Foundation launches policy to hold govt accountable for youth promises

The Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF), a non-profit organisation has launched a Youth Sensitivity Analysis policy to ensure that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) delivers on its promises to the youth.

The policy is to serve as a reference point when the 2025 national budget is presented, as it will be the first major test of the government’s commitment to its youth-focused promises.

At a press briefing last Wednesday, the Dean of the University of Ghana Business School, Professor Justice Bawole, who was the lead consultant for the policy, presented key findings from the study, highlighting the lack of specificity and measurable commitments in party manifestos.

Accountability

According to Prof. Bawole, many manifesto pledges lack clear timelines and defined funding sources, making it difficult to track implementation.

“A lot of times, political parties give vague promises, making it hard to hold them accountable,” he said.

“They say, ‘we will provide X amount of this,’ but they don’t tell us when or how long it will take to deliver.

This makes it easy for them to evade responsibility.”

He emphasised that commitments to youth must be institutionalised within state agencies, rather than being handled by party structures, to ensure continuity across different governments.

“There have been cases where district executives have no idea who is behind certain government projects,” he said.

“Some contracts are awarded from Accra without any local oversight, leading to frequent policy discontinuities when governments change,” he added.

Policy

Explaining the Youth Sensitivity Analysis policy, Prof. Bawole indicated that it would serve as a benchmark for assessing whether political parties integrate youth concerns into their manifestos and, more importantly, whether they fulfil those promises.

“The policy framework includes tracking budget allocations to ensure manifesto promises are backed by actual financial commitments,” he said.

“It also monitors project execution to avoid policy abandonment when governments change,” he said.

Additionally, he noted that the framework ensured proper institutional anchoring by linking youth policies to established government agencies rather than partisan entities.

“It also defines measurable indicators to assess government performance on youth-related policies,” he added.

I-Accountability

As part of the initiative, the Youth Bridge Foundation has introduced the I-Accountability Project also known as the Youth Accountability Core, which will empower young people to monitor and report on government progress.

Board Secretary of YBF, Mawuena Azumah, explained that a Youth Accountability Core has been set up across the country to track manifesto commitments against actual budgetary allocations and policy implementation.

“Young people voted based on these manifestos, and even if they didn’t, the government still owes them an allegiance,” she said.

“We are not marking the government against anything beyond its promises. We will hold them accountable strictly to what they pledged.”

Mr Azumah also emphasised that the group would also track government spending on youth initiatives to ensure funds were not misallocated.