The consequences of uneven economic development in Ghana have made the major
cities in the south a destination for internal migrants from other areas in the country.
One such migrant group is the female adolescents, averaged between 8 and 22 years
of age who migrate to the cities of Accra and Kumasi independent of family. They
are known as kayayei (female head porters) who do commercial load carrying as a
means of livelihood while in the city. These kayayei forgo opportunities afforded by
the supposedly free formal education and training in that part of the country where
they come from and migrate to the city. This raises legitimate questions about the
effectiveness of human resource development policies in the country. A pertinent
question is, why would girls of school going age be living on the streets of cities
when the country is pursuing the MDG of universal basic education? The research
sought to investigate the causes and effects of their migration; their level of
education and skills acquired; views of stakeholders on improving their livelihood;
and the existing National Human Resource Development (NHRD) policies which are
relevant to improving their employability. Themes in the Urban Livelihood
Framework have been linked to HRD policy to provide the conceptual background
to the study. 156 respondents comprising 101 female head-porters, 50 members of
civil society organizations and 5 state officials were purposely sampled to participate
in individual in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and survey. The female
porters were reached using the snowball style of purposive sampling. Participants
were interviewed at the central business districts and slum areas in Accra and
Kumasi, the two major cities of Ghana. Using the content analysis approach,
thematic analysis was employed to analyze the qualitative data to arrive at a
storyline. Subequently, a survey was conducted to determine the frequencies of some
major findings from the qualitative data. Hence, simple frequency distributions were
used to analyze the data collected with questionnaire to determine the percentage
ratings of the issues on five point likert type scales. Generally, analysis of data
indicated that current livelihood of the female porters is explained by several factors
which are classified into socio-cultural, human development and some general
factors operating in their home communities and the destination cities where they ply
their trade. Among the policies on national human resource development explored,
Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has been found to contain
policy elements relevant to addressing the plight of the female porters as a
vulnerable group. However, inadequate formal infrastructure; generic training
methodology which does not consider individual needs assessment; and non-syllabibased
and long period of training duration in the informal apprenticeship system
were found to be challenges confronting policy implementation in the TVET sector.
The policy related issues were under-funding, inadequate infrastructure and nonresponsiveness
of skills to labour market demands. The findings would be relevant
in increasing consciousness among state agencies, civil society actors and
researchers on the critical socio-cultural issues confronting education including
technical and vocational training in Ghana as well as the current organization of the
school and vocational skills training systems which is failing to enhance educational
development of girl-children in rural Ghana. Advocacy, education, law and policy
enforcement, social protection and reorganization of the school system in rural home
communities of the female porters have been recommended as the means for
reversing their migration to the south at the expense of their educational
development.