In October 2007, USAID’s Displaced Children and Orphans Fund, in close collaboration with the Microenterprise Development office, initiated the STRIVE (Supporting Transformation by Reducing Insecurity and Vulnerability with Economic Strengthening) Program. A five-year, $16 million effort, STRIVE uses market-led economic strengthening initiatives to benefit vulnerable children. In doing so, the program aims to fill current knowledge gaps on effective approaches to reducing the vulnerability of children and youth.
Managed by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) in concert with technical advisors from Action for Enterprise, ACDI/VOCA, CARE, MEDA, Save the Children, the IRIS Center and USAID, STRIVE is implementing up to five field projects in Africa and Asia between 2008 and 2012. Each project is pursuing a unique economic strengthening approach, ranging from savings-led finance to workforce development to value chain interventions. STRIVE is tracking and documenting the impacts of these diverse interventions on child-level indicators related to both economic (financial), and non-economic (e.g. health, nutrition, education) vulnerability factors. As a result, STRIVE aims to identify and demonstrate interventions that can sustainably increase incomes and document how such increases improve (or fail to improve) the lives of children.
- Afghanistan: Secure Futures (ASF), AED and MEDA
- Liberia: Agriculture for Children's Empowerment (ACE), ACDI/VOCA
- Mozambique: STRIVE Mozambique, Save the Children US
- Philippines: STRIVE Philippines, Action for Enterprise (AFE)
- STRIVE Monitoring and Evaluation, The IRIS Center
Margie Brand
STRIVE Program Director
AED
Center for Enterprise and Capacity Development
1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009
USA
margie@eco-ventures.org
October 2007 to September 2012
The Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SOFEA) project is a BRAC initiative aimed at providing adolescent girls with financial and social support to enable them to empower themselves.
There are 600 million teenage girls living in poverty in the developing world. The majority of these girls live under conditions characterized by prevalent inequalities due to subordination, early marriage, frequent pregnancy, abandonment, divorce, abduction, war, domestic violence, marginalization and exclusion from both financial and social systems. SOFEA evolved out of the need to serve these girls, aged 14-25 years. This group has remained vulnerable and highly underrated in terms of its potential to bring about immense positive change. These girls can change not only their lives but also that of the communities in which they live through their impact on future generations: their children.
The SOFEA program comprises of the following vital components:
- A secure place for adolescent girls to socialize
- Life-skills training
- Livelihood training
- Financial literacy
- Savings and credit facilities
- Community sensitization
The components complement each other and create the complete support structure needed by an adolescent girl. The secure place provides a much-needed socialization space creating social cohesion. Life skills training raises girls’ level of social awareness, allowing them to make informed decisions. Livelihood training equips girls with the skills they need to engage in income generating activities, starting them off on the path towards financial independence. The financial literacy course provides insight into the financial aspects of managing a small business. The credit and savings facilities are a source for seed capital for the girls to start small businesses. To garner support from their families and the community, the program engages in community sensitization to ensure that even after BRAC leaves, these girls will continue enjoying their rights, as well as receive the attention and support that they deserve from their family and community.
The project aims at empowering girls to make more informed decisions about issues that affect their lives. Over time, these girls become more confident and independent through social and financial empowerment. By educating them, the girls will lead a healthy life and be informed mothers bringing up healthy families in the future.
The project is also active in Tanzania and Uganda, where it is known as Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA)
Farzana Kashfi
Head of SOFEA Program
BRAC Centre
75 Mohakhali
Dhaka 1212
Bangladesh
farzana.kashfi@gmail.com
Location
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
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
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
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
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.
The program will culminate in the production of a comprehensive livelihoods handbook which will be rolled out in three regional workshops in West Africa, East Africa, and Southeast Asia in 2009. The rollout of the handbook will be accompanied by an extensive advocacy campaign targeting donors and practitioners on how to improve funding for and design and implementation of economic programs targeting displaced populations. The aim of the Women’s Commission project is to bring about global systemic change in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of economic programming focused on improving both effectiveness and sustainability in conflict and post-conflict settings.
Dale Buscher
daleb@womenscommission.org
August 2006 - October 2009
West Africa is at a turning point. After many years in camps in Guinea, refugees are now returning home to neighboring Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast. The large youth population (ages 15 to 24) plays an important role in moving the peace process forward during this crucial period. Through the LEGACY Initiative, IRC supports young people in accessing meaningful livelihoods opportunities through relevant and adaptable skills training, opportunities for civic participation, and the development of life skills.
LEGACY project in Ivory Coast
LEGACY project in Liberia
LEGACY project in Sierra Leone
Carrie Berg
Youth and Livelihoods Program Manager
Carrie.berg@theirc.org
The LEGACY Project in Liberia, an initiative of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), works to increase opportunities for formal schooling, skills training, and improved protection for children and youth. The project in Liberia supports the development of a vocational/skills training program driven by labor demand; enhances the quality of training in market-driven skills; creates linkages with the private sector and local businesses; enhances job-seeking abilities; targets marginalized at-risk youth, emphasizing gender equality; influences the design and monitoring of projects to ensure programs will give Liberian youth the requisite skills that will allow them to find work and earn a living wage; and builds networks of all the relevant stakeholders to increase their ability to influence policy and practice.
The main objective of LEGACY project activities in Liberia is to increase access of girls and traditionally excluded youth to quality and relevant technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Lofa and Nimba counties. This objective will be achieved by:
- Establishing a National Working Group (NWG) to set standards and advocate for increased quality and relevance of and access to TVET by girls and traditionally excluded youth;
- Increasing quality and relevance of TVET in targeted TVET institutions in Lofa and Nimba counties;
- Increasing access of targeted vocational training centers (VTCs) by girls and traditionally excluded youth; and
- Increasing the income levels of targeted VTCs and providing support for more girls to access vocational training on an ongoing basis.
These initiatives will promote increased accountability of the Government and NGO vocational training practitioners to provide marginalized older youth with safe opportunities to learn and apply marketable skills, working to ensure the relevance and impact of vocational training.
LEGACY Initiative
SEEP PLP for Youth and Workforce Development
Abu Macpherson
abu.macpherson@liberia.theirc.org
Carrie Berg
Youth and Livelihoods Program Manager
Carrie.berg@theirc.org
The Reintegrating Youth in Post-Conflict Burundi through Livelihoods Promotion project targets both repatriating refugee youth and youth who remained in Burundi (ages 15 – 24), providing opportunities for exchange, collaboration and skills-building to peacefully transform lives. As 102,000 Burundian refugees return in 2008-2009, due to the closure of refugee camps in western Tanzania, young people will encounter steep challenges. Young men are at risk of recruitment to armed groups aligned along political and ethnic lines, which are proliferating in the run-up to 2010 national elections. Young women are vulnerable to abandonment, sexual and gender-based violence and limited economic opportunities. Youth face an under-invested education system unable to accommodate all students, particularly at the secondary level where spaces are fewer and applicants must have the necessary credentials and resources to gain entry. For those not lucky enough to secure a place in school, there are few other opportunities. Involving youth in livelihood programs while building on their strengths and potential is critical in smoothing their reintegration as well as counteracting the many risks and challenges they face.
The Reintegrating Youth in Post-Conflict Burundi through Livelihoods Promotion project provides a comprehensive skills training package that allows youth the flexibility to navigate the emerging market and a variety of employment opportunities. The program includes:
- Skills training program that will be certified by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Skills Training to ensure value and recognition of the program and linkages to the formal state-run vocational training programs,
- Start-up kits to apprentice graduates so they can begin to practice their new trades,
- Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) where groups of graduates can pool money to a fund which members can borrow from during the business start-up phase, and
- Locally-relevant life skills curriculum and capacity strengthening of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to raise awareness of youth rights.
This initiative will draw on IRC’s extensive youth livelihoods experience in post-conflict countries including Ethiopia, Uganda, Liberia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, allowing for empirically-based knowledge, best practices and lessons learned to be shared with the Burundi program. IRC will focus on training and supporting community-based structures and community leaders by building their capacity to protect and be accountable to children and youth in their communities.
Carrie Berg
Youth and Livelihoods Program Manager
Carrie.berg@theirc.org
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
The Haitian Out-of-School Youth Livelihood Initiative (IDEJEN) is a project of Education Development Center (EDC). It was launched in 2003 to provide education and job training for Haitian youth ages 15-24 with little to no formal education. IDEJEN provides program participants with support in the areas of employability and skills training, basic and vocational education, job placement and small business development. Recently expanded, IDEJEN plans to reach 13,000 youth by 2010. In addition to working directly with youth, IDEJEN provides technical support to different government ministries and is assisting in the development of the National Youth Policy and the Policy on Nonformal Basic Education.
The project has four main objectives:
- Re-integrate marginalized youth into society through basic education and livelihood training.
- Improve the ability of local Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) to address the programming needs of out-of-school youth.
- Strengthen the Government of Haiti’s ability to provide and oversee improved services to out-of-school youth.
- Spread HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention messages to out-of-school youth.
Re-integrating marginalized youth
IDEJEN provides Basic Employability Training to out-of-school youth. This includes literacy, numeracy, life/employability skills, HIV/AIDS awareness, and vocational training. The training takes a total of twelve months and is implemented by local Community-Based Organizations. After youth complete the Basic Employability Training, IDEJEN offers them six months of livelihood accompaniment, during which trained staff members provide support and services to youth as they either return to school or seek employment in the formal or informal economy.
Building CBO capacity
IDEJEN builds the capacity of local organizations through a number of activities. First, the project builds the capacity of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to run the Youth Training Centers, where the out-of-school youth receive non-formal basic education, life skills and technical training over twelve months. The project also supports the Youth Career Centers that run accompaniment activities in the areas of local labor market analysis, youth mentorship strategies, job opportunity development, and youth entrepreneurship techniques. In addition, IDEJEN builds the capacity of CBOs to become increasingly self-sustainable through trainings in business and marketing plan development, and/or finding diversified sources of funding.
Strengthening government services
IDEJEN has established working partnerships with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to support the development of youth-friendly policies. These policies will help provide the necessary framework for strengthening and multiplying education and livelihood services to young people on a large-scale basis.
HIV/AIDS awareness
IDEJEN, with the help of 200 Youth Peer Educators, integrates HIV/AIDS prevention messages into its Basic Employability Training and Livelihood Accompaniment activities. At-risk youth also receive referral information and relevant HIV/AIDS services, including counseling, testing, and treatments.
SEEP PLP for Youth and Workforce Development
Cornelia Janke
Project Manager
cjanke@edc.org
Guerda Previlon
Chief of Party
gprevilon@edc.org
October 2003 to September 2010
