YOUNG MEN IN GRENADA NOT MAKING THE GRADE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRIDGETOWN 000655

SIPDIS

STATE PLS PASS AID FOR LAC

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SOCI EAID PREL XL
SUBJECT: YOUNG MEN IN GRENADA NOT MAKING THE GRADE

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Summary
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1. (U) Throughout the Eastern Caribbean young men are in
crisis. Few are pursuing higher education and many are
facing difficulties finding gainful employment. By contrast,
young women in the Caribbean are moving rapidly ahead of
their male counterparts: nearly 70 percent of college
students in the region are female, and females are
increasingly dominating professional employment
opportunities. Grenada offers an illustrative case in point.
USAID and Peace Corps are responding with programs
specifically targeting employability skills for at-risk young
people -- programs that should dovetail perfectly with
anticipated CBSI-related programming in future fiscal years.
End Summary.

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Young Men Not Making the Grade While Women Move Ahead
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2. (U) During a recent two week TDY in Grenada, Poloff heard
repeatedly from Embassy interlocutors about the dismal state
of young males in Grenadian society. The Peace Corps Country
Director pointed out that 17 of the 19 Permanent Secretaries
(senior civil servants) in government ministries are now held
by women, and the Chamber of Commerce and the Grenada
Investment Corporation are both run by women. In higher
education, the picture is largely the same: 60 percent of
the students at the community college are women. Women even
form the majority in traditionally male-dominated fields of
study such as engineering and construction management. Union
leaders confirm that in many formerly mostly male professions
such as construction and masonry, many of the younger workers
are female. Union leaders complain that young men are simply
not coming to work with a proper work ethic, while women are
coming to the workplace engaged, educated, and with the
proper work ethic to succeed. One social service director
pointed out that many young men seem content to take odd jobs
and live off their girlfriends' salaries. They are in his
words, "becoming bums and parasites." Young women, on the
other hand, are getting good jobs, moving ahead in
professional careers and buying their own houses. Others
pointed out that, with the decline of industrial agriculture
as well as the decline in construction over the last few
years, there are fewer jobs for unskilled laborers. Most
young Grenadian men do graduate from high school, but lack
the grades or motivation to go on to college. Many of them
are drifting into petty crime, drug dealing, gambling and
alcohol abuse. The problem of "at risk youth" has become a
serious one throughout the region.


3. (U) According to some Grenadians, one of the key factors
contributing to the dismal state of young men in Grenada is
that, during the revolution of 1979-1983, many legal and
other social barriers that kept women from competing were
dismantled and efforts were made to dramatically increase
female professional opportunities. Those efforts continued
even after the revolution ended, uprooting the male-dominated
social order and giving women new opportunities to compete.
Twenty years later, women have pulled ahead of their male
counterparts in almost all fields. Not only are women now
the majority of college students, but female students in high
school and college outperform their male counterparts
academically, with the top students typically all being women.

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USAID Program Targets At-Risk Youth
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4. (U) In recognition of the problems facing youth at risk,
particularly young men, USAID has recently begun a new
project in Grenada (as well as in Antigua) that offers
at-risk youth, both male and female, competency-based
training, complemented with life skills training aimed at
increasing their chances to secure and retain jobs in sectors
of the economy with a growing demand for labor. The target
group is vulnerable young men and women ages 17-25, who did
not complete secondary-level education and are unemployed due
to a lack of rudimentary employability skills. This
Caribbean Empowerment Youth Program is a two-year, US$750,000
project being implemented in both countries by the
International Youth Foundation, in partnership in Grenada
with the T.A. Marryshow Community College. The initiative

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will provide 250 vulnerable youth with entry-level
employability skills (technical vocation and life skills)
complemented by a private sector work internship. The
Grenada Chamber of Commerce is an important and energetic
partner in this project. Employment training courses will be
offered in the following fields: tour guide, food
processing, craft production, dining room and bar service,
marine service, vegetable and condiment production,
apiculture, hair care, landscaping, steel work,
garment-making and child care. Once the training is
completed, graduates will receive individualized job
placement support. Additional USAID programs for at-risk
youth are being planned to be launched across the Eastern
Caribbean during calendar year 2010 and beyond.

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Comment
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5. (U) The phenomenon of women outperforming men is not
limited to Grenada. In Barbados, nearly 70 percent of the
undergraduates at the University of the West Indies, as well
as at the community college, are women. Similar patterns
appear in the other islands of the Eastern Caribbean,
suggesting that the problems have common roots in the social
structure and economic picture in all of the countries in the
region. Programs such as the USAID initiative, as well as
some Peace Corps programs in the region that target at-risk
youth (who are mostly males),will help meet a very real
sociological need in these societies faced with rapidly
changing economic circumstances. These programs, which all
heads of government in the region have been urgently seeking,
could be significantly expanded in future fiscal years under
the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative. Failure to address
the challenges posed by at-risk youth will lead to a
continued rise in violent crime that could undermine the
tourism-based economies in these vulnerable countries.
HARDT