Capacity building for effective NGO/CBO governance: In Ghana, and across Africa, there is limited capacity for indigenous organizations to plan, source funding and effectively implement projects. As a result most organizations are unable to have repeat projects from donors. DSC supports the establishment of local governance structures and builds the capacity of organizations to plan, design and implement projects.
The key focus areas of capacity building are:

• Strategic Planning/Program Strategy formulation
• Use of Participatory tools and methodologies
• Fundraising
• Organizational Development
• Board Development
• Programs and Projects formulation and management
• Development of Standard operating procedures (SOPs) and other technical manuals
• Information and communication technology solutions provision
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Donor Reporting
• Documentation of Success Stories
• General NGO Mentoring

Community Development: Historically, most communities in Ghana are perpetual and passive recipients of donor largesse irrespective of the level of need and relevance. As a result there is a plethora of failed projects. DSC has come out with a solution to this problem by facilitating a participatory needs assessment and helping the communities to package and prioritize their needs. Also important is creating job opportunities for people living in rural areas to prevent them from moving into urban areas for “mirage” jobs. The key focus areas for community development are:

• Facilitating Participatory Needs Assessment (PNA) for communities;
• Establishing and providing support to community resource management committees that will develop community development plans, prioritize projects and manage implementation;
• Facilitating the establishment of District Human Development Trust funds;
• Developing policy advocacy; and
• Harvesting indigenous knowledge.

Agriculture, Food Security and Health: Chronic rural poverty, tenuous environmental conditions and lack of access to adequate healthcare and nutrition create daunting conditions in many of Africa’s rural communities. Fully aware and immersed in these issues, DSC is supporting community groups to increase production and productivity and providing education on good hygiene, sanitation and HIV/AIDS, among others.
The main foci are:

• Sustainable agricultural development
• Water and sanitation
• Value addition through food processing and packaging
• HIV/AIDS awareness creation and care of people living with AIDS
• Health insurance awareness creation
• Maternal and Child Health care

Education: Educational development needs of Africa have changed over time. Current needs center around basic education, computer training, small business development, management training, micro financial services post-conflict counseling and rehabilitation.

• Community Information and Cmmunication Technology (ICT) infrastructure facilitation and education
• Solicit funds to support Prisons’ vocational training of inmates and support for ex-convicts to facilitate easy rehabilitation and reintegration into society
• Business Development Services provision to SMEs
• Vocational and entrepreneurial skills development
• Micro-credit and Micro-financing
• Adult numeracy training
• Functional literacy training
• “Sandwich” educational programs for selected entities like “herdboys” during their cow-watering breaks, etc

Business Development Services: Although Africa abounds with people of high intellect and is resource rich, we have failed to cater for our basic needs of food clothing and shelter. DSC believes that at the core of this predicament is our inability to critically plan, prioritize and utilize the abundant resources at our disposal.  To help transform lives of rural Ghana, we are gearing up to support rural SMEs to become the engine of growth.  The business support services on offer include the following:

• Systematic Product Development to take advantage of local and global markets.
• Value addition to primary commodities through processing and appropriate packaging.
• Market Development for Small Enterprises to help poor people survive and thrive in local and global Markets. This involves the introduction of appropriately designed market development initiatives to help micro, small and medium enterprises, and small–scale farmers (SEs) to benefit from participation in local and global economies thereby increasing sales, reducing costs and creating employment and income for poor people in Africa.
• Business Finance Consulting to help businesses obtain the most suitable type of finance. Our links to a variety of funding sources enable us to help SMEs access different types of funds such as leasing, asset based or revolving loans, other type of funding for growth, refinancing or for any other business purposes.
• Development Management Services to help Ghana and international agencies. Our staff and associates'' extensive experience and expertise is put to work in project, policy or program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. We work with our clients as partners for a better world.
• Management and Business Consulting to support small businesses in governance, human resource management and knowledge management so that SMEs can remain strong and succeed in good and bad time.