• Login
NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
  • Home
  • News
    • General
    • Political
  • Economy
  • Business
    • Agribusiness
    • Aviation
    • Banking & Finance
    • Energy
    • Insurance
    • Manufacturing
    • Markets
    • Maritime
    • Real Estate
    • Tourism
    • Transport
  • Technology
    • Telecom
    • Cyber-security
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Tech-guide
    • Social Media
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
  • Reports
    • Banking/Finance
    • Insurance
    • Budgets
    • GDP
    • Inflation
    • Central Bank
    • Sec/Gse
  • Lifestyle
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Travel
    • Environment
    • Weather
  • NRTV
    • Audio
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
No Result
View All Result
Home Features

The 2024 Elections and Ghana’s Youth

1 year ago
in Features, highlights, Home, home-news, latest News, Opinions
2 min read
0 0
0
99
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

RelatedPosts

Top 10 African Countries With the Lowest Debt to the IMF in August 2025

Ghana Ranked Among Top 10 Best-Governed African Countries in 2025

Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) Secures Major Win for Ghana at the Annual Cocoa Freight Negotiation Conference in Rouen, France

The 2024 Elections and Ghana’s Youth

On International Youth Day, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) released their youth manifesto. Typically, the political parties release just one manifesto covering all sectors and persons including the youth. It was therefore a unique way, especially on International Youth Day, to demonstrate the party’s commitment to addressing the pinch points of Ghanaian youth. The party has since announced the launch of its main manifesto on August 24, 2024.

I have spent time since the launch reading the twenty-page document. As I wrote earlier this week, party manifestos are social contracts. This is the NDC’s promised social contract with the youth should they win the upcoming election. The manifesto proposes several policy and program ideas aimed at addressing the many pinch points it believes the young people of Ghana are facing.

I do anticipate that when their main opponents, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) release their manifesto on August 18, there will be policy and program ideas aimed at the youth. Again, it will serve as their promised social contract with the youth should they win the election.

Post the release of NDC’s youth manifesto, the partisan engagement has been intriguing. That is to be expected. It is an election year where partisans engage in demonstrating superiority of their policies and the inferiority of their opponent’s.

But in doing so, our political parties must be guided by a recognition that there are real lives and real people (the youth) who are feeling some major pinch points and are looking for assurances from our political parties as to how those pinch points will be addressed.

Understanding the Youth’s Pinch Points

To appreciate why I believe the discourse about targeted policies and programs at the youth must be elevated, below are selected highlights of some of the pinch points they express feeling as per findings of the Afrobarometer survey. More importantly, I show how their sentiments have changed under this government by comparing Afrobarometer Round 7 (2017) to Afrobarometer Round 9 (2022). The most recent Afrobarometer survey was conducted in 2022, which means the sentiments since then have probably changed. The only thing unknown at this point is whether they have changed in a positive or negative direction.

What is the youth expressing?

  1. In 2017, 57% of the youth felt the country was going in the right direction compared to 11% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 49% of the youth rated government’s job creation efforts well compared to 14% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 71% of the youth rated government’s management of the economy well compared to 16% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 68% of the youth rated government efforts to improve basic health services well compared to 44% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 82% of the youth rated government efforts in addressing education needs well compared to 39% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 56% of the youth rated government efforts to improve the living standards of the poor well compared to 14% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 44% of the youth rated their living conditions well compared to 23% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 23% of the youth perceived the level of corruption as having increased “a lot” compared to 71% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 80% of the youth expressed optimism about the country’s future economic conditions compared to 26% in 2022.
  1. In 2017, 80% of the youth approved of the president’s job performance compared to 26% in 2022.

Undoubtedly, the youth are feeling some major social and economic pinch points which requires solutions.  And it is even more urgent now because of the shifts in their political dispositions. In 2017, 77% expressed satisfaction with the way democracy was working in Ghana compared to 50% in 2022.

The saving grace for the country is that the youth (76%) still prefer democracy to any other form of government with another 84% saying the country’s leaders must be chosen through elections.

Implications for the 2024 Elections

The beginning of the week marked the celebration of International Youth Day. As I shared earlier during the week, on this day, the world focuses attention on its youth – their hopes, and aspirations but also the many political, social, and economic challenges they face. It is a day when we renew our commitments and assure them of a brighter future.

As our political parties, especially NPP and NDC, continue to make their case to young voters, it is my hope that their political discourse is guided by the imperatives of why we celebrate the day.

More importantly, in making their case to young voters, there should be no place for misinformation, disinformation, and policy distortions, no matter how strong the political incentives are. This is especially critical when they evaluate and critique the competing policy proposals and ideas being offered to young voters. Keep in mind two things about the youth – a) In Afrobarometer Round 8 (2019) 83% said politicians and political parties sometimes/often spread information they know is false; and b) 8% said they trust the ruling party “a lot” while 7% said same about opposition political parties. We cannot reinforce this feeling of despair and cynicism among the youth.

It cannot be politics usual for there are real lives and real people at stake in this election.

 

Prof. John Osae-Kwapong is a Democracy and Development (D&D) Fellow at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the Project Director at The Democracy Project.

Source: Prof. John Osae-Kwapong 
Via: norvanreports
Tags: 2024 electionsGhana’s YouthNDCNPPThe 2024 Elections and Ghana’s Youth

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

No Result
View All Result

Highlights

UEFA Champions League: Five Exciting Fixtures to Keep an Eye on

BoG 2nd Deputy Governor Urges Firms to Move Beyond Tokenism in Promoting Women to Leadership Roles

Market Activity Slows as Prime Index Marginally Edges Higher to 7,340.08 Points

US Open: Sinner Advances as Gauff and Swiatek Struggle

Unemployment Rate Falls to 13.1% but Youth Joblessness Remains Acute, Says GSS

Chamber of Mines Calls for Special Purpose Vehicle to Fund Western Corridor Railway Development

Trending

Business

Top 10 African Countries With the Lowest Debt to the IMF in August 2025

August 29, 2025

Top 10 African Countries With the Lowest Debt to the IMF in August 2025 The correlation between...

Ghana Ranked Among Top 10 Best-Governed African Countries in 2025

August 29, 2025

Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) Secures Major Win for Ghana at the Annual Cocoa Freight Negotiation Conference in Rouen, France

August 29, 2025

UEFA Champions League: Five Exciting Fixtures to Keep an Eye on

August 29, 2025

BoG 2nd Deputy Governor Urges Firms to Move Beyond Tokenism in Promoting Women to Leadership Roles

August 29, 2025

Who we are?

NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World

NorvanReports is a unique data, business, and financial portal aimed at providing accurate, impartial reporting of business news on Ghana, Africa, and around the world from a truly independent reporting and analysis point of view.

© 2020 Norvanreports – credible news platform.
L: Hse #4 3rd Okle Link, Baatsonaa – Accra-Ghana T:+233-(0)26 451 1013 E: news@norvanreports.com info@norvanreports.com
All rights reserved we display professionalism at all stages of publications

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
    • Agribusiness
    • Aviation
    • Energy
    • Insurance
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate
    • Maritime
    • Tourism
    • Transport
    • Banking & Finance
    • Trade
    • Markets
  • Economy
  • Reports
  • Technology
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Cyber-security
    • Social Media
    • Tech-guide
    • Telecom
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Travel
    • Environment
    • Weather
  • NRTV
    • Audio
    • Video

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
NORVANREPORTS.COM | Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.