Locations
Economic & Digital | Ghana
Youth Africa Innovate (YAI)
Generating, identifying, and scaling youth-led innovations to create employment and economic opportunities for young people across all 16 regions of Ghana.
Project Summary
Young people aged 15–35 constitute about 38% of Ghana's population, yet around 25% are not in employment, education, or training. Young women and persons with disabilities face even greater barriers to securing work, while approximately 74% of Ghanaian start-ups fail due to limited systems and pathways to develop and scale innovative solutions. Established by UNDP Ghana with funding and strategic support from the Mastercard Foundation, Youth Africa Innovate (YAI) was designed to respond to these challenges by building an inclusive and repeatable system to reach and support young people aged 18–35 particularly women, persons with disabilities, and rural youth empowering them to develop solutions to development challenges and unlock economic opportunities across all 16 regions of Ghana.
Objectives
YAI aimed to test whether an inclusive, repeatable process for finding and fostering atypical youth could unlock new solutions and create employment opportunities at scale. Its objectives were to develop, test, and roll out practical models for identifying, supporting, and scaling youth-led innovations particularly those led by atypical actors recruit 5,000 high-potential youth-led solutions across Ghana, provide technical and financial support to selected innovators through successive accelerator stages, and build the capacity of innovators, public and private sector actors, grassroots organisations, and ecosystem partners to use innovation to address societal challenges.
Gender Empowerment
The programme set a target of 70% of supported innovations to be led by women, enabled through targeted outreach, flexible participation arrangements, and safeguarding measures. At close, 65% of supported innovations were led by women reflecting strong progress toward gender-inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship at scale.
Scaling Youth-Led Innovation Across Ghana
YAI combined inclusive grassroot and digital scouting, accessible solution submission channels, multilingual call-centre support, and stage-gated technical and financial support to progress innovators from minimum viable product through market validation to scaling. Working through 22 grassroot scouting organisations and local partnerships, the programme reached remote and underserved communities across all 16 regions, building not just individual innovators but a stronger, more inclusive national innovation ecosystem.
PROGRAMME APPROACH | |
Stage | Description |
Inclusive Scouting & Outreach | Diverse young innovators identified and mobilised through 22 grassroot scouting organisations and local partnerships, with deliberate outreach to atypical and underserved youth. |
Solution Development & Selection | Applicants supported to refine their solutions through progressive evaluation and selection processes to identify high-potential innovations. |
Bootcamps & Solution Refinement | Bootcamps provided for shortlisted applicants to refine, strengthen, and better articulate their solutions particularly for atypical innovators. |
Stage-Gated Technical & Financial Support | Progressive technical, mentoring, and financial support provided across Stage 1 (MVP refinement), Stage 2 (market validation), and Stage 3 (scaling). |
Testing, Market Access & Scaling | Innovators supported to test and validate solutions, strengthen business models, and access markets and distribution channels. |
Ecosystem & Institutional Strengthening | Capacity of innovators, sub-partners, and public and private sector actors built to support youth innovation and entrepreneurship across Ghana. |
Expected Results — Achieved
- 12,000 innovators recruited across all 16 regions of Ghana, exceeding the original target of 5,000, with strong representation of atypical actors throughout the pipeline.
- More than 6,500 high-quality jobs created, more than doubling the original target of 2,500.
- 65% of supported innovations led by women, enabled through targeted outreach, flexible participation, and safeguarding measures.
- A validated and replicable model for identifying, supporting, and nurturing youth-led solutions, generating evidence and learning on the experiences of atypical innovators.
- A structured innovation pipeline through which shortlisted innovators progressed across Stages 1, 2, and 3 based on solution maturity and evidence of value, impact, market reach, and financial sustainability.
- Strengthened capacity of the innovation ecosystem, including grassroots organisations, public institutions, and private sector actors.
