SHERISE Project. Supporting High-school Entrepreneurship and Resilience for Inclusive and Sustainable Empowerment

Abstract

Girl child education and entrepreneurial activities have been identified as effective interventions to address poverty and gender inequality. These girls could earn income and obtain skills, they are able to delay when they get married and have children, which increases their earning potential and enables them to provide better support for themselves, their family, and community. The SHERISE (Supporting High school Entrepreneurship and Resilience for Inclusive and Sustainable Empowerment) Project is developed directly from this research. This project proposal will focus on secondary-school girls within the Northern Region. These girls represent the crossroads of being financially excluded from opportunities for vocational training and social forces which have increased their exposure to risk related to transactional sex, teenage pregnancy and early marriage. The SHERISE Project views entrepreneurship training as part of a package of education, finance training, practical vocational skills, mentoring, and connections to formal apprenticeships or markets, but also recognizes through an intersectional approach that these girls may be subject to multiple forms of barriers. The Project proposal outlines a long-term framework for creating positive transformation for the lives of adolescent girls in the Northern Region of Ghana through education, enterprise and empowerment. By addressing both the socio-economic and socio-cultural obstacles that prevent girls from achieving their full potential, SHERISE provides the foundation upon which sustained economic and social changes can be made.