Barriers to women’s employment in the future world of work in Ghana and Senegal

The OSIWA project is a 2-year project oct 2019 to Oct 2021 that aims to i) identify barriers to the prospects of skills development and employability for young women in the future world of work in Ghana and Senegal and ii) to propose policy options to reduce or eliminate these identified barriers. This study will exclusively focus on the challenges facing girls and young women in accessing education and acquiring skills for gainful employment in the domains of ICT, agriculture and hospitality. In order to appreciate the challenging labour market, comparison with male counterparts will be undertaken. The project will examine the reasons why women tend to predominate in low paying and low productivity occupations and the scope potential opportunities for women to increase their participation in strategic sectors of the economy. ACET will partner with a local think Thank in Senegal who will lead with the preliminary research work, collection of data and actual analysis of the findings in collaboration and consultation with ACET. ACET has experience in working on youth employment and the future of work in Senegal and has done several studies on the topic in the country. ACET will build upon its network of partners and previous relationships to do this work. In Q1, the project internal team was constituted, and project implementation plans were drawn up to serve as a guide. The project team then produced a draft project inception report, which served as the basis to gauge the level of effort needed by the internal team, and project, if there is need for external support. Q2 2020 On the OSIWA project, we recruited two research partners in each country (Ghana and Senegal) to ensure the reports are grounded in local realities. We also recruited two gender experts; one responsible for ensuring the overall technical soundness of the report and the other, a reviewer. We also produced two draft country-level inception reports (Ghana and Senegal) which gives a detailed country-level approach for how the project will be executed. Q3- ACET convened a virtual inception meeting which brought together all the country research partners, gender experts and the core project team in August 2020. Literature review is ongoing. Q4 2020 During the 4th quarter, we finalized the methodology and interview guides for data collection in Ghana and Senegal. Data collection was initiated in October 15 and completed by mid-November 2020. The data has been coded and analyzed. Report drafting in both Ghana and Senegal commenced by December 15. Q1 2021 For this review period, we completed first drafts of the country reports (Ghana and Senegal). A critical challenge encountered was the limited access on dynamics in the informal sector. Hence, the research teams liaised with institutions or associations closely working with women in the informal sector to improve on the quality of data from that sector. All draft reports have been through an external and internal review. Q2 2021 In Q2, second drafts of the Ghana and Senegal reports were completed following an internal and external review by the country teams. Based on the second draft, the team conveyed in-country virtual validation workshops which brought together key players involved in the countries’ education and learning systems: government and policymakers, the private sector, youth, educational providers, international organizations, and development partners. The objective of the workshop was to present findings from the study with a wider audience, and to obtain feedback and complementary information to finalize the report. Q3 2021 In Q3, the country research teams in Ghana and Senegal completed third draft country reports based on inputs from the stakeholder country validation workshops, held in Q2. The two country reports were taken through another round of internal reviews for quality assurance. Based on the comments and inputs from the reviewers, the country research teams produced final draft country reports. A draft synthesis report has since been produced. This report highlights the issues, lessons learned and policy actions from the two-country reports. The draft synthesis report has been sent for external review to ensure technical soundness, and policy relevance while ensuring the optimal quality desired is achieved