78 Beneficiaries Graduate from the Cash for Work Initiative in Ghana

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78 Aspiring Entrepreneurs Graduate with Green Business Skills in Ghana

April 27, 2023
Acra, Ghana

Contact:

Angela Yayra Kwashie
Technical Specialist (Local Government Finance)
angela.yayra.kwashie@uncdf.org

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SUCCESS STORY:
A ‘life changing’ experience

Mary Asmah is 29 years old and hails from Yabiw, a community in the Ahanta West Municipality in Ghana’s Western Region. She is a direct beneficiary of the GrEEn Project and calls the experience and the skills training she received ‘life changing.’ She also points to the benefits of the specific GrEEn Project construction on which she worked – a culvert that now enables her and members of her community to walk to the neighboring community without hindrance.

After attending the soft skills training organized by SOS Children’s Villages, and adding funds from her participation in the CfW activity to savings she had already accumulated, Mary started her own business – a local shop. Business is thriving, and Mary is able to monitor her growth with the bookkeeping app she learned to use during the training sessions. Community members prefer to buy from her shop, which she attributes to the cordial relationships she has established with her customers – and on the customer service skills she learned in the GrEEn training.

This month in Ghana, 78 young men and women successfully graduated a 14-part training course devoted to building entrepreneurial skills in the green economy.

The scheme is part of the Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana, or GrEEn Project, which is being implemented by UN Capital Development Fund and partners and seeks to increase economic opportunities for thousands of young people, women and returning migrants.

The graduation ceremony took place in Ahanta West Municipal Assembly in the Western Region of Ghana in April 2023, It marked the completion of the second of four training courses devoted to inspiring the potential green business leaders of tomorrow.identify opportunities in their communities and understand what it takes to be either employed or an entrepreneur in the green sector. The graduates also learned how to properly manage their finances, communicate and deal with conflict appropriately, as well as develop basic team building skills to achieve their goals.

Participants also received one-on-one coaching on how to identify possible green businesses, create a sustainable savings habit, and on finding effective ways to seek available funding for their future businesses. To date, 1,112 individuals have completed similar training with a target of reaching 4000X graduates before the project end in 2024. In total, the GrEEn Project aims to reach 2,750 women, youths and returning migrants with short term jobs created and bring 70,000 youth, women and returning migrants accessing financial services.

BACKGROUND:

The “Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana – (GrEEn)” is a four-year action from the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana, UNCDF and SNV. The project aims at creating greater economic and employment opportunities for youth, women and returning migrants by promoting and supporting sustainable, green businesses in selected regions (Ashanti and Western). GrEEn is implemented under the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa.

SOS Children’s Villages Netherlands has been contracted by UNCDF to enroll interested and eligible Ghanaians in a Cash for Work (CfW) programme that includes life and employability skills training and provides them with coaching and mentoring support. This support, to be implemented through SOS Children’s Villages Ghana, is focused on preparing and equipping CfW beneficiaries to identify economic opportunities they could pursue based on their personal preferences and potential within the green economy in their respective localities.

The work is being implemented in cooperation with SNV’s Opportunities for Youth Employment (OYE) approach through a memorandum of understanding. The terms stipulate responsibilities for both partners to work in a coordinated manner to ensure a successful transition of CfW beneficiaries into the OYE programme after having acquired a certain level of employability and skills training from SOS Children’s Villages.