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The Umbrella Approach

What is the Umbrella Approach?

The umbrella approach will be the key approach for Swisscontact in Ghana, focusing on engaging in long term strategic partnerships to respond to global development challenges. At the core of our mission stands our strong belief that private initiative is a key driver of innovation, change and economic development and that people are able and willing to support collective action. Hence the umbrella approach for Ghana will be about forming multiple alliances in different themes, as pillars, to respond to specific development challenges. 

Swisscontact will be applying its successful working principles, which the organisation uses across its entire global portfolio. These include but are not limited to Systemic Thinking and Private Sector Engagement.

will serve as a neutral facilitator for the partnerships within the alliances, using our technical expertise and years of program management experience. This will help prevent isolated efforts and duplication in various development activities. The "umbrella" will also bring together key global indicators that reflect combined results from each focus area.

A key function of the umbrella will be to promote aspects of quality, neutrality, focus on dual Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), climate relevance, and more, across all interventions, but in a localized manner. 

Four different partnership models are foreseen under the umbrella approach:

  • Institutional Partner: Any institution (development agency, private sector, foundation etc) that will be ready to fund the umbrella that is not tied to only a specific pillar will be categorized as institutional partner.
  • Pillar Partner: Any institution that supports/funds any of the pillars will be considered as pillar partner.
  • CC Mainstreaming Partner: These are partners that support us in mainstreaming the climate change topic across all interventions/sectors.
  • Intervention Partner: These are implementation partners, at the intervention level.
  • Governance of the Umbrella: A clearly defined governance structure will ensure the appropriate implementation of umbrella activities. The oversight of the umbrella will be undertaken by a governance board (which will consist of the institutional partners and a few key public and private sector entities).

Elements Of The Umbrella Approach

The umbrella includes the overall vision for the new country program in Ghana and discusses the role of Swisscontact.

Overall structure of the proposed umbrella approach for Swisscontact in Ghana.

Umbrella Steering

Swisscontact will be the leading organization for the umbrella steering, coordination and impact aggregation.

Specific steering responsibilities can be shared with institutional partners and major stakeholders.

Economic Focus Sectors

Renewable Energy
This is an area that is important to combat climate change. One of the areas is the solar energy sector. The growth in this sector has been stagnating due to the economic slow-down in Ghana. There is a lack of resources for major investments, and local companies are not very innovative. There is therefore a need for supply side interventions and market promotion with innovative financial models. In addition, this is an area where the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is interested in working on under Article 6 of the Paris agreement, namely solar irrigation, and e-mobility.
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Recycling
Waste is a major social and environmental problem in Ghana. the waste management in place in the country is not functioning as it should. The sector is mostly informal with very few formalized businesses operating in it.
Some of the identified pilots and areas of interest are around improving the waste value chain, wastewater treatment and community waste management.
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IT
Ghana is well positioned as an outsourcing location for IT and related services in Africa, with several companies(including Swiss ones) operating out of Accra and the surrounding areas. The sector shows great growth potential,with interesting areas of activity including data analysis, AI and software engineering. Some of the identified pilots are around dual VET, skills for the IT export industry, digital literacy (as part of an entry strategy to ensure access to the digital world leaves no one behind).
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Sustainable Agriculture
The cocoa sector in Ghana, which is of strategy importance for Switzerland, is under greatpressure for various reasons. On the one hand, farmers incomes are stagnating, turning them away from cocoa asthey increasingly struggle to make a living out of it. The soil quality is also getting poorer due to extensive monoculture.There are still major social problems linked to cocoa farming (such as child labour). Some of the identified pilotswould be around the Dynamic Agro Forestry approach developed by the Sankofa project, combining it with thework of Swisscontact and CIRAD’s Light Bulb approach to agroecology. Working on agroecology would support theadaptation issues and the EPA invites work in climate adaptation under Article 6.
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Entrepreneurial ecosystem and investment
Ghana has a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. However challenges remain to promote start-ups towards investments. The impressive 56% CAGR in funding growth over thelast four years affirms Ghana’s position as an attractive startup hub. Fintech and Healthcare are the most preferred for investors, even though Agtech also seems to be attractive. There are over 100 hubs and accelerators spreadacross Ghana. Universities are setting up innovation hubs to nurture the entrepreneurial capabilities of students.
Some of the key challenges are
a) limited access to finance
b) limited digitally skilled talent
c) lack of collaborationamong start-ups
d) inadequate data communications infrastructure
e) complex and rigid regulatory environment.
Swisscontact is implementing the Enhancing Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Investments (3Ei) initiative in Cambodia.This has prompted Swisscontact to design the COMTAD (Collaboration, Mentoring, TA Support and Data) approach.This approach could also be applicable in Ghana.
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Close-up of the two lower levels of the umbrella, describing in detail how the flexible Swisscontact framework for Green Skills & Jobs supports mainstreaming of a climate change focus across all activities.

Climate mainstreaming

Across all interventions and pillars, Swisscontact aims to address climate change issues. This mainstreaming lens can include both adaptation and mitigation measures, depending on identified risks and opportunities related to the environment. For activities without a specific climate change focus, Swisscontact applies a strict “do no harm” approach, which guarantees, that partners and interventions don’t actively contribute to a negative impact on the climate. Since Ghana is one of the countries with which Switzerland has carbon trade agreements based on Article 6 of the Paris agreement, Swisscontact will look to see how it can work with CC mainstreaming partners such as the Ghanaian Environmental Protection agency and KliK7 on the carbon credits accumulated out of the initiatives that will be implemented under each of the pillars.

Tools for intervention

The Swisscontact “toolbox” for intervention design contains various proven approaches that can roughly be divided into two categories:

  • Tools that focus on skills development as main outcome
  • Tools that aim at economic development or job creation

Based on these two categories, the “Green Skills & Jobs” framework also includes the climate mainstreaming aspect. This powerful framework allows for a very flexible approach, which can offer solutions for various local circumstances or starting points. While missing green skills might be a key constraint for economic development in one sector, missing green job opportunities might be the reason for lack of growth in another.

Green Skills: Green skills are becoming increasingly important in the world of work, including transversal skills that are relevant across many professions, but also specific green skills that are necessary to perform clearly defined, climate-relevant professions. It is important that the right green skills are taught, which correspond to a real demand in the labour market. This requires a good flow of communication between the educational institutions and the private sector.

Green Jobs: According to Swisscontact's analysis, all the sectors mentioned in the umbrella have the potential to become greener. This green transformation offers opportunities for the creation of new, green jobs, but also the need for existing jobs to become greener to improve their impact on the climate.