The Ghana Refugee Board (GRB) Secretariat is emerging as a thought leader in providing “jobs solutions” to tackling refugee-induced displacement, and the recent decision by the Government of Ghana to encourage and accept Syrian refugees in the country is a step in the right direction which would further such a strategic policy cause.
Globally, displacement is no longer handled purely as a relief and humanitarian matter but also as a development ill and anomaly and an issue of “human capital in enforced idleness”. By treating displacement from this perspective, the nuanced possibilities of displaced skills contributing and enhancing local jobs and new employment generating efforts would be fully apparent, appreciated and harnessed effectively (P. Collier, September 9, 2015: “A Jobs Solutions to the Migration Crisis”; http://blogs.worldbank.org/jobs/node/975).
GRB Jobs Solutions Strategy
The objective of the GRB jobs solutions strategy is to enable engagement for organized production geared at increasing and maximizing productivity through innovative utilization of displaced and available host community skills. Under this strategy, host communities of the displaced populations are designated as Special Production and Processing Zones (SPZs) and incentive regimes enacted for enticing light manufacturing companies (local and international) to set up shops in these zones and engage the concentrated skills available among the displaced, host and returnee populations.
Aligned with the country’s Non-Traditional Export (NTE) strategy, these orchestrated engagements would be specifically geared to enable development of significant export products from the NTE priority product list for export particularly to the ECOWAS, EU and other markets. This program is a significant step to building solid alliances for tackling forced displacement through a development lens by pooling the expertise and resources of various actors including the displaced populations, host communities, municipalities, government, private sector, bilateral and multilateral technical financial partners and civil society organizations.
A variant of the strategy described here has been suggested for Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey. The decision by the Ghana Government to encourage and accept Syrian refugees in the country opens a vista of opportunities for linking national domestic efforts to learning and innovations in harnessing global knowledge and resources on jobs and employment creation. Although the population of Syrian refugees in Ghana so far is minuscule compared to millions in Jordan, Turkey and elsewhere, the essence of the jobs solutions approach in this context remains valid and authentic. For a start it is not only people who are displaced by the Syrian crisis, but equally important are also businesses and companies.
Relatively, Syria is not a poor country and has ample manufacturing companies which may be looking for ways to relocate and establish production bases amidst the ongoing raging conflict. Many of the individuals fleeing the conflict are highly skilled and those who have made it to Ghana so far are unlikely to be in camps and dependent on humanitarian handouts. But Ghana has existing caseloads of refugees in camps, urban and rural areas which would benefit collectively with the corresponding host communities if the job solutions approach to tackling displacement is operationalized in the country.
The GRB Secretariat is spearheading efforts to build an international coalition to leverage and ensure that the Government of Ghana decision to accept Syrian refugees in the country would also include concerted attempts to identify and solicit Syrian companies which may be interested to set up shops and engage the displaced and host community skills for targeted export production. With the support of the international community, such companies may either partner with local companies or set up shops solely given appropriately induced and enticing incentives.
Ghana as an oasis of peace and tranquility in a turbulent sub-region is home to refugees from almost 26 different countries. Encouraging and accepting Syrian refugees in the country has paved the way for displaced Syrian companies interested in relocating shops to consider Ghana as a possible destination. GRB is spearheading efforts to leverage this decision to entice not only companies from Syria but others with local and international origins to join the coalition of stakeholders which are supporting the strategic application of the job solutions approach to tackle displacement within the international community.
Displaced skills in the four refugee camps in Ghana as well as the available skills in the corresponding host communities to be designated as Special Production and Processing Zones (SPZs) would be engaged for organized production. Product development choices would be based on the Non-Traditional Export policy which enjoins Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to develop at least one significant agro-based product in which they have comparative and competitive advantage for export. With negotiated incentives, all the 26 origin countries of the refugees domiciled in Ghana are potential markets. Increasing and maximizing productivity to reach these markets and beyond would create jobs and employment, generate sustained incomes and livelihood opportunities which would in turn spur local economic transformation with credible prospects of the refugees voluntarily returning to their country of origin.
A compelling feature of the Syrian case is that once the hostilities cease (which the international community should endeavor to ensure that it happens soon), the displaced individuals would certainly return to their country. However the companies would not fold up but rather they would remain as subsidiaries to continue production especially when they are making credible profits. With the combination of right incentives, knowledge, partnerships and special purpose financing instruments the GRB jobs solutions strategy for tackling displacement would be translated into reality, and the decision to accept Syrian refugees would be a testament of smart jobs creation policy.
The writer is an International Development Expert and the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Refugee Board. He can be reached at: [email protected]; and 233544611282 / 233547979799.