A Memorandum of Un­derstanding (MoU) to ensure that the most vulnerable and marginalised girl child group, including those liv­ing with disabilities, were eco­nomically empowered was on Tuesday signed between the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and the Campaign for Female Ed­ucation (CAMFED Ghana).The agreement was signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the YEA, Mr Malik Basintale, and the Executive Director of CAMFED Ghana, Fairuza Abdul-Rashid Sa­fian, at the YEA office.Mr Basintale commended COMFED Ghana for its contin­ued support and investment in the girl child, especially those who were underprivileged and with special needs.According to him, the YEA had developed initiatives and programmes that were geared towards inclusivity and the promo­tion of gender equality in relation to youth employment.He said that the YEA had ensured that a percentage of job offers went to women, adding that YEA would in a few weeks launch an initiative dubbed "Ag­ric for disability", to ensure the training of persons with disabili­ties in the rearing of catfish.Mr Basintale, therefore, assured COMFED Ghana of the YEA's commitment to ensuring that the girl child and persons with disabili­ties were economically empowered through job creation.For her part, Ms Safian said that the partnership with the YEA was within the framework of the new strategic plan that CAMFED was implementing from 2024 to 2029.She explained that the strategic plan was organised into three lev­els with the implementation of a comprehensive support system tar­geted at the most marginalised girls, enabling of young women to transition to secure livelihoods and join powerful peer network of leaders, and the adoption of best practices in national education at scale.Ms Safian said that CAMFED Ghana, under the signed MoU with the YEA, would pro­mote skills development training for females as a strategy for em­ployment generation and sustain­able livelihoods, and the increase in female participation in male-domi­nated skills development areas.Additionally, she said that CAM­FED Ghana would share relevant experience, data, and best practices to guide employment-generation interventions and work to promote child protection and safeguarding practices in skills development training of the youth."At CAMFED, we do education and scholarships, and also help the girl child transition from school into either direct employ­ment or further education.

So, for those that would want to go into direct employment after secondary school, YEA is there to support us to do that," Ms Safian said.Present at the signing ceremony were representatives of CAMFED Ghana and the YEA. BY BENJAMIN ARC­TON-TETTEY