Friends of the Nation (FoN) works with Ghana’s coastal communities to build a blue economy that spreads economic risk and strengthens resilience: diversified livelihoods, climate adaptation, responsible oil and gas governance, and eco-tourism. This page brings together FoN’s work across all four areas.
Livelihood Support and Diversification
Safety at sea and sustainable fisheries governance mean little if a bad season or an accident can push a fishing household into crisis. Friends of the Nation (FoN) works to diversify and strengthen the livelihoods of small-scale fishing communities, so that families are not entirely dependent on a single, increasingly unpredictable source of income.
What We Do
FoN supports fishers, fish processors, and their households to take up viable alternative and supplementary livelihoods, including small livestock rearing, vegetable farming, soap and shea butter production, and other value-addition enterprises led largely by women in fishing communities. We provide business skills training, support the formation of savings and loans groups (VSLAs) that give households access to capital during lean seasons, and help link producers to markets. Where a household includes a fisher affected by injury or accident at sea, FoN works to connect them with livelihood support that eases the transition to alternative income sources.
Why It Matters
Livelihood diversification reduces the pressure on already stressed fish stocks by giving households other ways to earn a living, while also building a buffer against the shocks that are common in small-scale fisheries: bad seasons, gear loss, accidents at sea, and market price swings. A fishing household with more than one source of income is better placed to weather these shocks, and to support broader efforts to fish sustainably rather than fish harder simply to survive.
Climate & Economic Resilience
Coastal communities in Ghana are on the front line of climate change. Rising sea levels, intensifying coastal erosion, unpredictable rainfall, and warming waters are already disrupting fishing seasons and threatening homes and farmland along the coast. Friends of the Nation (FoN) works with these communities to build economic resilience that can absorb these shocks rather than be undone by them.
What We Do
FoN helps coastal households and small businesses adapt their livelihoods to a changing climate. This includes promoting climate-smart approaches to fish processing and aquaculture, supporting savings and loans groups that help families withstand lean seasons, and encouraging diversification into climate-resilient alternative livelihoods such as beekeeping, vegetable farming, and small-scale trade. We also work with communities to understand local climate and coastal erosion risks, and to feed that understanding into district-level planning, so that adaptation measures reflect what communities are actually experiencing on the ground.
Why It Matters
Climate change does not affect all households equally. Families that depend entirely on fishing, with no savings or alternative income, are the most exposed when a bad season, a storm, or eroding shoreline strikes. By strengthening economic resilience today, FoN aims to help coastal communities absorb these pressures without being pushed deeper into poverty, and to ensure that the burden of climate adaptation does not fall hardest on those who contributed least to the problem.
Oil and Gas
Tracking Oil Revenue Investments in Ghana’s Western Region
A share of petroleum revenues has been allocated to development projects through the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA). FoN and partners monitor how these funds are spent in the Western Region, partnering with the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and other civil society groups to assess oil-funded projects in the six coastal districts: Jomoro, Ellembelle, Nzema East, Ahanta West, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan, and Shama. Read More
Mitigating Livelihood Impacts of Oil Production
FoN works with our partners and oil companies operating in the Western Region to identify, mitigate, and compensate for livelihood impacts. This engagement is built on constructive dialogue and evidence-based advocacy, ensuring that community concerns are addressed within the framework of environmental and social responsibility. Read More
Annual National Oil & Gas Summits
Friends of the Nation (FoN) convenes the National Oil and Gas Dialogue, an inclusive platform for open conversations on Ghana’s petroleum sector. The Dialogue brings together government agencies, regulators, oil companies, civil society, academia, media, and host communities to deliberate on how the country’s oil and gas resources are governed. Read More
Eco Tourism Initiative
Ghana’s coastline, from the historic forts of Elmina and Cape Coast to the quiet fishing beaches of the Western Region, holds real potential for tourism that benefits the people who live there. Friends of the Nation (FoN) works with coastal communities to develop eco-tourism initiatives that create alternative income streams, ease pressure on overexploited fish stocks, and celebrate the natural and cultural heritage of Ghana’s coast.
What We Do
FoN supports community-led tourism ventures such as guided coastal and wetland tours, cultural heritage trails, and small-scale hospitality enterprises run by fisher families and youth groups. We help communities identify their tourism assets, from mangrove estuaries and nesting sites to canoe-building traditions and festivals, and connect them with training in hospitality, basic business management, and environmentally responsible tourism practices. Where possible, we link these initiatives to broader conservation goals, for example by developing eco-tourism around mangrove restoration sites or marine mammal-watching areas, so that tourism revenue directly supports the ecosystems it depends on.
Why It Matters
Many coastal households rely almost entirely on a single, increasingly unpredictable source of income: fishing. Eco-tourism offers a practical way to diversify household earnings, particularly for women and young people who may have limited access to the fishery itself. Done well, it also gives communities a direct economic incentive to protect the beaches, wetlands, and wildlife that make their area worth visiting, aligning conservation with livelihoods rather than placing them in competition.