Partners: Agri-Impact Limited; Mastercard Foundation;
Period: 2023 – 2027
Country of Operation: Ghana
Category: Youth Welfare, Employment, Agriculture, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Evidence Generation (MERL), Policy Analysis & Advocacy
Project Snapshot
The Harnessing Agricultural Productivity and Prosperity for Youth (HAPPY) Program is a four year (2023–2027) multi stakeholder initiative funded by the Mastercard Foundation and implemented through Agri-Impact Limited and eight public and private partners. The program seeks to transform growing demand in four priority value chains (rice, soybeans, tomatoes and poultry) into dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for young people, especially young women and persons with disabilities (PwDs). Positioned within Ghana’s agricultural modernization agenda, HAPPY aims to equip 326,000 youth with technical skills, enterprise support and market pathways while strengthening policy engagement and agricultural systems.
Project Objectives
Main Goal:
Assess the relevance, implementation fidelity, reach, early outcomes, and emerging systemic change associated with the HAPPY Program.
Specific Objectives:
- Examine how program design and delivery mechanisms enable youth—especially women, rural youth, and PwDs, to access dignified and fulfilling work.
- Assess agricultural productivity, enterprise performance, and market integration outcomes.
- Evaluate inclusion results across gender and disability dimensions.
- Analyze the effectiveness of the aggregator/anchor firm model.
- Identify early signs of systemic change in policy dialogue and agricultural systems strengthening.
PDA’s Task
PDA led a comprehensive participatory mixed-methods review grounded in the Made in Africa Evaluation approach, incorporating the Tori Dey storytelling methodology to capture lived experiences and community-defined change.
Our role included:
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Designing and implementing quantitative and qualitative data collection tools.
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Conducting large-scale participant and enterprise surveys.
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Facilitating in-depth interviews across stakeholder groups.
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Collecting and analyzing thousands of community narratives.
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Triangulating program records, ecosystem data, and field evidence.
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Synthesizing findings into strategic recommendations and learning outputs.
How We Are Going About It
PDA applied a participatory mixed-methods approach grounded in the Made in Africa Evaluation framework and the Tori Dey storytelling methodology.
We conducted large-scale quantitative surveys with 1,830 respondents (1,565 youth participants and 265 enterprises) to assess productivity, employment pathways, enterprise performance, and inclusion outcomes. This was complemented by 50 in-depth interviews and 15 key informant interviews with program stakeholders across the agricultural ecosystem.
In addition, 3,252 community-based Tori Dey stories were collected across 16 districts to capture lived experiences and community-defined change. Survey data, program records, qualitative interviews, and ecosystem analysis were triangulated to provide a comprehensive understanding of youth employment outcomes, enterprise growth, market integration, household resilience, and emerging systemic change within the selected value chains.