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Ghana

National context

In 2016, it was projected that, given the country’s growing youth population, 300,000 new jobs would need to be created each year to absorb the increasing numbers of unemployed young people. Yet the employment structure of the Ghanaian economy has not changed much from several decades ago. Most jobs are low skill, requiring limited cognitive or technology know-how, reflected in low earnings and work of lower quality. An additional challenge for Ghana is the need to create access to an adequate number of high-quality, productive jobs.

Although the agriculture sector has been overtaken by the service sector in recent years, it still contributes significantly (19.1% to GDP, Source: GSS 2020) to the Ghanaian economy. The sector employs more than 50% of the population and still holds enormous opportunities for employment creation for youth. Evidence suggests that the sector remains a main gateway to work, and that, for many, it will become the sector of lifetime employment.

Rural-educated youth are not attracted to low-productivity or subsistence agriculture. The absence of jobs in rural areas is a cause of the migration of youth to urban areas, where they seek non-agricultural jobs. Youth in rural areas have few opportunities to add value to crops or to start agribusiness or agricultural entrepreneurial activities. They are limited by poor infrastructure, a lack of processing and storage facilities, weak cooperative groups, and poor access to markets and networking opportunities.

Ghana is a major regional travel hub, serving as a connector for most of the West African countries, and is largely an import-driven economy. As such, the COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial negative impact on the country’s international trade and reserves. Ghana, like other countries in the region, has tightened financial conditions with the exchange rate under pressure.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have impacts on food systems and food security in the short, medium- and long-term. The pandemic is already affecting food systems in Ghana through disruptions in food supply, demand and decreases in purchasing power of the poor and vulnerable. Volumes and values of exported agricultural commodities such as cocoa, cashew, fruits and vegetables have also reduced due to closure of ports and low demand from importing countries.

Key statistics in Ghana

Ghana Country Action Plan (CAP)

OYA baseline analysis showed that focused, strategic, short- to medium-term and long-term responses are required to address current unemployment and underemployment challenges. Effective coordination and synergies among youth employment programmes are needed to avoid duplication of effort while the country’s economic structure transforms. Effective private sector participation in skills development and employment programmes is recommended.

In Ghana, policy makers need to take into account the country’s current high unemployment rate and the limitations on expanding public sector employment. In view of this situation, realistic short- to medium-term job outcomes might be defined as supporting youth to transition from unemployment or underemployment into productive self-employment or helping self-employed youth maintain an existing business over the medium to long terms

As such, OYA intervention focuses in five priority areas:

  • Agriculture and agribusiness,

  • Apprenticeship (skills training),

  • Entrepreneurship,

  • High-yielding areas (renewable energy–solar, construction, tourism, sports, and green jobs), and

  • Preemployment support services.

OYA in Ghana

CAP Strategy

OYA involves a broad range of stakeholders at different levels, each having their respective role and responsibility. At national level, collaborations will be set-up with training institutes, value chain supporting actors, and financial institutions to enhance access to capital and productive resources for youth. Meso-level organizations will be involved as well in the programme activities to provide platforms for collaboration or engaging members. Relevant government institutions will provide indications on targeting of beneficiaries and communities as well as strategic directions for implementation of activities.

The programme explores innovative approaches to ensure broader stakeholder participation and alignment of the youth, such as virtual and online learning platforms. OYA also promotes youth network platforms to give them a voice to advocate for more investment in the agriculture sector.

OYA ensures the representation of youth, persons with disability, men and women among the stakeholders and beneficiaries, to support the advancement of women’s equal participation with men as decision makers. Trainings and other programme activities will be developed in a gender-responsive manner, including consideration of location and safety, training of female trainers, gender-sensitive facilitators to promote female participation.

The programme will place strong emphasis on the promotion of sustainable social, environmental, and economic practices. The programme will promote, for example, climate-smart interventions and good agricultural and agribusiness practices on environmental resource management. It will also promote green jobs and the introduction of good practices on circular economy (circularity) across the agro-food sector.

Ghana CAP

Value Chains

Following OYA baseline study, priority value chains that have high potential for employment and self-employment creation and that are potentially more attractive for youth were recommended. Indeed, the selection of value chains should take into account the youth characteristics (they are innovative, dynamic, and optimistic, ready to take a risk, unlike the aged who are risk-averse), as well as the geographical locations of youth, demography, potential for innovations, Export potential, potential to attract address gender and cross cutting issues.

Proposed value chains for the OYA project were based on the above-mentioned factors as well as the alignment of the selected value chains with current government sector development priorities. In this regard, Cocoa (i.e. value addition products), Fruits (i.e. freshly cut, dried, processed and frozen products), Maize (i.e. promotion of high yielding varieties, post-harvest technology, marketing activities) and aquaculture value chains have been selected:

  • Cocoa is the most important agricultural commodity Ghana produces and the mainstay of Ghana’s agricultural sector, worth about 30% of all revenue from export and responsible for about 57% of overall agricultural export. The sector directly and indirectly employs about 2 million people, and contributes to 7.3% of Ghana’s GDP. The cocoa and chocolate industry is constantly undergoing dynamic change depending on the nature of the demand for chocolate: consumption behaviour has recently experience a major change, with the increasing appeal of premium chocolate, including organic, Fairtrade, single-origin, reduced sugar and dark and high cocoa content chocolate.

  • The Fruits sector is estimated to be worth 56.8 million dollars and accounts for about 7% of the revenue of the agriculture sector. Mango and pineapple are the major fruits produced with citrus fruits and bananas being the other key components. Fruits have a high potential for creating jobs along the value chain. In Ghana’s fruit sector, activities such as production, processing and exports is mostly identified as the major activities taking place. The farmers are the producers responsible for the production of the fruits who in turn sell to processors who add value to the fruits through processing and then the processed products are exported countries in need of it.

  • Maize accounts for over 50% of cereal production in Ghana with about 60% being exported to various parts of the world. Recent strategic intervention by the government in the maize value chain has contributed to the 40% increase in crop output. The numerous uses of maize provides lots of domestic market opportunities for the youth anticipating to enter into cultivation.

  • Aquaculture has a huge potential for employment opportunities and entrepreneurship development. Characterized as agents of change, young people face an array of challenges in aquaculture. Increasing investments in modernizing fisheries and aquaculture in West Africa has the potential to open up new employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for youth along the fish value chain.

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