Ghana

Ghana has formed an interagency working group that led to the creation of its migration profile and, in the process, also to skills training, institutional strengthening and better cooperation between and among the government, academic institutions and civil society.

The Ghanaian government passed the bill granting dual citizenship for Ghanaians living abroad in 2000 and voting rights in 2006. 

As a result of the AENEAS 2006 Labour Migration Project for West Africa, the Labour Migration Unit established a database for candidate migrant workers at the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare of Ghana. Through this and a series of targeted training workshops, the foundation has been laid for the establishment of a job-matching scheme between Ghana and Italy as well as circular migration schemes involving other EU Member States and Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

Originated from the Netherlands, IntEnt was set up to facilitate the creation of new business by entrepreneurial and enterprising migrants. IntEnt distinguishes itself from regular SME promotion programmes with its special focus on bridging two worlds. Its services are primarily offered to migrants who wish to set up a business in their countries of origin.

The Temporary Return of Qualified Nationals (TRQN) programme enables the Diaspora of the targeted countries to contribute to the reconstruction and development of countries of origin. The objective of the programme is to contribute to the reduction of poverty and to stimulate economic development by strengthening the institutional capacities of both public and private organisations.

Ghana operates a threetier social security system. The first two tiers are mandatory and the third is voluntary. Social security contributions are portable, that is they can be transferred from one social security scheme in one country to that in another country, and are to be paid in respect to both local and expatriate staff. The guidelines issued by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust exempt the following categories of expatriates from contributing to Tier 1:

This policy is expected to reduce the rate of rural-urban migration. The Ghanaian experience shows that given the right conditions, people prefer to stay in their communities instead of migrating.

The purpose of this project is to contribute to the Government of Ghana's effort to mobilise the country's diaspora toward its socio economic development through dialogue and subsequent developmental engagements in Ghana.

The project targets Ghanaian diaspora associations in the 6 countries with the highest concentration of Ghanaian emigrants. Specific interventions include:

1) a profiling of Ghanaian diaspora groups in target countries;

2) the holding of dialogue fora between the GoG and the diaspora;

The LMIS project ("Best practices on collecting and sharing Labour Migration Data for the improvement of the Labour Market Information Systems") was aimed at supporting the inclusion and proper management of labour migration information in labour market information systems (LMIS); contributing to policy making with a view to fostering greater intra regional labour mobility and international dialogue and cooperation and also to enhancing the positive effect of migration on the economic development of six countries in the sub-region including Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Libya.

The MIDA Ghana Health project contributes to the development of human resources in the health sector in Ghana. Ghanaian and other African migrants in EU countries can transfer knowledge, skills and experience through temporary assignments to Ghana. Also, health workers from Ghana have the opportunity to engage in specialized training at health care institutions in the Netherlands, Germany or the United Kingdom.

The project is implemented by IOM in close cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Ghana and Ghanaian diaspora groups in Europe.