This case study documents learning from Fondation Zakoura Microcredit’s (FZMC, or Zakoura) “Expanding Financial Services to Vulnerable Youth in Morocco,” or LYKOM (which means “for you” in Arabic), project.

The LYKOM objectives are as follows:

• Enhance and extend financial and non-financial services available to youth (15-24) and members of their households in Morocco;
• Develop a system to retain vulnerable youth in a program that prepares them to access appropriate financial services; and
• Foster inter-agency linkages for successful delivery of financial and non-financial services.

Lessons learned include:

• Entrepreneurial skills training is not appreciated by all youth;
• The notion of ‘small enterprises’ and of growing businesses gradually is not well understood;
• Current minimum savings levels at La Poste (post office) may be a barrier to youth savings;
• Parents’ influence is strong, and programs may need to change negative parental attitudes about entrepreneurial activity.

From 2006–2009, Save the Children and Fondation Zakoura Micro-Crédit (Zakoura) partnered to implement a youth financial services and livelihoods promotion project called “Linking Youth with Knowledge and Opportunities in Microfinance,” or LYKOM. The program included financial and business literacy training, savings promotion, and access to credit for youth businesses. This case study examines the challenges Save the Children and Zakoura faced and the ways the institutions sought to address these challenges. This document examines the institutional, local market, and programmatic difficulties encountered, and offers recommendations and lessons learned.

In the near future, USAID/Yemen intends to announce a full and open competition to implement the Mission’s Community Livelihoods Project (CLP) subject to the availability of funds. This integrated, flexible, multi-sectoral initiative will serve as the flagship project for the Mission’s implementation of the 2010-2012 USAID/Yemen Strategy. CLP is not a traditional development initiative, but it will rely heavily on tried and proven as well as innovative tools transition and development environments.

The project is intended to mitigate the drivers of instability in some of Yemen’s most difficult areas through the facilitation and implementation of quality government service delivery, job creation, responsive local governance, and active civic participation. Rapidly responding to community-based initiatives to demonstrate USAID’s and the Government of Yemen’s commitment to underserved communities will be a hallmark of this project. Youth under 25 years old, representing 75% of Yemen’s population, will be a particularly important demographic group throughout implementation. Activities will quickly and effectively mitigate critical threats to stability in Yemen by building trust and relationships between communities with historically difficult relations with Yemeni authorities and the citizens in targeted areas.

This project will be expected to build on and complement ongoing activities during the transition phase between the existing portfolio of USAID/Yemen projects and this flagship initiative. Very close coordination and collaboration with the Mission’s future National Governance Project (NGP) will be extremely important during the implementation of the CLP. The implementer also will partner with and make extensive use of local, Yemeni organizations during the implementation of the project. The implementer also will coordinate with USAID’s future Monitoring and Evaluation Project to help ensure that program results are tracked against stability measures.

USAID/Yemen’s 2010-2012 Strategy will be released when this solicitation is released for bid. USAID anticipates an award for a base period of three years with the potential for follow-on activities dependent on performance and availability of funding. Subject to the availability of funds, the estimated budget for the three year base period is approximately $65 million. Please note that the Mission staff will be unable to entertain meetings or respond to queries with prospective implementers at this stage. For further information, please check the web site www.grants.gov in the near future.

This page provides presentations and supplementary materials related to a 2008 conference marking the conclusion of a project on ‘Youth Exclusion and Political Violence’ co-funded by the World Bank ‘Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development’ (TFESSD) and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project sought to identify ways to break the adverse relationship between youth bulges (large youth cohorts), marginalization, and political violence, and to engage large youth cohorts positively in development.

The aim of the conference was to discuss advances in the research on youth and political violence in relation to developmental policies targeted towards youth inclusion, such as education reform, social protection, employment programs, urban development strategies, micro credit schemes and reintegration programs for displaced youth or former combatants. At-risk youth in Sub-Saharan Africa were a particular focus.

The conference was co-organized by the Africa Fragile States, Conflict and Social Development Unit of the World Bank and the Centre for the Study of Civil War (CSCW) at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO).

Thailand National-Level Workshop Announcement

Learn, share and network at this workshop for economic and gender-based violence staff from governments, donor agencies, and NGOs in Thailand to acquire knowledge and hands-on skills necessary to implement and evaluate economic and household energy programs that will reduce displaced women’s vulnerability to gender-based violence. The workshop is limited to 25 participants.

Building on the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Regional Livelihoods Workshop on August 11-13, 2009 and on a series global workshops on safe access to firewood and alternative energy in humanitarian settings (SAFE), the Women’s Refugee Commission with support from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration is conducting a participatory four-day national-level workshop on operationalizing protection into livelihood and household energy programs for refugees in urban, in-camp, and other settings in Thailand.

A lack of safe access to household energy and insufficient livelihoods options are key sources of vulnerability to gender-based violence, particularly among displaced and conflict-affected populations. As such, this workshop will engage participants in developing market-oriented, context-specific approaches and protection strategies for designing safe and self-reliant livelihood and household interventions.

Participants will become familiar with best practices identified and developed from the Women’s Refugee Commission’s long-standing research projects on livelihoods and household energy programming in refugee, IDP, and returnee settings. In order to facilitate participants’ operationalization of safe livelihoods and household energy programs as a tool for reducing vulnerability to gender-based violence, the workshop will include practice sessions, adapt participant project work plans, and develop a joint action plan to support collaboration and coordination between participants. Participants will have continued access to the Women’s Refugee Commission’s technical staff for technical support through 2011.

WORKSHOP FEE: There is No fee for this workshop. Participants will be required to cover their own travel expenses, including board.

Apply here before December 16, 2009.

For Questions, please contact Dena Batrice, denab@wrcommission.org.

Making Cents International invites you to a half-day, hands-on session where you can learn how to adapt field-tested enterprise development curriculum resources to your specific youth programming needs. This workshop takes place one day before the Global Youth Enterprise Conference.

Featured curricula include:



• Agricultural Enterprise Curriculum: This curriculum enhances agricultural processors’, input suppliers’, and retailers’ understanding and awareness of basic business concepts and market linkages, which affect their ability to maximize profits and improve production.
• Market Opportunities: This curriculum helps young entrepreneurs understand how to conduct value chain assessments. It also enhances their ability to identify market opportunities and potential business partners. They will ultimately gain critical skills that will enable them to develop successful and sustainable businesses.


• MicroEnterprise Fundamentals: This curriculum is for start-up and established grassroots microentrepreneurs who have limited literacy skills. It teaches participants basic and practical business concepts. Steeped in experiential learning, the curriculum uses visual aids, simulation, facilitated discussion, and peer-learning techniques.


• Business Fundamentals for Cooperatives: This curriculum is designed to professionalize the activities and operations of cooperatives and associations. It aims to help producer cooperatives and associations identify their strengths and weaknesses, set goals, develop strategic plans, and provide demand-driven services to their members. The material covers topics such as cost-benefit analysis, business plans, goal setting, financial statements, calculating business costs, and negotiations skills, among others.

The training will take place on:
Monday, September 28, 2009
9:00am-1:30pm
at
Making Cents International
1155 30th Street, NW
Suite 200

For more information and to register, please contact Fernando Maldonado at fernando@makingcents.com and +1 202-783-4090.

The occupation of Palestine and the conflict and violence that have attended it has had devastating implications for protection and livelihoods in the West Bank and Gaza. This Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Working Paper analyzes the relationship between protection and livelihoods in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It explores:

• how threats to people’s protection are linked to their livelihoods,
• the impact of these threats on particular groups in the West Bank and Gaza, including youth and children (which account for over half of the populations in Gaza) and
• the strategies they employ in response.

The study analyzes the efforts of humanitarian organizations to link protection and livelihoods in their work, with recommendations on how this work could be expanded in the occupied Palestinian territory and elsewhere. Among other concerns, the report identifies persistent pyschological trauma in children, poverty caused by vioence and constricted movement, and lack of education due to poor people in the Palestinian territories withdrawing their children from school in order to increase the productive capacity of their households.

After more than 21 years of civil war, relative peace returned in 2005 to Southern Sudan with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). The treaty has brought a fragile peace, but development efforts in Southern Sudan have been hampered by significant delays in making operational some of the vital commissions called for by the peace accord. As a result, Southern Sudan continues to struggle against the devastation caused by the civil war and remains one of the poorest areas in the world, with an estimated 90 percent of the population earning less than $1 per day. The war destroyed infrastructure, institutions and physical capital, crippling economic growth and livelihoods at all levels.

Within this context, ACDI/VOCA implements the Agricultural Market and Enterprise Development (AMED) program to improve the environment for increasing private sector employment opportunities in Juba, Yei and Wau. The project accomplishes this through small business development, skills and asset building, improved governance, and increased business productivity.

AMED is a three-year USAID-funded project implemented in collaboration with four other U.S. private voluntary organizations under the Volunteers in Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA). Despite the enormous challenges and difficult operating environment, the fragile peace under the CPA presents an unprecedented opportunity to turn the years of war, displacement and underdevelopment into a new era of peace and prosperity. AMED works in partnership with local government authorities and civil society, responding to requests for assistance to build programs and markets and to provide services in response to needs of emerging private enterprises.

ACDI/VOCA builds capacity for the development of agricultural markets, particularly the establishment and growth of marketing associations and cooperatives. By using international and regional volunteer consultants and in-house expertise, ACDI/VOCA provides technical assistance to various entities, including government, farmers and development organizations, on the market-oriented development of specific agricultural sectors as well as general agricultural markets. ACDI/VOCA has provided technical assistance to 175 government extension officers and 1,045 farmers through FaaB (Farming as a Business) training. ACDI/VOCA is also supporting the reintegration of displaced populations by providing livelihoods training primarily for youth, ex-combats and women to ensure sustainable income generation and increase employment opportunities.

Alex Gebrehiwot
agebrehiwot@acdivoca.org

Sept 2004 – Sept 2008

Millions of people in Africa are ill, suffering, and dying prematurely because of HIV, malnutrition, and food scarcity. Much has been documented about the critical importance of good nutrition to immunity, survival, productivity, and quality of life, and the challenge of ensuring availability of food. AF09 is providing participants with the opportunity to share their first-hand experience in designing and implementing the programmes that are so badly needed to address these issues.

The Women’s Refugee Commission is holding a three-day highly participatory workshop designed to bring practitioners from throughout the region to learn new techniques, share experiences, and collect tools designed to improve practice on the ground. Two days of the workshop will focus on findings from the Women’s Refugee Commission’s three-year research project on livelihoods in refugee, IDP, and returnee settings and will include practice sessions on usage of the newly released Livelihoods Field Manual. A third day of the workshop will cover findings on the Commission’s project on livelihoods as a tool of protection against gender-based violence and how GBV and livelihood programs should complement each other to better protect women.

Apply for this event by July 10, 2009

Participants will be required to cover their own travel expenses. Meals and materials will be provided. There will be a very limited amount of financial assistance available to local NGOs only for partial coverage of travel and hotel expenses.

To request an application or for any questions, please contact Gillian at: gillianda@wrcommission.org