HTA-0571: RING — Resiliency in Northern Ghana

A. Story Identification

B. Content Summary

This documentary profiles USAID's RING (Resiliency in Northern Ghana) project, which empowers local government to connect directly with the most vulnerable communities — mothers and children under five — in Ghana's remote northern region where chronic malnutrition is endemic. Henry narrates the film, which documents how RING shortens the distance between people and government services by energizing local government offices, providing training, strengthening systems, and coaching staff across 17 districts and 7 regional departments.

The film covers multiple integrated interventions: health and nutrition counseling/screening; orange-fleshed sweet potato ("alafi wuljo" / healthy potato) introduction; soybean cultivation; drip irrigation for dry seasons; Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) where 85,000+ women saved over $4.6 million; gender sensitization sessions that redistributed household burdens; livestock programs providing women with sheep; community-led total sanitation (CLTS) achieving "open defecation free" (ODF) status; and governance training building long-term institutional capacity. The film's most powerful theme is local ownership: "RING is the people's project. We deliver on what they want, but not what we, the authorities, want to deliver to them."

C. Structured Metadata

D. Notable Quotes

"RING is the people's project. We deliver on what they want, but not what we, the authorities, want to deliver to them."

"One in every three children in the northern region is stunted, and women are very poor, about 48% of them are anemic."

"Let me tell you one thing. RING is one of the interventions that the politicians have limited influence."

"The RING project has achieved impacts, and some of these impacts are irreversible."

"If every project is going to be implemented like that, this country will go beyond where we are today."

E. Source Assets

F. Production Notes

Signature Henry Moments — Henry's narration of the CLTS (community-led total sanitation) section is masterful — he takes what could be an awkward topic (open defecation) and presents it with dignity and even humor, letting the community members explain their own "aha moment" about eating their own feces through contaminated water.

Emotional Moments — Magnandine selling sheep to pay hospital bills and buy school supplies; the community's pride in achieving ODF status; women gaining economic independence and "having the say in the home."

G. Cross-References

H. Source Provenance

I. Archival Notes

RING is the most comprehensive of Henry's institutional documentaries — covering nutrition, agriculture, savings, gender, sanitation, livestock, and governance in a single 11-minute film. It demonstrates Henry's ability to weave multiple complex threads into a coherent narrative without losing the viewer. The film's emphasis on local government capacity building distinguishes it from other Henry 4.0 productions that focus more on community-level change. The quote about politicians having "limited influence" is remarkably candid for a USAID-funded production and suggests Henry's narration gave the film credibility that allowed such frank statements. The integrated approach (nutrition + agriculture + savings + sanitation + governance) represents the cutting edge of development thinking in the mid-2010s, and Henry was trusted to communicate it clearly.

I. Video Review (V2 Upgrade)

Visual Description

A comprehensive documentary shot across Northern Ghana's rural communities. The film features: drone footage over savanna landscapes, village compounds with thatched-roof homes, nutrition demonstrations using flipcharts and cooking pots, women's livestock programs (sheep and goats), VSLA (Village Savings and Loans Association) meetings in circles, newly constructed mud-brick latrines with tippy-tap handwashing stations, borehole water pump repairs, and community-led total sanitation (CLTS) campaigns. Graphics display program statistics and an ODF (Open Defecation Free) League Table. USAID Feed the Future branding appears throughout.

Story Structure (Timestamped)

Henry's Participation

Henry narrates the entire documentary in voiceover. His narration weaves together 15+ interview subjects across multiple communities, maintaining narrative coherence across diverse topics (nutrition, agriculture, gender, sanitation, finance). He never appears on camera. The narration is warm, informative, and solution-oriented — making complex development programming accessible without being condescending.

Signature Moments

The gender sensitization section — where Henry's narration describes women's "overtime" labor while the camera shows them pounding grain, pumping water, and carrying heavy loads — is powerful visual storytelling. The CLTS section showing communities achieving "Open Defecation Free" status demonstrates Henry's ability to handle sensitive topics with dignity. The drone shots establishing the vast, arid Northern Ghana landscape provide crucial context for why resilience programming matters here.

Production Credits (confirmed from video)

- Narrator: Henry Tenenbaum

- Program: RING (Resiliency in Northern Ghana)

- Initiative: USAID Feed the Future

- Organization: Global Communities

Transcript

[00:06] Resiliency in Northern Ghana. RING. RING is the people's project. We deliver on what they want, but not what we, the authorities, want to deliver to them. We use the bottom-up approach. And it is working. And it is working.

[00:27] USAID's RING project is changing lives here in the remote communities of northern Ghana by empowering local government to connect directly with the most vulnerable and underserved, mothers and children under the age of five, among whom chronic malnutrition and its symptoms are endemic. One in every three children in the northern region is stunted, and women are very poor, about 48% of them are anemic. They are vulnerable, they are marginalized, they lag behind in terms of so many issues.

[01:01] Crops are limited. The soil is poor. And with only one unreliable rainy season each year, a good harvest is a time for celebration. And then the lean season after their food stores have run out. No rain, no work, limited options. Local government of Ghana agencies, their safety net, are often paralyzed by meager resources, capabilities and manpower. It used to be that people don't even know that they have representatives at the grassroots level.

[01:37] The impoverished, isolated villages of the north are geographically and politically a long way from Ghana's capital of Accra, which is the center of influence and resources. Typically, money and mandates would wind through regional, district and local bureaucracies, but barely trickle down to the poorest communities.

[01:57] The USAID RING strategy is to shorten the distance between the people and the government services that will help pull them out of poverty. The RING project is designed to support local entities to work with the poorest of the poor who understand their needs and their aspirations.

[02:15] Before RING, staff were virtually sitting. People did not know that they have malnutrition because we were not able to reach to them. But with the support from RING, we have been able to provide logistics, motorbikes, fuel, for them to deliver the services to the people.

[02:35] In 17 districts and 7 regional departments, the USAID RING partnership has energized local governments, provided training, strengthened systems and coached staff in a wide range of interventions. For example, health and nutrition counseling, screening and monitoring like this, where services are being delivered and the people's voices are being heard.

[02:59] There has been a lot of changes. The home visits, the outreach services, the weighing, counseling, immunization. The RING project works better because they engage the departments that are directly on the ground, that are with the people. And under USAID's integrated approach with RING, different departments and agencies are now working together. Nutrition, sanitation, livelihood, gender. The integration of activities and then the coordination between implementers is one of the great achievements I think I will never forget.

[03:36] For instance, the services that this health clinic provides may be complemented by a demonstration from sanitation officers teaching how to construct hand washing stations or tippy taps using local materials while emphasizing the importance of hygiene. Meanwhile, a mother-to-mother support group focuses on improved breastfeeding practices, and that's followed by a cooking demonstration offering endless nutritious ways of preparing one of RING's most appetizing innovations.

[04:08] It's an orange-fleshed sweet potato, which is very good in vitamin A and very high nutritive value. Orange-fleshed sweet potato. That's what the experts call it. Locally, they are known as alafi wuljo, or healthy potato, a specially bred, vitamin-packed tuber that RING-trained district agriculture extension agents have introduced across the region with considerable success. They are easy to grow, easy to harvest, and have already become a healthy staple of the local diet. We used not to have enough food in the community. Now that we have OFSP, it's additional food in the community to help our children eat and grow well.

[04:52] Women are also being provided with agricultural inputs and training to grow soybeans. And for the dry, hot seasons, they have learned how to use drip irrigation to grow nutritious and profitable leafy green vegetables. They consume what they are able to consume and sell the rest for money to support themselves.

[05:09] But profitable farming requires seeds and input, and that requires something in very limited supply here — cash. Improving economic health is an essential goal of USAID RING, and it starts with the Village Savings and Loans Associations, or VSLAs, where women can safely save, borrow, and invest their money. Many have inculcated that culture of savings. My name is Kwame Ajuwa. RING has given us the opportunity to train them on business management. They are now able to save more regularly. Before RING, I and my husband, we were poor. We can't even take care of our children. They've been able to start income-generating activities. When we started saving, I picked 400,000 and started selling my goods. To date, more than 85,000 women have been able to save more than US$4.6 million. So now I can take care of my family.

[06:16] Many VSLA members have created profitable businesses, but making money takes time. And in traditional village culture, men are the boss, while women work overtime. Do sweep, boil water, bathe children. District gender officers like Ruby Osman have held hundreds of sensitization sessions with men and women, comparing the long list of uneven burdens between them. The women do a lot. Then the men was not much. All men in this community, they came together to help them. And they accepted some of the burdens of the women so that they can also benefit. The women are now having money, and so because of the women have the say in the home. We men don't want the women to go forward and leave them behind.

[07:11] In fact, both women and men are moving forward as families become more resilient by expanding their sources of income. In the past, men have traditionally been in charge of raising small ruminants, sheep and goats. But through USAID RING, thousands of women like Magnandine Mamalabi are now in the livestock business as a sustainable source of independent income. Through USAID RING's support, Magnandine was given three sheep, which quickly multiplied to nine and became a literal lifesaver. I was sick and I didn't have money to go to the hospital. So I sold two and used part of the money to also pay for my hospital bills. The rest of the money that was left, I used to buy all those books and sandals for my children to go to school.

[08:01] Magnandine's growing herd is also doing well because USAID emphasizes the importance of institutional capacity building with its partners. Thanks to RING, local governments can now provide essential advice and veterinary support via knowledgeable field agents. And their training is part of USAID RING's massive teaching, coaching, and monitoring program for local staff, government officials, and community volunteers, empowering them to empower their communities.

[08:31] For example, this borehole or deep well stopped providing safe drinking water three years ago. With supervision from USAID RING's trained staff, the community members can now perform basic repairs themselves. Every aspect of RING reflects this approach. When the government provides the appropriate training, resources and support, the people will do the work.

[08:53] Communities have been constructing improved sanitation facilities, such as latrines and tippy taps, by the thousands. And that's a direct result of being led through RING's community-led total sanitation process, CLTS. By then, we defecated in the bush. We thought that was the best way we should do it. We draw a map of the community. We show where the people defecate. The feces were defecating in the bush. We are taking it back into our system. So after they realize they are eating their own feces, they take up the mantle to solve the problem for themselves. Within no time, we realized that all the community became ODF.

[09:36] ODF — open defecation free. Today, volunteers like Amidu Abdullai are part of the Natural Leaders Network, helping neighboring communities achieve the same ODF results. Districts actually compete to see who has the most ODF communities.

[09:54] From latrines to livestock, nutrition to agriculture, all these changes are taking place within what were historically weak local government offices. It is RING's governance training component that is building the long-term systems and capacity of local government officials and staff. Isahaka Basintale, here in the East Mampusi Municipal Assembly, says that he can now run programs that are accountable, honest, informed and independent. Let me tell you one thing. RING is one of the interventions that the politicians have limited influence.

[10:32] The RING project has achieved impacts, and some of these impacts are irreversible. When we plan RING activities, in some places we get 100% implementation. Habit of hand washing, habit of savings. If every project is going to be implemented like that, this country will go beyond where we are today.