Introduction

On reflection, the last five years have been an extended period of transition. I say extended because the transition evolved and was birthed through the creation of Me Firi Ghana, a clothing brand founded because of my own personal identity crisis; a crisis mirrored by countless young Ghanaians around the world at the time. Me Firi Ghana clothing connected thousands of young Ghanaians globally, spurring a movement that united young people who shared a curious love for Ghana.

A number of projects and initiatives were born through the Me Firi Ghana clothing brand, the most relevant being the What About Me (WAM) Campaign. The WAM Campaign was an annual volunteering project that took place in Ghana during the Christmas holiday period. The programme enabled resident Ghanaians and Ghanaians living abroad to connect and volunteer their time & skills to support marginalised children through our education programmes in Accra & Tamale. Between 2010-2014, we managed to galvanise 78 volunteers from 7 countries who contributed in excess of 1,100 hours of volunteering in Ghana. Me Firi Ghana was uniting second generation Ghanaians, but in hindsight, we can now see that it was a trojan horse laying the grounds for our current organisation, Future of Ghana. I say this because the WAM Campaign project was the first tangible development project we developed that created a physical connection and pathway for Ghanaians living abroad with resident Ghanaian youth. Through a grant we obtained from Africa UK, we analysed evaluation forms completed by volunteer participants between 2010-2014, hosted our first community forum and drafted a policy brief outlining best practices for engaging Ghanaian Diaspora youth with Ghana's development in 2014... unknowingly the scene had been set for the next 5 years!

The learnings generated from this work led to the framing of our next half decade, which had the objective of understanding the needs of and coordinating activities for second-generation Ghanaians to deepen our learning and understanding of them.

The hypothesis in 2014 was that second-generation Africans - especially those living abroad - will be mass influencers shaping economies in the next ten years. Of late, the hypothesis has become more prevalent as we’ve seen how a lack of engagement has pushed youth to influence political systems and demand change through organised demonstrations and created movements that have been amplified by social media.

However, at the time, our hypothesis was framed through findings from our past activities and as a direct response to the feedback generated through the Me Firi Ghana clothing, blog and community events. It was also informed from reading reports and being invited as a keynote speaker and panellist for policy influencing events where I often saw how underrepresented and marginalised young people’s voices were during policy discussions around migration and development. During this period, policy influencing events tended to centre on remittance and its contribution to “developing countries”. But my thinking was, what about second-generation youth? They are better educated, in better jobs (in some respects) and have more surplus income than their parents – the main generation remitting – but have less of a connection with their country of origin. So, if stronger connections could be forged with their country of origin, then second-generation youth could become a titan force that can help to positively shape their country of origin and the African continent at large!

Thus, 2014 is the year we established our Top 30 under 30 Alumni project. The Top 30 under 30 Alumni project was developed to organise and mobilise a network of Ghana’s present and future leaders impacting industries globally; creating a robust and supported alumni network that can positively influence change. In 2015 Future of Ghana Youth Leadership Forum our first non-volunteering capacity building project was delivered in Ghana. The experience further re-emphasised the need for collaboration between skilled individuals both in the diaspora and in Ghana. A year later, our FOG Germany chapter was officially launched in Hamburg and we participated in the Government of Ghana’s Diaspora Homecoming Summit in 2017. In 2018 we launched our Second-generation British Ghanaians and home research report. This was a key piece of work that helped to shape our current strategy and further test our hypothesis as it explored the identity, engagement and remittance ideals of over 1000+ British Ghanaians who engaged in the report through our survey, focus groups and semi structured interviews.

These were important milestones along our journey that helped with brand building, policy influencing and was the beginning of our three-year Partnership with AFFORD for an EU grant funded migration and development project. Entering into 2019, we re-established our annual Christmas volunteer programme and obtained EU & Big Lottery funding which enabled us to compare the findings from our 2018 British Ghanaian research report, with the needs & wants of Ghanaians living in Ghana by coordinating further research, forums and training programmes.

2020 was the year life shifted and a supposed “new normal” came upon the world as a result of Covid-19. It is the year that started so progressively for our organisation, as we co-authored and helped shape the impact and recommendations from the MADE West Africa Programme Emerging Themes in Migration and Development in an Era of COVID-19 report.

However, Covid-19 swiftly became the pinnacle of a multitude of world events that has really shifted what travel, development and remittance looks like. For us, 2020 was a year of reshaping our organisation, onboarding a new set of skilled trustees, developing a robust intentional organisational strategy to direct our activities for the next four years and establish ourselves as a thought leading organisation and mouthpiece for the generation we aim to serve!

This report provides a more in-depth overview of our work and impact to date with specific focus on activities which took place between 2015 and 2020. Moving forward we will be publishing annual reports in the first quarter of each new year. We hope you enjoy reading our journey thus far and we look forward to continuing our journey with you as we outline some of our plans moving forward.

Arnold Sarfo-Kantanka

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Future of Ghana