Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
10PORTMORESBY34
2010-02-23 09:07:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Port Moresby
Cable title:  

S/GWI PROJECT PROPOSALS - VANUATU

Tags:  KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM AID CDC COM TRSY NH 
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VZCZCXRO0713
OO RUEHPB
DE RUEHPB #0034/01 0540907
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 230907Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5821
INFO RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY IMMEDIATE 3469
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

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

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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

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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