Fighting Patronage to Bring Job Training to Youth in Northern Ghana

Lamin Amadu Adama is a young man who volunteered to help build a new multi-faith organization in his rural community of Fian, in Northern Ghana near the border with Burkina Faso. The Fian Multi-Faith Alliance brings together Muslims, Christians and practitioners of traditional religion — youth, women, men, people with disabilities, and workers in many different crafts — to improve life in their community and region.

After listening to 350 families and holding community assemblies attended by more than 800 people, they set a goal: bring a vocational high school to Fian. The lack of jobs for young people is one of the most serious crises facing Ghana, and it is especially acute in places like Fian, where there is no secondary school that prepares young people for work.

Lamin led a team that negotiated with the traditional chief to secure a large plot of land and won the backing of the local government. They also won support from regional officials to bring a new high school to Fian.

Then the government changed. The MP representing the area redirected the planned school to his home community, which already has two high schools.

Lamin described how disappointed he and his neighbors were by this betrayal. But they didn’t give up. The Fian alliance spoke out publicly against the decision and kept working to bring an educational institution to their area. Now they are negotiating to use the land they secured for a new agricultural college.

Fian’s story is playing out across the country. Through Multi-Faith in Action Ghana, local communities are organizing to change how development works, so that decisions about public investment are based on what local people say they need, not on political patronage. They are also pressing the national government to invest more of Ghana’s wealth in education, health and other urgent needs.

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