About CLRD
Our Story
The Center for Local Resource Development was founded on a straightforward observation: rural households in Ghana generate agricultural value that is captured elsewhere in the chain. Distance to processing infrastructure, limited market access, and exposure to external price volatility have left rural households vulnerable to shocks they did not create and cannot easily absorb.
CLRD was established to work directly with communities, placing household production systems at the foundation of its approach. The organization began its work in the Kintampo-Buipe corridor, spanning Kintampo North District in the Bono East Region and Central Gonja District in the Savannah Region — a region characterized by rain-fed agriculture, seasonal constraints, and limited processing infrastructure, and representative of the challenges facing rural communities across Ghana's middle belt.
The organization is built on years of sustained engagement in rural Ghana, relationships developed through living and working alongside communities, and a commitment to development that is rooted in community priorities and local economic realities.
Our Approach
CLRD works from the household outward. Rural households in Ghana manage complex production systems that balance subsistence, commerce, social obligation, and community relationships. These systems are not simply agricultural operations waiting for market access — they are the economic and social foundation of rural life.
CLRD's programs are designed around this reality. Building local processing capacity, supporting cooperative structures, and strengthening value chains at the community level. CLRD works to ensure that rural households can engage national markets in ways that retain value within the communities that generate it.
CLRD brings to this work a combination of field-level experience, community relationships built over years of sustained engagement, and technical expertise in program design and evaluation. This combination — contextual knowledge alongside analytical capacity — is what allows CLRD to design programs that are both grounded in community realities and rigorous enough to demonstrate results to partners and donors.
Our Team
Ian Anthony
Ian brings extensive field experience in Ghana rooted in long-term personal and professional connections to the country. His engagement with Ghana began during his undergraduate year abroad at the University of Ghana through the Trent-in-Ghana program, as part of an International Development Studies degree. Since then, his involvement has deepened through continued fieldwork, grant writing, program design, and sustained community immersion — including learning Twi and developing a nuanced understanding of Ghanaian social and cultural dynamics. Living and working within rural communities, his experience spans community-level engagement, project planning, program design and evaluation, and work connected to agriculture, food systems, and rural livelihoods. His understanding of how rural household production systems interact with local leadership structures and broader market dynamics has been built through sustained engagement over many years.
Mabel Senaa Bonsuuri
Mabel brings over eight years of experience in gender equality, community development, and inclusive economic growth across Ghana and internationally. She currently serves as Gender and International Engagement Officer at Mckingtorch Africa, leading gender-responsive strategies within the plastic waste management sector, and is the Founder of iHelpAfrica, a community-based organization focused on locally driven development and sustainable partnerships.
Her experience spans community mobilization, agricultural innovation, data analysis, and social impact programming, including an international placement with CABI in the United Kingdom supporting digital transformation initiatives for smallholder farmers. Mabel holds a BSc in Development Management from the University for Development Studies, Ghana, and an MSc in Applied International Development from the University of Reading, United Kingdom.
James brings decades of hands-on agricultural experience rooted in a lifelong commitment to sustainable farming systems. A graduate of New Liskeard College of Agriculture, his practice has spanned market gardening, soil science, winter growing, and experimental work in vermiculture, black soldier fly production, and green manure cropping techniques. His agricultural work has extended beyond production into community development, having collaborated with a not-for-profit organization supporting youth in gaining their first working experience through farming.
James joins CLRD with a focus on the Kintampo-Buipe Rice Processing Project, bringing practical expertise in agricultural systems and a particular interest in sustainable production inputs and integrated farming approaches. His work in Ghana will explore the application of organic soil enhancement and pest management techniques within the local rice farming context.
