STAR-Ghana Foundation with funding from the BOTNAR Foundation is implementing a three -year project named the ‘Action for Youth Development (AfYD)’ project.
Also known as ‘our city project,” the project is sited in Koforidua in the New Juabeng Municipality with the overall goal to contribute to a municipality where young people are informed and have the capacity to participate actively in governance and influence improved services across all sectors.
Speaking at the inception meeting of the project in Koforidua on April 19, 2023, the Head of Programmes at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice Racheal Agbenyadzi, said the Foundation works to promote transparent governance that translates into equitable services for all citizens of Ghana, while focusing largely on issues of citizens’ right.
She said the Foundation has also had a long presence in the Eastern region, having worked in the Akuapem, Asuogyaman and New Juabeng districts where it focused on strengthening platforms for citizen’s engagement around issues of governance.
She added the Foundation has also worked in the Lower Manya municipality and the Upper Manya district.
“Now we are seeking to leverage the work we have done nationally and in the eastern region, and that focus on how we can support an enabling ecosystem for youth development and for youth inclusion.”
“We know that the development of young people is critical to our own government, critical to traditional authorities and is critical to development partners. We know that the youth is a resource that if we harness it can fast track our economic development,” she said.
She noted that youth development enables sustainable development and so, any intervention-formulation, representation and learning can only be meaningful if it is driven by young people.
According to Miss Agbenyadzi, the Foundation has been a partner of youth development and therefore seizes the opportunity to partner with the BOTNAR Foundation to leverage the work that it has done.
“New Juabeng municipality and Koforidua has been selected as a pilot for the Our city project. This places a lot of responsibility on us. We need to embrace it, learn from it and we use the learning to influence other parts of the STAR-Ghana Foundation programming and that of BOTNAR Foundation,” she said.
The Partnerships Coordinator at the BOTNAR Foundation, Zur Oren, said BOTNAR is working with cities around the world to transform them into places where young people’s voices and needs are prioritised.
He said this involves asking questions and discussing with partners what is already available, what is missing, and how to foster collaboration to maximise impact.
Zur Oren, Partnerships Coordinator, BOTNAR Foundation speaking at the event
The Chairperson for the occasion, Nkowasuafohene, New Juabeng Traditional Area, Baffour Osei Poku Yamoah Ponko, lauded our city project initiative and encouraged all stakeholders to engage the youth in decision-making to ensure sustainable development.
The Municipal Coordinating Director, Edward Abazing, described the initiative as a promising step towards sustainable and inclusive development in Koforidua, and which would serve as a model for other cities in Ghana to follow.
AfYD
In 2020, the district league table (DLT 2020) rated the New Juabeng municipality as one of the 10 least performing districts on governance. The score indicates a poor performance in the implementation of its action plan for development, and as the action plan is a critical tool for development, its poor implementation impacts on the quality of services.
The Action for Youth Development (AfYD) project with a focus on the youth as the primary target will strengthen the capacities of youth led/based organisations to mobilise, represent and engage constructively with duty bearers to sustainably address their needs and priorities in decisions and resources distribution.
Eunice Racheal Agbenyadzi, Head of Programmes at STAR-Ghana Foundation
Overall, this project will contribute to ensuring that young people are not left behind in the development processes and benefits thereof.
It seeks to promote partnership between duty bearers and citizens to ensure that development programming is more meaningful for young people and delivers health and wellbeing, access to social services, including education, decent work for young people.
The project is approached from an inclusion perspective, thereby contributing to reducing inequalities within access to social services for different categories of young people.
Through this focus, the AfYD makes a direct impact on the achievement of SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 and 16.
Fact sheet
- The National Youth Policy describes young people as people between 15amd 35
- STAR-Ghana Foundation has been a partner to government, civil society and to many development partners.
- Between 2017 and 2019 the Foundation worked with the National Youth Authority on the review of the National Youth Policy by providing the funding to ensure the Authority engaged the voices of young people across Ghana
- The Foundation works with organisations that are led by young people and those that are in solidarity with young people.
- The Foundation has also worked around issues of promoting young peoples’ entrepreneurship and livelihood empowerment.