YOUNG AFRICA WORKS IN GHANA

STRATEGIC ROADMAP BRIEFING NOTE

The Mastercard Foundation Strategy to Promote and Expand Employment Opportunities for Young
Women and Men in Ghana.
 COUNTRY CONTEXT

Ghanaian Economy and Demographics: Ghana is home to a population of 30.8 million people with youth (aged between 15 and 34)
representing more than 35.1 percent of the population. The Ghanaian economy is one of the fastest growing in Africa, with a GDP
Growth Rate averaging 4.9 percent over the six years preceding COVID-19, peaking at 8.1 percent in 2017. The Ghanaian economy
contracted in 2020 due to the pandemic, recording a GDP Growth Rate of 0.4 percent. The Services Sector accounts for 49.8 percent of
GDP, Agriculture and Manufacturing which have the potential to create jobs at scale account for 21.3 percent and 28.9 percent
respectively1.

Youth Employment and the Informal Sector: Currently, 16.9 percent of Ghanaian youth are estimated to be unemployed with majority
of them employed in the informal sector. Ghana’s informal sector accounts for 25 percent of GDP and employs 90 percent of the labour
force through low-growth industries2. As Ghana’s population grows, job creation has not kept up pace with labour force growth with
preliminary studies estimating a potential shortfall of over 5 million quality jobs through 2030, and a high need for skilled labour.

Causes of Unemployment in Ghana: Despite major investments by both the government and the private sector, the unemployment
challenge in Ghana will intensify if job opportunities remain limited. The identified major causes of youth unemployment in the country
include deficits in basic education, lack of job-relevant skills (skills mismatch), lack of job search experience, the white-collar job
mentality, lack of entrepreneurship education, lack of capital and access to productive land, and limited social network, amongst other
factors.

YOUNG AFRICA WORKS IN GHANA

Launched in late 2019, Young Africa Works in Ghana is an initiative of the Mastercard Foundation to enable three million young Ghanaian
women and men to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. Young Africa Works builds on the Foundation’s decade-old experience
in Ghana, supporting financial inclusion, education, and youth livelihoods. The initiative is aligned with the government’s An Agenda for
Jobs: Creating Prosperity and Equal Opportunity for All, and Ghana’s commitment to positioning the country as a global entrepreneurship
and technology hub. Young Africa Works in Ghana was co-designed in partnership with a diverse group of stakeholders that include the
government, private sector, academic institutions, and young people.

From 2019 to date, the Foundation has committed almost USD 220 million to 28 partnerships, 64 percent being local partners, to
support interventions in four priority areas, namely: Access to Finance and Business Development Services for MSMEs; Agriculture;
Digital Solutions and E-Commerce; Education and Skills Training; and COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Emergency Response.

More recently, in response to the changing country context caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have refreshed and reimagined the
Young Africa Works in Ghana Strategy. The vision of Young Africa Works in Ghana is that by 2030, the country will be a continental
demonstration of young people, especially women, harnessing opportunities to shape the future of work and to create an inclusive
economy with enhanced resilience for the most vulnerable.

This Strategic Roadmap Briefing Note offers a high-level overview of our bold and reimagined vision to create and sustain work for young
women and men in Ghana.

THE REIMAGINED GHANA ROADMAP

The Reimagined Ghana Roadmap was developed in collaboration with an integrated cross-Foundational team as well as a diverse group
of stakeholders, including government agencies, private sector, academic institutions, entrepreneurs, civil societies, development
partners, academic institutions, and young Ghanaians.

1 Ghana Statistical Service

2 Dalberg – Deeping scale and impact in Ghana, Advisory Committee Consultation, 25 March 2020
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PRIORITY SECTOR
Following an exhaustive diagnostic exercise and consultations with stakeholders, we identified the Agriculture and Agriculture-Adjacent
Sector as our priority sector with the most feasible job creation and youth (aged 15 to 35 years) development potential, especially for
young women. To achieve the Young Africa Works in Ghana vision, we will focus on and deepen our efforts and investment in the
Agriculture and Agriculture-Adjacent Sector, using a value chain and market systems development approach. Our agriculture initiatives
will make up 80 – 90 percent of our partnerships in Ghana.
WHY AGRICULTURE?

Agriculture contributes more than one-fifth of Ghana’s GDP and over 30 percent of total foreign export earnings. The sector employs
almost 54 percent of households and is the main source of livelihood for majority of the country’s poorest households. Youth aged 15-
35 years make up almost 30 percent of persons engaged in agriculture3. Almost 30 percent of the total workforce is employed in the
agriculture sector4. Most agricultural production is crop-based and characterized by low yields because of the predominance of
rudimentary agriculture/subsistence farming and a heavy reliance on rainwater due to limited irrigation infrastructure.

The Government of Ghana has undertaken many initiatives to address youth unemployment challenges and invested in Agriculture
Sector and Agriculture-value chain specific initiatives including Investing for Food and Jobs (2018 – 2021); Ghana COVID-19 Alleviation
and Revitalization of Enterprises Support (Ghana CARES) programme (2020 – 2023); and Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions
Project (GLSERP) (2020 – 2028). The National Agriculture Investment Plan is a medium-term strategy to transform the sector by investing
at least 10 percent of the national annual budget in the agriculture sector. In addition to increasing incomes and productivity, creating
jobs, and providing raw materials to agriculture processors, these initiatives focus on creating an enabling environment for private sector
operators and other agriculture sector development actors.

The Agriculture and Agriculture-Adjacent Sector, if explored efficiently, has the potential to create up to 1.3 million jobs by 2025, and
over 3.0 million jobs by 2030 across select value chain crops.

Our value chain diagnostics and

prioritisation: Through an
informed approach, we have
prioritized agriculture value
chains with the greatest
potential for impact in terms of:
Resilience and Food Security;
Gender and Youth Inclusion;
Environmental Sustainability;
Possibility for Scaling Up;
Potential for leveraging existing
interventions and structures;
and Alignment with Nationally
Prioritized Value Chains.

3 Ghana Statistical Service, September 2020

4 International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database, January 29, 2021.
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Our Approach: To unlock the full potential of the Agriculture and Agriculture-Adjacent Sector to create additional work opportunities
for young Ghanaian women and men, and to strengthen the economic recovery of the country, our approach is centered around three
key strategies.

1. MSME Strengthening (Access to Financial Services and Markets, Capacity Building)

In Ghana, about 70 percent of businesses in the country belong to the informal sector; largely micro, small, and medium scale
enterprises (MSMEs). Unfortunately, the MSME funding gap in Ghana remains large. In 2019, the gap from the formal sector was
estimated at USD 5 billion while the potential demand from the informal sector amounts to an additional USD 4.8 billion5. Our
approach is to strengthen MSMEs operating in the Agriculture and Agriculture-Adjacent Sector and holistically address barriers to
growth by providing access to innovative financial services, access to markets and market information, and institutional capacity
building support to value chain actors including smallholder farmers, off-takers, aggregators, agro-processors, and agribusinesses.

The Foundation’s Access to Financial Services Framework uses the following definitions:

Value Chain Actors: People who are directly involved in Invisibles: Livelihood sustaining micro enterprises
value chain activities
Service Providers: Individuals or enterprises who Bootstrappers: MSMEs with moderate growth potential, which
provide services on specific require a range of financial services, business
functions for the value support services, and access to markets

2. Using Technology to Drive Impact and Scale

Technology has the power to connect young people to their first job, apprenticeships, and cooperative programs. It also enables
faster, more efficient access to capital, talent, and business support for entrepreneurs. It drives growth, inclusion, and poverty
reduction6. Mobile phone penetration stands at 131 percent and with the availability of 4G services, Ghana has one of the fastest
internet connectivity in Africa evidenced by the jump in Internet penetration from 5 percent in 2011 to over 33 percent in 2017 5.
Research suggests that smallholder farmers will embrace technology if their capacity is developed and there is affordability in the
cost to adopting technology. Innovation in agriculture will act as a pulling power for every stakeholder in the agriculture sector as
it will create opportunities for young people to participate more, increase productivity for smallholder farmers and create a positive
economic climate that will benefit business greatly 7.

Technology and digital transformation will be leveraged to modernize and transform agricultural value chain activities, increase
output, increase access to finance, and improve access to markets through platforms that expose demand and price transparency,
link value chain actors, and improve the perception of youth towards agriculture.

3. Improving Education and Skills Training

Improving the quality, sector relevance of, and access to education and vocational training, will enable young Ghanaians take full
advantage of the emerging work opportunities across the Agriculture and Agriculture-Adjacent Sector. Stakeholders such as
agribusinesses, AgriTech start-ups, agriculture research institutes, innovation hubs, agriculture-focused non-profits and indigenous
private enterprises are vital to creating a development pathway for smallholder farmers and youth7. These stakeholders will be
integrated into our sector initiatives to provide exchange programmes, internships, mentorship, and handholding for youth as they
transition into Agripreneurship.

Digital literacy is a key consideration for all value chain actors, particularly those in rural communities with zero to limited access to
devices and connectivity. Youth Agripreneurs need to be supported to establish a digital presence and equipped to manage and
market their businesses online, bridging access to markets, both local and international.

5 UNCDF - Understanding MSMEs and Entrepreneurs' Appetite for Crowdfunding Solutions in Ghana, February 2021 and National Communications Authority, December 2021
6 Young Africa Works Strategy
7 Heifer International – Youth and Smallholder Farmers in Agric-Tech in Africa Report, May 2021

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 Our Delivery: Working toward our goal, we will:

Focus on the Youth: By 2100, almost half of the world’s youth will be African. We see the challenge of youth employment in Africa
as an immense opportunity. Africa’s young people are innovative and energetic, and they are already creating solutions to the
challenges they face. The time is right for the Foundation to focus on supporting them by driving systematic change in financial
inclusion and education to increase youth employment and reduce poverty.

Empower Young Women: Young women face gender-based barriers in skills development and in accessing finance, technology,
resources, and work. Breaking down these barriers is essential to their success, and ours. As such, the Foundation has committed
to support 70 percent young women across our initiatives.

Work with More African Organizations: On-the-ground knowledge and expertise is the bedrock of the Foundation’s work.
Partnering with African-led organizations active in seeking solutions to youth employment is a priority.

OTHER SECTORS – INNOVATION AND EMERGING SECTORS

The remaining 10 – 20 percent of our initiatives is allocated to the exploration of meaningful and dignified work opportunities for young
women and men in promising sectors, such as Tourism & Trade, Global Talent Outsourcing, and the Green Economy.

Through the Sandbox (innovation driving interventions) we will encourage and nurture bold ideas that align with our ambitious goal.
We will design and test innovative solutions to address youth unemployment opportunities that may fall outside the Agriculture and
Agriculture-Adjacent Sector.

JOURNEY TO IMPACT: PROGRESS AND IMPACT REPORTING

The goal of Young Africa Works is to enable young men and

women to access dignified and fulfilling work. In addition
to helping individual young men and women beat the odds,
Young Africa Works also seeks to change the odds – the
conditions that enable youth to contribute to their
communities and countries.

Understanding the life journeys of young people is central

to understanding impact.

Figure 1: Ripple effects from the Foundation’s investments

PROGRAMMING FOR TRANSFORMATION AND SCALE

The new strategy for Young Africa Works in Ghana ensures sustainability through alignment with the country’s vision and a strong focus
on enabling systemic change. Achieving long-term, sustainable change requires that we address the key conditions that serve as barriers
or enable a system to shift and transform. Particularly, by addressing identified systemic barriers and working with strategic partners,
capable of transforming, we can enable transformation of the youth employment landscape in prioritized sectors. Across our country
portfolios, we are seeking to co-create portfolios that will integrate changes in the six dimensions: policies, practices, resource flows,
power dynamics, relationships and connections and mindsets, insofar as these changes are related to youth’s access to dignified and
fulfilling work, agency and voice, resilience, and quality of life 8. Thus, having positive ripple effects on their families and communities.

8 Further information on relevant system condition changes prioritized in Ghana Country Strategy will be provided separately during the co-creation process.
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The Foundation has developed a holistic impact strategy 9 to help us and our partners better understand our progress to impact.
Additionally, a series of guidelines and tools, including shared measures, will enable Foundation teams and our partners to systematically
gather and report evidence of change.

Figure 2 Illustrates the shift from individual partner level grants to a portfolio approach and a focus on driving systems- level changes.

PARTNERING TO DELIVER OUR STRATEGY

Mastercard Foundation is well positioned to be flexible and agile in how we design holistic programs to address root causes of barriers
to meaningful work in a complementary way with other systems actors. The Foundation is excited to collaborate and co-create with a
diverse range of partners to collectively pursue shared goals and work diligently towards a collective coordinated response, guided by
our values of humility, listening, kindness and respect, co-creation, and impact.

To successfully implement the Reimagined Ghana Roadmap, we understand that an aggregator and/or consortium model where
multiple actors are co-delivering specific interventions and/or activities is needed to achieve scale and impact. We seek aggregators
and/or lead implementing partners with the ability to: (1) bring together multiple and diverse stakeholders; (2) execute against the
Strategic and Intermediate Outcomes; (3) activate the engine for systems change that will help achieve the country outcomes and
targets.

We understand that different types of consortia and/or aggregator models will be required for different partnerships.

Preference will be given to aggregators that are local organizations or those who can build capacity, transfer knowledge, and transition
program management to local organizations over the course of the program. This aligns with the Foundation's objective of institution
strengthening for a broad range of local actors, eventually contributing to the goal of primarily working with African based organizations.

We rely on our partners to guide us on the most impactful approaches, and we collaborate with them and listen to their advice /
expertise in order to optimize our investment and reach scale throughout program delivery.

9 https://mastercardfdn.org/impact-strategy/
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 THEORY OF CHANGE: AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURE -ADJACENT SECTOR

Figure 3 Theory of Change for the Agriculture and Agriculture-Adjacent Sector

ABOUT THE MASTERCARD FOUNDATION

The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organizations to enable young people in Africa and in Indigenous communities in
Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. It is one of the largest, private foundations in the world with a mission to advance learning
and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. The Foundation was created by Mastercard in 2006 as an
independent organization with its own Board of Directors and management.

For more information on the Foundation, please visit: www.mastercardfdn.org

ABOUT YOUNG AFRICA WORKS

Young Africa Works is the Mastercard Foundation’s strategy to enable 30 million young Africans, 70 percent of whom will be young
women, to access dignified and fulfilling work. Africa will be home to the world’s largest workforce, with 375 million young people
entering the job market by 2030. With the right skills, these young people will contribute to Africa's global competitiveness and improve
their lives and those of their communities. The Mastercard Foundation will implement Young Africa Works in 10 African countries in
collaboration with governments, private sector, entrepreneurs, educators, and young people. The first phase of countries identified by
the Mastercard Foundation are Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Nigeria.