Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the three-year project sought to address two main challenges – the waste management challenge and the challenge of youth unemployment in the capital city of Accra. Led by Global Communities with YOTA as a sub-grantee, the project targeted youth, youth-serving NGOs, employers (mostly private Waste Management Companies), community residents, and relevant government agencies in James Town, Usher Town, Agbogbloshie, Avenor, Kwanenya, Nima, and Ayidiki all in the Accra metropolitan area.

Through a youth-inclusive market analysis of the solid waste sector, four value chains were identified – electronic waste, metals, plastics, and composting – with specific interventions that built the capacities of youth and employers, created new jobs, and enhanced existing ones. YOTA supported youth participants to lead the way in sensitising other residents of target communities on the benefits of environmental cleanliness and proper ways of managing solid waste. YOTA also supported 150 youths to set up small businesses for sustainable income generation in the four solid waste management value chains. Within the plastic value chain, YOTA constructed a plastic buy-back centre in James Town, a suburb of Accra, and supported young women participants to manage the centre as a sustainable business.

YOTA further constructed a compost plant for processing household food waste and supported other youth to manage it as a sustainable business. 350 young women and men benefitted from YOTA’s job matching with Waste Management Companies and allied service providers after receiving work readiness support. All youth beneficiaries of the project received comprehensive life skills, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy training which enabled them to start and stay on their journey to sustainable livelihoods. Partnership with a financial service provider enabled all project beneficiaries to own a savings account and manage their money more prudently.