1. Being: Mental Health and Wellbeing of Young People
(Grand Challenge Canada (GCC) – Anticipated)

According to the GCC, “Mental health challenges disproportionately affect the most marginalized members of society – people living in poverty, women and girls, refugees, young people, and those most at risk of violence and discrimination. While populations in low-and middle-income countries bear 82% of the global burden of mental ill-health, up to 90% of their mental health needs are not met due to a lack of resources and insufficient infrastructure…[adding that the] global mental health burden is magnified for youth living in low resource settings. The majority of mental health challenges – 75% – start before the age of 24. Poor mental health in youth negatively impacts the development of social connections, cultural belonging, and emotional wellbeing. It can also impact young people’s access to educational opportunities and economic resources. Many of these challenges can be addressed and supported if mental health conditions are identified and treated early. These impacts can be multiplied by working further upstream on prevention initiatives, enabling the mental health field to shift from a reactive to proactive approach. There is an urgent need for youth-informed
mental health approaches that shift from an individually focused and medicalized approach to one that addresses the social, cultural, and economic drivers that impact young people’s mental wellbeing. This will create enabling environments across sectors and supportive communities that cater to the needs of young people.”

Specifically, GCC found that in “Ghana, bullying in schools is increasingly being recognized as a mental health concern, driven by a complex interplay of factors closely tied power dynamics and peer pressure. There are notable gaps in bullying awareness where perpetrators (bullies) are often not aware of the impact of their actions on others, and victims (those being bullied) may not recognize the harm done to them or the support available. Bullying is correlated with depression, anxiety, low self- esteem, poor physical health and school absenteeism. Ghanian schools currently lack a standardized approach to tackle bullying, leaving youth with limited avenues to report incidents and access resources needed for behavior change. Promoting positive youth mental health and wellbeing in Ghana will require that effective anti-bullying programs are implemented in schools… [while] Ghana has a well-structured mental health
ecosystem at the national level with both the Mental Health Authority of Ghana and Ghana’s education system recognizing the significance of school mental health… the current school health program primarily focuses on nutrition and lacks the necessary structures and frameworks to support mental health initiatives in schools, specifically those targeting anti- bullying.”

Therefore, the Project is designed to be provide highly innovative, bold, culturally sensitive, non-medical support to youth in prevention of bullying in select schools and promotion of anti-bullying and early drivers of mental health and wellbeing across the country for the most underserved youth.

2. Empowering Smallholder Women Farmers in Ghana
(Unifor Social Justice Fund – Anticipated)

Although the major income earning activity in the Project’s target geographic area is agriculture, and 50% of those engaged in it are women, there is no concerted effort to bring women into modernizing and mechanizing the sector; nor is there a concerted effort in conducting real-time and on farm research or innovating technology locally to directly solve the problems related to the sector in the area. Also, access to agriculture extension (technical) officers are almost nonexistent. These problems combined with the terrible effects of climate change makes agriculture, as a business, difficult for women who engage in it to thrive and transition from subsistence farming to sizable commercial ones that will yield higher profit margins. It also makes it unattractive to the youth, causing many of them to migrate from the area, hence further impoverishing the area and its people.

Therefore, the Project seeks to help transform the field of agriculture in the target geographic area from the current mostly traditional/subsistent farming through research, mechanization, and technology. Such modernized process will make agriculture profitable, thereby the preferred enterprise for the women and youth thereby making the field attractive for them to enter and remain in it long-term. Attaining this goal will also enable Project beneficiaries, especially the youth, to stay in the area instead of migrating to cities or abroad. Additionally, by focusing on and promoting women through the proposed activities, especially mechanization and technology, they will not only be empowered individually but will also become a reference point for their communities and the country, thus making them catalysts for other young women to consider agriculture and other male dominated fields as career choice. Based on preliminary engagements with the target beneficiaries, it is evident that they recognize their current farming practices are no longer effective, hence their calls for external help. They yearn for mechanization and the youth (especially) want the ability and capability to use technology to solve problems. Some of the young women are also excited about the prospect of learning mechanization.

3. Strengthening Women’s capacity to Engage in Ghana’s Democracy.
(Unifor Social Justice Fund – Anticipated)

Generally, there is a low rate of women’s participation in the electoral and democratic processes in Ghana, where women lack the capacity to advocate for their rights and engage at leadership levels in ways that help promote democracy, peace, and human rights – being that women’s rights are human rights. Despite the progress made on gender equality, Ghana remains a highly patriarchal society with men dominating leadership roles in all spheres of life. An examination of political parties reveals all top positions being held by men. Rarely will women even hold a General Secretary position, the highest will be “women’s organizer.” Women are usually relegated to the role of cheerleaders of the men in power. The same goes for youth, where it is rare to see a young male of 24 years or lower holding any position in a political party, not even “youth organizer.” The case is even worse for young women. The UN set a minimum threshold of 30% of women representation in politics, 50.7% of Ghana’s population are women, yet according to the Media Foundation for West Africa, the rates of women elected in district level elections have steadily fallen since 2010 to a 3.8% in 2019 even though UNDP put the rates slightly better at the parliamentary level with 13% female members of parliament (MPs) in 2016.

The Project is therefore designed to impact adult and young women positively by providing them with the knowledge, skills, and tools required to take on societal and political leadership roles, successfully lobby and advocate for their rights, manage political campaigns and potentially win.

4. Defending and Promoting Workers’ Rights in Ghana

(Unifor Social Justice Fund – Anticipated)

Ghana has ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions 87 and 98 and enacted its own labor law – Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651). This ratification of international convention and enactment of national law notwithstanding, there remain serious labor rights violations, primarily because of lack of enforcement and/or lack of capacity to enforce them by relevant authorities. More specifically, some overall problem areas observed include: (i) weaknesses in Ghana’s Labour Act that employers are exploiting, i.e. sections 16, 17, and 18, (ii) delayed justice in cases of violation, (iii) lack of capacity of workers to document or properly document violations, (iv) fear of workers to voice out violation due to high unemployment (13.9% in Ghana), high inflation, and general economic hardship in the country, and (v) intimidation, harassment, and victimization of workers who join unions. Employers exploit weaknesses in the law to engage in employment practices like short-term employment contracts resulting in high worker turnover further resulting in loss of knowledge of workers’ rights when those with such knowledge leave as their contracts end.

Therefore, the Project’s goal is to effect reforms in labor practices across Ghana, whereby workers know their rights, employers respect workers’ rights, relevant laws are enforced, and issues of workers’ rights violations are reduced.

5. Defending and Promoting Workers’ Rights in Liberia

(Unifor Social Justice Fund – Anticipated)

Liberia ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions 87 and 98 and also enacted its own – Decent Work Act (2015). However, there remain serious labor rights violations, primarily because of lack of knowledge of the laws and lack of enforcement or lack of capacity to enforce them by the authorities. More specifically, some overall problem areas observed include: (i) weak capacity of trade unions and workers’ organizations, (ii) widespread lack of knowledge of workers about their rights, (iii) delayed justice in cases of violation, (iv) lack of capacity of workers to document or properly document violations, (v) low levels of awareness of the public about the labor rights, including the value of unions, (vi) fear of workers to voice out violation due to high unemployment, high inflation, and general economic hardship in the country, and (vii) intimidation, harassment, and victimization of workers who join or attempt to join unions.

The Project’s goal is to effect reforms in labor practices across Liberia, where workers know their rights, employers respect workers’ rights, relevant laws are enforced, and issues of workers’ rights violations are reduced.