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Emergency Trust Fund for Africa
News article30 August 2021

Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn): A success story

GrEEn: Success story Mary Yeboah
UNCDF

The “Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn)” is a four-year action from the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana, UNCDF and SNV.

The project aims at creating greater economic and employment opportunities for youth, women and returning migrants by promoting and supporting sustainable, green businesses in selected regions (Ashanti and Western). GrEEn is implemented under the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa.

The objective of GrEEN it to create local financial ecosystems that facilitate the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and enable the transition of local economies to green and climate resilient development.

Through a combination of grants, technical assistance and convening power, the GrEEn programme will work with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and other relevant ministries as well as Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to:

  • Support the transition of local economies to green and climate resilient development.
  • Improve the ability of women, youth and returning migrants to take advantage of job and entrepreneurship opportunities in green and climate resilient local economies
  • Create and strengthen local ecosystems that support youth (self-) employment and the development of MSMEs.

Please discover briefly a success story of the GrEEn initiative:

“Water is life”, notes Mary Gyasiwa Yeboah, a resident of the 3,479-person community of Banko in the Sekyere Kumawu District. When water comes into a community, it brings opportunity – particularly to one dependent, as Banko is, on farming. Banko’s only livelihood is farming vegetables and some root tubers.

However, residents find it difficult to expand their farms because they lack financial resources and thus the fertilizer they need to increase their yields.

Yet, the mechanized borehole constructed by UNCDF through the GrEEn project holds the potential for change. The structure supplements Banko’s one existing borehole, which typically dries up during the dry season, forcing residents further afield to fetch water.

Mary has four children – one in university and the others about to enter secondary school. She did not go to school, but education is very important to her. The fact that this new borehole frees her children from onerous labour, clearly and firmly links it to a better, more prosperous future for her, her farm and her family.

This article was first published here.

Details

Publication date
30 August 2021
Region and Country
Ghana
Thematic
Greater economic and employment opportunities
Partner
SNV Netherlands Development OrganisationUnited Nations Capital Development Fund

Programmes in the region