Ghana Women's Empowerment to Food Security and Youth Assessment
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PHOTO: USAID/LOUIS STIPPEL GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT FEED THE FUTURE ADVANCING WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT ACTIVITY Final Report, Public Version May 2020 This publication was made possible through support provided by the Bureau for Food Security, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), under the terms of Contract No. 7200AA19F50009. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................... II ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... III EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................IV Key Findings and Recommendations ................................................................................................................. iv INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 1 METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Literature Review ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Primary Data Collection ....................................................................................................................................... 2 CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 National Context .................................................................................................................................................... 4 FINDINGS .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Behavior 1: Women use finance to start/grow agricultural businesses (MSMEs) ................................... 8 Behavior 2: Youth participate in and benefit from agribusiness development ....................................... 11 Behavior 3: Women access more “beyond production” work/enterprise opportunities .................. 13 Behavior 4: Women and youth make effective use of technologies to increase production qualities and yields ................................................................................................................................................ 16 Behavior 5: Women effectively influence use of improved fishery management and practices ........ 19 Behavior 6: Women and youth make decisions to increase dietary diversity of household foods available for consumption ................................................................................................................................... 22 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................................ 26 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................................. 30 Access to Finance ................................................................................................................................................. 30 Agribusiness Development ................................................................................................................................. 31 Beyond Production ............................................................................................................................................... 32 Technology ............................................................................................................................................................. 33 Improved Fishery Management ......................................................................................................................... 34 Nutrition ................................................................................................................................................................. 34 Cross-Behavioral Recommendation ................................................................................................................. 35 ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................................................. 36 Annex A: Documents Reviewed ....................................................................................................................... 36 Annex B: Best Practices that Support Recommendations .......................................................................... 42 Annex C: Youth Experiences and Livelihood Aspirations .......................................................................... 44 Annex D: Word clouds and trees .................................................................................................................... 45 Annex E: Matrix of Call Order Key Questions ............................................................................................. 49 Annex F: Research Questions by Behavior .................................................................................................... 51 Annex G: Data Collection Tools ...................................................................................................................... 54 i | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was prepared by the Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment activity. We would like to thank Susan Bonney, William Benjamin, and Grace Sebugah from the USAID/Ghana Mission, and Krista Jacobs from the Bureau for Food Security for their contributions and guidance in preparing this document. Meghan Bolden at MarketShare Associates and Sahar Alnouri at EnCompass LLC led the report development, with significant data coding and analysis support from Zenebech Mesfin and Priya Dhanani at EnCompass LLC. We would also like to thank Abdul-Ghaffar Adam and the DevtPlan Consult data collection team for their great data collection efforts. ii | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ADS Automated Directives System ADVANCE Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement (program) AWE Advancing Women’s Empowerment (activity) BIG Behavior Integration Guidance DHS Demographic and Health Survey FAO Food and Agriculture Organization FASDEP II Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy II FGD Focus group discussion FinGAP Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project GDP Gross domestic product GFSS Global Food Security Strategy GROW Greater Rural Opportunities for Women GSGDA II Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda II IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute KII Key informant interview MEDA Mennonite Economic Development Associates METASIP II Medium-Term Agricultural Sector Investment Plan II MFI Microfinance institution MOFA Ministry of Food and Agriculture MSME Micro, small, and medium enterprise NGO Nongovernmental organization SACCO Savings and Credit Cooperative Society SFMP Sustainable Fisheries Management Project SPRING Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally UCC University of Cape Coast USAID United States Agency for International Development VSLA Village savings and loans association YPARD Youth Professionals for Agricultural Development iii | GHANA WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO FOOD SECURITY AND YOUTH ASSESSMENT WWW.FEEDTHEFUTURE.GOV EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PURPOSE. This assessment report identifies and prioritizes behaviors that hinder women’s and youth’s engagement and empowerment in food security, agriculture, and nutrition-sensitive programming. The report aims to inform the behaviors, approaches, and actions necessary for the United States Agency for International Development mission to Ghana (USAID/Ghana) and its partners to support and enable women, men, and youth to fully participate in food security sectors. METHODOLOGY. The assessment used a literature review and primary data collection to explore the roles, responsibilities, and dynamics in households and communities that prevent youth, men, and women from participating in activities and behaviors requisite for household food security, increased productivity, and individual empowerment. Six core behaviors (see Exhibit 1) were identified through the literature review and explored in detail through primary data collection. Exhibit 1: Target Behaviors Identified KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Women and female youth fear social censure from their communities and challenges in their marriages if they earn more money than their husbands. Invest in social norm research to better understand these earnings thresholds, and identify ways to encourage agribusiness growth for women and men without placing women in harmful situations. 2. Older generations perceive youth as not adding value to agricultural work. Male and female youth in all regions are more interested in post-production aspects of agribusiness (processing and retail) than agricultural