Pilot Project on Labour Rights and Decent Working Conditions in Ghana

The Brücke Le Pont Pilot Project on Labour Rights and Decent Working Conditions in Ghana is a new funding opportunity for a Ghana‑based civil society organisation to design and implement a 12‑month pilot project improving labour rights and working conditions for agricultural workers, with a view to a long‑term (up to 10–12 year) partnership. The initiative focuses on systemic, market‑based change in agricultural value chains, using a Market Systems Development (MSD) approach rather than one‑off service delivery, and offers up to CHF 50,000 (approx. GHS 675,000) to cover a maximum of 80% of total project costs, with mandatory co‑financing from the applicant and other market actors.​

Eligible countries

This is a country‑specific call:

• Eligible country: Ghana (only).​
• Applicants must be legally registered organisations in Ghana for at least 3 years, with strong local anchoring in their intervention regions.​

Programme overview and objectives

Brücke Le Pont is a Swiss NGO with decades of experience supporting labour rights and decent work in agricultural value chains in Togo and Benin, and now seeks to extend its West Africa programme into Ghana through this pilot. The call aims to identify one local partner organisation that can both run a 12‑month pilot and co‑develop a 10‑year systemic intervention aligned with Brücke Le Pont’s “Decent Work” programme and partnership model.​

The pilot project should:​

• Improve labour rights and decent working conditions for agricultural workers (formal and informal).
• Strengthen worker organisation, voice and empowerment (e.g. worker groups, cooperatives, associations).
• Apply a Market Systems Development (MSD) approach that targets root causes and systemic constraints, not just symptoms.
• Engage market system actors (producers, intermediaries, cooperatives, employers, local authorities, government, private companies).
• Establish co‑financing and cost‑sharing mechanisms so improvements are financially and institutionally sustainable.
• Lay the foundations for a 10‑year partnership with clear systemic change pathways.

Focus areas and thematic scope

Project proposals must focus on labour rights and decent working conditions for agricultural workers and may cover, for example:​

• Labour rights awareness, enforcement and compliance
  • Raising awareness of labour norms, supporting enforcement, improving compliance practices.
• Strengthening worker groups and organisations
  • Supporting worker groups, cooperatives, associations to increase bargaining power, representation, and collective voice.
• Addressing systemic constraints, such as:​
  • Governance gaps, weak enforcement of labour norms.
  • Low bargaining power and unequal power relations.
  • Weak occupational health and safety (OHS).
  • Limited professional skills and training opportunities (including climate‑smart practices and quality improvements).
  • Limited access to investment funds and financial services.
  • Poor contractual arrangements and informal employment practices.
  • Gender‑specific risks, child labour risks, and childcare gaps for working parents.
• Multi‑stakeholder dialogue and social dialogue
  • Facilitating dialogue with employers, umbrella organisations, private companies, and local/national authorities to strengthen social dialogue and governance.
• Job placement and reduction of modern slavery in agriculture
  • Models for fair job placement, reducing exploitative practices and modern slavery in agricultural work.​

The emphasis is on systemic, incentive‑driven solutions that align worker welfare with the performance of agricultural markets.

Funding, duration and co‑financing

Key financial parameters:​

• Maximum Brücke Le Pont contribution:
  • CHF 50,000 (approx. GHS 675,000).
  • This may cover up to 80% of the total project budget.
• Co‑financing requirements:
  • A financial contribution from the applicant organisation is mandatory.
  • Additional financial or in‑kind contributions from market system actors (e.g. cooperatives, private companies, service providers, local authorities) are required and must be documented.​
• Project duration:
  • 12 months (pilot phase).​

Proposals requesting more than GHS 675,000 from Brücke Le Pont or lacking co‑financing will be rejected.​

Approach: Market Systems Development (MSD) and systemic change

Projects must clearly apply an MSD/systemic approach, addressing the functioning of the labour market system in agriculture rather than just delivering services.​

Key elements include:​

• Clear definition of the market system
  • Define the core transaction (e.g. labour hiring, seasonal work, contracting in specific crops).
  • Map supporting functions (skills, supervision, OHS services, recruitment channels, extension, dispute resolution, worker voice).
  • Clarify rules and norms (labour laws, community bylaws, contracts, informal practices, gender norms).
  • Identify key actors and incentives.
• Root cause analysis
  • Distinguish symptoms (low wages, unsafe work, lack of contracts, child labour) from root causes (informality, weak enforcement, bargaining power imbalances, limited skills, cost structures, weak supervision, problematic gender norms, lack of service markets).
  • Design activities to address systemic constraints, not only immediate symptoms.
• Facilitative role (no direct service delivery as the main offer)
  • The organisation should facilitate behaviour change among employers, cooperatives, intermediaries and service providers.
  • Avoid substituting market actors through long‑term direct training or service provision; any direct delivery should be short‑term, cost‑shared pilots of new business models.
• Pilot interventions
  • Involve at least two types of market actors.
  • Test new or improved ways of working (e.g. hiring models, OHS solutions, grievance mechanisms, recruitment models, cost‑sharing arrangements).
  • Define adoption pathways who will continue the innovation after the pilot.
  • Show co‑financing by market actors.
• Sustainability and scale
  • Explain how results will continue beyond 12 months.
  • Show how other actors may adopt or replicate new practices (crowding‑in).
  • Indicate how changes can be embedded in rules, norms or services (mainstreaming).
  • Demonstrate commercial or institutional viability of the model.​

Long‑term vision (10‑year partnership)

Applicants must also provide a 10‑year concept note outlining a potential partnership over three 3‑year phases (plus pilot), including:​

• A Theory of Change linked to systemic changes in labour rights and working conditions.
• Expected behaviour changes among key actors.
• Potential scaling mechanisms (crowding‑in, mainstreaming, integration into governance/service structures).
• Indicative resource projections and co‑financing avenues.
• Key elements of a phase‑out strategy.
• Milestones for institutional strengthening of the partner organisation.​

Total maximum partnership duration is envisaged at up to 12 years (pilot + multiple phases).​

Eligibility: organisations and teams

Only organisations meeting all the following criteria will be considered:​

Institutional criteria

• Legally registered in Ghana for at least 3 years.
• Excellent reputation and strong track record of transparency and accountability.
• At least 5 years’ experience in relevant areas:
  • Labour rights, decent work, worker empowerment, agricultural value chains, rural livelihoods, or market systems.
• Strong local presence and trusted relationships with communities and stakeholders in the target region.
• Proven experience in project development and management at a funding scale similar to the proposed project.
• Professional financial management, ideally with audited accounts.
• Transparent governance and commitment to accountability.
• Alignment with Brücke Le Pont’s values: equality, inclusion, non‑discrimination, participation, empowerment.​

Team criteria

• Adequate and qualified human resources.
• Team must be fluent in local languages of the intervention region and in English, with at least one team member fluent in French (for exchange with other West Africa partners).​
• Demonstrated technical competence in labour rights, decent work, MSD, value chain development, project management, and conflict‑sensitive project management.
• Proven strong financial management skills.​

Application requirements and deadline

Submissions must be max. 30 pages (excluding attachments) and include:​

• Organisation profile (vision, mission, governance, key policies, programmes, finances, partnerships).
• Evidence of relevant experience (past/current projects, lessons learned).
• Pilot project proposal (12 months) with problem/root‑cause analysis, stakeholder mapping, Theory of Change, MSD strategy, activities & timeline, indicators, risk analysis, sustainability strategy, and detailed budget in GHS including co‑financing.​
• 10‑year concept note (vision, systemic change, scaling, institutional strengthening, partnership expectations).
• Team profiles (CVs, roles, language proof).
• Administrative documents (registration certificate, organigram, latest audit report if available, proof of financial management capacity, reference from a financing partner).​

Submission details:​

• Language: English or French.
• Deadline: 8 March 2026.
• Submission email: info@bruecke-lepont.ch
• Email subject line: “Project proposal Ghana”.

Exclusion criteria

Proposals will be rejected if, for example:​

• The organisation is not registered in Ghana for ≥3 years.
• The organisation does not work in a relevant thematic field.
• The team lacks French and English language capacity.
• The MSD/systemic approach is not clearly demonstrated.
• Activities focus mainly on direct service delivery without system‑level incentives.
• No co‑financing is proposed.
• No 10‑year vision is included.
• Requested Brücke Le Pont contribution exceeds GHS 675,000.
• Submission is late or sent to a different email address.

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