YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AGENCY TO RECRUIT 20, 000 COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS

 The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) , would from February this year recruit 20,000 people to serve as Community Health Workers (CHW). This is  an effort by the Authourity to create jobs as well strengthen Ghana’s Community- based Health Planning and Services for primary health care delivery. The programme would be implemented in collaboration with Ghana Health Service (GHS), World Vision International Ghana and the One Million Community Health Workers Campaign, an international NGO. It would recruit community health workers who would fill the unemployment gap while promoting universal health coverage, especially for rural and deprived communities. Speaking during the launch of the CHW module in Accra,  Mr Harunna Iddrisu, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, said the programme would not encounter financial challenges since it would be funded by the GET Fund and the Communications Service Tax as stipulated in the YEA Act, 2015. Mr Iddrisu said the decision to collaborate with agencies such as the World Vision, GHS and the One Million Community Health Campaign was to ensure that it is managed and implemented by credible institutions. He said the other modules which would be rolled out in the course of the year, would be implemented in collaboration with state and other credible institutions to ensure that recruits or beneficiaries get the needed employment skills after their two years of working under the schemes. Mr Alex Segbefia, Minister of Health, said Ghana made progress under the Millennium Development Goals hence the need to keep it up by rolling out modules which would sustain the success chalked out. He said the new module would help Ghanaians, especially rural dwellers who are most of the time in need of primary health care. Mr Kobina Beecham, Chief Executive Officer, YEA, cited the Youth in Security, Youth in Coastal Sanitation, Youth in Agriculture and Youth in Afforestation Modules as some of the modules or programmes which would be rolled out by the Agency this year. He noted that although the Agency would only collaborate with state institutions for the implementation of its modules, private agencies with proven track record could also apply to partner with them. “The Agency would like to state on record that, any institution or organisation indicted in the erstwhile ‘GYEEDA’ Auditor General’s Report will not be considered for any of our current modules,’ he warned. He said advertisement would soon be put out for recruitment for the various modules soon, adding that this time round there would be no sale of application forms as registrations would be done online or at the various district and regional offices of YEA