Tackling Youths Unemployment in Ghana

IMG-20180222-WA0002

We at the Darsfield Village Farms & Outgrowers (Darsfarm) believe that new and more aggressive strategies should be employed and supported by states but implemented through multi-stakeholder partnerships which are required to empower more women and youths to succeed in the new economy. The paper recommends policies that promote investment in agriculture and manufacturing which is associated with higher employment elasticity of output.

High incidence of unemployment among the women, youths and secondary school leavers in the most recent period requires targeted intervention including support for entrepreneurial training and start‐up capital to attract women, youths and young school leavers to become ‘creators’ rather than ‘seekers’ of jobs. A downward review of expectations on the part of jobseekers in terms of their reservation wage could help reduce unemployment in Ghana. Positive interventions should focus on several key areas:

Jobs: ensuring that enough good jobs exist for young people who seek them

1. Pro-growth policies to enable job creation.

2. Promotion of entrepreneurship.

Skills: teaching young people how to identify opportunities, align their interests with market

needs, and acquire relevant skills that will let them succeed in sustainable careers

1. Information initiatives to improve skills market functioning.

2. Better career guidance and more flexible access to training.

3. More use of youth-friendly technology for information and service delivery.

Experience: overcoming practical barriers to initial workforce entry by young people

1. Apprenticeship programs, school-to-work programs, services for out of school youth.

2. Employer partnerships to ensure access to real jobs.

Impact: identifying interventions that work, and scaling them up so that their impact matches the magnitude of the challenge, while their cost matches available funding

1. Creating national youth development strategies.

2. Program documentation, monitoring and evaluation.

3. Establishing clear impact goals and providing a comprehensive range of services and solutions.

Earlier this year, Darsfield EarthCare & Farm-Tech Foundation (Darsfoundation) and Rural Organic Farmers & Food Processors Association (ROFPA) issued a paper on what businesses the women and youths can do to help improve the employment outlook for young people. We urged employers to push forward, to make more effort to tap the unique energy and perspective of young people, and to help create the skilled workforce that they will depend upon in the future. We encouraged businesses to partner more closely with educators and trainers to build real world experience into academic and vocational programs, and to take direct initiatives to hire, train, and mentor women and youths, but businesses cannot do the job alone. In this paper, we address the broader enabling environment coupled with policies and programs, coaching and mentoring programs, business incubation programs, financial and civil society resources which will help improve the employment outlook for women and youths and enable more effective assistance to youths who are struggling.

We want to address key actors, especially policymakers and educators, who can take a broad view of the youth employability challenge and exercise leadership in bringing successful approaches to scale.

FYI 2019 Darsfarm intervention to empower women & youths in RuralGhana

Projects # of communities # of women groups

Snail farming 6 4

Cassava Processing 12 12

Rural Agroforestry 22 7

Fruits & Veggie Farming 8 4

Oil Processing 3 3

Mushroom farming 6 6

Amasaman

3