The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children is engaged in a three-year research and advocacy project aimed at improving the effectiveness of economic programming targeting refugee, internally displaced and returning women and youth. The project includes ten field assessments covering camps, urban settings and early return contexts. Under the program, six innovative pilot projects have been funded to allow operational organizations to try out new approaches and capture new learning.
For more information, see the Promoting Appropriate Livelihoods for Displaced Women and Youth activity profile.
Dale Buscher
daleb@womenscommission.org
August 2006 - October 2009
Partners of the Americas (POA) developed and implements the “A Ganar/Vencer” program, a program that targets at-risk youth, ages 16-24, in Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay. A Ganar/Vencer uses a soccer-based methodology to motivate and assist youth in translating sports skills and values into market-driven employment skills. The goal is to provide youth with the knowledge, skills, confidence, experience, and work history that will enable them to successfully compete in the marketplace.
Training includes market-driven employability skills, market-driven technical skills, practical experience, mentoring, and community service. A Ganar/Vencer training typically takes between seven to nine months and is implemented in three integrated phases.
- Phase 1 combines soccer field activities and examples with classroom activities to help youth develop key workplace skills such as teamwork and discipline. Information technology skills, discussions on gender and activities focusing on critical decision-making are also part of this highly interactive phase.
- Phase 2 brings these employability skills into hands-on activities to learn market-driven vocational/technical skills. Vocational areas vary by country and group, based on changing market conditions.
- Phase 3 offers youth the chance for practical experience via internships, apprenticeships or other activities. Throughout training, youth are mentored by members of the local business community and carry out community service.
The Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank provided $3.6 million in funding to start the program but required POA to raise an additional $1.2 million in cash match and $1.2 million of in-kind match. This match requirement motivated Partners to market itself as a training provider and training broker to potential employers, in return for funding. In order to do so, POA developed sponsorship packages and worked closely with potential employers. This helped them to ensure market relevance at the same time as they raised necessary funds.
In order to assure the market relevance of their programming, POA has developed sponsorship packages in conjunction with potential employers. Through the sponsorship packages, POA establishes partnerships with companies that are interested in hiring youth trained for a specific sector. In return, the companies provide funding to offset the cost of this training - in essence, hiring POA to be a training provider for youth employees. The situation is a win-win-win for all three parties: the companies secure low-cost, high-quality training for new hires; POA receives knowledge about growing employment sectors; and the youth receive training for jobs that are actually available upon graduation.
This project is also active in Brazil and Ecuador
SEEP PLP for Youth and Workforce Development
Paul Teeple
pteeple@partners.net
2005-Present
Partners of the Americas (POA) developed and implements the “A Ganar/Vencer” program, a program that targets at-risk youth, ages 16-24, in Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay. A Ganar/Vencer uses a soccer-based methodology to motivate and assist youth in translating sports skills and values into market-driven employment skills. The goal is to provide youth with the knowledge, skills, confidence, experience, and work history that will enable them to successfully compete in the marketplace.
Training includes market-driven employability skills, market-driven technical skills, practical experience, mentoring, and community service. A Ganar/Vencer training typically takes between seven to nine months and is implemented in three integrated phases.
- Phase 1 combines soccer field activities and examples with classroom activities to help youth develop key workplace skills such as teamwork and discipline. Information technology skills, discussions on gender and activities focusing on critical decision-making are also part of this highly interactive phase.
- Phase 2 brings these employability skills into hands-on activities to learn market-driven vocational/technical skills. Vocational areas vary by country and group, based on changing market conditions.
- Phase 3 offers youth the chance for practical experience via internships, apprenticeships or other activities. Throughout training, youth are mentored by members of the local business community and carry out community service.
The Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank provided $3.6 million in funding to start the program but required POA to raise an additional $1.2 million in cash match and $1.2 million of in-kind match. This match requirement motivated Partners to market itself as a training provider and training broker to potential employers, in return for funding. In order to do so, POA developed sponsorship packages and worked closely with potential employers. This helped them to ensure market relevance at the same time as they raised necessary funds.
In order to assure the market relevance of their programming, POA has developed sponsorship packages in conjunction with potential employers. Through the sponsorship packages, POA establishes partnerships with companies that are interested in hiring youth trained for a specific sector. In return, the companies provide funding to offset the cost of this training - in essence, hiring POA to be a training provider for youth employees. The situation is a win-win-win for all three parties: the companies secure low-cost, high-quality training for new hires; POA receives knowledge about growing employment sectors; and the youth receive training for jobs that are actually available upon graduation.
This project is also active in Brazil and Uruguay
SEEP PLP for Youth and Workforce Development
Paul Teeple
pteeple@partners.net
2005-Present
Partners of the Americas (POA) developed and implements the “A Ganar/Vencer” program, a program that targets at-risk youth, ages 16-24, in Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay. A Ganar/Vencer uses a soccer-based methodology to motivate and assist youth in translating sports skills and values into market-driven employment skills. The goal is to provide youth with the knowledge, skills, confidence, experience, and work history that will enable them to successfully compete in the marketplace.
Training includes market-driven employability skills, market-driven technical skills, practical experience, mentoring, and community service. A Ganar/Vencer training typically takes between seven to nine months and is implemented in three integrated phases.
- Phase 1 combines soccer field activities and examples with classroom activities to help youth develop key workplace skills such as teamwork and discipline. Information technology skills, discussions on gender and activities focusing on critical decision-making are also part of this highly interactive phase.
- Phase 2 brings these employability skills into hands-on activities to learn market-driven vocational/technical skills. Vocational areas vary by country and group, based on changing market conditions.
- Phase 3 offers youth the chance for practical experience via internships, apprenticeships or other activities. Throughout training, youth are mentored by members of the local business community and carry out community service.
The Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank provided $3.6 million in funding to start the program but required POA to raise an additional $1.2 million in cash match and $1.2 million of in-kind match. This match requirement motivated Partners to market itself as a training provider and training broker to potential employers, in return for funding. In order to do so, POA developed sponsorship packages and worked closely with potential employers. This helped them to ensure market relevance at the same time as they raised necessary funds.
In order to assure the market relevance of their programming, POA has developed sponsorship packages in conjunction with potential employers. Through the sponsorship packages, POA establishes partnerships with companies that are interested in hiring youth trained for a specific sector. In return, the companies provide funding to offset the cost of this training - in essence, hiring POA to be a training provider for youth employees. The situation is a win-win-win for all three parties: the companies secure low-cost, high-quality training for new hires; POA receives knowledge about growing employment sectors; and the youth receive training for jobs that are actually available upon graduation.
This project is also active in Ecuador and Uruguay
SEEP PLP for Youth and Workforce Development
Paul Teeple
pteeple@partners.net
2005-Present
The Fundación Paraguaya (FP), a social enterprise based in Asunción, Paraguay, runs the San Francisco Agricultural School, a boarding school for 165 youth in grades 10-12, which transforms the sons and daughters of poor farmers into “rural entrepreneurs,” thereby enabling them to overcome poverty. The school is 100% financially self-sufficient.
The school achieves this by integrating the teaching of traditional high school subjects with the running of 17 small-scale, on-campus rural enterprises. These enterprises, operated by students and teachers, sell a range of goods and services-- from agricultural products to hotel, restaurant and other services—in the local market. The income from these enterprises covers 100% of the school’s operating costs, allowing the school to educate poor students at virtually no cost to their families, and without government subsidies or long-term reliance on donors. These enterprises also provide a “learning by doing” platform for students to develop the technical, entrepreneurial and leadership skills they need for future economic success.
The FP measures the success of its model in two ways. The first is the success of graduates: 100% are “productively engaged” within four months of graduation. This means that they are either working in mid-level jobs in the modern agricultural sector or as agricultural extension agents; teaching at other agricultural schools or starting their own businesses (often on the family farm) with their own business plans and lines of credit in hand; or are studying at university. The second measure of success is the fact that since 2007, the school has generated enough income to cover all of its operating costs, including depreciation -- about $300,000 per year. This both ensures the school’s sustainability and shows that students are learning marketable skills by helping to run profitable school enterprises.
The FP works with its sister organization, the London-based TeachAManToFish (TAM2F) to disseminate the financially self-sufficient school model and the concept of “education that pays for itself” around the world. Over 20 schools have taken concrete action to implement the model, from preparing business plans to fully implementing the model.
SEEP PLP for Youth and Workforce Development
Luis Fernando Sanabria (Paraguay)
lfsanabria@fundacionparaguaya.org.py
Mary Liz Kehler (USA)
mlkehler@fundacionaparaguaya.org.py
2003-Present
Young people between the ages of 14-25 make up 20% of Latin America’s population. These youth face significant limitations in finding decent employment or accessing financing to start a business. The stresses of young adulthood, combined with the need to generate income, expose young people to a series of risks including sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies, alcoholism and drug addition.
Pro Mujer determined that its integrated services methodology of credit, savings, training and health could be adapted to help young people mitigate these risks, finish their studies and build livelihoods for themselves. A grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports the development of the Youth Solidarity Group product in Bolivia.
The Youth Solidarity Group consists of 4-6 young people who receive one week of specialized pre-credit training. Once the group completes its training and all loan applications are approved, the group is then inserted into a Pro Mujer adult Communal Association (Village Bank) and functions within the existing Pro Mujer branch infrastructure. This is done to ensure efficiency, since folding the youth solidarity group into a larger group allows loan officers to increase their client capacity and productivity; and to allow the youth to learn from older, more experienced clients. In return the youth, who have had better access to education than many of their elders, bring these skills to the Communal Association.
Pro Mujer places special emphasis on savings in all of its products. When research showed that many young people are reluctant to take out a loan, Pro Mujer worked to incorporate those youth who demonstrate interest and potential but lack the experience and confidence to take out a loan. Of the six members of a youth solidarity group, two are permitted to be “savers only.” These members must go through the pre-credit training with the rest of their group, but are allowed a bit more experience prior to taking out a loan in order to build their confidence and capacity to manage a loan.
In addition to credit and savings, the youth product includes specialized pre-credit training covering a range of topics including cash flow analysis, business planning and a practicum. Youth receive ongoing training services related to business management and health and social development topics focused on common issues faced by young people such as un-planned pregnancy, malnutrition and puberty. Pro Mujer also provides its young clients with mentor services from staff members and adult clients. Finally, youth clients may access primary health care services via medical consultations at branch offices. This combination of financial, skills building, mentoring and health services helps young people create stronger economic and social foundations on which to build their futures.
Lara Storm-Swire
ldstorm@promujer.org
August 2006 to Present
