Empirical Review of Youth Employment Programmes in Ghana

Ghana faces a significant youth unemployment problem – one in every five youth is unemployed. While many Ghanaian government administrations have implemented a range of youth employment programs (YEPs), there is no systematic documentation and evaluation of the impacts of these public initiatives to understand the extent to which interventions work. By complementing desk reviews with qualitative data gathered from beneficiaries of various programs, policymakers, program directors, and program implementers on seven major government YEPs, the chapter observes that most of the YEPs implemented in Ghana fit a broad spectrum ranging from skills training, job placement matching, seed capital to subsidies. It documents, based on a back-of-the-envelope calculations, that YEPs constitute about 0.49% of GDP, with an approximate per capita expenditure of USD 1330 per beneficiary. In addition, find that duplication of initiatives, unclear exit strategy, lack of coordination and the limited impact evaluations of programs are the main challenges that plague YEPs’ effectiveness in Ghana.