S/GWI PROJECT PROPOSALS - VANUATU

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT MORESBY 000034 SIPDIS STATE FOR S/GWI AND EAP/ANP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM AID CDC COM TRSY NH SUBJECT: S/GWI PROJECT PROPOSALS - VANUATU REF: STATE 132094, STATE 012531 ¶1. Embassy Port Moresby is pleased to submit a proposal from Youth Challenge Vanuatu - Life Skills Training and Employment Readiness as Vanuatu's first preference from post. ¶2. BACKGROUND Youth Challenge Vanuatu (YCV) was founded in Port Vila in 2001. YCV is a non-profit, non-religious organization that has become renowned as one of the leading youth service organizations in Vanuatu. YCV provides youth in Vanuatu between the ages of 16 and 35 with access to quality employment and business training and services with a drop in center for employment and business counseling and programs such as Ready for Work and Ready for Business. They also offer a leadership program for youth to participate in community development projects throughout the islands of Vanuatu with volunteers in partnership with youth volunteers from Canada, the United States and Australia. Their funding has come from various sources over the years including AusAID, Oxfam Australia and the International Labor Organization (ILO). All of YCV's 7 staff are former graduates of YCV programs and have extensive training in business and employment training, adult education and community development. YCV also utilizes consultants from the community who are experts in business, IT, life skills training and employment readiness. ¶3. PROJECT SUMMARY YCV will focus on young women's economic empowerment in 2010 through the development of young rural women's business development program and promotion of employee rights and responsibilities. The Young Rural Women's Business Development Seminars will be a pilot program utilizing YCV's skills and expertise from their Ready for Business Program currently being run in Port Vila. Vanuatu has few programs like this outside of the urban area of Port Vila on Efate Island, primarily because of the cost associated with traveling to the outer islands. They would like to provide young women with access to informal seminars which discuss topics such as creating a business idea, marketing your idea to your community (and tourists),financial management, and record keeping. A trained YCV business counselor will conduct 6 seminars in rural areas from July 2010 to June 2011. They will work with women's groups and other youth groups to create the 
seminars with information that is pertinent to young rural women. They will work with the provincial governments throughout Vanuatu to identify areas where pilot seminars could be offered. They will also work with VANWOODS, a Port Vila micro-finance institution for women, to provide information to young women in these rural seminars on micro-finance options. The Know Your Rights and Responsibilities Project will help advance opportunities for females to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security, and human dignity by promoting rights at work and encouraging decent employment opportunities. It will also educate young women on their responsibilities in the work place. Based on feedback from hundreds of members of the Youth Challenge Centre, many youth do you not know their rights in formal or informal employment settings. In recent months there have been two cases of young female employees being sexually assaulted by their employers. Many young women are unaware of legislation in the Labor Act which states women are not allowed to work alone at night and that no woman can be fired for becoming pregnant. YCV will create numerous educational posters describing employment rights geared toward young women and an information booklet to be distributed to local NGO's and major employers in Vanuatu. This public awareness campaign will involve partnerships with both the Vanuatu Department of Labor and various women's groups in Vanuatu. ¶4. PROJECT DESCRIPTION Business and employment-related training for young women are issues that need to be addressed in Vanuatu. Women's roles outside of the home are limited; men have primary control over the social, political, economic and cultural institutions. Traditions dictate that the male is the head of both the PORT MORES 00000034 002 OF 003 household and the community. Tradition has also led many chiefs to see their own roles as preserving community relations, rather than protecting individual rights. This failure to believe women have rights has carried over into business and employment. YCV wants to work to encourage more women to start businesses and understand their rights in the workforce. In 2009 YCV partnered with the ILO and the Department of Labor of the Republic of Vanuatu to pilot an employment service for youth. This successful partnership resulted in a job vacancy website and email newsletter specific to Vanuatu - wok i kik (HYPERLINK "http://www.wokikik.com"www.wokikik.com). Feedback from stakeholders has been positive, but this was primarily an urban initiative and most participants were male. This pilot program also did not address the lack of awareness of employee rights and responsibilities, especially for young women. From media promoting the wok I kik program, YCV was inundated with requests on live radio shows or in response to newspaper articles to begin focusing on rural areas and assist in business training and employee rights for youth in the rural tourism areas (Santo and Tanna). Therefore YCV would like to expand on the work it is already doing and offer a rural women's business training program and an employee rights campaign for women. According to the 2007 publication The Unfinished State: Drivers of Change in Vanuatu in recent years Vanuatu has experienced strong economic growth, mostly from tourism, estimated at nearly 7% in 2005. However, this growth has been driven primarily by foreign investment and is not making much of an impact on the lives of most ni-Vanuatu. Formal employment in Vanuatu is under 15% and the micro-business sector is overcrowded, primarily by foreign business owners and operators which do not allow most ni-Vanuatu people to have an opportunity to participate directly in the formal economy. As such, the income disparity between the urban and rural population is growing sharply. Unemployment is a major issue in Vanuatu - especially for youth under 25 who make up approximately 60% of Vanuatu's population of 211,000 people. According to a survey conducted by the Young People's Project in 2008 of 1,134 youth between the ages of 13 and 25, only 498 of them were employed; the majority of those employed were employed as house girls (15.1%) and cashiers (12.7%). Many unemployed females in this survey stated they ran away from previous employment because of harsh conditions - wages below minimum wage, abuse, and long hours. Young Rural Women's Business Development Seminars will be held from July 2010 to December 2011. (A) DETAILED ACTIVITIES -Consult with women's centers and microfinance centers to develop a young rural women's business development seminar. -Conduct 6, one-week business seminars in various rural locations identified in consultation with Provincial Governments and NGO's based on the outer islands. -Provide a two day follow up seminar, 6-8 weeks after each training to follow up with participants in person. -Create relevant community posters and information booklets on running a business and micro-finance options in Vanuatu (B) DESIRED OUTCOMES -Seminar program developed utilizing YCV business training experience and experience of women's organizations to offer a business program of relevance to rural young women in an informal, comfortable setting. -6 Seminars will be provided by a qualified YCV trainer in different rural locations throughout Vanuatu for 15 young rural women interested in learning more about starting a business. -During follow up visits interested participants will be able to PORT MORES 00000034 003 OF 003 speak in person to the business trainer to follow up on their idea and find out more information on accessing start up funds if need be from organizations such as VANWOODS or the local mobile banking system. -In consultation with communities and local micro-finance institutions in Vanuatu. A local artist will create resources to leave in the communities for others to access describing running a business and micro-finance options in Vanuatu. (C) PERFORMANCE MEASURES -Anecdotal evidence from all stakeholders indicate the materials and information presented were of relevance to rural young women interested in learning more about running a business. -90 young women who live in rural areas will be provided with a one week seminar, and access to follow-up counseling, from a qualified YCV trainer. At least half of these women will take measures to start their own small business. -At least half of the original 15 participants return for the follow visit, and that 1 to 2 participants explore further micro-finance options. Others in the community will be able to learn more about running small businesses and accessing micro-finance. Posters will be disseminated to the communities where business training takes place as well as other rural communities. At least 100 posters and 200 business booklets will be created and disseminated. ¶5. BUDGET Staff Expenses: $20, 880.00 Seminar: $26,150.00 Resources/ Stationeries: $28,940.00 Total: $75,970.00 BERG