The Canadian High Commission in Ghana has commended the growing impact of young Fulbe girls trained under the Girls Caucus Empowerment Programme, noting their increasing use of journalism skills to speak out against injustice and social exclusion within their communities. The programme is being implemented by Youth Empowerment for Life (YEFL-Ghana) in collaboration with community partners.
The commendation followed a monitoring visit to Ghana’s Northern Region, where representatives of YEFL-Ghana showcased the progress made by participants from Fulani communities—groups that have historically faced social exclusion and discrimination due to questions around citizenship, ethnicity, and farmer-herder tensions. The visit highlighted how the girls are using community journalism to challenge stereotypes, document lived experiences, and engage constructively with local leadership.
Officials from the Canadian High Commission expressed satisfaction with the transformation observed among the girls, particularly their confidence in applying journalistic tools to confront systemic inequalities and reshape narratives surrounding Fulbe communities in Ghana. The High Commission subsequently assured YEFL-Ghana of its continued support, indicating interest in scaling up the initiative and replicating it in other marginalised communities facing similar challenges.
“We like how you work and we are happy with the progress the girls are making. We will take your comments and recommendations with us and explore more opportunities to work together,” representatives of the High Commission said during the engagement.
The visit reaffirmed the Canadian government’s commitment to strengthening people-to-people relations with Ghana, with a specific focus on inclusion, minority rights, and community-led development interventions aimed at dismantling long-standing layers of exclusion.
The Girls Caucus Empowerment Model trained 75 young Fulbe girls in two cohorts, with each cohort undergoing an intensive three-day capacity-building programme. The initiative, funded through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), was designed to strengthen the girls’ ability to participate in decision-making processes using community journalism as a tool for advocacy and civic engagement.
Through YEFL’s Community Journalism Module, participants were equipped with foundational journalism skills including story writing, interviewing techniques, social media reporting, radio presentation, and ethical journalism, enabling them to document issues affecting their communities and engage responsibly with public discourse.
Beyond skills training, the initiative incorporated parental engagement sessions to address harmful practices such as early and forced marriage, which disproportionately affect young Fulbe girls. In the Savannah Region, additional CFLI-supported interventions engaged health workers in the Yapei community to address barriers to healthcare access, including language challenges and discriminatory treatment.
The programme emerged from insights gained during a Fulbe Youth Leadership Boot Camp held in March 2023, organised by YEFL-Ghana in collaboration with the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives’ Littorals Regional Initiative. The boot camp revealed that only 30 percent of participants were female and that many girls struggled to express themselves in mixed-gender spaces, underscoring deep-rooted cultural constraints on female participation.
Founded in January 2010, YEFL-Ghana has implemented over 22 youth-focused projects, reaching more than 40,000 young people across the country. The organisation operates 10 youth centres and works across thematic areas including youth and media for development, arts and culture, sports for development, climate action, and youth entrepreneurship, positioning itself as a leading advocate for inclusive youth empowerment in Ghana.
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