Evaluating Ghana’s Youth-Centered Food-Security Policies: A Collaborative Governance Approach

Abstract

Food-security issues remain essential for decision-makers at all levels in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and youth-oriented food-security policies in Ghana are no exception. While there are no “one-size-fits-all” policy pathways to eradicate poverty and hunger, various governments, civil society, youth groups, and citizens can afford to ignore the present food policies’ status quo. This paper examines the perspective of sustainability when collaborative and open governance approaches are adopted by central governments and their sub-national departments, institutions, and agencies in youth-oriented food-security policymaking, implementation, and evaluation. The extent to which active stakeholder participation and collaboration, or the lack thereof, has either negatively or positively impacted food-security policies is another tangent this paper explores, including the sustainability of the youth-centered food-security policies in Ghana. Using qualitative documentary analysis technique through collaborative and open governance frameworks and drawing on the literature on multisectoral governance and youth-focused food-security policies, this paper identifies several disjointed youth-focused food-security intervention policies in Ghana with hazy institutional arrangements that have failed to ensure adequate implementation and assessment to promote cooperation, accountability, and transparency. The paper suggests the need for collaborative governance, effective policy monitoring, and evaluation strategies that involve government institutions, departments, agencies, civic societies, youth organizations, and citizens’ commitments to food security. This research finds that collaborative strategies and active youth participation in all food-security-related policies are essential for Ghana to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 2.