Africa does not suffer from a shortage of talented young people. It suffers from a shortage of systems designed to find them.

Every year, governments, development partners and NGOs invest significant resources into youth employment, entrepreneurship and innovation programmes. Yet one uncomfortable question continues to surface: if so many programmes exist, why do unemployment, exclusion and untapped potential remain stubbornly high?

In Ghana, the national unemployment rate stood at 13.1% in the fourth quarter of 2024, while youth unemployment reached 22.5% among those aged 15–35. These figures matter, but they tell only part of the story. They measure those without jobs; they do not measure the innovators who were never discovered, the entrepreneurs who never heard about an opportunity, or the young woman in a remote community whose idea never travelled beyond her village.

The greatest challenge may not simply be a lack of opportunity. It may be that opportunity has been waiting in the wrong places.

There are many programmes that support young people in Ghana, yet the same question keeps emerging: if so many programmes exist, why are so many young Ghanaians, particularly young women, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and those from rural communities, still excluded from meaningful opportunities and programmes.

I believe the reason is simple, most youth-support programmes are designed to be found by young people. They advertise opportunities, open applications and wait for responses.

The Young Africa Innovates (YAI) programme, implemented by UNDP in Ghana and funded by the Mastercard Foundation under its Young Africa Works programme, made a different choice. Instead of waiting for young people to find the programme, the programme went out to find them through scouting.

That decision changed everything.

In many rural communities, innovation does not announce itself and it does not arrive with polished pitch decks, professional LinkedIn profiles or carefully curated social media accounts. It often lives in backyard workshops, informal enterprises, farms, market stalls and community problem-solving efforts.

These innovators are not invisible because they lack ability, but they are invisible because the systems designed to discover talent rarely extend beyond cities, universities and digital platforms.

In many communities, people have learned not to wait for opportunity rather they survive and adapt by creating solutions with the resources available to them. But when a small opportunity reaches them, they often do more than improve their own lives; they reshape how their communities think about possibility.

That is why traditional recruitment methods, online advertisements, social media calls and generic announcements, often fail to reach the very people programmes claim they want to support. If a programme relies only on digital platforms, it will disproportionately attract those who are already connected, informed and confident enough to apply. It will miss many of those whose potential is greatest, but whose access is smallest. 

Intentional scouting as an innovation strategy with this understanding became the starting point for UNDP and the Mastercard Foundation. YAI treated discovery not as an administrative process, but as a strategic function. Instead of assuming innovators would self-select into the programme, YAI invested in finding them deliberately and handheld many young people to translate their innovation or thought process during the application process.

Across all 16 regions of Ghana, the programme partnered with grassroots organisations and government institutions that understood local realities and worked through trusted networks: chiefs, women’s groups, disability advocates, local associations and community leaders.

In many places, information was shared in local languages and for some communities, partners went door to door because they were not searching for numbers alone rather searching for potential. Through this community-based process, referrals from local people guided the scouting process.  For example, through this intentional scouting, innovators such as Mary Aboagyewaa, and Sampson Dzivor, Mark Sarfo, Millicent Lamborg, Desmond  Davis, Freda Okaikoi, Marwie Krawa, Abdul Majeed were discovered.

These are individuals with talent, creativity and problem-solving ability, but many had little confidence, felt isolated, or were unlikely to respond to a public announcement.

That is what intentional scouting makes possible: it reaches people before they have learned how to present themselves as applicants.

In Greater Accra and the Eastern Region, the approach evolved as the door-to-door engagement alone would not work in densely populated urban settings, where it could easily raise suspicion.

Digital scouting activities were initiated through NGOs and community networks, followed by in-person engagement once interest was expressed. The objective was still to identify innovators with potential who might otherwise be overlooked.

The YAI programme’s statistics tell part of the story. Persons with disabilities participated at all levels because implementation was intentional, not incidental.

Women engaged at scale because logistical barriers, including support for nursing mothers, were addressed through partners who understood community realities.

Innovators from rural communities participated because the programme went to them instead of waiting for them to come.

As participation grew, participants clustered into groups with similar needs: early-stage graduates, informal rural entrepreneurs, women balancing care responsibilities and innovators with disabilities. 

Behind every number was not only an innovator, but also a partner who helped make discovery possible.

“The Young Africa Innovates programme has been a transformative platform for uncovering and nurturing the potential of young persons with disabilities. Through our involvement, we witnessed firsthand the creativity, resilience, and problem-solving capacity of these innovators when given the right support. YAI has not only amplified inclusive innovation but also reinforced the importance of intentional investment in disability-led solutions while encouraging partners to be more deliberate and inclusive in their approaches,” says Peter Anomah-Kordieh, Executive Director for Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD).

The impact of YAI did not remain only with the innovators who participated. It also strengthened the ecosystem around them and grassroots organisations improved their capacity to scout and support innovators; curriculum design became more inclusive and local partners became more deliberate about reaching underserved groups.

In that sense, YAI did more and helped redesign how innovation can be discovered, nurtured and sustained.

“Through the Young Africa Innovates (YAI) Programme, we moved beyond conventional innovation support to meet young people where they are within their communities, cultures, and everyday realities. By piloting the Grassroot Innovation Scouting model across 71 districts, we uncovered over 700 young innovators whose ideas are not only solving local challenges but hold the promise to scale into impactful enterprises. For us at PHG Foundation Africa, the true success of YAI lies not just in the numbers, but in shifting how innovation is discovered, nurtured, and sustained, ensuring that no promising idea, no matter how remote its origin, is left behind,” says Dr. Michael Adusei – Nsowah, Technical Director for Innovations Policy & Implementation for PHG foundation Africa.

“Our involvement with the Young Africa Innovates (YAI) programme has significantly strengthened our commitment to empowering underserved communities through innovation. YAI has created a dynamic platform for young people to transform ideas into practical solutions, while fostering inclusive growth and resilience. The ripple effect is immeasurable and beyond amazing. At EduGha Institute for Social Development, we are proud to contribute to a movement that is unlocking grassroots potential and driving sustainable impact across communities,” by Salamatu Taimako Shamsudeen, Communications Lead for Edugha Institute for Social Development. 

The programme exceeded its targets across key indicators; identifying 12,000 young innovators across the country, more than twice the initial target of 5,000. The numbers were impressive but, the real story begins where the statistics end. Beyond the numbers are the people who would never appear in most innovation programmes unless someone intentionally went looking for them.

Ultimately, the most important achievement of Young Africa Innovates was not simply that it exceeded its numerical targets. Many programmes achieve targets. Its deeper achievement was demonstrating that inclusion is a design choice. Because;

• When programmes intentionally search for women, they find women.

• When programmes intentionally search for persons with disabilities, they find innovators with disabilities.

• When programmes intentionally search in rural communities, they discover enterprises that would otherwise remain invisible.

The lesson extends far beyond Ghana. Development programmes should no longer measure success only by the number of people reached. They should also ask a more difficult question:

Who would have remained invisible if we had done things the conventional way?

• Beyond the numbers are young people who once felt unseen.

• Beyond the numbers are women who now see their businesses differently.

• Beyond the numbers are persons with disabilities who were not merely accommodated but empowered.

• Beyond the numbers are rural innovators whose ideas are now visible to the wider economy.

The future of Africa’s innovation economy will not be determined only by the ideas we fund but those we choose to find.

Sometimes the most powerful innovations are not hidden by a lack of talent and when we choose to look intentionally, we do not simply meet targets. We transform lives, strengthen communities, and redesign the systems that decide who gets seen.