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
YouthInvest will build on the experience MEDA has gained in youth and microfinance since 2002.
The goals of the project are:
- To support microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing savings and credit products to strengthen the capacity of youth-run enterprises in Egypt and Morocco
- To assess and improve safety conditions in the workplace
- To support improved education and training opportunities for youth to ensure improved long-term prospects and to contribute to a higher quality workforce.
MFIs will be the primary points of contact with youth clients, delivering financial and non-financial services to young entrepreneurs and enterprises employing youth. MFI staff will be trained in these interventions, and will in turn deliver them to working youth and business owners as appropriate.
Workforce readiness training will be delivered by specialist youth-serving organisations; MFIs could
potentially provide linkage support to trained youth, by connecting them to high-growth clients. Within five years, YouthInvest will directly touch the lives of over 50,000 young people - connecting them with innovative financial products and services that will build their economic prosperity, improve their working lives, enhance their workplace safety, and lead to a better quality of life for their families and themselves.
Jennifer Denomy, Project Manager
jdenomy@meda.org
September 2008 to 2013
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
Partner Microcredit Foundation (Partner) is a multiethnic, inter-entity organization with 44 offices covering all of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). As of June 30, 2008, Partner has a gross portfolio outstanding of approximately 184 million KM, 257 employees, 159 loan officers, 59,682 active clients and 61,500 active loans. Mercy Corps began microcredit operations in Bosnia in April 1997, and then spun Partner off into its own organization in late 2000. Partner MKF provides services to microentrepreneurs both for registered and unregistered business activities. Partner's target population is rural women. Currently, Partner has the leading position in the microfinance sector with 19% market share in terms of active clients in BiH.
Partner’s mission is to provide accessible financial services to the economically active population with no access to the commercial financing sources necessary for the start up of new or improvement of existing businesses and improvement of quality of life. One of Partner’s main roles is to assist in creation of new workplaces; so far Partner has created over 60,000 new workplaces, while over 200,000 workplaces have been sustained, thanks to loans from Partner.
Partner MKF plans to introduce a mentorship program to its clients, as a value-added service to complement regular loans. Thus far, they have conducted market research with other NGOs, and have conducted a focus group with existing clients. Partner plans to develop a mentorship program in the summer of 2008, and begin a year of pilot testing in September 2008. In addition, Partner plans to participate in a worldwide Mercy Corps effort, funded by the World Bank, engaging in controlled studies on which components of youth programming (e.g. training, loans, mentorships) provide the most impact.
SEEP PLP for Youth and Workforce Development
Selma Cilimkovic
selma.c@partner.ba
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 Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) 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. ELA 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 ELA 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
Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SOFEA), Bangladesh
Farzana Kashfi
Head of SOFEA Program
BRAC Centre
75 Mohakhali
Dhaka 1212
Bangladesh
farzana.kashfi@gmail.com
The Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) 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. ELA 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 ELA program is comprised 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 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.
PRISMA seeks to improve the lives of very poor women and orphaned or vulnerable children in rural East Africa by easing access to financial services for women in East Africa, especially the carers of orphans and vulnerable children. Women are a primary focus because they tend to invest additional income in improving the lives of their children.
Project Goals:
- Increase the number of World Vision’s female loan clients in five East African countries from 50,000 to 210,000.
- Improve the level of net assets among 75 percent of loan clients
- Through lending, create 277,000 jobs for women and sustain 1.3 million jobs for women
- Improve care and support for 150,000 orphans and vulnerable children, and impact 1.8 million children overall
- Offer savings accounts for 150,000 orphans and vulnerable children that can
be used for education or to start up a business
Project Interventions through Microfinance:
The PRISMA project will implement activities with the five microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the project countries that result in the following nine outputs, or tangible services:
- Increased capacity to learn and support integrated HIV/AIDS and microfinance services.
- Improved access to appropriate financial services for rural female clients, including those caring for orphans and vulnerable children.
- Improved responsiveness of credit and savings products to the needs of rural female clients.
- Increased capacity of MFIs to partner with World Vision and other HIV/AIDS agencies.
- Increased capacity of the MFI boards in governance.
- Increased capacity of senior leadership to transform MFIs into large-scale deliverers of financial services in rural areas.
- Increased capacity of MFI managers in rural finance, management, business planning, and staff development.
- Increased efficiency of MFI financial services and systems.
- Transformation into a regulated financial institution.
Project Outputs:
PRISMA project outputs will contribute over the next four years to the following two outcomes, or benefits:
- Sustainable, client-centered, development-integrated microfinance institutions
- Improved household incomes and/or resilience of economically active women, including those caring for orphans and vulnerable children.
The project is also active in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania
Grace Tiberondwa Sebageni
PRISMA Project Manager
World Vision International
Kampala, Uganda
grace_sebageni@wvi.org
February 2006 to December 2009
