Ghanaian Youth Participation in Governance: A Mere Act of Symbolism!

When the late President Atta Mills decided to garnish his government with the inclusion of young people, I was one of those who hailed that approach. In principle, it’s my firm belief that young people should be given the opportunity to take up roles and responsibilities not only for their personal development but to largely help ensure the sustainability of national developmental systems or programs. Subsequently, President Mahama in assuming office also did maintain this laudable concept – infact he has added more to the existing number of youth serving in government to the extent that I recall a meeting that these young ministers had with President Mahama pledging their allegiance to his vision. Presently, some of these young ministers include Haruna Iddrisu, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Samuel Okudzeto Abrakwa, Murtala Muhammed Ibrahim, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, John Jinapor, Rachael Nana Adjoa Appoh, Baba Jamal Mohammed Ahmed, Ms. Barbara Serwaa Asamoah to mention but a few. Much as I lauded the idea, I am struggling to see any significant or enviable impact of these young ministers after 4 or so years in government other than the usual bidding of their masters’ whims and caprices. Indeed recent development in our national politicking has shown how merely beefing up one’s government with young people does not automatically translate into positive difference. Some of these young people in government do spew out so much venom and bite so hard that Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings (Founder of the NDC Party which is government now) was provoked to describe them as ‘babies with sharp teeth’. O’Donoghue et al (2002:19) pointed out that appointing few young people as deputy ministers and board members in adult-dominated settings with the youth having no power to meaningfully contribute and influence the decision making process does not promote youth participation. It creates two related problems: tokenism and exclusivity. They argue that “inserting one or a few youth into an adult-created and adult-driven process runs the risk of involving the youth as tokens or ‘decorations,’ precluding any opportunity for meaningful participation or substantive influence” (ibid:20). In addition to the risk of tokenism, involving a few youth as representatives of larger groups may result in exclusivity, whereby only the most privileged or skilled youth are chosen to participate. These privileged ones generally act as individuals, not necessarily as representatives of all young people. Therefore such appointments, although commendable, does not necessarily guarantee youth contribution, influence, ownership and interest in the formulation of sector policies. Dr. Ransford Gyampo (Political Science Department, University of Ghana) has indicated that “the appointment of several young people as ministers and deputy ministers by the executive does not necessarily lead to youth participation. Instead, it breeds, in the view of Dryzek (1997) co-optation. This is a situation where the young appointees are given positions with no power of influence in the decision making process. According to Dryzek (1996), co-optation of a group’s leadership into the state can weaken the group’s ability to effectively advocate its interest. It creates a veneer of youth participation and prevents youth groups from pursuing their rights to lobby and embark on demonstrations when necessary in order to champion their own interest in the development process (ibid:478). It is in this regard that I dismiss the appointment of several young ministers and deputy ministers as merely symbolic”. On this score, I am in total agreement with Dr. Gyampo! Some youth have also found their way into our current Parliament. Most of them obtained their seats by reason of their political affiliation but not necessarily because they have any proven acumen to handle legislature matters. No wonder, the floor of parliament has largely been perceived as an avenue for playing political chess. I shudder to think if the young parliamentarians have any meaningful difference to make. Perhaps they may prove me wrong. President John Mahama launched the National Youth Policy of Ghana on August 12th, 2010 when he was then the Vice President. The vision of the Youth Policy is “an empowered youth contributing positively to national development”. To be able to achieve, the policy proposed the following objectives to be pursued: • Empower and actively involve the youth of Ghana in productive activities for individual, community, and national development. • Enable each Ghanaian youth develop his or her full potential and self-esteem. • Institutionalize youth participation at all levels of the decision-making process to ensure the nurturing of democratic culture. • Enable the youth acquire, share and transfer knowledge, expertise, and experience through domestic and international networking and peer-learning. • Inspire the youth to develop the aptitude for creativity, innovation and self-discovery in improving their quality of life. • Inculcate in the youth a strong sense of self-reliance, patriotism, nationalism, and volunteerism. Sad to say that these objectives have been long abandoned! I think the supposed implementers of youth development and empowerment programs in Ghana are (as the case is) so deficient in managing the processes effectively and efficiently. Meanwhile, there already existing models for youth involvement that we can learn from. Although there are many models, the ultimate goal is about involving young people throughout the entire management processes or systems and not just splashing positions on them. John C. Maxwell rightly noted that LEADERSHIP is FUNCTIONAL and NOT POSITIONAL. In her work, “Methods for Effective Youth Governance”, Kareen Young (Co-Director, Youth on Board) did propose some ways of involving young people. For the purposes of my article, I have decided to select and contextualize her submissions to fit into Ghana’s framework. Thus, they are as follows: 1. Set up a youth advisory board or task force 2. Have youths serve on policy committees 3. Have young people participate in national development programming dialogues or workshops 4. Involve young people as peer mediators or peer mentors 5. Set up a youth court 6. Ask young people to serve as budget reviewers 7. Engage youths as advocates or set up a speakers’ bureau (there are on-going discussions on the establishment of a National Youth Parliament in Ghana) 8. Set up focus group meetings to ask young people what they think about a particular national development program or agenda. Much as the recruitment of young people into any or all of these above roles is a major challenge, doing such exercise in a transparent, free and fair manner can win the confidence and trust among young people themselves. Again, ensuring downward accountability (where all selected or recruited young people are charged with giving periodic reports or account of their stewardship to their peers) is a key approach to developing young people positively into good governance. Some of these above ways are what I expect the National Youth Authority (NYA) to be coordinating and championing instead of wobbling under the shadows of obscurity. On this score, I must salute President Mahama for availing himself in the two successive sessions of the Presidential Youth Dialogue series on March 19th and August 12th 2013. He met with youth leaders and groups across the country to dialogue on key issues confronting the youth. As stated before, I think this concept should be replicated at the regional, district and community levels so young people can engage with their respective leaders and have their concerns engrained into planning and implementation of programs and/or activities. Two key issues that the President raised that I am particular interested in were that he has: - Directed the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations & the Ghana Statistical Services to embark on a research purposely to obtain an accurate data on the rate of youth (un)employment in Ghana. This is very essential if effective programming or interventions are to be developed for young people - Directed for the creation of a Youth Enterprise Development Fund with a seed fund of GH¢10million to support youth employment initiatives or programs. I am eager to see the progress of these directives. According to Karen, the key to keeping youths involved is the relationships that are built. Just like adults, young people will stay involved if they feel like they are contributing and that their ideas are respected. One of my favourite quotes notes that “meaningful youth participation means involving young people in decision making process, not just making them as decoration!” When these approaches are properly harnessed and deployed from the community, district, regional and national levels, I believe that youth participation in Ghana’s governance will no longer be a MERE ACT OF SYMBOLISM! I hereby conclude with these words of Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, “To achieve genuine development, we must transform our approach with and for young people, and in particular young women and girls. Young people are drivers of change. They must have the choices and tools to fully participate in development, realize their potential, and contribute to their societies”. Chibeze Ezekiel * Youth Development Practitioner & Young Environmentalist Chibeze@hotmail.com

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The National Youth Policy of Ghana: A Dead Corpse worth resurrecting!

On August 12, 2010, I was among a host of young people who participated in the launch of the National Youth Policy in Elmina, Cape Coast by His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama (then the Vice President of Ghana). So far, I think the policy is essential – at least we have a document which is quite comprehensive than the 1999 version and also provides a guide towards achieving youth development in Ghana. The next important step was the development of an Action Plan to give life to the policy. It’s over 3 years since the launch of the policy and yet government has failed to produce any action plan. This reminds me of a paper entitled, The Youth in Ghana and the African Youth Charter, written by Dr. Ransford Gyampo, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science (University of Ghana) made some interesting observations. According him, “the structures that formulate youth policies are different from those that handle national development policies. In many instances, the government employs a consultant through the Ministry of Youth and Sports to formulate such policies which are then discussed and approved by cabinet and forwarded to the relevant agencies for implementation (Akomea, 2009). Unlike national development policies, youth policies are usually not presented to parliament, and therefore are easily abandoned by successor governments (Donkor, 2010). When the NPP came to power in 2001, it abandoned the 1999 National Youth Policy and took two terms in office to formulate the …2008 National Youth Policy. The NDC abandoned the 2008 youth policy formulated by its predecessor and introduced a new one in 2010. There is no guarantee that the 2010 youth policy would also allowed to serve as a guide to youth development should the NDC lose future elections…” During the latter part of 2012, some selected youth leaders including myself were invited by the National Youth Authority (NYA) to a National Consultative Workshop in Accra. The object of the workshop was to make inputs into a supposed draft action plan. After careful analysis and scrutiny of the documents, it turned out that participants’ present expressed dissatisfaction on the overall content of the document. In the 2013 Budget Statement, it was stated that the NYA had embarked on a regional tour to solicit ideas from different youth groups which led to the draft action plan after collating those information. Paragraph 631 specifically notes that “… 500 youth with varied backgrounds participated in youth dialogues to solicit inputs for the Youth Policy Action Plan in four Zones nationwide”. I have asked ‘who were the specific youth groups invited in the regions and what were the criteria for selection and whether there was equal representation across the nation?’ Unfortunately, I have still not received answers to these questions. The NYA is the arm of government under the Ministry of Youth and Sports mandated to shoulder such role or responsible. As to whether the NYA is living up to expectation is another subject for discussion. Indeed in May 2011, I published an article entitled “The National Youth Council: A bane or blessing” which till date is provoking several and different responses and/or reactions. I still maintain my position that NYA’s performance with respect to developing and pursuing pragmatic and comprehensive youth development is woefully inadequate! Meanwhile, paragraph 1152 of the 2012 Budget Statement states that “… the National Youth Authority will be provided with GH¢2 million for the Youth Policy”. We have (still) not been told what this budgetary allocation seeks to achieve and even how much was actually disbursed. So far I am not enthused with the efforts of NYA in creating awareness and/or disseminating the Youth Policy. Section 11.2.1 of the Policy reads that “the policy shall be reviewed when necessary (but at least once in every five years) and in line with other government policies”. It’s more than 3 years since the insertion of this ‘lifeless’ policy; so would it be reviewed after the next 2 years? It will be interesting to see how a policy will be reviewed when it has not been tested? While the youth policy of Ghana currently remains dead for lack of an Action Plan, I believe some efforts can be put in place to breathe some life into it. My recommendations are as follows: 1. NYA should liaise with organized student groups such as National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), PUSAG, and GUNSA by using their existing platforms or networks to educate or create more awareness on the policy. Similar effort should be targeted at organized informal youth groups such as the hairdressers, barbering, and dressmaking associations. 2.NYA should ensure that all Sector Ministries or MMDAs take into consideration youth inputs in the formulation, review and/or implementation of their respective policies and/or programmes. In so doing, young people can better understand and appreciate developmental issues as they make their inputs in the policies and programs of these MMDAs. The NYA should organize the youth groups in their database and play a coordination role between the groups and the respective government MMDAs. For example, health-focused youth groups can be connected to the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Services and other allied stakeholders. 3.NYA should develop a periodic ‘youth and media encounter’ sessions to showcase talents and ideas of young people contributing in various ways towards national development as well as deepening positive lifestyle or culture. In conclusion, Youth inclusion in decision making processes at all levels has been widely preached and documented (references in the African Youth Charter, Lisbon Declaration on Youth Policies and Programmes & World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond). Though Ghana is striving to include youth in decision-making processes, a lot more needs to be done. Indeed youth are commonly perceived as a problem rather than as a valuable resource. The role of youth needs to be elaborated. As change agents, as a pool of energies, talents, innovation and new ideas, as networkers and motivators, and as the next generation that is going to inherit the results or outcomes of current established systems, youth cannot be marginalized as a key stakeholder in development. For the sake of sustainability it is imperative that youth are deliberately and actively engaged at all levels of development. The vision of the National Youth Policy as captured in Section 5.1 is “an empowered youth contributing positively to national development”. Unfortunately, the policy itself needs empowerment! The National Youth Policy as it stands now is a DEAD CORPSE that needs to be RESURRECTED with the aid of an action plan. Thus, government without delay should provide all the necessary resources and assistance to propel an effective and efficient youth development interventions. Undoubtedly, the youth of Ghana deserve the BEST!

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YOUTH POSITION ON POLITICS OF INSULTS AND VIOLENCE (GHANA)

YOUTH POSITION ON POLITICS OF INSULTS AND VIOLENCE PRESS STATEMENT OF THE COALITION OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS IN GHANA (COYDOG) ON 26 April 2012 The Coalition of Youth Development Organizations in Ghana (COYDOG) has followed with keen interest recent developments in the political discourse in the country especially discourteous pronouncements made by politicians on political platforms and particularly in the media. We have noted with much concern the use of insulting and violent language against political opponents and this is a source of worry to us. In some instances, young political activists have copied their leaders blindly and resort to the use of insults on elderly persons instead of discussing relevant policy issues that will bring hope and relief to the youth of Ghana. Our values as Ghanaians demand that we give respect to all manner of people especially the elderly and those in authority irrespective of which side of the political divide they belong. It is therefore unfortunate that we are gradually losing these precious values in the name of politics. There are thousands of young people who listen to what these politicians say or do and are likely to be infected with this kind of politicking in Ghana. As we approach the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in December 2012, it is important that we all make efforts to ensure that the elections are held in a violent free environment. We therefore call on all politicians to; -Be decorous in their pronouncements both in the media and on campaign platforms - Desist from all activities that are likely to bring chaos in the country - Show respect and tolerance to their political opponents - Discourage and sanction their communication team members who insult their opponents. - Stop using the youth for their violent activities; the youth of Ghana are the most valuable assets the nation can boast of. Stop destroying them!! We further call on all the young people of Ghana to; -Reject politicians who engage in politics of insults and preach violence by voting against them - Watch out for politicians who will present policies and programmes that will bring relevant education, employment and other socio-economic opportunities to the youth and vote accordingly. Your vote is your power; use it to negotiate your future. -Not allow themselves to be used by politicians to engage in any violent activity before, during and after the elections. Our lives are precious; let’s protect them. We finally call on the media to; - Help the nation by not allowing politicians to use their platforms to propagate their insults and violent activities. - Stop giving prominence to political statements that have the tendency of bringing chaos into the country. The media is a very powerful institution; let us use it to promote peace. Henceforth, COYDOG will begin a campaign to cause disaffection for politicians and political activists who engage in the politics of insults and violence. It is our hope that Ghana will once again have peaceful, violent free and fair elections in December and continue to maintain her enviable position as a beacon of hope and peace on the African continent. LONG LIVE THE YOUTH OF GHANA LONG LIVE GHANA SIGNED Chibeze Ezekiel CHAIRMAN Samuel Kingsford Seglah GOVERNANCE SECTOR COORDINATOR For and on behalf of the Coalition. About COYDOG The Coalition of Youth Development Organizations in Ghana (COYDOG) is a league of youth-led and youth- focused organizations and individuals established in September, 2011. It represents diverse beliefs, socio-economic backgrounds, academic inclinations, ethnic sentiments with a common aim of creating a platform for peer-learning, sharing of ideals, ideas and best practices, networking and synergy. One of the key objectives of COYDOG is to engage key stakeholders such as policy makers or decision makers actively and positively on youth matters to achieve national development goals. For Further clarifications on this statement, please contact the numbers below; 1. Chibeze Ezekiel – 0244967931: Chairman 2. Samuel Kingsford Seglah – 0249305234: Governance Sector Coordinator 3. Prosper Hoetu – 0244406237: Vice Chairman

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Climate Change and Social Impacts

The subject of climate change has undoubtedly become a major issue in today’s world development agenda. Climate change has been explained as changes in composition of the atmosphere - increased greenhouse gases and aerosols. This has widely led to warmer surface temperature – land, ocean, changing precipitation patterns, reduced Arctic sea-ice, retreating glaciers, melting ice sheets, Higher sea levels – higher storm surges; increased cyclones/ hurricanes in the Atlantic, More frequent extreme weather events - heat waves, floods, droughts.

The effects of climate change are increasingly threatening the sustainability of the environment. Evidently, it has provoked very serious and grievous social impacts. For instance, climate change effects have led to deepening unemployment. Ashaladja is a community in Ghana where agriculture which is the key source of livelihood of the inhabitants has been adversely affected the over 5,000 indigenes. Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND) in October, 2010 did climate change education and tree planting exercise in the community with support from the World Bank Institute and British Council. We observed during a tour in the community that Farm lands have been destroyed due to the main river of the community overflowing its banks. Crops such as Cassava, Yam, Cocoyam, and Plantain are unable to be harvested. Thus the youth including young women have become jobless and are forced to engage in deviant behaviors such as armed robbery, prostitution, and drug abuse as means of survival.

Again, the influx of young people from the rural to the urban areas as an attempt to escape serious droughts has denied development in those rural areas. Indeed, if the able, talented, energetic and vibrant young people are hurriedly leaving for the city or urban centers, then how can development take place in those communities? This signal is posing a threat to the future of these communities thereby denying the possibility of eradicating poverty. The negative social impact of such development may not be quantified.

In Ghana, social interaction is a form of bonding for most community dwellers; it is common to find family and relatives performing domestic chores in common – either at home, market or community centers. Vocations such as fishing, cooking, farming, washing, and building are done in solidarity. Unfortunately, climate change is breaking such ‘sacred’ bonding that community dwellers have enjoyed in harmony over the period. For example, in times of drought, people predominantly engaged in farming must necessarily split to go seeking for other source of livelihood even if it means relocating. Parents no longer have quality time with their children thereby not able to inculcate in their children the necessary values and principles needed to forming the right attitude in life. When children become wayward, their actions and/or inactions may be detrimental to society. Women are tasked with the pain of walking several kilometers to access water for domestic chores. Husbands may not be willing to devote all the needed support and care that their wives deserve in the name of striving for survival. Climate change consequences seem to be orientating community dwellers to becoming more individualistic instead of collectivity – to wit “everyone for himself, God for us all”. The quality time that existed among people through interaction is fading out slowly but steadily. The bonding and solidarity that is systematically loosing its hold is leading to negative social impacts.

The cultures of some communities have also been altered due to Climate change effects. Aboakyire festival is one of the well celebrated festivals in Ghana. A key highlight of the festival is the hunting of a live antelope. The inability of hunters to grab an antelope dims the light of the festival. This specie is increasing becoming extinct due to climate change hence what will be the future of this festival? Will this festival be aborted in the near future? Time will supply.
Kpoikpoi, is another festival celebrated by the Gas of Ghana. It’s a celebration of bumper harvest and thanksgiving to the ancestors or gods. Usually, maize or corn is cooked and prepared with palm oil. The head of the family takes the lead after the meal has been prepared and sprinkles them at the door steps of all the rooms in the compound before everyone is expected to eat the meal. The food sprinkled at the door steps are expected to be eaten by the ancestors or gods. Climate change is succeeding to truncate this festival. Changes in weather pattern have affected planting and harvesting of corn. Rainfall has become unpredictable thus putting farmers in a very confused state – not knowing the right time to sow or farm.

Standing on the above submissions, the social impacts of climate change effects can not be under estimated. It is posing a great threat to society’s survival. It is therefore highly recommended that actions be taken to ameliorate these challenges. Proposed solutions are:
1. Families living in communities should be educated on how they can mitigate and adapt to the climate change.
2. Young people working in the agriculture industry should be empowered through capacity building to employ more efficient and effective methods or approaches to successful agricultural practices.
3. Stakeholders in the private sector and prominent individual citizens should be encouraged to commit to the fight against climate change by contributing some resources.
4. Young people should be trained, empowered and raised as Ambassadors to champion the fight against climate change through peer-learning, information sharing through social networks (internet blogs, facebook, twitter etc), and community groupings or think tanks.
5. The time, energies and talents of young people should be identified, harnessed and developed so they are deployed to dealing with climate change effects.

Undeniably, the war against climate change can not be sustained without the active participation and involvement of young people. Today’s world leaders and other environmental-oriented stakeholders in their negotiations, dialogues, discussions and consultations need to engage their youth throughout the process as they are – needless to say – future leaders. If young people are not actively inculcated or ‘baptized’ into initiates, programs and/or projects on climate change issues, then I am afraid that not only will all these years of time and resources committed be wasted but climate change will triumph eventually and ultimately defeating the task or efforts to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2015.

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The National Youth Council (NYC): A bane or blessing?

The National Youth Council (NYC) is expected to be the arm of government under the Ministry of Youth and Sports responsible for the organization and development of youth groups in Ghana. The NYC has seen a period of (name-changing) metamorphosis dating back from 1948. It was known as the Ghana Coast Youth Council (GCYC) from 1948 to 1957 which primarily was a representative body of youth organizations. It became known as the Ghana National Youth Council (GNYC) in 1957 when Ghana gained independence. Again, in 1961, a Ghana Youth Authority was incorporated by an Executive Instrument whose significant feature was a direct involvement of Government in youth affairs. After a series of negotiations, dialogues and recommendations with government and other stakeholders, the promulgation of (NRCD) 241 of 1974 led to the establishment of the National Youth Council. Surprisingly, the Youth Council was changed in 1982 to the National Youth Organization Commission (NYOC). The major task assigned the NYOC was the establishment of the Democratic Youth League of Ghana (DYLG) with its children’s wing “The Ghana Edikanfo Movement” as the mass national youth movement. Still again, the era of Constitutional rule from 1992 reverted the National Youth Organization Commission (NYOC) to the National Youth Council to enable it to fulfill its mandate as outlined in NRC Decree 241. I bet no government institution has experience a drama of name changing as the NYC.

A Youth Policy however was launched on 21st July 1999 which led the NYC to build the capacity of the Committee of Youth Association of Ghana (COYA) to provide a common front for the youth of Ghana. COYA which comprised registered youth groups with NYC subsequently developed into a loose federation known as Federation of Youth Association of Ghana (FEDYAG).

Then in 2001, a youth committee established by Government recommended among other things the review of the 1999 Youth Policy. This baffled me greatly – how can a policy be reviewed when it has not been implemented or tested? On what basis therefore was it going to be reviewed?

The “new” Youth Policy (supposedly the reviewed one) was launched in Elmina by the Vice President of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama on 12th August 2010 (which coincidentally fell on the International Youth Day).

Having gone through all these processes, one would have thought that such exercises would breathe new life into the performance of the NYC but alas! No satisfactory or enviable improvement has been chalked. The NYC is still wallowing in abject inefficiency and effectiveness in professional youth development endeavors.

How many people – better still the youth – know where the head office of NYC is located in Accra? If people are more familiar with Azumah Sports Complex than the NYC when both institutions are located on the same premises then obviously NYC might be basking in the thick arms of darkness. Check the NYC’s facilities all over the nation and any enterprising individual(s) can easily generate income or accumulate profit with such resources. Need I say that the Public Relations machinery of NYC is flaccid?

Since the launch of the National Youth Policy in August 2010 (over 9 months ago), the NYC has woefully failed to produce a pragmatic dissemination plan for the policy to the Ghanaian youth. Worse still, the policy till date comes with no action plan. What is the relevance of the policy without an action plan? Who is responsible to produce and release the action plan – or it has been hijacked? Did government virtually launch the policy just to achieve some political expediency? Is the NYC and for that matter the Ministry of Youth and Sports failing the better agenda for the youth outlined by Professor Fiifi Atta Mills?

A National Youth Stakeholders Forum (NYSF) made up of various youth groups was constituted with its core mandate captured under Article 10.0 of the Youth Policy which states that “The National Youth Council shall facilitate and institute a Youth Stakeholders Forum that will play an active role with an identifiable youth groups at national, regional and district levels in the implementation of this National Youth Policy”. As a result a number of youth groups from different backgrounds voluntarily committed themselves to this worthy cause. The formation of the NYSF at the NYC head office was to also serve as a pilot exercise to be replicated in all the regions and districts to ensure active and comprehensive involvement of youth at all decision-making levels (from national down to community levels). Unfortunately, the NYSF’s engagement with NYC has currently been truncated because the latter failed to produce clearly defined Terms of Reference (ToR) or Rules of Engagement to the NYSF despite requests made. Also, the NYC was reluctant to provide resources for the conveyance of meetings inspite of young people sacrificing their time, energy, and abilities. The young people realizing that NYC was not “serious” aborted the process through positive defiance. With or without NYC, youth related initiatives will continue to take place; after all, we have been educated that “there are several ways of killing a cat”.

In an attempt to address such grievances after all internal efforts proved futile, the NYSF issued a press release entitled “IS THERE HOPE FOR THE GHANAIAN YOUTH (NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY AND MATTERS ARISING…) in December 2010 signed by Mr. Samuel Kingsford Seglah and myself being Co-chairs of NYSF. Unexpectedly, this publication infuriated the Board of Trustees of NYC who in reaction summoned a meeting with the leadership of the NYSF. The meeting took place at the Conference Room of NYC on 15th February, 2011. I must also add that the Executives of FEDYAG were also summoned on the same day because they had also written a letter to the Board through the Board Chairperson (Madam Esther Cobbah) calling for the head of the current Deputy National Coordinator (for Programmes and Organization) – Mr. Prince Derek-Adjei. At the meeting, the Board Members surprisingly attempted to rubbish the press release, queried and chided us.

At this point, I want to express my personal opinion on this matter being a Co-chair of the NYSF. My opinion therefore does not represent or reflect the collective view of the leadership. At the meeting, the Board imperiously denied us adequate opportunity to respond to issues charged against us which I think is inconsistent with the tenants or principles of democracy. I must add emphatically that the NYSF is not made up of a bunch of irresponsible young people with no aim or vision in life. On the contrary, we are very hardworking, civilized, bravura and enterprising young people representing our individual organizations. We also do boast of respectable and able men and women in society acting as Patrons and Board of Directors in our respective organizations. We have initiated and organized programs, projects and other activities with no support, contribution or single dime from the NYC. Besides, without even wearing my legal hat, I don’t think anybody needs permission to exercise his or her democratic right as engraved in the promulgated 1992 Constitution of Ghana. As a Ghanaian, I believe I have the right to raise any concern I deem fit of course within the confines of the law – unless someone wants to prove otherwise. Indeed, if I had written that press release as an individual, would the Board still have summoned me? If the Board truly possesses such tenacity and ability to ensure that the right things are done, then such energy or strength can best be dispense or expense on the operations of the NYC for better performance. It came to light that, a 3-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) has been constituted to manage the NYC for a renewal period of 3 months. For that reason the then Acting National Coordinator, Mr. Archibald Donkor was asked to proceed on leave. For how long, I know not! Shockingly, 2 out of 3 members of the IMC are said to be Board Members, which only provokes a simple question. Is such an arrangement appropriate? How can “Board members” report to Board members? I fathom that an IMC in an organization must constitute individuals or professionals independent of that organization. Perhaps someone can kindly educate me on this.

The NYC by all standards is not performing creditably. It seems to pride itself with little pockets of achievements. Arguably, there are number of ballsy young people across the length and breadth of Ghana who have successfully making strides in their respective endeavors that NYC cannot come close. I have read publications, reports, and features of such young people. I am also aware of the international impacts that these young folks are championing. I can readily vouch for Curious Minds, YES Ghana, Abusua Foundation, Visionaries Foundation, Africa Youth Network, Waves International, Abibiman Foundation to mention but a few who are doing so well inspite of all the difficulties and challenges they encounter. More so, as a Youth Development Practitioner for over 6 years, I have learned and benefited from development partners such as the World Bank Institute (WBI), United Nations Volunteers (UNV), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and British Council (BC). In all my dealings with such organizations and other civil society organizations, NYC does not feature or even have a stake. So what really is the mandate is the NYC if they are not visibly involved in youth-led or related activities. Let’s take a random view of the series of youth-oriented initiatives on our TV screens. Which of them (if any) has NYC been part of? Furthermore, is it too much for the NYC to be actively involved in the planning, contribution and success of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and the National Service Scheme (NSS) whose beneficiaries largely the youth?
Even to conduct a simple re-registration exercise for youth groups in Ghana, NYC has shown gross incompetence. So what kwraaa does the NYC exist for? Allegedly, I hear the staff is only interested in travelling to international conferences or programmes on behalf of the Ghanaian youth. Even if such allegations are true, what has been the benefit of such trips to the ordinary Ghanaian youth?

Indeed the little said about NYC, the better!

For the way forward, the NYC must be rejuvenated and be pragmatically seen as pursuing the agenda of youth development and empowerment in Ghana. Furthermore, I want to propose a separate ministry purposely for the youth. The Ministry of Youth & Sports presently under the leadership of Hon. Clement Kofi Humado is rather more aligned toward sports than youth related issues. It is no wonder that because the youth feel they are marginalized or disenfranchised, the use of aggression and militancy in the name of “foot-soldiering” is the best remedy to address their plight. Is that what we need as a nation? Whiles some nations are earnestly developing and training their youth to take over the world through technological advancements and economic breakthroughs, some of our politicians are aggressively demonstrating to young ones how to carry ballot boxes on their shoulders and sprint with them like cheetahs during elections.

The implementation of the National Youth Policy must be without any prejudice or discrimination against anyone irrespective of political affiliations, educational background, economic status, religious beliefs and ethnic sentiments. It should be seen as embracing all facets of the youth. We the youth must be prepared enough to match our counterparts in developed nations in this fast-changing pace in world development. Ghana has already paid too much lip service to this cause; the time to act is NOW!

*Guess what; just as I was finishing this article, I got informed that the NYC is now known as the National Youth Authority (NYA) with Mrs. Sedina Tamakloe Attionu acting as the National Coordinator. On that note, I welcome and congratulate her and do hope that she will live up to expectation, produce results and make a difference in the Ghanaian youth.

The writer is:
Chibeze Ezekiel
Executive Coordinator
Strategic Youth Network for Development
www.strategicyouthnetwork.org
chibeze@gmail.com

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“Right to the City: Bridging the Urban Divide”

Ghana is one of the notable developing economies in the West African sub-region with Greater Accra as its capital city. About 33% of the estimated over 23 million Ghanaians are believed to be the youth. Ghana’s definition for the youth is young people between the ages of 15 – 35 years in line with the African Youth Charter. Over, the last few years, the drift or massive influx of the youth into the city has been very astronomical swelling up the population of Accra to about 1,658,937.

One of the challenges confronting such young people is mass unemployment. Young people are eager to get income-earning jobs so they can cater for themselves and send some remittances back to their relatives in the village. Lack of job opportunities have even compelled some young people to engage in prostitution. Girls as young as 13 years are seen actively involved in the sex business.

Another challenge is the issue of housing or accommodation. Young people are visibly seen every night taking refuge in front of stores, shops, lorry parks, bus terminals and uncompleted buildings as places of rest at the mercy of the unfavourable weather, mosquitoes, thieves, and rapists. Majority of such young people are known as kayayei (female head porters) and kayahii (male head porters). The females especially migrate from the Northern part of the country to escape early (premature) marriage. Sadly, they been vulnerable are abused and raped by their male counterparts resulting in teenage pregnancies.

Generally, young people in urban cities can be associated with streetism, deviant behaviours, armed robbery, drug abuse, premarital & teenage pregnancies, illicit or unprotected sexual activities, illiteracy, poor health etc.

Measures that can be adopted in dealing with these youth-based challenges in Accra are:
1. Youth Education – young people should be given the right to education at least to the High school level. This will help young people to understand and appreciate basic rules and regulations, and make meaningful contributions to society. When they get educated, they will be able to avoid some diseases and ensure good health by keeping the environment clean and heeding to good sanitation practices.
2. Enforcement of youth laws and regulations – policies and legislations on the welfare of young people should be enforced. Ghana unfortunately has not been able to pass a National Youth Policy for the youth. This provides no direction or plans for the youth of the nation thereby jeopardizing their security and rights in life. Young people have a right to basic human needs such as food, shelter and clothing thus the necessity to ensuring the fulfillment of such needs by law.
3. Youth skills training and employment opportunities – young people should be trained on employable skills to generate self-employment or take advantage of job vacancies in the labour market. On-the-job training and other work developmental programmes should be periodic to continually make workers relevant to the job market and to eschew obsolesce. Nevertheless, training should not be limited only in the formal sector or the white-collar jobs. Skills especially in the informal sector such as sewing, ceramics, hairdressing, cane weaving, farming, barbering, shoe-making, tour guiding, tour operation etc should be capitalize on.

Over the period, youth inclusion in shaping the urban development agenda has not been promising in Ghana primarily due to culture norms or values. In a typical Ghanaian culture, children or young people are not regarded to contribute to decision-making in the home or family. The elders (predominantly males) confer among themselves and make decisions on behalf of everyone in the community. This practice seems to have been transposed unto the socio-political institutions or governance where the planners, policy makers or politicians make decisions without consulting the views of young people. Young people are regarded as not possessing the requisite ideas, skills, knowledge or expertise.

Nonetheless, young people have proven to show a great wealth of talents, potential, abilities and energy that can be harnessed and used profitably. Young people like Jerry Young and Mike Zukerberg have made their global debut as “technology wizards”. Moreover, young people are making meaningful contributions through the media (radio, TV, Press, Internet etc) in discussing national issues.

As part of the agenda against climate change, I was selected and trained in 2009 as a Master Youth Trainer on Climate Change. I am currently initiating a national youth awareness campaign on climate change in collaboration with our Ministry of Environment, Science & Technology, National Youth Council and Environmental Protection Agency. The campaign plan will commence from the regional levels, to the district levels then to the community levels.
Already, in the urban developmental programme, solar panels are been considered in developing domestic or industrial structures; road transportation system is been revised to check the emissions of carbon dioxide; trees (flora and fauna) are been encouraged not only to beautify the city but to enhance environmental sustainability.

Moreover, I have been selected as an Assessor for the Ghana Innovation Marketplace 2009 competition dubbed “Waste Management: Big problem! Big Opportunity!” under the auspices of the Government of Ghana, The World Bank Group and Development Partners and African Aurora Business Network (AABN). The competition basically is to help deal profitably with the sanitation problem (waste) engulfing Accra.
Furthermore as a Youth Development Worker, I actively interact with my colleague young people across the world through the cross-pollination of ideals and ideas on youth-developmental issues. This has profited in the replication or duplication of youth-led practices, methods, concepts or programmes.

Youth inclusion in urban development cannot be overemphasized. According to John F. Kennedy, USA Former President, “the future promise of any nation can directly be measured by the current prospects of its youth”. In the light of this, the future of any urban facility (that is progress, success or failure) is dependent on the primary beneficiaries, i.e., the youth. Not only must they be considered as consumers of urban products or structures but as key stakeholders in the planning and decision-making processing to ensure sustainability of any urban developmental agenda.

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Critiquing Climate Change Agenda: From Applied Anthropological Perspective

Global warming or climate change has been a topical issue on the world’s headlines today irrespective of country differences. Climate change which is basically changes in the composition of the atmosphere has no doubt raised more questions than answers. Whiles a school of thought has provided evidence of climate change and the expected or projected dire consequences, another school of thought (skeptics) have rubbished the whole climate change as – over – exaggeration, virtually perceiving it as “much ado about nothing”.
Personally, I think the effects of climate change are real. Here in Ghana, we have stories and evidences of the effect of climate change such as drying up of water bodies like River Pra and River Densu; changes in rainfall patterns; heat waves; sea level increase washing or eating away roads and so on.
In addressing this global problem, 4 strategies have been adopted which are:
1. Adaptation – that is, adjustment in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climate stimuli and their effects or impacts (IPCC 2001)
2. Mitigation – that is, minimizing emissions of greenhouse gases and move towards a low-carbon economy.
3. Technology Development and Transfer – that is, developing technologies that environmentally friendly and transferring such technology to developing countries
4. Resource Provision: Funding and Investment – that is, enhancing action on the provision of financial resources and investment to support action on mitigation and adaptation and technology cooperation according to the Bali Action Plan

In adopting these global plans in principle, nations are expected to initiate, develop and consciously promote climate change action plans. Governments, policy makers or leaders must therefore ensure to take actions that are relevant, appreciated and understood by the target audience (citizens).
It must be indicated that a practice that may be highly embraced in a country or culture may be frowned upon and totally rejected in another setting. For instance, one of the reasons why “Ghana @ 50” toilet project failed was because the organizers did not understand the sociological or anthropological setting of the targeted audience. It is common to find husband and wife defecating along the beaches and whiles “doing their own thing” they engage in face-to-face conversation as they enjoy the cool breeze. The toilet facility had divided closets barring physical contact which is highly practiced in other developed countries. Indeed, indigenes prefer to defecate around the facility whiles upholding their social interaction culture.

This requires the attention or input from Applied Anthropologists. Applied Anthropology is basically branch of anthropology that concerns itself with planned cultural change and the solution of practical problems. Indeed, very laudable and great developmental plans which took time, resources, energy to develop have not succeeded. Transforming such plans from the drawing board onto societies or communities has been met with rejection and neglect.
Paradoxically, Africa has been labeled as the most endangered to the effects of climate change though the continent contributes a minute percentage of greenhouse gases emissions. Efforts are been made on how Africa can be supported to handle these crises. But the question is will Africa be expected to adopt universal programs or have the opportunity to generate peculiar programmes? With a whole number of people in African societies or communities still caught in the primitive way of life, inter-cultural and intra-cultural differences must be acknowledged. For instance, a native or primitive farmer who observes changes in rainfall patterns as a threat to the livelihood of his family can easily conclude that the gods are displeased granting that superstition is strongly held. He will therefore seek the intervention of the fetish priest who after some doing some shake ups interspersed with uncalculated steps will spew out inhuman words. Eventually, a goat may be required as a sacrifice to appease the gods. Until such individuals are really oriented on climate change, they will render the programme unsuccessful.
As already indicated, schools, boreholes, pipe borne water facilities, clinics, toilets and so forth have been erected in communities to enhancing their livelihood but these structures have only become statutes. For instance, if boreholes are constructed for natives and they are not trained on how to manage or maintain the facilities, the latter will soon live out their relevance.

In the light of political leaders, governments, policy or decision-makers, development partners are preparing to embark on climate change programmes, they must engage the services of applied anthropologists to ensure not only the success of the programmes but their sustainability.

I strongly recommend that:
- the use of visual aids (displaying evidences) be used at community levels so the indigenes can see and appreciate the fight against climate change
- stakeholders help civil society organizations to adopt communities for regular interaction
- involve the youth immensely to ensure sustainability
- whiles requesting for consumer behaviour changes pragmatic alternatives must be provided.

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