Using 100% Market-Driven Program Design to Achieve 100% Employment

In January 2008, a kick-off workshop assembled participants from Save the Children (Egypt), IRC (West Africa), Education Development Center (Haiti), Fundacion Paraguaya, Mercy Corps/Partner Microcredit Foundation (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Partners of the Americas (South America) and their local partners to begin the learning process.

During calendar year 2008, the PLP participants will conduct learning plans to establish ground-level best practice models for youth and workforce development. All participants will begin to document their learning in case studies, which will form the foundation of the final learning products. Participants will also go on exchange visits to see their peers’ programs and innovations in the field.

The focus of each organization participant is the following:

• Education Development Center (EDC)’s Haitian Out-of-School Youth Livelihoods Initiative (IDEJEN), which reaches youth in Haiti through vocational training, job development, and small business development.
• Save the Children Egypt’s Rural Youth Livelihoods (RYL) program, which offers savings clubs, financial education, and training on market and work opportunities
• International Rescue Committee (IRC) Liberia’s Legacy Initiative, which reaches marginalized and at-risk youth through demand-driven vocational training and private-sector linkages
• Mercy Corps, and its partner MFI in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Partner Microcredit Foundation, which is piloting a mentor program to its youth microfinance clients.
• Partners for the Americas’ A Ganar/Vencer program, in Ecuador, Uruguay, and Brazil. The program uses a soccer-based curriculum to teach life skills, and links to local businesses for employment or education continuation opportunities.
• Fundación Paraguaya’s financially self-sufficient Agricultural School. The school provides students with the education and skills they need to become economically successful rural entrepreneurs

In order to achieve its goals and its desired impact, the PLP will address the following kinds of questions:

1. How can practitioners decode market information and signals about where unmet opportunities are?
2. How can practitioners understand what skills and knowledge are in demand by the market, so that they can help youth seize these opportunities, either through formal employment or self-employment?
3. How can practitioners design products and provide opportunities for youth to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed?
4. How can organizations keep program leaders, designers, and instructors motivated and equipped to keep abreast of market information?
5. How efficiently can practitioners integrate the above issues into program design and implementation?
6. How can practitioners offer quality programs to significant numbers of young people?
7. How can practitioners measure, monitor, and evaluate the effectiveness of their programs, progress, and market orientation?

The PLP will close with a workshop in January 2009 to summarize their learning and to discuss and develop joint learning products (case studies, tools, and technical notes). The learning products from the PLP will be available in summer 2009 and will be presented at SEEP’s 2009 Annual Conference.