Developing targeted intervention to attract young people to become ‘creators’ rather than ‘seekers’ of jobs, Green Economy Ghana is on a job creation mission to help in the increment of the economic growth of the country. Its mission is to adopt new approaches to work that requires the workforce in acquiring new skills.
Green Economy Ghana on job creation project (Archipelago program) seeks to provide both blue and white collar jobs through empowering women and returnees in accessing professional skills, jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities within a growing sustainable, and inclusive Green Economy in Ghana, and to support vocational education centers and business support organizations in developing training and services matching Green Economy Ghana market needs. This main objective is to strengthen the employability of young people and support job creation in the Sahel and Lake Chad Region.
The Archipelago program is a 4-year program funded by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF). It is being implemented in a partnership by Inclusive Business Sweden (IBS)- lead partner, Ghana-Sweden Chamber of Commerce (GSCC), YMCA Ghana, Social Enterprise Ghana (SEG), and has the Sweden-West Africa Business Association (SWABA) as an Associate.
The Green Economy project is estimated to produce 200,000 to 400,000 jobs and this project is expected to offer technical and entrepreneurial training to 400 women (returnees, single parents, women with disabilities, teenage school dropouts, unemployed youth, ex-convicts), and support them into gainful employment either as entrepreneurs or qualified personnel in the plastic recycling, organic waste management or sustainable forestry sectors in support of Green Economy. The overall outcome of this is for the women to take advantage of this opportunity to acquire skills that will lead to job creation.
Although there are major investments by both government and the private sector in solving the unemployment issues in Ghana, the challenge of unemployment has still not improved. The statistics of unemployment rate in Ghana as of 2020 is 4.53 percent and this affects the country’s economic growth.
Ghana’s population was projected to be around 31 million in 2020 with a large proportion of young adults due to the fact that the majority over (50 percent) of the population is under the age of 25 years.
The Archipelago program
The Archipelago program is a 4-year program funded by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF). It is being implemented in a partnership by Inclusive Business Sweden (IBS)- lead partner, Ghana-Sweden Chamber of Commerce (GSCC), YMCA Ghana, Social Enterprise Ghana (SEG), and has the Sweden-West Africa Business Association (SWABA) as an Associate.
This project is expected to train 400 women in technical and entrepreneurship which in the end will help them to gain employment either as entrepreneurs or qualified personnel in the plastic recycling, organic waste management or sustainable forestry sectors in support of the Green Economy.
There was limited knowledge especially in the technical skills of machinery used in the value chain on the issue of the skills gap as well as negotiating skills and circumventing bureaucracy which was a major hurdle. So far they have been trained and are on the journey of being gainfully employed.
