This project investigates opportunities for youth employment in Ghana’s emerging green economy. Employing a mixed methods approach, it identifies barriers and enablers to youth participation, aiming to inform policies that promote both youth employment and sustainable development. A

Funded under ICED’s ALL-IN Project, this study examines whether digital communication can improve health behaviours and child nutrition outcomes in Northern Ghana. Using a randomised evaluation approach, the research targeted 1,801 low-income households with children under 10 years old, located in 232 communities across four administrative regions (Northern, Northeast, Upper East, and Savannah).

EfD Ghana is a collaborative network of environmental economists from universities in Ghana and Ghanaians elsewhere around the world working to promote the sustainable management of Ghana’s natural resources through policy-relevant research, policy advice, and capacity development. It conducts policy-relevant research on a wide range of topics, with emphasis on coastal and mineral resource management, extractive industries, energy resources management, climate change, and green growth.

This initiative uses a combination of tools (Computable General Equilibrium, Partial Equilibrium, Geographic Information Systems and Deep Dives) to analyse agricultural value chains to determine their potential for driving economic growth, job creation, poverty reduction, and dietary diversity.

The Youth in Indigenous Enterprises in the Informal Sector project is a cross-country comparative study exploring how young people engaged in indigenous enterprises can drive inclusive economic transformation. Supported by the Mastercard Foundation, it focuses on agriculture, textiles, crafts, and cosmetics, with attention to youth entrepreneurship, indigenous business models, gender dynamics, and technological innovation.

The Future of Work Research Initiative is a grants-awarding programme aimed at advancing research on the rapidly changing nature of work in the region. As part of the IDRC-funded FutureWORKS Collective, a five-year initiative focused on the Global South, the hub fosters high-quality research, evidence-based policymaking, and regional capacity-building.

Trade is a central factor in shaping global, regional, and local development. Increased trade, empowered by the growth of Global Value Chains (GVCs), has boosted productivity and incomes in many countries. However, if not fairly regulated, trade might generate increases in inequality and negative impacts on working conditions in developing countries and compromise the environment.

This is a three-year $450,000 research project, led from ISSER, to test a package of training and financing for women shea producers in Northern Ghana. This project, supported by USAID under its Feed the Future Advancing Local Leadership, Innovation and Networks (ALL-IN) program, seeks to increase the shea sector’s overall profitability while empowering women to receive the full benefits of their work.

This is a three-year $449,833 research project led from ISSER that uses communications by cell phone to strengthen nutrition among young children in Northern Ghana. The project, supported by USAID under its Feed the Future Advancing Local Leadership, Innovation and Networks (ALL-IN) program, is testing whether this approach reinforces the Resiliency in Northern Ghana Project (RING), a prominent USAID program focused on nutrition and resilience.

ReFinD is a sub-grants-awarding research initiative that aims to support interventions that will effectively expand the reach and efficiency of agent network operations through public policy and commercial solutions that can plausibly be scaled. It was launched in June 2022 with a first call for proposals, and is implemented by ISSER, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.