According to Patrick Mullen, Program Lead, Human Development at the World Bank Ghana Office, the Ghana Country Partnership Framework for 2022 to 2026 emphasizes support for economic transformation with the creation of more high-quality jobs for youth through skill and entrepreneurial development, access to finance, investment climate reform, and quality infrastructure.
He asserted that through the new Country Partnership Framework, the World Bank Group is also deeply committed to collaborating with the government of Ghana to address spatial and other inequities and enhance socioeconomic conditions.
Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Youth Voices Chapter in Accra, he stated that the World Bank is currently working with the Ghanaian government on a new operation that will support some aspects of the YouStart programme.
Mullen said “our expectation at the World Bank is for Ghana Youth Voices Chapter to be representatives and inclusive of diverse youth stakeholders including diverse geographical locations across both rural and urban areas, ethnic communities, gender, sexual orientation, and physical ability.
We also expect the Chapter to support a systematic engagement of youth in dialogue with World Bank Ghana teams on issues related to the Bank’s support in Ghana and to leverage the platform to share reflections on World Bank Ghana country partnerships as well as on design, implementation, and evaluation of World Bank interventions.
In addition, we expect the Youth Voices Chapter to enable informed young people to actively communicate to the World Bank what they believe the development challenges that affect them are, what their views and proposed solutions are, and inform youth about the vision and work of the World Bank Group and engaging them in dialogues and debates.”
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He commended members who have volunteered to serve on the various teams of the Chapter such as education, health and nutrition, digital skills and future of work, entrepreneurship, skills and decent employment, climate change and energy, governance, gender, diversity, and inclusion.
Program Lead, Human Development at the World Bank Ghana Office said the Bank looks forward to collaborating with members of Ghana Youth Voices Chapter to build a strong partnership with targeted youth groups on strategic shared areas of interest such as education, employment, climate change, and capacity building in a win-win situation.
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The Chapter Lead, of Ghana Youth Voices Daniel Owusu, said the Youth Voices Chapter in Ghana would offer a more sustainable youth engagement structure and position the World Bank as a youth-friendly international organization.
He said his outfit aspiration is to strengthen the country’s youth community engagement with the World Bank Ghana as an inclusive platform and lead the conversation on the importance of youth involvement in topics of development within the region.
This, according to him, would serve as an input source to Country Action Strategies, Country Partnership Framework, sector strategies, and selected investment programs of the Ghana Youth Voices Chapter knowledge portfolio.
Source: Adovor Nutifafa
dovor100@gmail.com
