YDF in Ghana: Join forces through networking and knowledge exchange

The Republic of Ghana is located on the Gulf of Guinea and only a few degrees north of the Equator. With a population of about 24 million people, the country is home to more than 100 different ethnic groups. Ghana is today regarded as one of the economically sounder countries in Africa. Still, about 28 percent of the population lives below the international poverty line. HIV and AIDS is an issue, but with a national prevalence rate of less than two percent, the spread of the disease is comparatively low. Ghana currently has one of the highest school enrolment rates in West Africa with 83 percent of its children in school and a similar ratio for girls and boys. Football is the most popular sport. The national men's football teams have participated in many championships. In 2009, Ghana became the first African nation to win the FIFA U-20 World Cup by defeating Brazil in a penalty shootout.

A solid partnership in the West of Africa

In January and February 2008, the African Cup of Nations took place in Ghana. YDF used the opportunity to conduct a baseline study in order to explore potential partnerships for the Youth Development through Football project and areas of intervention. The host country proved to be a suitable partner as a number of mainly smaller governmental and non-governmental organisations were either already involved in youth development or in football. Most of them were merely working on a local level though. To connect them and to use their experiences and forces for an enhanced and more systematic approach became the intervention area of choice. Subsequently, Ghana has become the first African partner country of YDF South Africa. The concept of youth development through football was introduced to suitable organizations during two workshops in Accra. A Coordinating Committee was elected and put in charge of taking the project forward. In November 2008 the YDF-Ghana-Network was officially established and is offering membership opportunities to every institution that is related to youth development through sport. A guiding document outlines the network’s policies and procedures.

Ten partners support the YDF idea

YDF implements the project in close cooperation with the GIZ-Office in Ghana and in partnership with ten governmental and non-governmental institutions. The focus is on further establishing and consolidating a platform for mutual learning, not only between the different participating organisations, but also on a transnational level. The project further emphasizes on the development of concepts for a successful implementation of the youth development through football idea, of training programmes and on training project partners accordingly. Football-for-development-events will be used to rouse the interest of the wider public and attract and motivate young people to participate in YDF activities in the communities.

The network approach has yielded fruit

The network approach exposed governmental to non-governmental organisations and vice versa. It yielded first fruits, when the National Sports Council of Ghana joined as a strong partner of YDF. Besides ongoing networking activities and joint events the YDF manual for coach instructors and the manual for coach training will be implemented in 2010. The partners will decide on the life skills components that are imparted in addition to the football training according to their needs. In a first step instructors will be trained, who will then train coaches and volunteers in Ghana in order to establish standardised youth development through football activities on a broad scale in the country.