THE GHANA WORKERS BRIGADE: A PROJECT FOR UNEMPLOYED YOUTH.

The problem of unemployment among youth has been a matter of urgency for many governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America during recent years. Another is the innocent aggravation of the problem by the programmes of accelerated expansion of primary and middle-school education in the new independent states, such as Ghana and Nigeria, which flood the labour market with armies of school-leavers each year. The response of the Ghana government to this deteriorating position was quick. A White Paper on a national workers brigade was published in August 1957 and referred to the concern of the government at the growing problem of unemployment amongst school-leavers. The White Paper on a National Workers Brigade proposed to establish a new organization and provide a new approach to the unemployment problem in Ghana. The great increase in strength of the brigade was achieved through a programme of rapid expansion of the number of camps, from two to sixteen. Leadership training was instituted in January 1959. Since there is much waste of effort and money, the workers brigade may not be a very useful model for all countries to follow.