Policy makers and representatives of the private sector, civil society, academia, development partners, youth networks and the media will meet on Wednesday February 28, in Accra, Ghana, for a policy dialogue on job creation.
Ghana, like other African countries, faces a crisis of “jobless growth”. The youth are hardest hit since they are three times as likely to be unemployed as adults, according to the International Labour Organization’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2017.
The meeting will address the growing youth employment challenge and find sustainable solutions to the problem. The event is jointly organized by the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) and the INCLUDE Platform. This dialogue follows two meetings held on 15 July and 28 September 2016, at which stakeholders including political parties shared views on how to address the challenge of youth employment in Ghana ahead of the 2016 elections. Both meetings attracted over 200 stakeholders.
The third meeting in the series will discuss the government’s policy initiatives towards job creation, including how these policies will be rolled out to impact positively on youth unemployment.
According to ACET’s Chief Economist Emeritus, Dr. Yaw Ansu, “Youth unemployment is the greatest challenge to Ghana’s development. He added, “The youth are our goldmine to development when utilized properly. But if not dealt with properly, the challenge of youth employment could blow up in our face”.
The policy dialogue will also serve as the platform to launch the Youth and Skills Chapter of the Pan African Coalition for Transformation (PACT). The Chapter will engage stakeholders in finding sustainable solutions to youth unemployment challenges on the continent.
ACET acts as the secretariat to PACT, which was launched at the first African Transformation Forum, held in March 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda. PACT is a network of like-minded countries, organizations and sponsors sharing valuable knowledge about successful initiatives, policies and reforms to speed up implementation of transformation strategies in Africa. PACT is organized around a number of thematic chapters, including agriculture, manufacturing, extractives, resource mobilization and management, and youth employment and skills.
INCLUDE is a knowledge platform that offers insight into policy matters and research issues related to inclusive development.
For more information contact: Francis Abebrese on [email protected]
Updates will appear on:
Facebook: African Center for Economic Transformation
Twitter: @AcetforAfrica
LinkedIn: African Center for Economic Transformation
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