CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION     Background of the study

Today, it has been estimated that there are about 1.2 billion youth i.e. between 15 and 24 years of the world’s working-age population (ILO, 2008). The current generation of youth is recorded as the highest in history. The United Nations (UN) (2007) have stated that 87% of the youth live in economies that are still developing. The definition of youth varies amongst countries and organisations. The United UN refers to the youth as those falling between 15 and 24 years of age (UN Development Programme (UNDP), 2013). According to the African Youth Charter, the youth are those who fall between the ages  of 15 and 35. Almost 90% of all young persons live in developing nations and in most African countries, those under 35 comprise up to 70% of the population, making them a constituency difficult to ignore (Hoetu, 2011). The case is no different in Ghana. Like many other countries in the world, Ghana has a largely youthful population. According  to the 2010 population census persons between 15-35 years – referred to as the youth by the National Youth Policy (NYP) – make up one-third of the population of Ghana (Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), 2013).

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines the unemployed as, “those people who have not worked for more than one hour during the short reference period (generally, the previous week or day) but who are available for and actively seeking work”. A study in 1998 by the organisation estimated “that at least 60 million young people are without a job and that youth unemployment rates are, on average, three times as high as adult rates”.

The effects of unemployment on the country, as well as the citizens are nothing to write home about. The causal link between unemployment and crime has been highlighted by

many scholars. Watts et al., (2008) have posited that unemployment and financial hardship often fosters crime – in order to reduce it. Glover (2013) has further reiterated that unemployment and material deprivation causes one to engage in crimes and violence. “The links between unemployment, pregnancy, domestic violence, interpersonal, and gang violence are especially strong, as is evident from the results of a participatory urban appraisal of violence in Jamaica. Separate groups of young men and women analysed the problem of unemployment and its impacts …. high unemployment led to frustration and idleness, which in turn led to an increase in gang violence, interpersonal conflict, and domestic violence. …. high unemployment led to greater economic dependency on men, which in turn led to an increase in domestic violence” (Moser and van Bronkhorst, 1999).

It is then quite easy to understand why governments have designed programmes explicitly for the integration of the youth into the job market. But the question is, how effective have these programmes been?

    Research Problem

Actually unemployment figures in Ghana are difficult, if not impossible to ascertain. According to statistics by the Ghana Labour Force Survey Report (2015) authorised by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), about 1.2 million people, aged 15 and above are unemployed. This represents 11.9% of unemployment rate in total. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Fact Book estimated unemployment amongst the youth in Ghana – ages 15 to 24- as 15.2% in 2015. In 2017, the Federal Reserve Economic Data estimated that the unemployment rate for the Ghanaian youth was 4.9.

In a quest to tackle the unemployment problem, various attempts have been made by governments the world over to introduce employment programmes to absorb the

increasing unemployed youth. The Allocation de Replacement pour L’emploi (ARPE) was one such programme initiated in France. The ARPE was not aimed specifically at the youth but special attention was given to the job applications from those below 26 years of age. However, the programme failed to achieve its objective of approaching between 80,000 and 90,000 beneficiaries because the degree of substitution was extremely limited (Gineste, 1997). The aim of United Kingdom’s Youth Training Scheme (YTS) was to lower the wages of young people participating in the program, making them more attractive to prospective employers. The programme was successful to a point but O’Higgins (1995b, 1996) has stated that employment increased mainly because of the lowering of wages, and not because of the quality of the participant’s skills.

Learning from other countries, the Government of Ghana in 2006, under the Ex- President J.A. Kuffour administration, introduced the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP). The scheme sought to create jobs for the youth as well as provide training for the youth to acquire employable skills. The NYEP trained many of the youth under its modules. A Ghana Statistical Service (GSS, 2008) survey indicated that between January and September 2006, 153,480 net jobs were created. The NYEP created 91,015 out of the net total above. The NYEP was restructured to the “Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency” (GYEEDA) in 2012, and in 2015 was reformed by an act of parliament to the Youth Employment Agency (YEA). Act 887 (2015) established the YEA to develop, coordinate, supervise and facilitate job creation for the youth in the country. The YEA is focused on skills, development and entrepreneurial training, apprenticeship, and direct and indirect employment services. Since its inception several initiatives and programmes have been rolled out by the agency to create employment for the youth. The YEA since its creation has been touted as the

one of the public sector employment initiatives by far with the largest youth coverage in terms of employment creation (Avura and Ulzen-Appiah, 2016).

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