Every year on the 1st of May, people all over the world celebrate Labour Day to reflect on the challenges of workers and to look at ways of improving working conditions and promoting employment rights. On behalf of the German Government, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH supports the Ghanaian Government in the creation of jobs and ensuring that the working conditions of employees are improving.
With the support of GIZ, private companies are successfully implementing the Employee Wellbeing Programme, which aims at improving the health situation and the productivity of their workforce. The workplace programme encompasses pro-active measures to address the health, social security and financial issues, which might affect employees and their families.
Sophia Lissah, External Affairs Manager at UT Bank/UT Holdings commends the impact of the Employee Wellbeing Programme: “It helps to get higher productivity because the less people fall sick, the less absenteeism and you have higher efficiency and people make minimal mistakes”. The programme is currently implemented in various sectors in Ghana, including the public administration, agriculture, mining and finance.
Together with our partners we are implementing several other programmes, which have positive impacts on the lives of many workers across Ghana.
The Competitive Cashew initiative (ComCashew), previously known as the African Cashew initiative (ACi), works along the cashew value chain to promote the growth of the sector and to sustainably reduce poverty. As the demand for cashews is increasing globally, the sector is expected to offer more jobs throughout the cashew value chain. So far, ComCashew and partner interventions have already created more than 5,500 new jobs in cashew processing factories, 75 % of them for women living in rural areas.
The GIZ implemented Market-Oriented Agriculture Programme (MOAP) aims to improve the competitiveness of Ghanaian farmers and food processing companies. Fruit processing companies, the largest of which are Blue Skies and HPW fresh & dry, offer stable employment, especially for the youth. MOAP in cooperation with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) ensures that more than 5,000 men and women earn a decent living in these fruit processing companies.
In order to improve employment opportunities in the informal sector, GIZ together with its main cooperation partner, the national Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) is improving the employability of apprentices, artisans and master craftsperson. Skills and qualifications are upgraded through the introduction of the competency based training (CBT) standards and a cooperative training mode, combining workplace and school based training.
Already 16 training providers and 10 trade associations develop and organize a regular offer of CBT courses for apprentices and master craftsperson.
Currently, GIZ promotes sustainable development in Ghana via 48 programmes and projects. Our activities cover currently three priority areas: Agriculture, Governance and Sustainable Economic Development. Additionally, our portfolio extends to other areas such as peace and security and renewable energy. Another focus of GIZ’s work is linking business interests with development-policy goals. Most of the programmes and projects we support in Ghana have successfully brought together national and international private companies, the public sector, and civil society groups to collaborate on development initiatives