From March 2-31, USAID invites organizations to submit applications to World Learning for projects to improve the safety, well being, and development of highly vulnerable children. World Learning will award subgrants for this activity on behalf of USAID's Displaced Children and Orphans Fund.
It is anticipated that three to five grants will be awarded under this RFA and that each sub-grant will be for up to $2,500,000 for a three year (August 2009 – July 2012 approximately) project. Applicants may submit one application for either the “Strengthening Systems of Child Protection” Strategy or the “Improving Family-Level Assets and Income Generation Opportunities Through Economic Strengthening Activities” Strategy.
Further details can be found in the document below. Organizations interested in responding to this RFA may retrieve it here starting March 2, 2009.
This report is the result of a series of participatory workshops with children who are part of the Kwa Wazee Project in the Kagera district of Tanzania. The main activity of the Project is to provide a cash transfer in the form of a small monthly pension to grandparents (mostly grandmothers) who are caretakers for orphaned children.
The report provides an understanding of the issues children are facing and directions for policy and programme intervention. It is clear that children living in elderly-headed households have more stressors in their lives than children living with parents. The findings in this study suggest that the following characterise the issues affecting elderly-headed households:
- poverty
- grandchildren as caretakers
- an uncertain future
- a generation gap
This policy on post-conflict employment creation, income generation and reintegration provides a UN approach built around a common set of guiding principles and programming guidelines. It underlines the necessity of coherent and comprehensive strategies for post-conflict employment promotion and reintegration, and always includes the three programming tracks below. While all three tracks promote employment, their focus is different. The tracks focus respectively on stabilization, on return and reintegration opportunities, and on long-term employment creation. While programmes in these tracks start at the same time and as early as possible, their intensity during the recovery phase generally peaks at different times:
- Track A for stabilizing income generation and emergency employment: this track of employment programmes aims to consolidate security and stability, targeting conflict-affected individuals and groups;
- Track B for local economic recovery for employment and reintegration: this track of employment programmes focuses on promoting employment opportunities at the local level, where reintegration ultimately takes place; and
- Track C for sustainable employment creation and decent work: this track involves support to policies, institutional capacity building at the national level and creating a framework for social dialogue to define the rules of the game by consensus.
The policy notes that "creating youth employment that taps into the positive energy and skills of youth is a particularly difficult challenge, as youth often find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of violence, poverty, illiteracy and social exclusion," and provides guidance on youth employment in Annex 1. Annex 2 addresses the gender challenges of post-conflict employment and advocates for a household well-being focus in employment programs.
The STRIVE Mozambique project aims to improve child well-being in Nampula Province, which has the highest level of food insecurity in the country. An alarming 63% of children in the province are chronically undernourished. The factors contributing to food insecurity in Nampula include lack of and limited access to food, poor food utilization and vulnerability in the form of economic, health and market shocks. Save the Children is addressing the issues of access to food and vulnerability by targeting individuals in households - particularly women with children under the age of 5, who face the highest risks of food insecurity - with interventions that increase household income and social capital.
By mobilizing, training and mentoring village savings and loan (VSL) groups, STRIVE Mozambique provides a mechanism for asset building, income generation and risk mitigation. VSL participation enables women to purchase more or better foods, invest in better income earning strategies and/or enter into and expand participation in agriculture value chains that increase their earning potential. The VSL groups, along with the community support networks formed under rotating labor schemes (called the Ajuda Mútua) that Save the Children is promoting in Nampula, will create a stronger social capital base for households, increasing their resilience to shocks.
Working in concert with an on-going food security project in the province, STRIVE Mozambique expects to improve nutritional outcomes for children under 5 by expanding both the amount and quality of food they eat. Specifically, by increasing household access to cash through savings and income earning opportunities, it is expected that dietary diversity and months of adequate food provisioning will increase, particularly through the prolonged “hungry season.” STRIVE Mozambique is one of five initiatives under the AED STRIVE Program exploring effective means of reducing the vulnerability of children and youth through economic strengthening.
Thierry van Bastelaer
tvanbastelaer@savethechildren.org
October 2008-August 2012
