The Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana project, or briefly known as the GrEEn Project, is generating jobs and business opportunities in the green economy, while building community level resilience to the impacts of climate change using the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility. Grants channelled to local government authorities using LoCAL’s Performance Based Climate Resilience Grants are used to fund climate-proofed and transformative development and infrastructure projects, with community members providing the labour in return for a competitive wage. The Cash for Work scheme also includes financial literacy and business skills so workers can use their income as seed capital for small green business development. The ultimate goal, is to support thriving communities where young people feel they are able to build a future rather than migrate in search of work, which can be perilous as one returning migrant called Owusu Ansa Gideon explains…

My name is Owusu Ansah Gideon and I am 40 years old, married with 2 children. I am a farmer, farming cocoa, tomatoes, okra, maize, cassava among others. I used to be a farm hand for hire in the Ivory Coast. Myself and others were recruited by a ‘Patron’ - a rich person who comes to recruit people for labour-intensive activities on the farm.

The Patron would bear all the cost of the recruitment, travel and our stay in the Ivory Coast till the farm products are harvested then we split the earnings in two [between me and the Patron]. I was a young person [then], so the intention was to gather the earnings and invest in my own farm. That is how I was able to start my own farm and ultimately stop travelling to Ivory Coast.

Going to Ivory Coast I earned about 20,000 Ghc per session. Life in Ivory Coast was very tough considering we had to live in the bush the entirety of our stay there. We constructed makeshift structures to live in ourselves and we had no support from anyone during that time. We could get bitten by snakes or fall sick and die and there’s no way our families would even know where we lived or offer us any assistance during difficult times.

When traveling to the Ivory Coast, we had to use bush paths while doing our best to avoid the border patrols and other security agencies. Without documentation, getting arrested was a very serious situation. Even when we managed to get to the towns, we had to remain hidden as there was no way we would go to the market or any public places for food or health care. Everything we needed had to be gotten for us by the Patron and we could be in the bush for the entire farming season.

We realized that living in these conditions was not the best and as a result we decided to return to Ghana because no matter how hard things are here, its still better than dying in someone else’s country.

Gideon, now a member of the EU funded GrEEn Project implemented by UNCDF, hopes to tell his story to his colleagues to discourage them from attempting to migrate through irregular routes. He believes he is lucky to be alive but warns that others might not be so lucky.

For more information about GrEEn in Ghana click here

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