The State, Employer of Last Resort, and Youth Employment: A Case Study of the National Youth Employment Program in Ghana

Since independence in 1957, the Ghanaian state’s role in employment creation and economic development has followed a dichotomous pattern of heavy or limited state involvement. Heavy state involvement occurred mostly in the period circa independence. The charisma of Kwame Nkrumah and his government allowed for the pursuit of several large government-sponsored projects such as the Volta Dam, which had immense implications for job creation. This project, along with several infrastructure projects in education, roads, and industry, created many jobs and the Ghanaian economy experienced some of its fastest rates of growth and social development in the past five decades. In the period 1966–1981, coup d’états changed the political landscape of the country and even though heavy state intervention was common it was largely not of a developmental nature. Such involvement can be characterized as being akin to the predatory state typology of Evans (1995). Attempts to return the Ghanaian state to democratic principles and stable governments in 1969–1970 and 1979–1981 failed. The failure of these efforts derailed hopes of returning to the earlier period where the state engaged civil society in ways that helped create jobs and promote economic development initiatives. Growth rates in this period of coup d’états were abysmal. Employment stagnated, emigration increased, and the prospects of development were at a standstill.