CONTEXT

Ghana has a population of 33 million, predominantly youth, with a rural population of 42%. Ghana was consistently placed among Africa’s ten fastest-growing economies but in 2020, falling oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the country into economic recession. Ghana’s economy has been described as ‘jobless growth’ because its economic growth has not translated into adequate job creation for the rapidly expanding unemployed youth.

While there has been some success in improving school enrolment at the basic level, the number of out-of-school children in Ghana remains high. Of those in school, children are attaining lower levels of learning and leaving school without the skills required for sustained success. Since 2013, there have been no tangible advancements in learning levels; a trajectory that calls for concerted attention on learning.

what we’re doing

Street Child has won a contract with the Education Outcomes Fund to lead a consortium of expert local partners and data experts to accelerate learning outcomes for more than 100,000 low-literacy Ghanaian children, and improve 200 elementary schools over three years. This is our first ever payment by results funding.

The model we are delivering is based on our successful work in Liberia for the Ministry of Education’s public/private partnership, where we successfully raised learning outcomes by 0.5SDs while remaining affordable to the Liberian government.

Cost and potential for investment

The program will cost $6.48M in total. Street Child is underwriting the initial working capital needed, and we are seeking investments totalling $3M to run the program in its first year, from grants, interest-free loans. The remaining funding will be realized through outcomes payments. There is a potential 10% financial return on investment for funders – via our Transformation model.

For more information please contact our philanthropy team.