Please describe your proposed solution.
The problem: In Ghana, as in many other countries, the age for compulsory retirement is 60 years. However, at this age, many professionals are still intellectually and physically active. These include Bankers, Teachers, Nurses, Administrators, Civil and Public Servants and a host of many others. These professionals still have a lot to contribute to improve their communities, the lives of others and their own lives however, their lives are forced to a crawl or a complete halt because of compulsory retirement.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the population of people 60 years and older in Ghana is projected to reach 2.5 million by 2025 and 6.3 million by 2050. The trends therefore indicate that the argument that “declining birth rates, increasing life expectancy, and modern medicine, will eventually alter the age structure of societies in both developed and developing nations” is beginning to resonate in Ghana. (<u>Source</u>:<https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/58/3/403/4825827>)
In spite of the growing life expectancy, compulsory retirement is still pegged at 60 years and this has a variety of effects on the lives of seniors. Financially, their regular source of income ceases and they depend to a large extent on their meagre pension income from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) which is the statutory institution responsible for managing pension funds. On the social level, although they now have a lot of time on their hands, they have virtually little or nothing to do and they spend a lot of time at home all by themselves. Their social network and level of social interaction therefore shrinks drastically, affecting their health and general wellbeing. Health issues set in, requiring huge financial resources to resolve which are unavailable. Bear in mind that these are people whose mental capacities are not diminished in any way and if given the right environment, can still flourish to a good old age.
Our Solution: We have noted the drive to expand Cardano in Africa and the focus on everyone but the elderly population. This segment of the population however present a huge resource that can be placed at the disposal of the Cardano ecosystem – they are professionals and have worked for many years solving complex problems in their workplaces, they have abundant time with virtually nothing interesting to fill their days and they are on the look out for a social or community network to liven up their social interaction and to make them feel a part of something important and stimulating.
The Cardano ecosystem provides them with the right place and opportunity to relive their dreams and be involved in a great community doing a variety of things. These include ideating to develop projects that contribute to their lives and their communities, participating as CAs to bring their vast experience to bear on the proposal refinement and assessment process and earning good income as well etc. This is also a win for Cardano as more people from Africa get involved in the ecosystem and contribute to its expansion in Ghana and beyond.
Target group: Our key target group is made up of retirees ie. Professionals who are 60 years and above who are no longer in active work. However, if along the line we realize that younger groups of people are interested (not the youth though) we will willingly integrate them into the group.
Implementation: We intend to grow a core group of professionals and gradually onboard them into the Cardano ecosystem using a series of deliberate interventions designed for the older generation. This core group will serve as “champions” whose main purpose will be to identify and onboard a second group of senior professionals using the same and/or improved interventions to stimulate their interest. The focus on the use of seniors to draw in other seniors is because it is easier for people of like circumstances and interests to reach out and engage their peers using their success stories and tangible rewards earned. The process is expected to replicate itself over time until we have a critical mass of seniors from Africa actively participating in the Cardano ecosystem.
The focus on “gradual onboarding” and using interventions targeted at seniors is because it is well known that the older generation are generally not technology savvy and tend to shy away from anything technology. The idea is therefore not to overwhelm them with too much information at a go but to give them bite sizes at intervals coupled with practical in-person sessions.
A number of preparatory activities will be undertaken prior to the start of onboarding. These include the following:
· Compilation and/or development of materials for the project. We will compile material readily available on various channels and platforms within the community, as well as on Youtube, relating to the Cardano blockchain and Catalyst. The material will be organised into coherent and bite size portions for use during onboarding sessions. A profile of the ideal senior for the project will be developed to serve as the basis for identifying our core group of seniors.
· Identification of relevant professional bodies/Trade Unions to collaborate with. We intend to work in collaboration with professional bodies such as the Ghana National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB), Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana, (CLOGSAG) etc. to identify their members who are on retirement. These will form the pool of seniors from which we will choose or core group.
· Make contact with seniors from the pool as discussed above. We will contact the retirees individually and give them an initial overview of the project prior to an in-person meeting to be organized for all those who express interest. The meeting will provide attendees with further details and a roadmap for the project.
During the meeting, attendees will fill out questionnaires to enable us determine those who fit the profile and who can therefore be part of the core team.
Once we obtain a core group of people, we will begin the actual onboarding, using a combination of in-person training and workshop sessions. The focus is on in-person rather than virtual meetings because in-person meetings provide the atmosphere for better communication, fewer distractions and/or technology challenges, improved camaraderie, trust and human connection. Given that participants are seniors, in-person meetings are more suitable for them.
In between physical meetings however, we will use virtual meetings and communication through a group Whatsapp platform for participants, to facilitate learning, mentorship and communication during the project period and beyond. The medium for delivering onboarding activities will be a combination of instructor led delivery, explainer videos (on YouTube or within the Cardano ecosystem), self-paced learning, and pop quizzes and assessments with rewards to stimulate the interest of the group and enhance participant engagement and Cardano adoption.
Participants will be taken through the entire gamut of activities within the Cardano ecosystem and Project Catalyst. They will be mentored on ideating and developing projects to solve African problems, taken through the proposal assessment process to become Community Reviewers and Moderators. They will also create their own wallets among others. At the end of the onboarding process each person will be supported to identify a problem and develop a proposal for submission on Project Catalyst. They will also be required to identify and profile at least one peer to be part of the next cohort of seniors to benefit from the project.
This proposal focuses on identifying and preparing an initial core group of between 25 to 30 seniors to serve as the launch pad for scaling to other parts of Ghana and Africa as a whole. The long-term plan is to develop a sustainability model for the project to wean it off Catalyst and make it self-sustaining as it expands all over Africa.
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
One of the strategic goals of Cardano is to be recognized as a blockchain with a strong focus on Africa however, without intentional and sustained action, this goal may not be realised or may take a very long time to achieve.
This proposal fits perfectly into this challenge because it provides a workable plan to encourage and sustain the adoption of Cardano in Africa among seniors, starting from Ghana. The target group – seniors – represents a vital resource which has the potential to yield massive benefits for Cardano because they have the combination of professional expertise and abundant time to create workable solutions to problems using the Cardano blockchain. Participating seniors will be able to develop practical innovations to tackle the unique challenges faced by the continent as well as increase adoption over time.
It is a win win project as Cardano and Africa stand to benefit immensely from this partnership. The following are expected to see significant growth throughout the lifetime of this project:
- Number of proposals offering solutions to infrastructure and education concerns
- Number of new Africa-based users onboarded onto Cardano (wallets, platform sign-ups)
- Number of new Africa-based Catalyst members (reviewers and moderators)
- Number of new African projects seeded between 2023 and 2024
- Local impact through user activity and reach
- Local partnerships formed
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
In view of the anticipated impact of the project on the Cardano ecosystem it is important to be able to properly measure and determine that the anticipated impact has been achieved. We therefore intend to collect and share the following information on a monthly basis:
Month 1:
a) Number of seniors present at initial project meeting
Month 2:
a) Output obtained from screening of seniors during initial project meeting and number of seniors obtained for core group
b) Output from initial meeting with core group including pictures
c) Output from end-of-workshop questionnaires completed by participants
Month 3 – 5:
a) The number of seniors attending the in-person bi-weekly meetings will be obtained and compared over the period to ensure that each candidate is present at every session*.* These statistics will be shared on a monthly basis.
b) Post meeting/workshop feedback from participants will also be obtained and shared to provide the community with information on the extent to which learning is effective.
Month 6:
Links to proposals submitted by participants on Ideascale will be shared with the community and the number of new members obtained for the next round of onboarding will also be shared.
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
The project's outputs and impact will be shared with the Cardano community through monthly project reports to Project Catalyst and two planned presentations during Townhall meetings. The presentations will also serve an additional purpose of generating interest in the project from the Cardano community.
Given that the project is expected to be a repetitive one, and therefore subsequent cycles of the same or similar model of the project will be rolled out after the first cycle is completed, the results generated from the project will be used as learning experience going forward. Subsequent cycles may therefore be modified based on the experience.