300 YEA staff trained in monitoring and evaluation

The Youth Employment Agency (YEA), formerly the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), conducted an intensive training exercise in Monitoring and Evaluation for three hundred (300) Staff of YEA drawn from the National Headquarters and all Regional and District offices of same.

The Training, which was conducted in six (6) batches of fifty (50) each, was conducted over a one (1) month period, between November to December, 2014.

Topics included;

• Project and Project Management

• Conceptual understanding of Monitoring and Evaluation

• The logical framework and Approach and Matrix

• Results –based Monitoring and Evaluation systems within the organization.

• Evaluation Design and writing Evaluation Reports and tools for M&E( Data Collection Sampling,Design,Data Analysis, synthesis and interpretation

• MIS Tools for Monitoring and Evaluation

This was organized and facilitated by a faculty of the Ghana institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

At the end of the Course, Staff-participants came away with a very keen sense of what value –for –money approaches are necessary for the successful implementation of impending Modules as the Agency undergoes massive internal and external restructuring.

Also, as part of measures to check payroll fraud, ninety-five (95) staff of the new- look Youth Employment Agency (YEA) on Tuesday, 7th of April, 2015 ninety-five (95) staff were registered under the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPS).

This was a Pilot programme of a process that would ultimately lead to the use of the e-zwich payment platform as the payment mechanism for distributing funds to beneficiaries of the YEA programme, enabling payments to be directly distributed/delivered to the cards of beneficiaries and thereby ensure that only legitimate beneficiaries/recipients are paid as the Agency begins a new life/phase under a new Act.

The e-zwich is a biometric smartcard system which links all financial institutions in Ghana. Amongst the suite of services offered on the system is the Payment Distribution System (PDS) which makes distribution of payments easy, fast and convenient to card holders to whom salaries/wages are to be made.

The e-zwich platform is currently being used by the Agricultural Development Bank (adb), Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank during this pilot period since these are the spread/range of Banks being patronized by the ninety-five YEA Staff.

As an Inter-bank platform, all Banks that will be used by YEA Beneficiaries, including Rural Banks, will come on board as the Implementation of this payment schedule becomes fully operational.

With the Imminent coming into being of the Youth Employment Agency Act, it is hoped that this internal reforms will contribute to the holistic revamping necessary for the operational and employment targets of the new YEA to be met.

KWABENA O. AKYEAMPONG

Acting Executive Director

Wednesday, 7th MAY, 2015