The Youth and Development Planning in West Africa: The Case of Ghana’s Fourth Republic

Abstract

The youths are the cohort in the age brackets of 15 African Youth Charter and Ghana’s 2010 National Youth Policy. They constitute the bulk of the labour and voting population in Ghana and other West African countries. Consequently their participation in development planning is crucial in ensuring the appropriateness of development plans and their full and committed implementation. In pre-colonial times they had no role in development planning since that fell within the jurisdiction of the chiefs and the council of elders. However, since the council of elders were representatives of the interest of the various families to which the youth also belonged, it was easy for the youth to be mobilized to implement development plans formulated. From pre-colonialism through colonialism to post colonialism, the youths have played little or no role in development planning. Using Ghana’s Fourth Republic as a case study, this paper notes that the youth were assigned some role albeit weak, in development planning unlike other countries in the sub-region. How the youth have played this role, the constraints they face and the implications of the nature of youth participation in development planning, policy implementation, and national development in Ghana and West Africa as a whole are discussed