The Quiet Revolution: The power of social enterprise

Social enterprise cannot be separates from the political, social and economic systems of sovereign states. Social enterprise within Ghana is no exception to this.

Socio-economic inequalities disproportionately impact the life chances of Ghanaian young people. With an average national unemployment rate of 5%, unemployment among the youth (aged 15-35) is much higher at 12%, with an additional 28% categorised as discouraged workers.

In the absence of unemployment benefits, unemployment is simply not an option for most people, particularly the youth who turn to the informal sector to earn an income.

One in three young people in Ghana are self-employed in vulnerable jobs. It is estimated 230,000 Ghanaians seek to enter the labour market annually; the formal economy is able to offer jobs to about 2%, and, consequently, 225,000 are left without employment (Dadzie, Fumey and Namara, 2020). Of those employed, about 50% are underemployed or underutilised as they lack entrepreneurial skills. Furthermore, the current infrastructure is prohibitive to start-up and small- to medium-scale enterprises. This has an adverse effect upon socio-economic development, exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19.

With the consequent/related global economic recession, an innovative approach is needed to equip the labour force with appropriate employability skills..

The COVID-19 pandemic requires communities to be responsive and strive towards developing sustainable solutions. Universities have a role to play in this process: firstly, by embedding enterprise initiatives within curricula and developing social entrepreneurial skills, and secondly, to support social enterprises by providing a pool of expertise for social entrepreneurs to draw upon.

The World Bank (Dadzie, Fumey and Namara, 2020) identifies agribusiness, entrepreneurship, apprenticeships, construction, tourism and sports as key sectors that can offer increased employment opportunities for the Ghanaian youth. Ghanaian universities have failed to establish societal skill development in these areas, specifically failing to provide career guidance and counselling, work-based learning, entrepreneurship, coaching, and mentoring to equip young people with the skills needed for work and the skills associated with the QS global skill framework.

To address these challenges, the higher education sector must rethink and re-evaluate programs and teaching/coaching approaches.

To conceptualise this approach, the authors of this article suggest the following model:

This model illustrates the complexity of social enterprise and the factors affecting the social entrepreneur. The social entrepreneur is the centre of this process and is represented by the social entrepreneur avatar postulated by Snowden et al. (2021).

The entrepreneur’s actions and response to change are dependent upon existing social, educational and political structures, as well as the nature of “being human”. In turn, their response is dependent upon their socio-cultural values, social personality and experiences – sharing their epistemological and ontological self.

Thus, it is proposed that a successful social entrepreneur responding to societal and economic challenges needs to acknowledge each of the dependent components of their potential practice. Oberoi, Halsall and Snowden (2019) advise that social enterprise is an idea whose time has come, and that successful social enterprises are based upon successful social entrepreneurs. The impact and contribution of social enterprises in the development of global society and local communities should not be underestimated.

Rising to the Challenge

Ghana’s population is 30.8 million according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC). Since the first post-independence census in 1960, the population has increased nearly fivefold.

From 24.7 million in 2010, the population has grown by 6.1 million, representing an annual intercensal growth rate of 2.1%. 73.5% of Ghana’s population are below 35, with 38.2%between 15–35 years old (Ghana Statistical Service, 2021).

This figure further emphasises the country’s unemployment rate and the growing need to equip the youth with employability skills. Social enterprise will provide economic, political, social and environmental solutions for the country, as shown in Figure 2 below.

Seeking work remains a core criterion for defining unemployment. The effect of unemployment transcends individual-level effects and yields adverse consequences for both a society with a high unemployment rate the country’s economic trajectory. Again, youth unemployment is becoming an apparent feature of the economies of many developing countries. The youth unemployment situation in Ghana is said to be growing at an alarming rate. In Ghana, the unemployment rate is about 4.6 per cent and is primarily dominated by females compared to their male counterparts (GSS, 2021). The International Labour Organisation (ILO, 2012) has observed a severe mismatch between the skills possessed by young workers and those demanded by employers. Ghanaian job seekers have been described as well-educated but suffering from skills mismatch (Dawes and Marom, 2013).

According to Baah-Boateng (2004), the implementation of stabilisation and structural adjustment policies in many sub-Saharan African countries over the last two decades was meant to be a vehicle for enhancing economic growth and development. However, the impact of these programmes on unemployment has been minimal in the short run or has been weak due to the partial and fragmented nature of the policies during their implementation process. The rewards anticipated as a result of these policies failed to materialise, and these failings cause a ripple effect leading to further economic problems and the entrenchment of issues related to unemployment and poverty.