2021 Annual Report

YEFL-GHANA exist to empower youth through engagements, networks, information sharing and capacity building to lead change.

2021 ANNUAL REPORT

Artifact made by youth centre members during social enterprise training.

About YEFL-GHANA

Acknowledgement

YEFL-GHANA believes in empowering young people. The act of leading change requires skills that are relevant for every step of action one will take towards the change process.

The 2021 Annual Report is a fulfilment of our Annual Accountability mechanism to Donors, members, partners and to our beneficiaries. This report tells the journey towards realizing our strategic goal of empowering youth socially, economically and politically to be active citizens who demand their rights, create jobs and engage in decision-making processes.

That is why capacity building is key in our mission to enhance skills, ability and attitudes of young people to lead the desired change in their respective communities.

Youth Leading change is the ultimate goal, where we find ourselves in a stage where young people are taking the initiative with a high sense of awareness and awakening; actions that ignites the act and art of activism; that shifts the position of youth from an era of spectating to active participation

This report is a collaborative effort of the various departments of the organization, our appreciation for their continuous commitments.

YEFL-GHANA would like to thank its Donors, Partners, Government agencies and MMDAs, beneficiaries, traditional leaders, members and, most importantly the EC and staff of YEFLGHANA for their tremendous contributions to the successful implementation of the 2021 annual plan.

We appreciate the efforts of our hardworking skilled volunteers and interns who are supporting the youth leading change agenda.

Contents

Abbreviations used in this Report

Acknowledgement 5 Abbreviations Used in this Report 7 Message from the EC 8 Executive Summary 10 Youth Political Action and Acountability 14 Youth Parliament 15 Youth Speak Up 15 Youth Led Accountability for Community Change 16 Power of Youth Voices 17 Galvanizing Community Support for Equitable Distribution of Water 20 Youth Organizing for Change 22 Annual Youth Forum 23 Youth Centres 23 Nurses Exchange Program 24 Youth Centres as Social Enterprises 26 Youth Networks 29 Economic Livelihood 33 2021 Financial Outlook 37 Our Partners 40

1D1L AYE BECE CRS CSOs DA DCE E4L EA EC JHS KYC MMDA

MP NERYN NRYN NYA SDGs SoME YC YCI YCMC YEA YPs YSU

One District One Library Campaign Alliance for Youth Entrepreneurs Basic Education Certificate Examination Catholic Relief Services Civil Society Organizations District Assembly District Chief Executive Empowerment for Life Electoral Area Executive Council Junior High School Karaga Youth Center Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies Member of Parliament North East Regional Youth Network Northern Regional Youth Network National Youth Authority Sustainable Development Goals Social Media Youth Center Youth Challenge International Youth Center Management Committee Youth Employment Agency Youth Parliamentarians Youth Speak Up

Zakaria Issah Nabilla, EC Chairman YEFL-GHANA

Message from the Executive Council We are excited to be resilient in the face of a global pandemic and continuously working with and for the betterment of young peple.

The year 2021 heralded unprecedented economic hardships, threatening to deepen gaps in access to schooling and jobs, that are relevant to a prosperous life for young people.

For us, the pandemic ignited our creativity to meet the shared needs of young people. Our progress towards the strategic objective of empowering youth socially,

economically, and politically to be active citizens who demand their rights, create jobs and engaged in decision making process is steadfast.

Our accomplishments in 2021 are connected to our partners who believe in the course of providing opportunities for young people to lead change.

The EC of YEFL-GHANA has worked closely with the management of the organization to prioritize the development of an emergency response plan. We had to make pragmatic decisions to safeguard our beneficiaries which affected our direct contact with them and adopting working conditions that suited our context.

We would like to appreciate the hardworking EC members for their continuous support and expertise. We also extend warm appreciation from the EC to the staff of YEFL-Ghana and volunteers.

We are pleased to share with you all the 2021 annual report that reflects our contribution to shaping young people to lead change deemed fit for their communities.

Key Highlights

Reach

Jawol Vera Magan Executive Director, YEFL-GHANA

Executive Summary Introduction This report should be viewed as a consolidated progress report of the year 2021. It is a reflective measure of the detailed annual implementation plan of the organization and a tracker of its performance towards the realization of its strategic goal of empowering youth socially, economically and politically to be active citizens who demand their rights, create jobs and engage in decision-making processes by 2024.

Learning from our success strategy in 2020 and adopting to the new normal of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 came challenging yet

promising. Contributing to adopting the SDG 17, we expanded our reach by working with other outfits to contribute towards the main goal. During the year, we followed up and gathered information on outcomes and change storries for purposes of documentation and future references.

Without your help, none of this work will be feasible. By investing in YEFL-GHANA and the talent of youth, you are paving the way for true, long-term growth. We are ecstatic to have you with us.

Doubling our reach last year, this year we were able to impact and reach a befitting Eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy two (18,472) young people across our implementation districts.

This milestone was possible through our major thematic pillars and newly created ventures.

Youth political action and Accountability This pillar has supported and Built capacity of 80 young parliamentarians to continue the pursuit of seeking accountability from power holders in their various districts. Also, we expanded the geographic reach of the youth parliament concept to 2 new district summing up to 11 districts so far.

Social media, radio, tv and other forms of modern communication channels have been employed by these young people to engage various stakeholders to seek change, development and opportunities in their various communities.

Youth Networks Young people as networks leveraged on their relationship with major stakeholders to address issues of school performance; increment of funding for monitoring of basic schools; revamping of district libraries (1D1L campaign), COVID-19 allocation fund accountability; and employment opportunites; climaxed with the introduction of One (1) new Regional Youth Networks at North-East Region. The latter would join the mission and amplify voice in seeking change.

Youth Organizing for Change.

We supported the collective action of youth organising for change against gender based sterotyping while recognizing the actions of young people leading change. We are excited to pilot youth centers as social enterprise and learning from this experience to expand. Later in this report you would realize how youth centers are faring in this regard.

Economic Livelihoods Our Youth Entrepreneurship initiative continue to support young peope build a better livelihood. We have provided financial support to seven (7) youth led start-ups in 2021, trained 371 young women on social enterprises. Beneficiaries of the Youth Life Project have been performing creditably

well, so far 104 (55 males, 49 females) out of 250 have started their business in less than a year.

Young people exhibit art work at Savelugu

Youth Political Action and Acountability Introduction We empowered young people including women and persons with disability with the right skills, tools, platforms and the capacity to become politically active and demand for accountable and transparent governance from the community to national levels.

These were done through our Youth Parliaments, Youth Speak Up, Youth Networks and Art of Change approach.

See subsequent pages for detailed explanationss of these approaches.

These approaches are contributing; to youth advancing their rights and interests at local, national and international level; Youth have voice and space to engage duty bearers and address injustices.

Youth Parliament A youth-friendly accountability platform promoting youth voices, participation, behaviour changeand holding duty bearers accountable.

The concept of youth parliaments and youth speak, which grew out of our Youth Political and Accountability Pillar, is gaining traction as a way to demand accountability and citizen participation in local governance.

This year, we’re excited to expand this approach from ten (10) to eleven (11) districts in Northern and Savannah Regions of Ghana. Through their influencing actions on poor

education outcomes, high prevalence of open defecation, and insufficient school desk, remarkable responses has been witnessed by state and traditional institutions.

Youth Speak Up An initiative that support active citizenship and engagement of young people as change agents addressing injustice.

We use social media and community radio to complement the work of the Youth Parliaments by engaging both duty bearers and the entire community. This has aided in amplifying their voices in support of a common community change.

We have piloted the virtual

youth speak up as an innovation leveraging on SoMe to reach out to wider citizens.

Through this novelty we have reached out to 706 people and highlighted 3 community issues that has received enormous attention.

Young People Engagement with stakeholders at Nanton

Youth Led Accountability for Community Change

Power of youth voices

In January 2021, the Nanton Youth Parliament, in the Northern Region, identified poor education outcome, and lack of furniture at various schools in the district. This situation was evident, as students in some schools had to pair on a single desk and others had to sit on the floor at Kpano.

Emerging from an educational crisis imposed by covid-19 pandemic, we leveraged on our youth speak up pillar to support 33 radio discussions and 3 virtual airings that provided the youth with the platform to demand quality education from people with power.

The Youth Parliament held two parliamentary sittings at Nanton and Kpano to discuss these issues with various stakeholders in participation including students, teachers, GES and PTA Chairman to observe and participate in the sittings.

These engagements influenced; the timely procurement and

distribution of 100 desks to Girls Model JHS and Kpano Primary School by the District Assembly.

The Nanton District Director of Education, has applauded the YP for their brilliant initiative and pledged support to collaborate with them in addressing education issues in the district.

Through this efforts, the Youth Network’s sustained calls for release of funding for basic school monitoring in the Karaga District, circuit supervisors in the district have confirmed receipt of allocated funds and reactivated monitoring of basic schools.

In addition, towards the enhancement of basic school performance; young people were also able to influence

the Member of Parliament for karaga constituency, for the provision of mathematical sets and an undisclosed amount of money for the preparation of students for the 2021 BECE; organization of quiz competitions; and donation of text books to five (5) schools (karaga Da JHS, Karaga Ishadia EA, Shamseya EA, Karaga girls’ model JHS, Karaga Nuru Islam EA) in Karaga.

Through this intervention nine thousand six hundred (9,600) people have been reached through radio and igniting community led support for improve quality in education.

Libga Dam in the Savelugu Municipal

Cannal for easy flow of water to smallholder farmers

Galvanizing community support for equity distribution of water Farmers of Moglaa, Libga, Nyolo, Zaazi, Bihinayili, Tarikpaa, Yilikpani and Savelugu depends on the Libga Dam for their irrigational farming. Each community has at least 50 farmers, most of whom depend on the dam.

This dam was purposefully made to promote irrigational farming in Savelugu and Kumbungu.

Unfortunately, water supply from the dam has been

insufficient to the farmers due to illegal connection of other farmers and high domestic use of residents.

A community journalist in Savelugu highlighted this issue through the virtual youth speak up platform. This led to a discussion involving the assemblyman for Moglaa community, the Human Control Officer of the dam, two farmers and the CJ himself.

The discussion highlighted

many underlying reasons for the shortage in water supply, some were the Human control officer’s inability to efficiently control the flow of water.

The CJ followed up on the Human Control Officer, which revealed a positive outcome of his new strategy which was; opening of the dam at night to allow free flow of water to a far extent and to avoid illegal interruption.

This has improved the situation since, more farmers access to the water than previously. The reduced water level of the dam tends to be another issue which has already been relayed to the Municipal Assembly for a sustained solution.

The CJ is excited his actions are contributing to improving people’s life and hoping to do more for his community.

Youth Organizing for Change Introduction We believe in the collective voice of the youth mobilized and organized for action. We have facilitated this process through the Annual Youth Forum, Youth Centres, and Nurse Exchange activities

Annual Youth Forum We successfully held a cornucopia of events as part of this year’s annual youth forum which brought together about 127 (55 females, 72 males) young people. Leveraging on our art of change concept we triggered discourse on ending gender-based stereotyping, child abuse and female empowerment through street art exhibitions in three districts The exhibition activities proved to be effective in mobilizing the youth, energizing them and harnessing their potential to engage in transforming their societies using art. We also recognised 30 young s/heroes (16 males and 14 females) for their outstanding contribution to youth development in the region.

Youth Centres In implementing our new youth centre strategy that focuses on the investment of youth between the ages of 15 and 26 years, we supported the restructuring of the membership of five (5) Youth Centres in five districts reaching a total of 203 young persons (153 male, 50 female). Through this effort, we facilitated the formation of the Youth Centre Alumni Network: This comprised of “youth” at the current Youth Centres beyond the ages of 27years who have received varied capacities and would be providing mentoring and giving coaching support to the active youth as a way of giving back and giving them more room to participate meaningfully in decision – making processes and platforms. Now the restructured Youth Centre Management Committee (YCMC) members are within the new age brackets of 15 to 26 years in 4 operating districts.

Nurses Exchange Program The Nurses Exchange Program continue to serve as part of training curriculum for young professionals from the VIA University in Denmark to understudy the health systems in Northern Ghana whiles learning the Northern culture and traditions.

This year, YEFL Ghana received a group of 11 final-year Danish students in September 2021, consisting of six (6) nurses and five (5) physiotherapists for a four week stay in Ghana with host families at Malshegu (a suburb in Sagnarigu District).

They were able to intern at the Sagnarigu/Choggu Health Centres and the Tamale Teaching Hospital to learn, share, and become acquainted with the differences in health practises between the two countries.

Their stay was capped off with enjoyable excursions to Tamale’s Arts Centre, Mole

National Park & Reserve, Kakum National Park, and the Cape Coast Castle.

We are excited that feedback of students so far has been positive which has been attributed to the dedication and great efforts of the team and focal person.

Youth Centres as Social Enterprises Introduction YEFL continue to work with Youth Centres for over a decade now and sustaining youth activism at these centres has triggered innovation of working with the Youth Centres to run as social enterprises.

The Journey In 2021, two (2) Youth Centres namely Savelugu Youth Centre and the Karaga Youth Centre were facilitated to run the Youth Centres as social enterprises through capacity building for 24 youth (10 females and 14 males), mentoring and coaching plus creating opportunities for the acquisition of spaces to create the enabling environment for this to happen.

Through the generous support of Dolly’s restaurant through GV in Denmark, the Karaga Youth Centre (KYC) secured their facility and has been assisted to rehabilitate it and further constructed a summer hat for their outdoor activities.

Youth centre planning products of their envisioned social enterpriese Piloting The social enterprise journey has begun with the development of a training manual which was led by Lise Graunkaer and cocreatively piloted with some select staff of the E4L Program and subsequently delivered to the two (2) Youth Centres.

Milestone Now the youth centres have completed testing and prototyping their innovative

ideas to determine the feasibility and interest of potential customers and the development of a resource strategy and an action plan.

From planning to action, the Karaga Youth Center is the first to roll out basic ICT services for interested youth to sign-up within the district.

Expectations This is expected to support the Youth Centres to become self–reliant with an increased capacity to mobilize others and

resources to carry out their activities.

As these youth centres continue to impact positively in their environment/society and the lives of others while generating income, lessons are key as we take steps in documenting success, challenges and making a recommendation in replicating this novelty to other youth centres and proposing its adoption to others.

Youth Networks Introduction Following the succesful mobilization of youth into networks, we have expanded this concept to include young people in the North East Region of Ghana thus providing a louder voice for young people to lead change in their communities through a formidable regional youth network.

Capacity Building

Gender & Leadership

We Built the capacity of 50 members (25 male, 25 female) from four regional youth networks (Oti, Savannah, North East, and Northern Region) in influencing, mobilization, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement. These youth Networks have utilised skills learnt to influence local wbye-laws on drug abuse.

The Northern Regional Youth Network successfully held its annual congress, which resulted in the election of more female leaders (4 out of 6) as well as the updating of its constitution. This demonstrates efforts made towards young women’s participation in the regional youth network.

Education Dialogue

Results

1D1L Campaign

Results

Youth dialogue in education has continued to provide a platform for young people to hold persons in power accountable.

The youth network has leveraged on its relationship with the Northern Regional Coordinating Council to jointly hold educational dialogue.

This platform deliberated on measures to improve school performance both at the basic and second cycle level. Stakeholders agreed to further pursue performance contracting and called for support from the traditional authorities.

• 1 senior high school ( Islamic Senior high school) has signed its performance contract with the District (Sagnarigu) Education Directorate.

Youth Networks continue to sustain the 1D1L campaign pushing for increased patronage of district libraries in 3 districts namely Saboba, Savelugu and Bimbilla. Despite this success, the Savelugu district library is currently reposessed by the district electoral commission to house and provide security to keenly contested electoral ballot papers that have been prolonged for over 9 months now. Engagements are currently ongoing to hopefully relocate the ballot papers.

Saboba Youth Network has facilitated the formation of a reading club through the engagement of 12 schools. The Saboba District library has also received some renovation (painting and change of louvre blades) after the youth network solicited public support in that regard.

Employment

Results

Covid-19 Accountability

Results

Young people influencing action on employment opportunities affecting them through the regional level, cascading to the district level has improved the urgency of youth network leaders in engaging relevant employment agencies, in contributing to increasing awareness of employment opportunities available for young people.

•Six members of the regional youth network have been given the opportunity to learn skills that will help them start businesses and create jobs for themselves. At the district level (Karga and Saboba), the employment agency YEA has committed to delivering a quota of job opportunities to district youth networks.

Youth networks continue to respond to contextual issues such as the covid-19 pandemic crisis in the country. Youth Networks in Tamale and Accra have demanded accountability of the covid-19 alleviation fund revealed by the national research, ‘‘impact of covid-19 alleviation fund” through social media campaigns. This has attracted attention and sparked discussion on the issue.

The youth network has gained attention and enlisted the collaboration of ‘budgiT,’ a civil society, to jointly demand accountability and transparency in health care spending via CSO coalitions in Accra.

• The synergy between youth networks and school management committees in jointly influencing increased funding for basic school monitoring in Saboba resulted in the allocation of GHC 7000 in 2021, up from GHC 2000 allocated in 2020 for basic school monitoring.

YOUTH ENTREPRENUERSHIP Economic Livelihood Introduction Our economic empowerment pillar continue to journey with beneficiaries of our entrepernuership bootcamp model towards realizing their dream of starting their business. We are excited that our work continue to align with target 8.3 and target 8.6 of the SDGs.

Social Enterprise

Results

Following the introduction of two pathways for youth employment in 2020 namely; 1) entrepreneurship development, and Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) and 2) vocational skills development, we have included social enterprising as a new pathway to our economic empowerment pillar. For this pathway we co-created a social enterprise model and piloted its implementation in two youth centres in the northern region of Ghana.

• 24 young people from selected centers have capacities built on running social enterprises and have initiated prototyping social enterprise ideas.

Youth Life 2.0

Results

In 2021 we provided professional skills development, financial assistance and continuous business support services for beneficiaries of the Youth Life 2.0 Project through a revolving loan scheme that has been setup to meet the financial needs of beneficiaries

• A total amount of ten thousand Ghana cedies seed funding established; Seven (7) beneficiaries (5 males and 2 females) have so far been supported.

• Through collaborative efforts with YCI three hundred and seventy one (371) young girls have also been trained to startup social enterprise in the Northen Region.

•1 year since the graduation of 250 youth life 2.0 beneficiaries we are happy 104 (55 male and 49 females) have started their business.

Artifact made by youth centre members during social enterprise training.

Women & Literacy

Results

Through the E4L program We provided 96 vulnerable and marginalised young women access to basic literacy and numeracy skills to boost their enrolment in entrepreneurship bootcamp in 5 rural districts.

We are excited to see vulnerable young women without basic education demonstrating skills such as records keeping of their sales.

This pathway is addressing poor literacy and numberacy needs of young women that venture into business.

56 vulnerable young women have started their business.

Bootcamp Our regular entreprenerurship bootcamps reached out to 113 young people out of which 85 (33 females and 52 male) trained have established their business representing a little over 75% of the youth trained in 2021.

Hear from the young entrepreneurs ‘‘ As a female domestic electrician, my journey has been rough and it is so because, the society have no trust for female electricians and in order to get something doing to support myself, i have to attach my self to others who are males....Despite these challenges, I no longer rely on my parents for feeding money and transport fare since the start of my business. I personally wired our new home which could have been a cost for the family to bare, and i hava also cultinvated a savings habit in my quest to expand my business ‘‘

With self desciplne , determination , and hard work, my business (Yussif’s Sandals and Bead Making) has been a sucess in providing quality beaded sandals and other beaded products to its customers. Being a beneficiary of this revolving loan, my business has helped improve upon my relationship with people and customers who have had significant impact in my life, it has also helped improve upon my source of lielihood as i can now provide for my business. I hope to receive continous support from my family in this journey and some financial support to acquire a grinding machine for my work

2021 Financial Outlook My smock weaving busines came to life wit h the assistance of the revolving loan i I receuved, and the business has been a sucess in delivering quality woven smocks to its customers, and i feel happy doing what i am good at to satisfy my customers. With the good sales I make from my work, my source of income has improved and i can afford to provide whatever i want for myself. I hope to secure a space to expand my business by working hard and staying focus.

Surplus 1% Administration and General cost 43%

Direct Cost

Financial Outlook

Administration and General cost

Direct Cost 56%

Surplus

Our Partners YEFL-Ghana exists to inspire youth to lead change through engagements, networks, knowledge sharing, and capacity building.

Block B. House No: KR 56, Na Luro Estates Post Office Box TL2498 Tamale - Northern Region Ghana info@yeflghana.org Tel: +233 501 387 534