Ghanaian voters are hoping that the new government that will be formed on January 7, 2017 will prioritise decent and sustainable job creation and quality education in the midst of all their expectations.
The expectations are contained in a document dubbed Citizens’ Manifesto, released by Financial Accountability and Transparency – Africa (FAT).
The document contains an inventory of the concerns and wishes of citizens which they want an incoming government to address during its tenure of office. It stated that the citizens expect the new government to “develop a decent work concept for Ghana which encapsulates fair income for all, job security and social protection for families, freedom to organise into social and trade unions, and equality of opportunity and treatment for all.”
They also want the future government to “ensure that the ideas translated into Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are articulated in our national employment policy, and to develop and deliver a decent work agenda in Ghana by committing itself to a more purposeful, consistent, well-coordinated, and multi-sectoral approach involving government agencies, the private sector, and academia”.
The other expectations are: “Tackle deficiency of the erstwhile National Youth Employment Programme swiftly and comprehensively under the new Youth Employment Agency in the government’s bid to be directly involved in job creation; to promote sustained efforts towards industry-academia partnerships in education and skills training as well as incentives to private sector to facilitate demand for surplus labour and support to entrepreneurship and business incubation schemes; support business start-ups, including the creation of funding and technical support pools to ignite the engine of private sector entrepreneurial growth, which could in turn reduce the deficiencies in the labour market; and facilitate the formalisation of the informal sector since it has the potential to address the decent work deficits that largely characterise the sector.”
In the educational sector, the document indicated: “We want the government to put in mechanisms to enhance the quality of trained teachers in all public and private schools, provide adequate and timely teaching and learning aids as well as school infrastructure to enhance quality teaching and learning and ensure that the Ghana Education Service (GES) strengthens its monitoring and supervisory role as well as compliance with educational standards in both public and private schools.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
