Policy Working Group Meeting - Joint Briefing of Project Studies

The ILO “Strengthen” project organized a Policy Working Group Meeting - Joint Briefing of Project Studies; Assessing the Employment Effects of Processing Cocoa in Ghana, Assessing the Employment Effects of Government Investment in Housing and the TRAVERA Survey.

Participants were the Policy Working Group and the National Consultants for the two Studies. Also present was Mr Maikel- Lieuw-Kie-Song, the project manager of Component A of the project. Key ministries represented at the meeting include Ministries of Employment and Labour Relations; Food and Agriculture; Works and Housing; Roads and Highways and representatives of the private sector.

Also present was Mr David Cheong, the project’s International Project Manager who gave brief remarks on the STRENGTHEN Project. He mentioned that the project has been in Ghana since 2016 and held a number of workshops and meetings. The Project has two Components, Component A: Employment Impact Assessment and Component B: Effect of Trade on Employment. He indicated that the project had also conducted a number of studies since its inception and this meeting was mainly for sharing the preliminary findings of three of such studies currently being undertaken. Component A undertook studies in the Agro processing and infrastructure sectors and Component B undertook the TRAVERA Survey. The meeting was planned to brief the PWG on the findings of these studies, to collate inputs and questions on studies for incorporation into the final work.

Dr Bernardin Senadza, National Consultant, University of Ghana, gave a detailed first presentation on the cocoa study highlighting the major findings; current supply chain systems; cocoa processing companies in Ghana; the processes involved in reaching the final products and the final products produced. The findings show the levels of jobs created; direct, indirect and induced. Female participation Summary of key findings include supply of main materials and encouragement of female participation among others. A Q &A session followed the presentation.

Mr Francis Arthur, National Consultant gave the second presentation on the findings of the Infrastructure Study, he started by pointing out that the focus of the study was on assessing direct employment in the sector. Indirect and induced employment aspects will be handled by simulations using SAM. Findings of the study show that policy interventions in this sector were not sustained over the years. Current policy has focused on decent and affordable housing. The focus of the study was on two social housing projects to assess the number of jobs created using a specific quantum of investment made. Skilled and unskilled labours were also employed for various roles in the sector. Recommendations made were for local stakeholders to find the root causes of variations that exist in the type and quantum of employment created. Limited monitoring and reporting on employment data on housing projects was one of the findings of the study. This was followed by a Q & A session.

A supplementary Presentation on Findings of Cocoa Sector and Infrastructure Study was given by Mr Maikel Lieuw-Kie- Song. This set of presentation was mainly on using local multipliers and SAM to simulate jobs to be created in the cocoa processing sector.

Dr Martha Awo National Consultant/ISSER and Dr Andrews Agyei - Holmes, National Consultant/ISSER, did the TRAVERA Survey findings presentations. For the survey, three basic root crops were identified; cassava, yam and sweet potato with emphasis on assessing the various potentials of the selected crops for job creation. Some activities in these sectors are mainly taken up by men because of its energy consuming nature. The survey identified high potential for yam value added for export. Stakeholders that support institutions on policy making must be involved in this process. Qualitative and quantitative data of the survey will be shared to stakeholders. The survey team visited nearly 200 firms either involved in one activity or more. Figures for cassava and yam were readily available but not for sweet potato. However the survey identified a decline in export of yam. This may be a result of export of processed yam but this is not clear. They indicated that, of the selected roots and tubers, yam has most potential in export. Jobs seem to be available for the males than the females with males mostly in managerial positions. It was suggested that for clarity age brackets must be specific in the survey report. The groups of workers employed were also elaborated. Value chain of cassava and yam seem to have potential in job creation. All the tubers have forward and backward linkages for employment purposes.

At the end of the meeting, the next steps included:
o Need to determine which questions on quality could be answered using the survey.
o Identify use of new technology to improve productivity in the sector.
o Figure out how implementing the identified technology can improve the variables in the value chain.
o Use data from GLSS to extract more information.
o Collect questions from everyone and use data from the study to answer them.
o Collaborate with GEPA and MOTI on Yam Strategy to address in developing the value chain of these tubers
o Questionnaire for survey to be shared.
o Questions on technology, value chains, financial access, gender to be integrated into the final report of the survey. o Inputs and comments to be incorporated into reports
o Finalize the studies for broader dissemination.