The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has, through its ‘Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work’ (PE4DW), built the capacity of 16 shea enterprises in the Upper West and Savannah regions.
Fifteen of the beneficiary enterprises are from the Upper West Region while the other one is from the Savannah Region.
The training was to build the business skills of the enterprises with the objective of promoting decent work and productivity.
The training was funded by the Swiss and the Norwegian governments through the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).
Speaking at a result-sharing event in Wa, the ILO Programme Manager, Emmanuel Wullingdool, explained that the PE4DW was a multi-country programme being implemented in Ghana, South Africa and Vietnam, with the objective of promoting productivity in the shea sector through decent work.
He said through the programme, there has been the establishment of the Ghana Shea Workers Union (GSWU) under the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Ghana Shea Employers Association (GSEA) to support the growth of the industry.
Mr Wullingdool said the objective of the project was to promote decent work within the shea industry while improving productivity.
He said there was a correlation between a decent work environment and increased productivity, adding that increased productivity leads to increased salary and better conditions of service, happy and productive workers.
“When the workplace is decent, it makes the workers happy; they are willing to give their best,” he said.
The Northern Regional Secretary of TUC, Felicia Kraja, said the shea industry provided livelihood for a lot of people within shea production regions, particularly women.
Aside from that, she said the industry also earned the country lots of foreign exchange.
That notwithstanding, she said the sector was fraught with lots of challenges such as the lack of standards, slow adoption of modern technologies to improve and increase productivity and it lacked dedicated policies to address the unique concerns of the workers of the industry, among others.
She said the establishment of the GSWU would help the workers with bargaining power and also advocate better conditions of service and a policy for the sector.
