selected to receive funding through the highly competitive DAP, which provides small grants for development projects in a range of sectors including extractives, sanitation, education, and women’s economic empowerment.

Mr Barnes spoke about the High Commission’s commitment to supporting “the provision of many life-transforming interventions for some of society’s most vulnerable people – notably people with disabilities, women and children” through the DAP.

He said the Australian High Commission’s DAP program had funded a diverse range of successful projects.

“The reason these projects have been so successful over the years is that they are organic, home-grown initiatives, implemented by local organisations,” he said.

Mr Barnes noted that DAP’s success had seen it grow. “Our DAP budget has increased steadily over the years and is now worth over 1 million Australian dollars [approximately 3.5 million Ghana cedis]”, he reported.

The DAP is a development assistance program funded from Australia's aid budget and administered by Australian diplomatic missions around the world. Since the High

Commission in Ghana started the program in 2004, hundreds of communities in the High Commission’s nine countries of accreditation (Burkina Faso, CoÌ‚te d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo) have benefited from high-quality initiatives funded by the DAP and implemented by local development organisations.