The Ghana Federation of Forest & Farm Producers (GhaFFaP) has said conscious effort should be made in assisting young people to acquire the requisite green skills that will make them useful and productive to themselves and the environment.
According to the group, this will enable young people in the country especially women youth to be less dependent on Social Protections schemes and interventions, thereby contributing meaningfully to sustainable green economic recovery.
President of the Ghana Federation of Forest & Farm Producers, Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed, in a statement to commemorate the 2023 International Youth Skills Day in Tamale said that the youth segment of Ghana’s population continues to be a very critical component for achieving diversified green resilience landscapes.
The annual celebration is marked on August 12 each year and this year’s theme is: Green Skills for Youth: Towards a sustainable world.
Hajia Alima in her remarks indicated young people are often more open to new green technologies, as they tend to be more comfortable with experimentation, hands-on learning, and positive risk-taking.
She observed this includes the use of information technologies, exploration of new niches in the green value chains, and the integration of new farming practices, value additions and product aggregations
“The youth may have social capital and tend to have more diverse social networks. Providing the youth with wider range of new ideas, approaches, and green value chain opportunities especially access to finance will empower a productive youth movement critical of sustainable development. There is the need for paradigm shift in social protection interventions to include social protection credit/finance schemes targeting the productive youth groups that in the long term will reduce social protection dependency challenges” she emphasized.
“As we celebrate World Youth Skills Day (12 August), GhaFFaP recognizes effective gender and youth mainstreaming as a critical step towards an inclusive forest and farm business” she added.
Commitment
To this end, the GhaFFaP President said her outfit strives to develop gender and youth sensitive green value chains that successfully integrate women and youth working together towards developing mutually beneficially forest and farm value chains.
Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed maintained the GhaFFaP as part of its youth strategy strives to ensure that its internal business incubation teams include youth advocates, youth mentors and youth coaches that drive and motivate its members’ youth members as critical mass for diversified climate resilient livelihoods and landscapes.
She further affirmed the full commitment of the Ghana Federation of Forest & Farm Producers to empowering women youth in acquiring the needed green skills towards achieving integrated Forest landscapes.
