Next generation cocoa farmer

Sarah Addo is a farmer. She also set up Mobile Money and executes credit transfers. She is now saving to fund her education. Her dream is to expand her farm, and use all the good agronomy practices that she learnt in the MASO programme.

From 2016 to 2020, the MASO programme has been focusing on creating employment opportunities for youth (aged 18-25) in Ghana’s cocoa communities. Its focus is to link young people to quality employment or start their own businesses in Ghana’s cocoa sector. MASO is part of the Youth Forward initiative, a partnership led by The MasterCard Foundation, Overseas Development Institute, Global Communities, Solidaridad, NCBACLUSA and GOAL.

“Before the Aflatoun training, my family saw farming only to be meant for men, but after the training, whenever I was coming back from it, I shared the knowledge with them. Now, my family supports me in farming. Applying the knowledge I got from Aflatoun, I've been able to help my friends in the community to sustain their homes.” — Sarah

As part of this programme, Aflatoun has been responsible for developing youth-centred curriculum and providing training on social and financial education, Legal Rights and SRHR. Aflatoun also worked with consortium members to develop an assessment tool that focused on the financial literacy level of the youth living in cocoa communities in Ghana.

Despite the traditional matrilineal inheritance systems prevalent in some Ghanaian regions, young women still face disproportionately lower opportunities. During the last 5 years, the programme directly targeted 10,800 young people and indirectly created employment opportunities for nearly 30,000 young men and women, with more than 40% being women.

Watch an inspiring story of Sarah and learn what she is dreaming about here: