by Matthew Smith
Reducing poverty and increasing financial inclusion are the goals of a pair of international projects that were named recipients of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work’s Call for Collaboration (C4C) award program grants.
The 2024—25 academic year recipients will be awarded $60,000 each to provide vital financial skills and resources to rural youth in Zambia and Ghana.

The C4C program funds two projects annually that support meaningful partnerships between the School and community organizations. This year the projects are sponsored by the School’s Global Social Development Innovations research center. Collectively, the center has more than 40 years of experience working with international partners to combat systemic causes of poverty and increase youth access to education and employment.
“This excellent funding opportunity provides GSDI with a well-established foundation for supporting early-stage pilot projects with innovative approaches in the center’s research focus areas,” said Gina Chowa, Johnson-Howard-Adair Distinguished Professor, Associate Dean for Global Engagement, and GSDI director. “These projects, which rely on the expertise and dedication of the GSDI team, allow us to test and develop ideas in collaboration with communities before seeking larger-scale funding. The goal is to build capacity throughout this engagement with the grantees.”
C4C-funded projects are centered on community engagement. The projects will be culturally tailored to their specific communities with collaborative teams representing the School alongside local community groups, organizations and nonprofits.
“Both projects are locally driven by communities that are actively involved in the decision-making, planning and implementation of these projects,” Chowa said. “This ensures that the communities’ needs and priorities are directly addressed by the communities themselves. That promotes ownership and participation by the communities and builds their capacity. On the other hand, faculty and students are fully engaged in supporting the community. That creates opportunities for knowledge and capacity-building and training for our students.”
REAP to improve job creation
In Ghana, the Rural Economy Advancement Program will address economic and financial inclusion needs for rural micro-entrepreneurs.
Led by the Innohub Foundation, the initiative will explore how to best provide economic opportunities, enhance access to finance tools, and ultimately create jobs in rural areas.
In his C4C proposal, Innohub Foundation Chief Executive Office Nelson Amo shared that rural youth often face limited economic opportunities, driving migration to cities with no guarantee of employment.
“Access to job opportunities in rural locations in Ghana (continues) to elude the youth, with most of them resorting to migrating to cities for opportunities,” Amo said. “Rural-urban migration has not turned out to be the magic bullet for young people as they do not always find the job opportunities they look for, sometimes (becoming) homeless, with some of them resorting to social vices to make a living.
“REAP is intended to be positioned to address the challenges identified through our work with young people, and leverage on research and impact data to shape the design of REAP, addressing economic opportunities and financial inclusion for micro-entrepreneurs, who would in turn create jobs for young people in these rural communities and enhance their livelihoods.”
REAP aims to tackle this issue by providing the necessary resources and financial tools to boost rural businesses and create sustainable, local job opportunities.
YoFILIP seeks to reduce poverty
With a goal of serving 300 youth in Zambia, the Youths Financial Inclusion and Livelihood Improvement Project (YoFILIP) hopes to empower others by providing access to financial services.
“Both projects are locally driven by communities that are actively involved in the decision-making, planning and implementation of these projects. This ensures that the communities’ needs and priorities are directly addressed by the communities themselves. That promotes ownership and participation by the communities and builds their capacity. On the other hand, faculty and students are fully engaged in supporting the community. That creates opportunities for knowledge and capacity-building and training for our students.” — Gina Chowa, GSDI Director
The project, led by the Rising Fountains Development Program, will use C4C project funding to provide loans, business training and financial literacy programs to uplift low-income youths and help them create sustainable, thriving businesses.
The project will primarily serve the Lundazi, Lumezi and Solwezi districts in Zambia and provide critical support to an area where 30% of its population is excluded because they cannot meet formal banking requirements.
“Zambia has made improvements over the years in terms of financial service delivery outlets/channels offered by both the formal and informal financial institutions,” Rising Fountains Development Program Executive Director Mathias Zimba said in his C4C proposal. “Despite that, the level of adults and mainly Zambian youths between 18 to 49 years who are excluded from financial services remains significant … (and) financial exclusion is still prevalent in Zambia and in the Lundazi, Lumezi and Solwezi districts.
“Youths face significant barriers to maintaining and expanding their businesses due to inaccessibility of formal financial services, limited access to capital, and lack of technical skills. The project will explore and promote increased financial service delivery and provide capital to the low income, micro and small youths entrepreneurs.”
The educational programming and incentives offered by the program to help boost youth-led micro-enterprises are expected to improve household income by nearly one-third, benefiting nearly 1,800 members of their communities. The increased income, which translates into more economic stability, improves the social, mental and economic well-being of young people.
Both initiatives will conduct impact studies to ensure long-term benefits and scalability for potential use in other regions as well.
C4C impact
The C4C award program was first developed in 2021 though a gift from School of Social Work alumnus Vera Tayeh, ’87 (MSW).
Tayeh’s support led to the Call for Collaboration for Children, Youth and Family Well-Being to support community initiatives focused on strengthening the lives of individuals and families.
The C4C program was a priority of the School’s Office of Advancement during the “Campaign for Carolina” University-wide fundraising drive that ended in 2022.
“Our mission at the UNC School of Social Work is to advance equity, transform systems and improve lives,” Associate Dean for Advancement Kandace Davis Farrar said. “We can’t do those things in isolation. Our success will require partnership with our community; C4C provides the resources necessary to fuel those community partnerships. We are grateful for the seed funding to launch this incredible initiative and look forward to identifying additional champions to bolster C4C and our new Office of Community Engagement and Outreach.”
To learn more about how to support School-funded programs, scholarships and initiatives, visit the School’s Office of Advancement online.