FIRE AID and Ghana National Fire Service sign three-year memorandum of understanding
The agreement sets out an annual specialist training programme, equipment support shaped by GNFS's needs, and a plan for Ghanaian firefighters to pass on their skills across the service.
FIRE AID and International Development and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) have signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) to strengthen fire and rescue capability in Ghana, with support from the Ghana High Commission.
The agreement sets out an annual training programme, equipment support shaped by GNFS's needs, and a plan for Ghanaian firefighters to share new skills across the service. The aim is to strengthen fire and rescue capability in Ghana, with support from the Ghana High Commission.
The MOU sets out an annual training programme in Ghana, tailored to GNFS's operational priorities, with the ambition of adding a second visit as funding allows. Each programme will include at least one full day of medical training and places for up to 25 GNFS personnel. The agreement also looks beyond the courses themselves: how will new skills become part of the service’s everyday practice? A train-the-trainer approach will support GNFS personnel to share what they learn with colleagues. Both organisations will review the programme annually and agree priorities for the following year together.
Training shaped by the work
Road traffic collision training may cover scene safety, vehicle stabilisation, casualty access and extrication. Firefighting training may include fire behaviour, breathing apparatus, search and rescue, incident command and firefighter safety. The precise content will be agreed with GNFS each year so that it responds to current operational needs.
For Storms Menri, FIRE AID’s Ghana Lead, the value of the MOU lies in what remains after each training visit.
“We have to begin by listening to GNFS. The aim is to deliver training that firefighters can use with the equipment available to them, then support them to pass those skills on. If the knowledge stays and grows within the service, each course has a much longer life.”
EQUIPMENT THAT MEETS LOCAL NEEDS
FIRE AID also aims to send one 40-foot container of donated equipment to Ghana annually. The partners will agree its contents in advance, considering whether the tools meet GNFS’s needs, suit local conditions and can be safely used and maintained. The agreement also includes support for road safety education and work with schools.
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Wood, the UK Defence Advisor to Ghana, has described the value of practical support in FIRE AID’s work: “What’s harder – and more meaningful – is showing up with the right tools for the right problem.”
CLOSING THE FIRE GAP IN GHANA
This agreement is a practical step towards closing the Fire Gap. That gap exists between the fire and rescue capacity communities need and the capacity investment has enabled them to build. By bringing training and equipment together around GNFS’s priorities, the partnership invests in the people and systems communities rely on when an emergency happens. Reliable fire and rescue services are essential public infrastructure, and sustained investment in them should be part of international development. Where someone lives should not determine whether help arrives.
