FI-PRO-1498487-2-ETH102113 Plan International Finland Addressing the detrimental effects of gender inequality on women’s health Women in Ethiopia face numerous health risks stemming from harmful practices related to pregnancy and sexual- and gender-based violence. This project is implemented in two regions in Ethiopia and aims to increase awareness of adverse health effects of these harmful practices and the importance of utilizing currently available health services. In Ethiopia, 26,000 women die annually due to pregnancy-related complications, with the majority of deaths occurring at home. These deaths are due to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation. Although the Ethiopian Criminal Code of 2005 addressed a number of issues negatively affecting the reproductive lives of women, many girls in Ethiopia are still at risk: 23% of Ethiopian girls aged 0-14 have been subjected to female genital mutilation, and 41% of women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18, with 16% before the age of 15. In addition, more than 34% of women age (20-49) gave birth by the age of 18 and more than half (54%) by the age of 20. The project aims to address harmful practices against women and girls, including sexual and gender based violence, that negatively affect women’s reproductive health. The project will work in two regions of Ethiopia: Oromia (Tiro Afeta and Kersa districts) and SNNPR (Bolososore and Darra districts), aiming to change community and women’s attitudes about harmful practices and their negative health impacts while also creating awareness about the relevant health services available and the importance of utilizing those services, specifically those related to reproductive health and sexual and gender-based violence. The project will apply a comprehensive community-based approach, including awareness creation through mass community mobilization, improved service delivery, and the documentation and dissemination of best practices. The project recognizes the importance of engaging men and boys in such initiatives and Plan will make a special effort to encourage their participation and contributions. The project will work closely with women’s groups, community leaders, health workers, health extension workers, regional and district offices of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, as well as Health offices in order to increase their understanding of—and ability to address—issues of gender inequality, sexual violence, reproductive health, women-friendly and respectful service delivery; male engagement; gender-based violence mitigation; and response to—and referral of—survivors of gender-based violence. The expected project outcomes are: 1.1 Health extension workers, community facilitators, women’s groups and community leaders are better informed to change attitude and practices related to harmful practices and gender-based violence 1.2 Increased awareness among community members about the negative consequence of harmful practices and gender-based violence on reproductive health 2.1 Increase in number of women seeking reproductive health services and in men who support this behavior 2.2 Increased quality of care and support for sexual & gender-based violence and fistula survivors The project aims to improve service delivery by the government and increase understanding among individuals and the wider community on the negative impact of harmful practices on women’s health. All activities will be implemented in partnership with the government, helping to ensure improved services in the long term. In addition, the project’s activities will bring about long-term changes in behavior, knowledge and attitude change, ensuring the sustainability of the intervention beyond its implementation timeline. The following activities, in particular, will contribute to the project’s sustainability: • The project will strengthen the health extension package by improving health workers’ understanding and skills on crucial issues, such as women-friendly and respectful service delivery, family planning, management of sexually transmitted infections, prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, post abortion care, gender equality, HPs and community mobilization, increasing the quality services to survivors of harmful practices and fistula. These health workers will be able to apply acquired knowledge and skills beyond the project implementation. • This project will organize mass awareness activities at the community level on the health services available to survivors of violence and fistula, and organize life-skills training to help fistula and sexual- and gender-based violence survivors reintegrate into their communities. The improvement in knowledge resulting service-seeking behavior will not only increase service use in the short term, but service users will be more likely to return to these services in the future and encourage others to do the same, thus resulting in a long-term impact. Specific Objective 1: To create dialogue and action at the community level related to gender discriminatory practices and violence in order to reduce the barriers that women face for optimal health. Specific Objective 2: To raise awareness at the community level about the health services available and to change the health-seeking behavior of women, specifically those related to reproductive health and sexual & gender-based violence. The 12 month project will reach approximately 700 women’s groups, 100 community leaders, 120 health extension workers, 72 health workers, 206 government officials, and 40 gender-based violence survivors. At the community level, the project will reach approximately 526,813 community members (direct and indirect beneficiaries) of which 60 % will be women Plan International Finland United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Plan International Finland Plan International Ethiopia Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org 7.916667 37.333333 7.75 37.083333 7.083333 37.666667 5.262522 37.416081 193457.66 FI-PRO-1498487-2-RES10087 Plan International Finland Strengthening community-based programs in Eastern and Southern Africa This program focuses on promoting and strengthening the quality and inclusiveness of community-based early childhood care and development in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda. In sub-Saharan Africa, 65% of children under the age of 5 live in poverty, 38% are stunted and the under-5 mortality rate of 98 deaths per 1,000 live births is more than 15 times the average for developed regions. This situation is aggravated by recent global concerns such as increasing food and fuel prices, natural calamities, conflicts and epidemics such as HIV/AIDS. These detrimentally impact the capacity of families to provide adequate care for their young children, especially among poor, rural and isolated areas. In addition, the coverage and quality of early childhood health, education and development services in the region is limited, especially in rural areas, with only 12% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa having attended private pre-primary education. This contributes to nearly half of the children who enroll in primary school dropping out or repeating grade one due to various reasons, including inadequate preparedness. In the eastern and southern Africa region, programmes for young children have made a progressive shift from the traditional community-based preschools towards more comprehensive programs that include a wider age range, parenting education and a focus on the transition to primary school. These enhancements are strengthening the support for children younger than age 3 and older than 5 that were not being targeted nor receiving due attention. This regional project aims to promote a deeper appreciation for and strengthen the capacity of local actors in delivering quality, inclusive, community-based care and development programs for young children in eastern and southern Africa. The interventions are designed to enhance inter-country coordination, learning and interaction of early childhood care and development within and outside of Plan offices in southern and eastern Africa. This collaboration has helped promote and support the development of flagship programs in four focus countries (Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Mozambique) using a proven, comprehensive model called Community Led Action for Children (CLAC). The CLAC model is made up of several components that support children 0-8 years, beginning at the home and continuing through to preschool and early primary school. This model subscribes to the globally recognized “4 Cornerstones to Secure a Strong Foundation for Young Children” and includes the following four strategic priorities: 1) Parenting programs to strengthen parents’ and caregivers’ knowledge on children’s development 2) Community-based “Early learning and Play” programs that provide access to quality and inclusive early learning opportunities in their communities 3) Transitions to primary programs to promote timely enrolment and sustain support for quality learning in grades 1-3 and 4) Policy advocacy and partnerships to enhance the capacity and collaboration of various Government & non-government actors at multiple levels. This approach will be adopted by other project countries in the region (including Zambia, Rwanda, Egypt, Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe). Opportunities to compare experiences among countries will provide practical references and insights on how this approach can best be integrated and /or adapted in different contexts, eventually being used in other regions and with other prospective partners. The experiences and practices garnered and shared by the focus countries will be instrumental in amplifying the value of similar programs in this and other regions where early childhood care and development is a priority. This programme is anchored in Plan’s main child-centred community development approach and aligned with global priorities and policies to ensure consistency with country-level strategic choices. Programming guidelines and resources were developed in consultation with country teams and shared widely to increase country-level ownership. This project seeks to create collaboration with other sectors and departments. In addition, the staff at the country level is given training and professional development opportunities to ensure that skills and knowledge are directly transferred into roles that directly support early childhood programmes. The design of the project promotes convergence and complementarity of available funding and technical support opportunities to maximize the comprehensiveness and coverage of project interventions. Specific goals: 1. To promote and strengthen the expansion and replication of effective early childhood care and development program models, strategies and practices in the focus countries 2. To develop, disseminate and support the implementation of a programme framework 3. To promote collaboration, learning and dialogue on early childhood care and development within the region and in a Pan-African context 4. To strengthen monitoring, evaluation and research to effectively measure, generate, collate and report knowledge and evidence from the different initiatives in the region. The project directly benefits Plan staff implementing the early childhood care and development programmes in their respective countries. While the focus is on the four Plan Finland supported countries, all the other Plan offices in the region will benefit indirectly. The project enhances the quality, impact and coherence of the ECCD programming in the region. Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Region of Eastern and Southern Africa Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org 8.982536 38.789901 -1.333292 36.834351 -25.918219 32.57771 0.32217 32.589004 241715.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-MOZ100046 Plan International Finland Expanding programming for young children in Mozambique In Mozambique, programmes for young children are limited and inadequate, especially for families living in rural areas. This project seeks to expand the availability and quality of programming in the Inhambane and Nampula Provinces of Mozambique by expanding the number of centres, strengthening gender components, and continuing to work with civil society to advocate the government. In Mozambique, opportunities for early childhood care and development (ECCD) for children aged 0-6 are very limited, especially in rural areas. This is due to poverty, lack of awareness among communities and parents, lack of supporting policy and commitment of governments, and neglect on the part of donors to this crucial sector. The vast majority of programs are concentrated in urban areas via private ventures, meaning access to pre-school education is generally limited to children from wealthier families. Though a national strategy on ECCD was approved in 2012, the government still lacks an approved implementation policy and ECCD is not a priority in terms of budget allocation. In addition, responsibility for ECCD is shared by three departments: the Department of Health (for children 0-3 years), Department of Social Welfare (for children 4-5 years) and Department of Education (for children 6-8 years) resulting in coordination issues between departments and with civil society. This is the second phase of a project that started in 2012. In the first phase, which took place in 2012-2014, Plan facilitated the establishment of a total of 40 centres for early childhood care and development (ECCD) in 20 communities in Jangamo and Homoine districts of Inhambane province. Vital experiences and lessons were learned in community and parental mobilization, setting up the community ECCD committees, selecting teacher volunteers, and mobilising communities to establish safe ECCD centres where children can play, learn, and share socio-cultural experiences. The overall objective of this project is to build opportunities for 0-6 year old girls and boys in project areas to grow in a healthy and stimulating environment through inclusive and integrated community-based early childhood care and development programmes. In this new phase of the project, Plan Mozambique seeks to scale up implementation into additional areas (Mogovolas- Nampula Province), building 25 new community ECCD centres in two districts. New project interventions also include establishing more parenting groups, increasing focus on gender issues, and introducing elements of ICT4D—for example, using arts and media to increase youth engagement and producing a participatory video for learning and advocacy purposes. Plan will incorporate a savings and lending model into the parenting component of the project to enable parents to save and increase income in order to afford ECCD services for their children. Plan Mozambique will continue to actively participate in advocacy at both national and provincial levels to pressure the Government in instituting new ECCD policies, increasing budgets for ECCD, and integrating appropriate accountabilities and mandates into the system. Community capacities and networks will be enhanced so that they are able to demand and advance the rights of their children. Provincial ECCD networks will be promoted, which will advocate for change together with the national ECCD focus group/network. In addition, Plan Mozambique will make sure that external technical information is available on a continuous basis either for training, assessments, documentation, and evaluation. Plan will also build relationships and partnerships with civil society organizations involved in ECCD such as Save the Children, Aga Khan Foundation, etc. This will ensure that Plan’s strategies, approaches and methods are on track and consistent with the result areas to be achieved. Government officials in this sector will be invited to visit the project on an on-going basis to assess and monitor project performance on the basis of government guidelines. Technical knowledge and information will be transferred to the teachers and key members of the ECCD committees to boost the capacity of the community and to improve the chances of continuity. In addition to the volunteer teachers, community ECCD facilitators will be trained to lead and champion the project. Objectives: • Improved access to quality pre-school education for children aged 4-5 • Strengthened knowledge of parents on early childhood issues, focusing on parents and caretakers of children aged 0-3, including pregnant mothers • Following up on children’s transition process from ECCD centres to primary schools • Generate, document and disseminate knowledge and practices that can assist in the integration and standardisation of national ECCD policies, strategies and structures • Strengthened ECCD outcomes through linkages to disaster management committees and children’s clubs The target group is children 0-6 year old, their families and their communities in Plan operational area. The project will give particular attention to vulnerable and marginalized children to ensure their participation and inclusion in the ECCD project. Other categories of vulnerable children that will be monitored for their inclusion include very poor children, neglected children, children in households headed by women, and children with disabilities. Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Mozambique Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org -24.109462 35.305972 -23.880997 35.149232 401767.00 466767.00 401767.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-ETH2083 Plan International Finland Combating female genital mutilation through awareness raising & CBO support Although legislation exists in Ethiopia to reduce the practice of harmful gender-discriminatory traditions such as female genital mutilation, the practices are still prevalent in some areas of the country. This programme seeks to raise awareness to eradicate these practices and to empower community-based organisations to protect girls and young women in 14 communities in the Bona Zuria district. Various harmful traditional practices are highly prevalent in Ethiopia and cause physical, emotional and psychological harm to a large number of its population, particularly women and girls. Although numerous efforts at the community, regional and national levels have contributed to a decline of harmful practices (namely female genital mutilation and child marriage), the practices are still widespread in various parts of the country, with the magnitude and pattern varying by region. Despite a growing public awareness regarding the criminality of these harmful practices, some people still fail to take firm action against these practices. The justifications for practicing these harmful practices are based on deeply entrenched discriminatory views and beliefs concerning the roles of women and children in society and within families. This project seeks to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM) and other harmful traditional practices (HTPs) in 14 kebeles (neighborhoods/communities) in Bona Zuria district in Ethiopia. This will be accomplished by raising awareness and changing attitudes in the community and by strengthening grassroots-level community-based organizations (CBOs). This project includes a wide range of awareness-raising interventions targeting various segments of the community. The use of community conversations, campaigns attached to various days commemorating children and women, and improving education through school clubs will enable us to reach the aspired number of population. In addition, community-based organisations will be directly involved in the implementation of the project. The project aims to strengthen their capacity to respond to FGM and other forms of HTPs and to facilitate coordination and networking among groups through training in community mobilization, gender mainstreaming, advocacy and networking, life skills and income-generating activities. Since poverty is strongly involved in the practice of FGM, the CBOs will also be involved in economically empowering adolescent girls and young women. Project actions include holding community conversations in target villages on harmful practices in order to raise awareness; establishing and strengthening anti-HTP school clubs in at least 14 schools; and facilitating community led/participatory monitoring and evaluation systems. In addition, CBOs will be trained on community mobilization, sensitization, leadership, documentation, financial management, and other technical aspects such as life skills and income generating activities. Small grants will also be provided to local organisations to provide protection-related services/activities for children and young women. Financial sustainability Most of the activities initiated during the project will not need substantial financial support to be sustained. The committees will continue functioning on a voluntary basis and will not require financial support and sustainability of community-based organisations (CBOs) will be ensured through small grants related to income generation. School clubs supported by the project will require some financial support to cover their stationary related expenses. The project will negotiate with school management on how the clubs can benefit from ongoing income generating activities in schools. Institutional sustainability CBOs are expected to take a lead in their communities in terms of combating harmful traditional practices and will continue the activities beyond the project end. The CBOs will be in close link with the committee-led Community Conversation groups and will follow up on their activities. Relevant government actors (the health office, police, judiciary etc.) will strengthen their reporting and responding mechanisms. The department of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs in particular will follow up on reported cases. It is expected that case management and ethical responses will be improved in the child protection unit of the police force and the social courts through the knowledge gained during the project. School clubs will continue to prepare and submit annual action plans on issues of FGM and HTPs to their school’s principals. The school principals, together with the district education office, will continue following up on the school clubs’ activities. School clubs will continue benefitting from future trainings carried out by partner KMG in Bona Zuria. School clubs will also be linked with the community conversation committees and the CBOs for further support in the implementation of their activities. Tutorial classes will continue as part of the school structure. The project will negotiate with school management to allow the school clubs to continue with sensitization on HTPs after the project ends. Policy level sustainability All the elements of the proposed interventions are part of current legislation and all necessary legal frameworks and policies already exist. Policy sustainability at the community level will be ensured by the bylaws set up by the new established community conversation committees. These committees will submit the bylaws to the Kebeles which will be further sent to the district level offices. The bylaws will then be validated by the district judges and the District Council. Activities will be linked to the work which KMG and Plan Ethiopia do on the national level, also improving sustainability. The overall objective of the action is to contribute to the protection of children/youth from female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices. The specific objective of the proposed action is to create a community-based system for protection against female genital mutilation, child marriage, and other harmful traditional practices in 14 kebeles (neighborhoods/communities) in Bona Zuria district. Girls/young women (15 – 24 years) and their families, communities, traditional and religious leaders, CBOs and local government entities. European Union Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland KMG-Ethiopia Plan International Ethiopia Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org 6.519991 38.746631 89320.00 89320.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-KEN100268 Plan International Finland Increasing youth participation and government accountability in Kenya Kenya ranks very high globally in terms of perceived corruption (145th out of 174 countries). This project seeks to battle corruption and ineptitude in public service delivery in Tharaka-Nithi and Kwale counties by building the capacity of youth and community groups and by creating technology solutions—such as an online transparency portal—to increase government accountability. Kenya is frequently perceived to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world, recently being rated 145th out of 174 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perception Index. Inadequate transparency and accountability exists in the management of public resources, which, coupled with limited public information on actual government revenue and expenditure, has directly contributed to corruption, ineptitude and inadequate public service delivery for citizens. This project works to strengthen the participation of youth (male and female) and vulnerable communities in county decision making to improve service delivery of County governments in Tharaka-Nithi and Kwale, Kenya. This project will advocate for county authorities (executive committee members, members of the county assembly, chief officers and county ward administrators) to effectively allocate county resources according to the needs and priorities of youth, children, and vulnerable communities including people living with disabilities and HIV/AIDS. The action will use an Information Communications Technology platform to promote transparency and accountability in government budgeting processes and to improve service delivery through an online transparency portal. The action supports the use of social accountability processes (social audit, participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking and community score cards), as a mechanism to monitor performance of projects and programmes supported by county governments. One of the main outcomes of the project will be an online portal that will facilitate the communication between communities and the government. The action further supports gender-responsive budgeting by the two county governments to promote participation and equitable resource allocation according to the needs and priorities of women, men, girls and boys. The action will cooperate with local media and government agencies such as the Transition Authority, the Commission for Revenue Allocation and the Office of the Controller of Budgets to increase the participation and impact of local communities in community development and to bring county government spending more in line with local development needs. Financial sustainability: This project has been designed with sustainability in mind. No new institutions or bodies will be created, and the project does not contain any direct service delivery elements. The bulk of the budget is going to intensive training and capacity building, as well as activities that will serve to increase programme momentum and public outreach. Through the training, a significant number of youth and county and ward governments will gain necessary skills that will place them in a position to continue to carry out activities in the spirit of transparency, mutual cooperation, and understanding. Youth groups and especially those who have received support through small grants will have the capacity and skills to function independently and fundraise for their needs. Through various trainings, youth will have enhanced opportunities to receive resources from funding partners. In addition, youth groups will collect membership fees to maintain their operations. There are several factors that will contribute to the financial sustainability of the online portal. The platform will be created based on existing websites that are currently administrated by county governments, and the project will be linked to existing portals that are supported by the Ford Foundation, the United Nations Development Program and the Institute for Security Studies. Finally, the online platform will not increase the workload of the county governments, but will be a tool for simplifying the routine work of the governments. Counties are working with different international donors and if need arises they can apply for funding from institutions that support governance projects in Kenya. Institutional sustainability: The project is designed and will be implemented together with county governments, which are formal project partners, so the project will be largely anchored to existing county authority structures, departments and offices. To formalize the approach as an element of exit strategy, an agreement will be signed between Plan and county governments (and possibly with the national government) ensuring provision of institutional support after the project ends. Youth groups will be stimulated to undergo formal registration in order to be able to maintain their organization capacities and raise the necessary funds. The groups will continue to operate and will be equipped with skills and knowledge (for example in social accountability, project management and proposal writing) while receiving support from network/umbrella organizations. Policy level sustainability: The Current County Integrated Development Plans (2013-2017) (CCIDP) already include positive plans regarding the role of youth in governance processes and mention gender as an important development issue. However, the CCIDP of Tharaka Nithi County does not emphasize growth of information communications technology (ICT) and its benefits for the public. It will therefore be ensured that the upcoming CCDIP (2018-2022) of both counties include issues that were identified by the project and take into consideration the growing needs and opportunities of citizens to provide meaningful feedback. The lessons drawn from the project will be used in shaping the next policy documents on the county level. At the same time, this project will work with both governments to issue a bylaw that enforces the usage of the platform as main information exchange resource. Additionally, the project will seek to enforce the implementation of existing legal and policy documents at the county level that would require the use of ICT in the county by law. Finally, the Jubilee manifesto (launched in 2013) and Vision 2030 both recognise the important role information communications technology can play in the country’s economy. This action will build on the opportunity provided by both policy documents emphasising the use of technology to add value to various sectors of the economy, including education, health, agriculture, business and finance, governance and leadership. It gives the project broader acceptance by the national policies. Overall objective: To contribute to an accountable and responsive governance system at the county level that fully recognises active citizen participation as a core principle of good governance. Specific Objective: Enhance participation and engagement of youth in county decision making and accountability process for improved allocation of county resources to the needs of vulnerable youth and children and improved service delivery by County governments in Kwale and Tharaka-Nithi counties. At government level: 48 County Budget and Economic Forum members from Tharaka Nithi and Kwale counties; 35 County Assembly members (20 members from Kwale and 15 members from Tharaka). At CSO level: 3,858 youth members from both Tharaka Nithi Youth Governance Network composed of 24 affiliate youth groups and Kwale Youth governance council composed of 40 youth groups. Media: 15 journalists from 4 local FM stations. Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland European Union Plan International Finland County Government of Tharaka Nithi, Kenya Plan International Kenya African Institute for Health and Development County Government of Kwale, Kenya Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org -4.166667 39.45 -0.3 38.0 671757.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-IND0206 Plan International Finland Vocational training and policy strengthening for young women in Indonesia Unemployment rates in Indonesia are higher for young women compared with similarly-aged men. This project aims to enhance young women's economic empowerment and rights fulfilment by (1) using an innovative, market-led approach to improve work training and access to credit and employment opportunities and (2) targeting relevant government policies and strategies to make them more gender responsive. By population, Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world, with approximately 228 million people, of which 38.4 million are young people aged 15–24. It is a stable democracy with a strong economy and a growth rate of over 6% in 2010-2012. From the perspective of investors it has a vast pool of educated labour, an economy nearly half industrial, and the lowest unit labour costs in the Asia-Pacific region. Impressive as it is, the country’s high growth rate is still too low to absorb the annual increase in the labour force of 2–2.5 million, adding 300,000–500,000 more unemployed to the total unemployed each year. Gender disparities are also seen, with unemployment among young women being significantly higher than among men of the same age (23% for men vs. 28% for women in 2010). The proposed project brings together key drivers of change – private sector, central government, local authorities, microfinance institutions and the youth themselves – to develop and pilot a holistic model of youth economic empowerment (YEE) with a particular focus on young women. It combines training and access to credit and employment with an innovative, market-led approach, while also targeting the relevant government policies, strategies and legislation to make them more gender responsive. The target group is 3,000 young women aged 15-29. Through this program, young women are expected to become more economically independent and improve their living standards. In addition, the economic empowerment of young women will also indirectly impact up to 52,000 other young women and men in their respective communities. The project is based on field experience and analytical work done by Plan in partnership with the World Bank. The actual implementation is designed in the way that puts the public, private and people’s partnership at the centre, thereby seeking to maximise sustainability and potential expansion of the model within Indonesia and beyond. The project plan includes: • Improved implementation of gender-sensitive laws, policies and strategies in public and private sectors at national, provincial and district levels in favour of young women’s employment. This will be accomplished by making ministries, provincial governments and employers aware of the practical implications and benefits to be gained from the economic empowerment of women in general, and young women in particular. • Offering young women better access to training, including non-traditional vocations through government-funded vocational and technical training providers. • Providing knowledge and skills training through the microfinance institution KOMIDA in North Central Timor District and South Central Timor District, which will benefit 3,000 women in the areas of individual career counselling, provision of job placement and business development support and mentoring. The proposed project is designed to secure sustainability after completion of the action as follows: Financial sustainability • Beneficiary businesses will fund the technical and vocational training of youth, which will greatly reduce costs. This has already begun in the YEE Programme at the Grobogan pilot site. • Transaction costs per trainee will be reduced through upscaling. With economies of scale, we estimate that the cost per trainee will be $100-$150 after three years of operation. In order to cover this amount, trainees may have the opportunity to pay for training by accessing educational loans and/ or covering training costs through their own savings and contributions. • In-kind contributions from local and national government in areas will be utilized, such as cost-free use of vocational training venues and use of public land. • The microfinance component of the project will use its established methodologies to expand its business and is expected to become operationally and financially sustainable within three years. • The donor community present in Indonesia will be kept informed about the Project operations and results, resulting in a possible expansion of project activities in collaboration with Bappenas/IYEN resources. Institutional sustainability • This project involves developing and testing a low-cost model for the state to adopt, since the responsibility to meet international commitments on decent work and youth employment rests with the state and its institutions. • The integrated approach and careful choice of local partners with strong ownership over the proposed activities will ensure that activities will continue beyond the timeframe of the project. At the central level, the Ministries and partner APINDO will adopt the improved policy and program. At local level, the local government, APINDO member companies and training providers will adopt the new training program for young women. • The project seeks to enhance existing working procedures which will in turn enhance institutional sustainability. The design of activities involving key Ministries and government agencies at the national level and duty bearers at the local level as partners and stakeholders will further promote the adoption of gender-sensitive training and empowerment of youth. • One of the project’s main approaches is increase the community’s role in managing the local education establishments (e.g. village schools). This promotes ownership and increases the potential for replication. Policy sustainability • This project will strengthen enforcement and implementation of existing laws and policies by providing the responsible ministries with adequate monitoring tools that will help monitor the impact of actions, which will ultimately contribute to better decision making. • Private sector codes of conduct will be reviewed and enhanced to reflect gender equality. Overall objective: To enhance young women's economic empowerment and fulfilment of their rights in Indonesia. Specific objectives: 1) Strengthen the policy and economic environment in Indonesia in favour of young women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. 2) Develop and pilot an integrated approach to training, financing and other related services which support gender equality and youth access to decent employment. Female youth (15-29 years), community members, gender working groups, employers Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland European Union Plan International Finland Plan International Indonesia Indonesia Business Links Koperasi Mitra Dhuafa Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Indonesia Employers' Association of Indonesia Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org -6.2 106.816667 -9.446667 124.478056 -9.471667 124.804722 -10.183333 123.583333 465000.00 735000.00 675000.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-UGA0288 Plan International Finland Addressing neglect and maltreatment in post-conflict northern Uganda This project tackles the issue of ‘silent violence’ that occurs within families in post-conflict nothern Uganda. By implementing early childhood care and development strategies and strengthening community-based protection mechanisms, this project will address violence related to neglect and maltreatment toward children 0-8 years of age. Northern Uganda is recovering from a long insurgency. Dysfunctional social support structures and family-related stressors (including extreme poverty, high disease burden and trauma) lead to children experiencing high levels of domestic violence. The issue of “silent violence”, or violence occurring within families due to neglect or maltreatment, has not yet been tackled in Uganda. Social service interventions are difficult due to an attitude of acceptance of corporal punishment as a form of discipline. In addition, gender inequality remains high in Uganda, especially in rural areas, where women are expected to be submissive to men. This project brings together two areas of child-centered development work: Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) and community-based protection mechanisms. These two areas are linked by mobilising parents as a positive force for children’s wellbeing, connecting them with the local child protection authorities and public service providers as well as with political decision-makers and the broader public. This holistic, multi-level approach seeks to create a setting where the key duty-bearers (parents, public service actors, communities etc.) are each mobilized to act against violence against children. Approaching the problem of violence from the point of view of both protection and early childhood care and development in a single intervention is particularly well justified in a difficult post-conflict environment such as Northern Uganda. This project uses a multi-faceted response that includes the family, community and national policy framework to reduce violence against children in the 5 targeted districts of Northern Uganda. Project actions include: • Supporting the establishment and development 50 ECCD centres to prepare children for early learning and to help parents and caregivers to form parenting groups to support one another on issues of child care. Parents and caregivers will be taught basic skills in savings, credit management and financial literacy. • Supporting the establishment and development of 50 Child Protection Committees, whose task is to regularly and proactively prevent and respond to child protection issues at the community level and be enabled to link up with other structures to support child protection at other levels. In addition, key stakeholders, including Local Councils, Women’s Groups, and teachers, will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to prevent abuse and protect children. • Enabling local and national governments to develop and implement comprehensive policies that address prevention and response to violence against children at family, community, sub-national and national levels. The understanding and application of existing laws protecting children and families will be promoted among government officials and law enforcement, which should contribute to a reduction in cases of violence against children and an increase in response rate for reported cases. This project aims to make a positive impact on the development and protection of approximately 45,000 children aged 0-8 in 5 districts of Northern Uganda where Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) and child protection services are not currently available. Through parenting education, children in targeted communities will benefit from improved care practices and long-term protection due to increased awareness and respect for young children’s rights. The project will contribute to enhancing gender equitable attitudes and relations in families. The involvement of parents—especially males—through parenting groups and fathers’ meetings will enhance their commitment and support to children’s survival and protection. Finally, the impact at the community level will be stimulated through community participation—especially for women—in policy dialogues and community development planning processes. The project is expected to positively change attitudes and practices of both community members and local authorities in terms of addressing younger children’s rights to protection. A strong emphasis on capacity development of parents and caregivers will result in increased and improved support to children. By involving local authorities in all stages and activities of the project, local ownership will be enhanced, resulting in increased commitment and acknowledgement of responsibilities for delivering high quality child protection services. Finally, the innovative practices of ECCD and child protection in a post-conflict context used in this project will be used as evidence to influence child protection laws at the national level. Good practices will be promoted for inclusion in revised or updated national legislation and child protection issues will become apparent in the local government’s development plans. The overall objective of this project is to contribute to the reduction of all forms of violence against children 0-8 years old in post-conflict northern Uganda within homes and communities using early childhood care and development as a key strategy. Specifically, this project hopes to improve relationships between children, parents and caregivers for approx. 22,500 families, strengthen community-based and sub-national child protection systems, and enable local and national governments to develop and implement comprehensive policies that address violence prevention and response. 45,000 children aged 0-8 in 5 districts of Northern Uganda European Union Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Facilitation for Peace and Development Uganda Women's Parliamentary Association Lango Samaritan Initiative Organisation Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org 1.983333 32.533333 2.25 33.315 1.635 32.825 2.247222 32.9 2.428611 32.801111 1792033.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-VNM0342 Plan International Finland Creating & Implementing a gender responsive school model in Vietnam Gender-based violence in schools is prevalent in Vietnam and is a barrier to girls’ empowerment and gender equality. This project pilots a gender responsive model in 20 schools in Hanoi. After ensuring its effectiveness, the model will be expanded by the Hanoi Department of Education to 766 schools. The project will also work with mass and social media to engage adolescents, teachers and parents. The prevalence of gender-based violence is high in Vietnam. The 2010 National Study on Domestic Violence against Women found that 25 percent of women were experiencing mental/psychological violence at the time of the survey. The prevalence of violence against children by fathers is as high as 25 percent, and children of mothers who were victims of violence were twice as likely to be victims themselves. In high schools, 1 in 10 respondents reported being sexually harassed in the past year, and 81 percent of these respondents were girls. These numbers are likely underestimated due to the social stigma associated with sexual harassment. The Vietnamese government passed several laws related to gender-based violence; namely, the Gender Equality Law in 2006 and the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence in 2007. However, major challenges to policy implementation exist, primarily regarding funding, coordination and monitoring and evaluation of efforts. This project pilots a research-based model of gender responsive schools in 20 schools in Hanoi. The model takes a holistic approach that has been effectively demonstrated in other contexts, that seeks to (1) engage adolescents, teachers, school management, parents, media, and the community to promote non-discriminatory practices at school, (2) bring about positive change in attitudes and behaviours at the individual level, and (3) develop an enabling environment within schools and society to sustain individual change, ultimately leading to a change in societal norms. The proposed project will use the following four strategies to test the gender responsive school model in context and promote its scale-up and institutionalization: (1) Change the attitudes and behaviours of adolescent girls, boys, and teachers towards school-related Gender Based Violence using Plan’s gender transformative approach (2) Create an enabling environment to help sustain individual change by engaging teaching and non-teaching staff and parents; (3) Strengthen institutional response mechanisms by altering school processes and practices, establishing a school-based counselling system and setting up a reporting, response, and referral system (4) Employ evidence-based advocacy for scaling the gender responsive school model and institutionalization through coalition, media sensitization, evidence building, and knowledge management. This project is planned to benefit approximately 15,000 girls aged 11 to 18 in 20 lower and upper secondary schools, with the goal that they will become better aware of gender discrimination and school-related gender-based violence and have the skills and institutional mechanisms available to prevent and respond to incidents. In addition, the project will build the awareness and capacity of teachers, actively engage parents, and sensitize and facilitate the media’s promotion of gender equality. The gender responsive school project will also contribute to more effective implementation of existing laws by integrating gender issues into the education system to transform adolescents' understanding of gender equality, violence and to make school safer, in turn raising awareness of gender equality and violence in schools. The project will also provide the Government with a successful model that can be expanded city-wide and into other provinces and will offer evidence that can be used for future policy making. This comprehensive approach will systematically address the root causes of gender inequality and violence to ensure schools are gender-responsive, and are a place where girls and boys feel safe and are free from discrimination. Once its effectiveness has been proven, the model is expected to be used by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training and expanded to 758 schools. The implementation of the program itself in schools will not add a significant financial burden, since the model mainly involves modifying current practices, attitudes and behaviour and does not require investment in infrastructure or equipment (with the exception of school counselling). In order to ensure public funds will be released for the scaling up of the model, relevant departments will be lobbied (including Hanoi city administration, the Department of Education and Training (DoET) and the Department of Planning and Investment). The project will draw on meaningful partnerships with the Hanoi DoET; the Centre for Study and Applied Science on Children, Women and Adolescents; and International Centre for Research on Women. These partnerships, along with the active involvement of the DoET, will greatly contribute to reducing gender-based violence in schools, successfully demonstrate the model in the Vietnam context, and ensure sustainability by providing a strong platform for future expansion throughout the city’s schools. Overall goal: that adolescent girls attending schools in Hanoi are safe from gender-based violence and free from discrimination. 15,000 girls aged 11 to 18 in 20 lower and upper secondary schools in Hanoi; teachers; parents; media; society; local governments Plan International Finland United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Plan International Vietnam Plan International France Plan International Finland Hanoi Department of Education and Training International Center for Research on Women Centre for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender–Family-Women and Adolesce Plan International Vietnam Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org 21.012578 105.84222 499456.00 398921.00 450323.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-UGA100310 Plan International Finland Enhancing participation in primary school matters for students in Uganda Primary school completion rates and student performance in Uganda are drastically low despite recent Government policies improvements. This programme seeks to improve quality of education and strengthen and expand child, parental, and community participation in school matters in four districts in Uganda through advocacy and the ongoing engagement of children, parents, and other stakeholders. The Ugandan Government adopted the policy of Universal Primary Education in 1997. Consequently, since 1996, primary school enrollment increased from 3 million to 14 million pupils. However, many issues remain, with half of students enrolled in primary school repeating grades or dropping out due to poverty (low household income level), inadequate support from parents, poor learning environment at schools, forced child marriage, and inhibiting cultural attitudes concerning the role of girls. In addition, learning outcomes are still poor: school completion rates stand at 71% at the end of primary school and 40% in at the end of secondary school, and the 2010 national assessment revealed that 98% of primary grade 3 children could not read or understand primary level 2 texts, and 80% could not solve at least two primary 2 level sums. Learning conditions are also poor: teacher absenteeism is common, 14% of schools have no standard classrooms and class sizes often surpass 100 children. This is the third phase of the Participatory School Governance for Children (PSGC) programme started in 2009. The programme has been implemented in 50 primary schools in Tororo and Luweero districts and will be expanded to 40 new schools in Lira and Kamuli districts in this programme phase. This phase of the programme will focus on addressing issues of low primary school completion rates and the poor quality of primary education by increasing the interest and participation of children, parents, and communities in school governance activities. The current national school governance system described in Ugandan education policy emphasizes community participation in school governance but has little emphasis to the role of the learners. In addition, the Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) and School Management Committees entrusted with overseeing education services on behalf of the government and local communities are in most cases weak and dysfunctional. Consequently, the school headmasters often remain the primary decision makers without the involvement of children, families, and the community. These issues will be addressed through awareness-raising and increasing the active involvement of students, parents and communities in children’s primary education. One aspect of the programme involves using mobile technology to improve communications, information sharing and governance between key participants in school governance. This will be done by holding training sessions in 50 project schools and providing two mobile phones (one for the girls and the other for the boys) per school. The mobile phones will be used by students to provide timely feedback on school governance issues; using a short code already provided by the service provider, stakeholders will be able to send and receive messages that will be analyzed and responded to by the respective stakeholders for action. The messages will then be used as evidence to advocate for implementation of policy changes and to negotiate with the government to adopt SMS platforms. Other challenges addressed in this phase of the project include: • Inadequate coordination between the government and NGOs for the implementation of the project. This will be addressed through awareness raising and district-level coordination meetings between NGOs and government actors. • Limited understanding of the concept of participation, especially of boys and girls, and parents, which can be seen in the reluctance of district leaders and education department officials, limiting their full participation, support and ownership in project activities. This will be addressed through various awareness-raising activities, trainings and ongoing engagements. • In both districts, political leaders have had interest in the programme and are forcing government education departments to scale up the project at a pace which may be too haphazard for some schools. While this is a good indicator that politicians are now appreciating the project, there is a fear that full-scale implementation without proper training of teachers and guiding documents in place may actually dilute an otherwise good project. However, this programme plans to continue awareness raising, capacity building and best-practices dissemination activities in a bid to reduce the knowledge gap on child participation among the key stakeholders. • Knowledge generation and sharing of lessons has not been emphasized. Proper documentation on the benefits/successes of the participatory governance programme and instructions on how to start the programme in a given school have not yet been developed, which make replication of the model difficult. This is majorly due to the absence of an efficient and robust monitoring and evaluation system that collects data, generates reports and shares them with different stakeholders. This is an area that will be addressed by the Project team together with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Management team in this programme period. In addition, the District Education Office—which is responsible for monitoring education standards at the local government level—will be strengthened in monitoring school performance and in engaging in the feedback process with students and parents. At the national level, the programme seeks to increase the engagement of civil society organisations in education processes and to encourage policy dialogues, debates and other sessions to build a body of evidence for proper policy implementation. The programme seeks to increase stakeholders’ participation in school governance processes by building the capacity of parental and community groups, strengthening partnerships between governments and stakeholders, easing their access to information, and creating an easily replicable, low cost model for participation. This will reduce the gaps in information between stakeholders and schools, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of primary education, and contribute to an attitude of ownership resulting in sustained and meaningful citizen participation at local and national levels. Political and institutional sustainability The programme will strengthen partnerships with District education offices that are mandated to monitor education standards. It is anticipated that, by supporting the strengthening of government mandated education governance bodies, the government will continue to fulfil their role after project completion. At a policy level, the best practices and lessons learnt during the project implementation, will be documented and used for evidence-based policy advocacy, i.e. feeding into the Education Policy Sector Review. The project will enable existing structures to have a greater voice and impact on school governance. Social and environmental sustainability: One way to ensure social sustainability is to increase community involvement. Community members will be actively involved in the process of interventions through planning, implementation, and evaluation. In this, they are expected to acquire skills and knowledge that will later enable them to take over the project. Thus, sustainability of the programme will depend on the self-reliance of targeted communities. Secondly, the impact of media activities, such as radio broadcasts, will have a significant impact on increasing awareness of issues affecting participation and access to quality education especially by the vulnerable children, as well as challenging mandated institutions to increase their commitment to quality service delivery. Environmental sustainability will be enhanced through the inclusion of environmental awareness issues in dialogue meetings between community members, teachers, and district authorities. At the school level, the SMC action plans will ensure that schools plan to take a low-impact approach on the environment and are aware of issues related to environmental degradation such as charcoal burning and deforestation. Financial sustainability The programme is designed to require minimal subsidies and to mobilise government, school, community and individual resources for the activities of the project. Participation in education governance need not be expensive, which is taken into account in the model. In addition, support for capacity building and service delivery will be carefully monitored during model development. Exit strategy Preparations for phase-out will be included starting at project implementation with an assessment of the capacity of various groups to become self-sustaining to identify and address existing gaps. A separate phase-out plan will be developed and implemented in Luweero since Plan will phase out from the district completely by the end of FY15. The committees will periodically conduct informal conversations with participating and non-participating families to monitor the progress of the phase out plan and will provide feedback and reminders on observations and impressions. The districts will be supported to scale up the PSGC activities to other schools in the districts. We will have exit meetings in all targeted communities and will support the communities’ gradual ownership of programme actions. 1. Increase capacity of student councils, school management committees, district education office and parent/teacher association to engage in and influence school governance processes. 2. Increase knowledge among teachers, girls and boys, and communities (men and women) on human rights, including the rights to education, participation, gender equality and non-discrimination. 3. Document and disseminate best practices for engaging girls, boys, and communities in school governance processes that empower them to demand better service delivery, accountability and improved education outcomes Boys: (6-13 years): 325 Children's Council members Girls (6-13 years): 325 Children's Council members Girls:(6-13 years): 5,000 children's club members Boys: (6-13 years): 5,000 children's club members. Adult men (Parents and caregivers, teachers and members of SMC): 2765 Adult women (Parents and caregivers, teachers and members of SMC): 2765 Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Anonymous Organisation Plan International Finland Plan International Uganda Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan-international.org 0.842117 32.492995 2.247276 32.905362 0.680879 34.167996 0.944599 33.123672 593332.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-PAK100273 Plan International Finland Expanding and improving care and education of children aged 0-6 in Pakistan In Pakistan, early childhood care, development, and education services are inadequate, especially in rural areas. This project seeks to improve services in three districts in Pakistan, with a focus on including marginalised girls and boys. The project will also strengthen communities’ ability to advocate for the provision of early childhood care and education services. In Pakistan, 25 million boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 16 are not in schools. The proportion of out of school children increases as the level of education rises; almost 85% of higher secondary school age children are not in school, and as many as 70% of children who are out of school have never seen the inside of a classroom. Girls make up 55% of all out of school children (13.7 million in total). Contributing to low school enrolment is the lack of attention given to early childhood care and development programmes. Completion of quality pre-primary education significantly increases a child’s likelihood of completing primary education. In addition, 400,000 Pakistani children die in their first year and the under-five mortality rate is very high, at 70 per 1000 live births, due in large part to malnutrition. In Pakistan, 31% children are underweight (40% of children in Sindh province) and 44% of children under age 5 are stunted, with numbers skewed higher in rural areas. In Pakistan, 25 million boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 16 are not in schools. The proportion of out of school children increases as the level of education rises; almost 85% of higher secondary school age children are not in school, and as many as 70% of children who are out of school have never seen the inside of a classroom. Girls make up 55% of all out of school children (13.7 million in total). Contributing to low school enrolment is the lack of attention given to early childhood care and development programmes. Completion of quality pre-primary education significantly increases a child’s likelihood of completing primary education. In addition, 400,000 Pakistani children die in their first year and the under-five mortality rate is very high, at 70 per 1000 live births, due in large part to malnutrition. In Pakistan, 31% children are underweight (40% of children in Sindh province) and 44% of children under age 5 are stunted, with numbers skewed higher in rural areas. The adoption of Plan’s low cost model in public schools by the district government has been key in ensuring programme sustainability. Plan has established strong linkages with the district and provincial government both in Sindh and Punjab provinces, where district governments agreed to establish early childhood education centres in public schools to use as a low cost model for the government to adopt and upscale. Strong local mobilization, awareness raising, and engaging the community in the local management and implementation of the projects have helped to improve community ownership of the programme. The project has also seen sustained enrolment and retention of the children in early childhood programmes and increased parental commitment to enroll their children in schools. In addition, the improved knowledge of caregivers and teachers on ECCD/ ECE and child protection have improved parenting practices and contributed towards developing skilled human resources in the community. At the provincial level in Punjab, the Directorate of Staff Development has revised and adapted Plan’s syllabus and it is being used in 1,000 newly initiated early childhood education centres throughout the province. Moreover, the process of adopting and continuing Plan-supported school-based early childhood education has begun and public-private partnerships are expected to materialize by the end of this project for adoption of these centres by government. Due to Plan’s recent intervention in Thatta district, there has been significant progress in seeking the government’s commitment to initiate early childhood education programmes in the province and adopt Plan’s model for replication. Early childhood education has been set as priority intervention in the Education Sector and targets have been set. The technical capacity building of civil society organisations, community-based organisation, and implementing partners has developed knowledge and skills at the local level and the model has been replicated by one civil society organisation at the local level. However, the goal of bringing lasting attitudinal change in respecting the rights of every child will require work with policymakers to develop policies and laws that are in line with the Children’s Rights Council and ensure its implementation at all levels. This second phase of the project will be implemented with close coordination and support of government education departments. In this phase, a dialogue with the government will be continued and linkages further strengthened to demonstrate and provide technical support for an efficient, cost-effective model that will function within the public sector. The aim of this project is to enhance participation of children in early childhood care, development, and education by creating safe and healthy environments where girls and boys are respected, protected, empowered and active in their own protection. Girls and boys age 0-6; youth; parents, caregivers, and family members; and the general public in Muzaffargarh, Sujawal and Thatta provinces Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Pakistan Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 30.073491 71.191449 24.601723 68.082426 24.74741 67.929408 737414.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-UGA100309 Plan International Finland Enhancing Early Childhood Care and Development in Uganda Research shows that children taking part in quality Early Childhood Care and Development programmes have better social and emotional development and improved language and cognitive skills, which result in better health, school performance, and increased completion rates. This project seeks to increase the accessibility and quality of early childhood care and development programs in Uganda. Over 20% of Uganda’s 36 million people are under age 5. Half of these children live in poverty and 33% of them have stunted growth. Early childhood stimulation and development is not well understood nor widely practiced in the rural areas of Uganda, and a majority of children under five are not achieving their developmental potential due to factors related to poverty, poor health, poor nutrition, and lack of stimulation and learning opportunities. An integrated early childhood development policy has been drafted and is awaiting approval, but awareness of the importance of early childhood care and development is still very low among key decision makers in government. In addition, gender relations have a negative impact on child development, with domestic violence and limited parenting support from fathers significantly impacting the social and emotional development of children in Uganda. This project seeks to increase parental and community involvement, knowledge, and capacity for Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) in four areas in Uganda. In 2009, Plan Uganda developed a holistic, high-impact community-managed Early Childhood Care and Development model titled Community-Led Action for Children. The learnings from the model development phase (2009 – 2011) were applied in the second phase of the project (2012-2014), which included implementing the model in 40 community-managed centres in Uganda. The current phase of this project (2015-2017) will expand the Early Childhood Care and Development services to 24 new communities in the Tororo, Kamuli, Kampala and Lira areas of Uganda. Specifically, this stage of the project seeks to strengthen facilitators’ capacity to incorporate aspects of gender, child protection and disability inclusion into the curriculum. In addition, initiatives to promote male involvement in child care and development will be undertaken. Specifically, this phase of the project seeks to interweave four key project components: strengthening parenting skills and knowledge to support child development; increasing access to quality early learning services for vulnerable children; facilitating effective transitions to primary school; and advocating at the community, district and national levels to meet the developmental needs of children. This project will provide comprehensive technical assistance for the first two years (2015-2016) and limited support in the third year in order to transition the programme into community management. Parenting groups involved in this project will be trained on participatory advocacy and social activism with the ultimate goal of using their collective force to influence government policies, legislation, services and investments in areas that support early childhood care and development for all children. Over the three year project period, it is anticipated that parenting groups will have gained appropriate capacity to hold these duty-bearers accountable in fulfilling their children’s rights. The program has been built with an emphasis on strong community involvement and most components are designed at no- or low-cost. As the demand for high-quality early childhood services grows, the minimal maintenance costs of the centres can be covered by parental contributions, which are subsidized by stipends offered to parenting groups and facilitators in compensation for time and commitment to the project. Training and support for financial information systems will be prioritized for school and centre management committees in order to maximize self-sustainability. In addition, as part of phase-out, parenting groups will be supported to form Community-Based Organisations and trained to work with School Management Committees to identify alternative sources of support. The groups will be facilitated to agree on a contribution towards centre management and to adopt the concept of Savings Groups to use the savings and have a proportion of the returns on interest apportioned for the school. The groups will also be officially linked to other potential partners for funding of identified activities and with other partners interested in working with groups/volunteers. Finally, a cost and financing study has been carried out as part of the project in partnership with UNICEF. This is currently being analysed by the government, with a plan to allocate a certain amount of money per child to ECCD programmes. It should be mentioned that this program is in line with Uganda’s National Early Childhood Development guidelines and the national policy framework, which place an emphasis on community ownership and management of early childhood programs, low external input/investment, and a sector-wide implementation approach. Main objective: that all children (birth to 8 years) in the target communities will develop and learn to full potential through the support of effective & holistic early childhood care and development programmes. Children (aged 0-8), especially those with special needs and disabilities; Parents and caregivers; the government, Civil Society Organisations Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland McGill University, Montreal Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda Plan International Uganda Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 0.691178 34.181428 0.94506 33.123436 0.308871 32.577992 2.246375 32.898838 331253.00 330311.00 316116.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-UGA100314 Plan International Finland Creating an innovation centre for impoverished youth in Kampala Nearly two thirds of youth in Uganda are unemployed, and youth in Kampala’s poorest district, Kawempe, face additional problems of high crime, drug use, and prostitution. This pilot project seeks to establish an innovation centre in Kampala’s poorest district that will provide a safe space for mentoring, training, and empowering young men and women to become problem solvers in their communities. Unemployment is a significant problem in Uganda, especially among young people. 61.6% of youth in Uganda are unemployed, the majority of whom live in urban areas. The failure of the Ugandan economy to generate sufficient jobs for its growing workforce is a rising concern, with the current surge in youth population (currently making up over 70% of the population) resulting in an ever-increasing demand for jobs. In the Kawempe division of Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, the majority of the population lives in slums. The Kawempe Division has the lowest income per capita of the city's five divisions and the largest population (over 265,000). The Kawempe Division has a high mortality rate compared to the city’s other divisions, and most youth are reported to be involved in crime, with high rates of prostitution and an estimated 70% of youth in the division abusing drugs and alcohol. The Smart up Factory project emerged from the idea that poor and marginalized youth are in a crucial position to identify problems in their communities and in society, and should be empowered to produce solutions to these problems. To tap into this unrealised potential, the Smart up Factory project will create a space in Kampala’s Kawempe division where marginalized young men and women will be enabled to develop innovations with the ultimate goal of positively transforming society. Currently, the ideas of their better-educated and -resourced peers are the ones most often heard, meaning the voices of those who live in the target areas are mostly left unheard, and their potential remains untapped. This project aims to change that. This is a pilot initiative, initially working with 20 selected youth (10 men and 10 women) who will be trained and mentored and grow to become champions of the project, recruiting more youth as the project Factory will be developed with input from the youth, and the project team will work out a convenient schedule for programmes that will ensure access and convenience for participants. The Smart up Factory project will seek to work with local youth and a number of partners, including the government (Kampala City Council and the Divisional offices), RLabs (from South Africa), the Hub (in Kampala), Projectics, to ensure that the space and associated programmes are youth friendly and will nurture social expands. Youth coming to the centres and obtaining various skills will be encouraged to set up youth centres in their own communities. The project will also seek to establish value adding relationships with other relevant organizations through coordination and consultations; this will mainly involve working with Ministry of Gender, National Youth Council, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Breakdance Uganda, Babaluka Foundation, Scouting clubs, Slum Kids Festival, Straight Talk, and others. The common goals of these relationships are to explore how young males and females’ capacities can be built to enhance their social entrepreneurship and active citizenship. The project will also seek to build relationships with UNICEF to provide digital learning content and Design with Borders/ Bank of Uganda to provide content for financial literacy games that enhance learning. Since the vast majority of marginalized youth don’t have access to this type of training and mentoring, and since most development projects address only one aspect of their lives (e.g. employment, health, security, entrepreneurship or life skills), this is a ground breaking project that aims to provide youth with multiple routes to achieving success in society, in their communities, and in their personal lives. The project will be implemented in collaboration with the government, namely the Kampala City Council and the department of Community Service and Education. From a sustainability perspective, this will ensure that district officials continue interacting with the young women and men even after the project has ended. The mentioned departments will also be involved in mentoring and conducting some components of life skills training on gender, Child protection and environmental protection. Financial sustainability will be achieved by encouraging CSOs, Government Entities and private sector companies to support young people’s skill development in areas like website design, printing, and graphics design. Young people will also be supported in networking with groups and individuals in order to attract credit from independent financial institutions and other local sources of finance which will enable their businesses to grow and expand. The project’s finances are budgeted for three years and will shrink in subsequent years, where the slack will be picked up by local resources. The procured assets and equipment will be considered donations and will continue to provide sustainable income and improve the livelihoods of those benefiting from the project. As necessary, the youth-run projects will engage in crowd funding (like Kiva and Kick starter) to solicit more financial resources. The team will also be supported in resource mobilization efforts by providing training in proposal writing, participatory governance approaches (peer mediation, community score cards, voice and participation), participatory M&E, documenting case stories, and use of ICT4D in the programs. The project contributes towards the “Skilling Uganda” government initiative, which seeks to improve the quality and inclusion aspects of education and training systems and to make them responsive to the labour market. This synergy will allow for project activities to more easily be taken up by the government. As part of Plan’s wider programme in Uganda, learning from the project will be shared among the government networks and Plan will lobby for the scale up of successful initiatives. The project also seeks to connect young women and men with the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP), and Community Driven Development (CDD) Fund, which will help finance their business initiatives. The project will also enable young women and men to influence the planning and services provided by local governments. The project will seek to achieve the following objectives: 1. To create a safe, inspiring and enabling space for young males and females. 2. To provide training and mentoring to the young men and women to gain skills and the confidence to pursue and implement their ideas e.g. through social entrepreneurship, community leadership, employment and volunteering. 3. To empower youth to customize and take ownership of the running of the Smartup Factory as well as scale it up to reach as many youth as possible with extensive partner support. Young men and women aged 17-26 living in the Kawempe slum in Kampala. During the first year of the project, 20 youth champions will be mentored. As the youth champions evolve, more youths will be registered and will have opportunity to create, innovate and develop sustainable ideas for continuing the smart up factory. Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Uganda Projectic Reconstructed Living Labs Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 0.354435 32.569962 210901.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-BOL0227 Plan International Finland Enhanced Care and Protection for young boys and girls in Bolivia In Bolivia, 37% of young children are not enrolled in early education programs and 30% of children under age 2 in rural areas suffer from malnutrition. This project promotes early childhood development and protection in 15 rural municipalities through parental training, early learning centre support, municipal service integration and advocating the Bolivian government for child-friendly policies. Around 40% of the population in Bolivia is under 15 years of age. Around half of the people in the country live under the poverty line and infant mortality rates are the highest in the region (50 deaths out of every 1,000 live births). This is the result of adverse growing conditions and poor nutrition beginning at the pre-natal stage, even before pregnancy. Chronic malnutrition affects 17% of children under 24 months and the number climbs to 30% in rural areas- Only 42% of children under 2 years old have an adequate psychosocial development, with the percentage being even lower among girls (38%). These early childhood deficiencies result in future learning problems due to issues with physical and social development of children growing up in unprotected environments. In addition, public awareness of the importance of early childhood development is still low, and enrolment in early education programs is only 63%. This project, titled “Integrated Early Childhood Development and Protection in the Family and Community (PRODIPI-FC)”, seeks to advance a holistic vision of childhood health and development that begins before birth. The first stage of the project began in 2009 and was implemented in 11 municipalities in Bolivia; in this third stage of the project (2015-2017), implementation will be expanded to 15 municipalities and will focus on gender equality and sustainability of project actions, with respect to cultural diversity and redefining parenting patterns. This project promotes an integrated, cross sectorial and holistic approach to early childhood development and supports the Bolivian government in the formulation and implementation of public policies that aim to fulfil the rights of young girls and boys. In communities, established ECCD centres provide girls and boys with quality and gender-sensitive early education and care and support smooth transition to primary school. Parenting sessions aim to provide mothers and fathers with the necessary skills to support the development of their children in a protective and stimulating environment. A special focus of the project is on advancing gender equality by promoting shared parenthood and equal treatment of girls and boys. Another important focus is to strengthen child protection in early childhood. The project targets vulnerable girls and boys, with special attention given to disabled children, their mothers and fathers, as well as caretakers, teachers and public education, health and judicial staff at national, departmental and local level. This project has the following focuses: • Work in partnership with the state to implement a set of actions that ensure the non-discriminative protection and development of girls and boys under eight years at community and municipal management levels. • Improve the care and protection with gender equality approach of young children by strengthening the skills of educators and civil servants in the education and health sectors and by building partnerships between them and families/communities. • Promote empowerment and capacity building of parents and public servants on issues related to child protection and gender. Raise awareness of the issues of violence against children, their right to protection and non-discrimination, and the ways their rights can be enforced. • Identify gaps in local and national legislation and implementation. Utilize standardized tools and indicators to influence governmental leaders on the importance of investing in early childhood care and development. Ensure that the Bill of Comprehensive Early Childhood Development is adopted. • Using communications technology to support local, interagency management and monitoring of child development and protection systems. • Collect, analyse, and communicate the experiences of project interventions in the numerous municipalities in order to influence public policies that favour the protection and development of young children. • Improve actions related to protection will aim to prevent the abuse, negligence and violence affecting the children in Early Childhood in all possible Project scenarios, in a coordinated effort with other sectors and with a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach. Advocacy at national and regional levels will be a key to ensuring sustainability. This involves engaging state and departmental bodies such as the Ministries of Health and Education and the Department of Health Services on issues of childhood care and development. In addition, strengthening state policies related to social services is a priority. A main goal is ensuring that the Bill of Comprehensive Early Childhood Development is adopted. Another key issue for ensuring sustainability involves strengthening the capacities of state and local authorities for the development and implementation of policies and programs that ensure the rights of young children. Standards will be created that apply to programs at all levels, favouring early childhood programs that: • Are aligned with regional and international rights frameworks; • Are universal, equitable, inclusive, non-discriminatory, gender-sensitive and conducive to protection and development starting from the prenatal stage; • Include provisions and resources for the effective realization of rights consistent with cultural contexts; and • Include provisions and strategies to ensure cross-sector implementation. Leveraging state responsibility is a vital part of ensuring the sustainability of programme actions, and a key project action involves promoting investments in this area, which plays an important role in the country’s future economic and social development. Girls and boys aged 0-8 enjoy their right to grow up healthy and well-nourished in stimulating, safe and violence-free environments - Girls and boys under age 8 - Mothers and fathers of children under age 8 - Health officials - Education officials - Municipal and communal authorities - Child development promoters Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Belgium Plan International Finland Plan International Bolivia Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi -15.108869 -67.894324 -20.442485 -64.215695 -17.867714 -63.092916 -21.538992 -64.736193 -19.586083 -65.768795 1059228.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-LAO0047 Plan International Finland Improving access and quality of education for marginalised children in Laos Primary-school-age children in rural areas of the ethnically diverse Bokeo province of northern Laos face culture- and language-related learning issues that lead to poor school performance. This project seeks to improve educational performance in 42 primary schools in the poorest areas by expanding access, improving learning outcomes, strengthening school governance and ensuring child safety. The mountainous Bokeo Province in northern Laos is home to an 80% non-Lao population from over 40 different ethnic minorities. These ethnic groups are disproportionately poor, tend to be geographically and socially isolated, and lag behind the rest of the country in key development indicators including literacy, education, nutritional status and access to essential services. Although Laos has seen improvements in school performance nationally due to a recent focus on education, improvements in the ethnically diverse, rural provinces lag behind. Children in these areas also face issues of gender inequality, with many girls marrying under the age of 18 and women having little ‘voice’ at community levels or in interactions with social services. This is the third phase of a project started in 2009, which is implemented in 135 of the poorest schools in three districts in the Bokeo province of Laos. Implementation in 110 schools is provided by Plan Finland through the Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ylen Hyvä funding, and implementation in 25 schools is provided by Plan Switzerland. This phase of the project will address key challenges associated with a) access to education, b) quality of learning outcomes, c) school governance, management and administration and d) school safety and a healthy environment. In terms of sustained access, Plan will provide educational materials to participating schools and families, which have been widely reported by parents as being a major factor contributing to their decision to send their children, both boys and girls, to school. In addition, the project will assist children from the poorest families by providing small scale, conditional subsidies to parents to support their children’s enrolment and continued participation at school in order to remove economic barriers to education. To improve learning outcomes, the project will establish three demonstration schools (one in each district) with the goal of developing more effective teaching and learning models and pilot an expanded summer pre-school course in five schools with the assistance of external consultants and the Luang Namtha Teacher Training Centre, that will ultimately better prepare children for entry into primary school. The project will strengthen village education development committees and support the establishment of Parent Teacher Associations in 44 target schools, which will increase parental involvement and help improve school accountability. Additionally, child safety will be enhanced through disaster resilience training and promotion of positive discipline, which seeks to eliminate physical and emotional abuse in schools. Children’s clubs will provide an addition platform for safety trainings and provide additional opportunities for learning outside of school. Finally, the project will draw on previous experience in contributing to national level policy debate and development, which is particularly important with respect to quality of learning outcomes. Since girls are more marginalized throughout, this project will specifically focus on improving their situation. This project is carefully designed to fit within existing structures/policies as well as pilot new innovations that have the potential to make substantive long term impacts on learning outcomes (and thus influence policy development). That being said, the extent to which individual project activities will be sustained post project will vary by activity; these areas are listed below. Community engagement in school management through Parent Teacher Associations and other groups: It is anticipated that the higher levels of community engagement in school management and monitoring will be made sustainable by developing strong links between groups and the management of school block grants that are provided by the government. Demonstration schools: it is expected that teachers in demonstration schools will continue to utilise the developed teaching methods as a results of improved learning outcomes and increased pupil engagement. The extent to which teachers from other schools adopt and sustain such approaches will be a key subject for evaluation at the conclusion of the project. Multi-grade teaching: the expansion of multi-grade teaching will continue after project end. Investments in strengthening teacher skills in areas such as making efficient use of student classroom time are expected to be sustained post-project and it is hoped that the linkages with teacher training colleges will result in a wider and sustained application of the developed teaching methods. Finally, the most important long-term sustainable results will be the improvements in learning outcomes and awareness of gender roles resulting from the project, which will have a long-term positive impact on the lives of boys and girls involved in the project. The objective of the project is to help schools in the Bokeo province achieve the national primary education targets and goals with a focus on gender dimensions and educational quality, including: • Ensuring that all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education • Achieving gender equality in education with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in high quality basic education Primary-school-age children, teachers, teacher trainers, head teachers, village education development committees, District Education and Sports Bureaus and the Provincial Education and Sports Bureau Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Ylen Hyvä Plan International Finland Plan International Laos Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 20.216626 100.550523 20.102476 100.592376 20.741887 100.470614 844700.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-CMR0187 Plan International Finland Promoting indigenous children’s right to education in Cameroon The Baka people of southeastern Cameroon face regular discrimination and limited education opportunities. This project aims to enhance the quality of education and protection for Baka children and adolescents by increasing participation of parents, caregivers and teachers, strengthening capacity of local indigenous organisations, and creating a national network for minority rights. The Baka people are a semi-nomadic indigenous people with a population numbering roughly 30 000 in Cameroon. They are often discriminated against and marginalized due to their culture and physical features. Though they have successfully maintained their language, it is not taught in schools. Language issues, discrimination, and distance from schools result in relatively limited education for Baka children and youth. Indeed, in Cameroon as a whole, only 1 out of 10 children in rural areas has access to preschools (compared with 4 out of 10 in urban areas). This project seeks a greater realisation of the indigenous Baka girls' and boys' right to education in a safe and supportive environment, with a particular focus on mother tongue education. The aim of this project is to increase access to and completion of high-quality, culturally-sensitive basic education that will ease girls’ and boys’ transition from primary to secondary education. This project also contains an early childhood care and development component that seeks to improve children’s’ transition to primary school, e.g. through teacher training. In addition, issues of violence against children in schools and at home will be addressed. This project seeks to bring together different stakeholders in order to create a national network for mother-tongue education and indigenous rights. The following groups will be involved to help increase access to and quality of basic education for minority children: parents, caregivers and Parent Teacher Associations are involved to increase the commitment to girls' education; Civil Society Organizations are involved with advocating for minorities’ right to multilingual education; and the national government is involved in increasing teachers’ understanding and participation in multilingual education and gender-related issues at teacher training colleges. This project is part of an ongoing long-term program that began in 2003. The previous phase of the project (2012-2015) piloted an Intercultural Multilingual Education programme in selected schools that contained indigenous minorities, including training teachers on culturally-adapted, learner-centered approaches. Due to growing demands, the pilot is now being expanded to include other Baka areas (10 councils in total, up from 8). The education policy in Cameroon is currently under transition and the pilot study has been adopted as a case study by the government and other stakeholders (including UN agencies), meaning the results from this project will likely affect Cameroon's future education policy. This project’s sustainability will be ensured through the participation of communities, government partners, and other organizations involved in the project. Building the capacity of institutions will enable them to mobilize additional resources to continue implementing the Intercultural Multilingual education approach. The training of local counselors and teachers on child-rights related issues will allow them to seek additional government funds to support local schools. Finally, advocacy work and regular communication will help engage the corporate sector in funding key activities to continue promoting minority children’s right to education. The primary objective of this project is to realise the basic child rights of the underprivileged and marginalized Baka ethnic minority children, focusing on their right to education. Minority children, parents, teachers, teacher training colleges, local and national governments Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland African Institute for Economic and Social Development Mouvement Prioritaire pour les Actions En faveur de l'Enfance et de la Jeun NLC - consulting OKANI Secretariat of Education Summer Institute of Linguistics Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 4.0 14.0 311460.00 311460.00 311460.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-TMP0086 Plan International Finland Better early childhood development for a better future Child mortality rates in Timor Leste are high, around half of children under age 5 have stunted growth, and estimated pre-school enrolment was only 14% in 2013. This project seeks to enhance health and education for boys and girls age 0-5 by introducing or improving Early Childhood Care and Development programs in 29 communities and advocating for improved policies at national and district levels. Timor-Leste is among the world's poorest nations, ranking 128 out of 187 countries in the 2014 UNDP Human Development Index. Much of Timor-Leste continues to experience deep-seated poverty, particularly in isolated rural areas with minimal employment opportunities. In 2011, 52% of the population lived below the poverty line. Due to food shortages and poor nutrition, 52% of children under 5 years old are stunted (up from 40% in 2002). In addition, child mortality rates are high (64/1,000 live births), and estimated enrolment in pre-school education was only 14% in 2013. Access to basic education has improved during the recent years, with primary (grade 1-6) net enrolment of 94%. However, only 32 % of students were at the official school age when entering the first grade, dropout rates in grades 1 and 2 are high and over 70% of students leave school by Grade 9. Further, the 2010 Census indicates that only 59 per cent of children aged 6-14 with disabilities were attending school. The previous project phase (2012-2014) established and supported community pre-schools and playgroups in two districts: 20 communities in Aileu District and 9 communities in Lautem District. The work in Lautem communities ended in 2014 and was handed over to the communities, Ministry of Education and EMBLI (the Mother-Tongue project of UNESCO’s National Commission). The Ministry of Education will also take up funding for 5 of the preschools in Aileu in 2015. During the current phase, the project activities will be scaled up to 5 new communities in Aileu and 9 new communities in Ainaro district, making a total of 29 ECCD centres covered by the project by 2017. This project utilises a holistic approach to child development. In addition to work on preschool education, the project includes health education (especially for issues related to stunting and identifiable disabilities), child protection issues such as Universal Birth Registration and child protection referral system at the district level, supporting mothers and fathers to increase capacity to support their children aged 0-8 years old, and a component on Disaster Risk Reduction. The approach will promote inclusiveness and gender equality among girls, boys, mothers and fathers in the 29 programme communities in Aileu and Ainaro. The project also intends to establish an ECCD coordinating body at District level and to improve policies and practices related to ECCD at national and district levels. Project activities for this phase of the project include: • An increased focus on strengthening the quality of school readiness for girls and boys aged 5 years, in gender equal and inclusive settings so they can more effectively transition into primary school • Increase the capacity of mothers and fathers to practice child development with their children. • Regular home visits to increase the involvement of fathers. • Increasing the capacity of facilitators/community volunteers in order to better support girls and boys in regards to the child development milestones (cognitive, social-emotional, language and motoric abilities). • Increasing the capacity of facilitators to identify children with disabilities (mapping) in their own communities and enrolling girls and boys with disabilities in community pre-schools. • Advocacy to promote holistic approach to ECCD in cooperation with other civil society actors. • Strengthened cooperation with the health sector and more attention to challenges related to malnutrition The main method of ensuring project sustainability is by advocating the National Government to increase its budget for Early Childhood Care and Development programs and by encouraging the Ministry of Education and district education health authorities to make early childhood care a greater priority. In addition, several village authorities have promised to use some of their government-provided funds to support Community Pre-Schools. Our hope is that as parents’ understanding of the importance of ECCD increases, they are more willing to contribute, also financially, to the running of the preschool centres and start demanding greater support from the government for early childhood programmes. All communities are planning on continuing programme implementation for play groups and community pre-school activities even after support from Plan ends. An example of this is the successful phase out from 9 communities in Lautem district in the end of 2014. One of the ECCD centres was handed over to the Ministry of Education and 8 were handed over to the communities which will be supported by a Mother-Tongue project of UNESCO’s National Commission (EMBLI). The overall goal of the project is that all children up to the age of eight in Plan Timor-Leste target areas, especially excluded children, have access to quality and sustainable Early Childhood Care and Development, including smooth transition to primary school. Additionally, this plan seeks to support gender mainstreaming for girls, boys, mothers and fathers in all program communities by the end of 2017. Targeted direct beneficiaries: - Children aged 0-8 years - Parents - Civil Society Organisations Indirect beneficiaries: - Suco (village) facilitators - Community and local leaders - Government Ylen Hyvä Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Timor-Leste Sentro Treinamento Vocasional Maseu Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi -8.716667 125.566667 -9.083333 125.483333 -8.838056 125.597222 334190.00 334190.00 383977.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-DOM135 Plan International Finland Increasing employment prospects for young women and men Nearly a third of youth in the Dominican Republic are unemployed. This project aims to improve the employment of young women and men in southern Dominican Republic through training, advocacy, and awareness-raising. Youth will receive vocational training, educational scholarships, and entrepreneurial support and subsidies, and a forum will be established to lobby for youth economic development. The employment rate of youth in the Dominican Republic is around 30%, more than double the national unemployment rate. 58% of the unemployed are women. Only 52% of young people have some sort of technical training, due mainly to limited availability and issues of accessibility. Over a third of the population between the ages of 15 and 29 neither studies or works, with the highest concentrations of the unemployed being in rural communities and poor neighbourhoods. The most common opportunities for adolescents and young people involve informal economic activities, which do not provide stability, generally have low wages, are not under the labour code, and do not involve social security benefits. Young women are especially at risk due to high prevalence of teenage pregnancies. The Technical and Vocational Professional Training National Institute (INFOTEP) provides high quality technical and professional training in the Dominican Republic. However, it has a set of requirements that not all young men and women can fulfil. Other technical training entities—such as vocational schools, polytechnics, and technical institutes—tend to offer low-quality, out-of-date programmes that do not teach sufficient skills. The project will provide young women and men with training on life skills and vocational and entrepreneurship skills. The activities include building youth capacities and motivation and helping them search for scholarships, finance for enterprises and paid employment. The project will be working in the provinces of Azua, San Juan, Elías Piña, Barahona and Pedernales. Particular attention will be given to new technologies and private sector engagement. The project results will be supported with awareness-raising in the communities and among parents to increase understanding of the importance of youth training and the risks youth face in gaining employment. This project will set up a youth advocacy forum to lobby for economic development of youth at local and national level. This project will build capacity of the private sectors to continue supporting youth employment after the end of the project. This project involves partnering with entities and institutions that are responsible for young people’s development. These partnerships will be implemented with the goal of the partnership continuing once the project has been completed. One of the project tasks includes the creation of a youth network that will have its own responsibilities working in coordination with other actors to propose and advocate for solutions related to training, workplace access, and entrepreneurial opportunities for adolescents and young people. This project works within local and national structures, both public and private, securing their participation in order to maximize program effectiveness. General objective: to contribute to improving the quality of life of adolescents and young people by making the most of socio-economic development opportunities in the southern region of the Dominican Republic. Specific objective: to promote a model of socio-economic empowerment for adolescents and young people (between the ages of 15 and 24) by developing improved capacities and opportunities for their economic, personal and social development in coordination with relevant local and national actors. - Young women and men (youth and adolescents) - Their families - Local governments - Companies - Civil society organizations Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Dominican Republic Instituto Nacional de Formación Técnico Profesional Asociación Dominicana para el Desarrollo de la Mujer Fundación APEC de Crédito Educativo Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo International Programmes Assistant mika.valitalo@plan.fi 18.448431 -70.742896 18.813828 -71.229607 18.2165 -71.12799 18.035607 -71.747594 18.879766 -71.701694 145120.00 146670.00 205153.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-TGO0230 Plan International Finland Community-Based Rehabilitation to support girls and boys with disabilities In Togo, children with disabilities (girls especially) experience extensive discrimination. This project seeks to improve their rights to education and protection through community training and support, by strengthening Togo’s legal framework and child protection mechanisms, and by building the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to advocate for services for children with disabilities. In most traditional homes in Togo, children with disabilities are perceived and treated poorly. These children are often hidden in a room within the home, neglected, and marginalized from other family members and from the rest of the community. Some parents are ashamed and completely deny having a child with a disability. There are an estimated 306,000 children with disabilities in Togo. According to the situational analysis of child rights conducted by Plan Togo in 2010, 56.2% of these children are deprived of their right to education, compared with 23% of children without disabilities. Girls with disabilities experience double discrimination: they are less likely to get an education, receive vocational training and find employment when compared to both boys with disabilities and girls without disabilities. This project is a part of a continuing inclusion project in Togo. In this phase, project implementation will take place in three districts: Sotouboua, Tchamba and Moyen-Mono. These are among the most disadvantaged areas of the country and display extremely low school enrolment rates, especially among girls. The lack of ability for children with disabilities to perform certain activities leads to daily exclusion, violation of rights, and discrimination. These barriers do not allow young people with disabilities to participate in all aspects of community life. This project aims to empower communities to remove barriers that prohibit persons with disabilities from participating in community activities and from benefiting from community services, which include access to education, access to job opportunities, access to health services and access to recreation. The engagement of the whole community at all stages of the project is essential in integrating persons with disabilities into common programs. On the national level, Plan continues its lead role in advocating for the rights of children with a disability by directly addressing state duty bearers and by building the capacity of the national disability federation and the Child Rights coalition. Locally, civil society organisations will be strengthened, with the expectation that communities continue to manage activities after project completion. One goal of this project is to create a community-based rehabilitation model that can be used to influence national strategy and that will be adopted by other governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations. This project also seeks to improve access to education and vocational training for children and youth with disabilities, especially for girls with disabilities. One project ambition is to work with multimedia centers in these districts to train children with disabilities who demonstrate technology-related skills. In addition, this project will implement sign language, Braille and alternative communication to ensure that children with language disabilities can exercise their right to freedom of expression and opinion. Due to the financial strain resulting from some disabilities, this project will implement new programmes in Village Savings and Loans groups for families with children who are disabled. This project places an emphasis on the participation of all community members. Plan has established a ‘self- help’ methodology, where children, their families, and communities learn the skills that are needed to manage and maintain projects. This approach increases the capacity of community leaders and community-based organizations in community-based project management to continue implementing project objectives long after the end of funding. By setting up and training community-based rehabilitation committees, community members and parents will acquire the necessary skills to manage and maintain project activities. Furthermore, the involvement of the Department of Social Action, parents, and children’s clubs will help ensure continued participation in project activities. Working with the government and other relevant players is an extremely important part of ensuring long-term impact; therefore, there is a focus on advocacy to ensure budget allocation. Some project activities will always require external support, such as providing equipment for disabled children. This is a long-term process in the sense that, as the child grows, the unit must be modified and/or replaced, and the device costs can be prohibitive for most parents. This issue will be addressed by linking with other NGOs whose focus is purely on disabilities and by advocating the government for better support for people with disabilities. Before the end of the project, a phase-out strategy will be developed and implemented to prepare communities and other organisations to take over project activities. Finally, the most important sustainable outcome of this project will be a change in attitude and behaviour in communities toward people with disabilities. By working to change the public’s perception of people with disabilities and by practically increasing and realising their rights, we hope to see a long-term decrease in discrimination and greater participation of people with disabilities as fully participating members of society. To ensure the equal rights and protection of girls and boys with disabilities in their own communities through national advocacy and strengthening community-based protection mechanisms. - Girls and boys with disabilities - Parents of children with disabilities - Communities - Local Civil Society organisations - Togo government Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Association for the Deaf of Togo Monde Radieux Handicap International Belle Porte Forum des Organisations de Défense des Droits des Enfants au Togo Christian Blind Mission United Nations Development Programme Fédération Togolaise des Associations de Personnes Handicapées Plan International Togo UNICEF Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 7.177844 1.537914 8.566667 0.983333 9.033333 1.416667 299801.00 299802.00 299802.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-KEN100277 Plan International Finland The Early Childhood Care and Development program in Kenya Only 60% of children in Kenya aged 3 to 6 years participate in early childhood care and development programmes. This project aims to increase involvement and improve the services of 80 ECCD centres, which includes constructing centres, providing teaching & learning materials, training teachers, creating parenting groups, and collaborating with governments and others for increased resources. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 71 million children under age 5 lack the nurture, care, and stimulation they will need to benefit from primary education. In Kenya, where Plan has worked since 1982, 40% of children aged 3 to 6 years are not participating in early childhood care and development programmes. Poverty is widespread, with over 58% of the population living below the poverty line, which affects the ability of the poor to meet educational costs for their children. Additionally, the status of maternal and child health is poor, the commitment to early childhood care is weak, there are increasing cases of child abuse, and the number of orphans and other vulnerable children is on the rise. Early Childhood Care and Development programs address the different needs and rights of a child during their early years by integrating aspects of health, nutrition, protection, intellectual stimulation, exploration and active learning as well as social and emotional care and nurturing. This project uses the Plan-developed Community Led Action for Children model to improve early childhood care and development in project areas. This model includes a parenting education program that improves knowledge and practical skills to benefit child health, learning and protection in the home and wider community; establishing and maintaining low –cost, high- quality early childhood centers that serve every child in the year or two before primary school; focusing on the transition to primary school with school- and community-based activities that enable disadvantaged children to enter school on time, stay in primary school, and learn effectively; and integrating public/private partnerships to ensure that health, education, and human services reach the most vulnerable children. The project will work with 80 centres, by rehabilitating or constructing some centres, improving water and sanitation facilities, providing teaching and learning materials, and providing training for teachers. In addition, 96 parenting groups will be formed which aim to improve parents’ knowledge and practical skills. There is also a focus on easing girls’ and boys’ transition to primary school. In addition, the project aims to increase collaboration with county governments and other like-minded partners to encourage increased resource allocations for government child care and development services and programs and to ensure that county strategic plans for education are well implemented. The direct target group includes 8000 girls and 8000 boys 0-8 years old as well as 6000 primary caregivers (3000 women and 3000 men). These actions will take place in four project areas (Homa Bay, Bondo, Kisumu, and Kwale). This particular project is a continuing phase of a long-term programme started in 2012. This project provides opportunities for communities to acquire skills in the following areas: parenting, child rights, health, nutrition, and income generation. This should allow community members to carry on programme initiatives after the programme ends. In addition, relationships between communities and key government ministries and departments (including the District Centre for Early Childhood Care and Development, which provides technical support) will be strengthened through this programme, easing future early childhood care and development implementation. Over 50 Community-based organizations will be involved in the implementation of these childhood care programmes. The project will utilize community strengths and resources, including use of locally available materials. The caregivers at the community-based centres are volunteers who will continue to devote their time and services after the project phase ends. Plan will provide necessary training on child care and development and on income-generation activities to ensure volunteers’ participation in programme implementation is worthwhile. The overall objective of this project is that girls and boys aged 0-8 in the project areas enjoy their right to grow up in a nurturing, stimulating, safe and clean environment protected from violence by improving the quality and accessibility of early childhood care and development programs. - Girls and boys age 0-8 - Parents/caregivers - ECCD teachers and primary school teachers - Government officials - Communities Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Kenya Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi -0.535833 34.455893 -0.10261 34.274211 -0.098662 34.760213 -4.175417 39.452548 1196157.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-FLN0001 Plan International Finland Engaging people in Finland to promote children’s rights around the world This project provides opportunities for children, young people, and adults in Finland to become active global citizens for the promotion and realization of children’s rights around the world. In addition, this project seeks to enhance the education of global children’s rights issues in Finland. Plan Finland’s global citizenship education focuses on the education, participation and advocacy of global child rights issues in Finland. The Global Citizenship Education project includes funding and managing the following groups: Plan Global School works with schools and youth forums through Child Rights’ Ambassadors, who provide participatory lessons on child rights and development work. Components include training educators on human rights related subjects, development of early childhood education programmes, and maintaining cooperation between Finnish and Ugandan schools to strengthen participatory school governance. The Children’s Board is a forum for participatory advocacy and awareness-raising for children. The emphasis is on peer-to-peer awareness raising activities. Training is provided on relevant aspects in order to strengthen the capacity of members and motivate them to speak out about global children’s rights. Continued cooperation with the Vietnamese young media club raises awareness of violence against children. Under the Regional project in Asia (CSO Strengthening in Asia for Increased Child Protection), opportunities and platforms are continuously explored to share the outcomes of the cooperation between the children in Finland and Vietnam at sub-regional and regional levels. The Young Adults’ Network (“Mitä verkosto”) arranges a national awareness-raising campaign every year that targets young people, the general population, or decision makers, depending on the topic. Cooperation with global partners in Pakistan and the Dominican Republic on Youth Economic Empowerment and gender are the main focus areas. The network supports partners in developing youth engagement models and sharing campaigning experiences. Volunteers actively participate in local events and national campaigns to raise awareness of child rights around the country (e.g. on the Day of the Girl). Training components for volunteers will be further developed in order to strengthen their communication skills regarding these issues. In general, the aim is to increase the number of active volunteers and locations where volunteering is possible. This project engages people at different phases of life through various groups (the Children’s Board, Young Adults’ Network, Child Rights Ambassadors and volunteers). The aim is that the training and empowering of children, young adults and volunteers on children’s rights, the development situation, and in participatory advocacy will result in long-term societal change. By changing ways of thinking and involving individuals as agents of change, sustainability is an in-built component of the project plan. This project also focuses on ensuring that relevant Child Rights-related content is embedded in formal education structures with the cooperation of education authorities. In addition, there is a teacher-training component of Global Citizenship Education for both current and upcoming teachers, with the aim of sustainably strengthening global citizenship education in Finland’s formal education system. Ultimately, Plan Finland’s development programmes are best supported by influencing political and structural changes. Since advocacy is a strong focus of this project, the resulting long-term goals (changing attitudes, influencing decision makers and increasing engagement) will help support long-term sustainable development. Main goal: Children, young adults, education professionals and the general public in Finland become increasingly aware of and understand the realization of child rights and social justice as part of global development, and take action for the promotion of global responsibility. Children, young adults, education professionals and the general pu Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 60.196635 24.943106 1470000.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-ETH102105 Plan International Finland Combating harmful practices and gender-based violence in Ethiopia This project aims to contribute to the reduction of child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and gender-based violence in Ethiopia by increasing awareness of the negative effects of these harmful practices and by strengthening existing government-, school-, and community-based protection mechanisms. Despite the positive progress in the economic development of the nation, Ethiopia still struggles with deep traditional, social and economic practices that place powerful constraints on girls’ rights. The prevailing harmful practices and gender-based violence in Ethiopia are physically, emotionally and psychologically harmful to a large number of children; girls in particular. Uvula cutting, tonsillectomy, milk teeth extraction, abduction, Female Genital Mutilation and child marriage are some of the most prevalent harmful practices in the country. The average prevalence of FGM in Plan Ethiopia implementation districts is 51%, and the prevalence of child marriage in most districts is over 20%, with the number exceeding 50% in Amhara. This project, a continuing joint initiative by Plan Finland and Plan Sweden, is implemented in the Amhara, Oromiya, Gambella, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's (SNNP) regional states in Ethiopia. The overall objective of the project is to ensure that all girls and boys enjoy their right to protection from all forms of violence within functional child protection systems in the implementation regions. This project seeks to improve protection mechanisms and community practices against FGM, Child Marriage and sexual violence against girls and enable more effective responses to violence. Taking into account the experiences from earlier stages, the current phase of the project will increasingly focus on empowering in- and out-of-school girls in life skills, financial literacy and income-generating activities and improve the availability of psychosocial support to girls affected by harmful practices. Plan and its partners will lobby to prioritise issues of FGM, child marriage and sexual violence against girls in policy dialogue. Further, the project endeavours to improve the institutional capacity of Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and government institutions. The program strategy focuses on strengthening government structures, schools, community based organisations and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) at all levels. By growing the relevant knowledge and skills of these institutional and community players, their protection activities are expected to remain sustainable. Moreover, strengthening the networks of government stakeholders and CSOs will promote learning and cooperation among member organizations that will continue after project phase-out. In addition, project activities will be integrated into existing government and community structures such as primary schools, the health system, and various sector offices at the district level. The involvement and capacity building of CSOs on child protection issues will enable CSOs to continue implementing project activities after phase-out. Improve the protection mechanisms and community practices against female genital mutilation, child marriage and gender based violence in Ethiopia. Girls (main target), boys, men, women , parents, communities, community –based organisations, government SIDA Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland HUNDEE Oromo Grassroots Development Initiative Professional Alliance for Development Plan International Ethiopia Plan International Sweden KMG-Ethiopia Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 11.929798 37.751657 8.536067 39.27036 6.284177 36.643496 8.989798 38.75703 8.223622 34.587307 944638.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-ETH102106 Plan International Finland Enhancing early childhood care & development services in Ethiopia Access to care and development services for young children in Ethiopia is very limited. This project seeks to improve the wellbeing of the most disadvantaged children in two districts in Ethiopia by increasing access and quality of early learning programs. This includes establishing new learning centres, improving parental and facilitator training, and increasing community involvement. Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa with a population of over 90 million. Approximately 84% of the population lives in rural areas. Despite significant economic growth over the last decade, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Early childhood programmes have received limited attention in the country, in spite of the fact that 19% of the Ethiopian population are children under the age of six. As of 2010/2011 only about 5% out of the estimated 7.31 million children of the appropriate age group (ages 4-6) had access to formal pre-primary education. In 2010 the government introduced a new policy: the Early Childhood Care and Education Policy Framework. However, comprehensive resources have not yet been released for its implementation, meaning that access to care and development services for young children is still limited. This project is a continuation of a programme that began in 2012. In this phase, the project is expanded into 12 new rural communities in the Toke Kutaye and Bolososore districts in the Oromiya and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' regions of Ethiopia. This project takes a holistic approach to early childhood care and development in order to address all spheres of development, including health, nutrition and protection. Particular attention will be given to children from disadvantaged communities, ethnic minorities, children with special needs and children living in remote geographical areas. Steps are also taken to systematically strengthen the resilience of children and their communities to respond to natural disasters. Taking into account recent research and survey findings, the following gender-related issues are addressed: gender-related division of duties in the home, low involvement of fathers in child care and development, and discrimination toward female teachers. In addition, the following issues will be tackled: inadequate teachers’ and caregivers’ pedagogical expertise, lack of local materials, lack of awareness of the importance of educating children with disabilities, and the absence of early childhood programs that benefit disadvantaged children. This project will also encourage parenting group involvement by integrating nutrition interventions, Village Savings and Loan Associations, Savings and Credit Organizations and Cooperative Learning education into the programme. Finally, the project also seeks to assist governing bodies at the national, regional, zonal, district and community levels to manage early childhood care and development interventions. Networking, advocacy, and communication components will raise awareness of the national policy framework and increase community and government support to increase investment in early childhood care and development programs. Plan International Ethiopia is committed to overall sustainability of both program interventions and the results achieved through the program. Developments in knowledge, skills and support systems, as well as linkages with the government health extension program, will help make the parenting education program highly sustainable. On the other hand, the pre-school program presents a bigger challenge, due to the recurrent costs—namely, incentives for facilitators—that must continue to be met. Ideally, local governments will provide support for running costs; for this reason, Plan has set out to establish a long-term partnership with government entities from the programme’s inception. Plan will enhance the requisite capacities of District Education and Training Boards, PTAs, and implementing partners, both organizationally and technically, to have the tools and skills necessary to continue to provide quality services. The goal of capacity development is to ultimately allow organizations to provide effective coordination, training, quality service delivery and other forms of support to marginalized children and their families. Access to Village Savings and Loan Associations, Savings and Credit Organisations, and viable income-generating programs will be provided to the parenting groups as early as possible to help parents share the costs of education. Cost-recovery mechanisms such as user fees or in–kind contributions (e.g. volunteer work, cereals, grains, construction material) will also be encouraged. Moreover, Plan will work in partnership with indigenous partners who have years of experience implementing development projects with excellent recognition across communities and in regional states. These partners have deep roots in the communities they serve and a strong desire to ensure the wellbeing of children in their communities beyond the end of the program. Main Goal: That all targeted girls and boys (0-8 years) grow to their full potential in a nurturing, stimulating, safe and clean environment protected from violence. This will be accomplished by increasing parental and guardian knowledge and skills, supporting the equal participation of boys and girls in quality early learning programs, enhancing school and community support for transitions to primary school, and supporting government and non-government to work in partnership to ensure the development and protection of children at community, district, regional and national levels. Girls and boys under age 8, parents and caregivers, ECCD center facilitators, early grade school teachers and principals, community volunteers, local governments Plan International Finland Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Ratson Women, Youth and Children Development Program Plan International Ethiopia Wolaitta Development Association Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 8.971302 37.760807 7.05 37.4 830000.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-DOM136 Plan International Finland Protecting girls and boys through social accountability and advocacy Child abuse and gender-related violence is a pressing issue in the Dominican Republic. This continuing project aims to minimize the amount of violence against women, girls, and boys by raising awareness, by providing advocacy and capacity-building support for community-based organizations, and by working with authorities at various levels to strengthen the National Protection System. According to data from the ENHOGAR 2006 survey, 86 % of children and young people between the ages of 6 and 13 in the Dominican Republic are disciplined using physical and psychological punishment methods within their families. Though legislation exists to protect children from violence, a culture of tolerance for violence still exists in the Dominican Republic, much of which is gender-related. The main problem in this area is not an absence of laws, but the weak application of existing legislation. Legislation is dispersed, resources for its enforcement are limited, and the public and implementing authorities are largely ignorant of current laws and relevant policies. The project seeks to contribute to fulfilling children’s and adolescents’ rights in the Dominican Republic, especially the right to protection from all types of violence. This project focuses on child protection, with an emphasis on strengthening the democratic governance processes at local and national levels. The project has been constructed based on the conviction that all of the strategies for preventing and providing a response to violence against children should take the gender dimension into account, by challenging gender stereotypes that directly or indirectly promote violence against children (which by definition includes tackling violence against women). Therefore, the intervention seeks to tackle the problem of gender-based violence against children in the Dominican Republic. Through this project we seek to raise awareness in Dominican society about the gender dimensions of violence against children and to increase the negotiation and advocacy abilities of community-based organisations and civil society networks to influence decision makers at a local and national level, in order to ensure that sustainable links between civil society and the government are developed. The project also seeks to impact candidates in presidential, congressional and municipal elections that will be held in 2016, in order to ensure that they prioritise the protection of children from violence in their political programmes. At the same time, the adoption of an active and responsible citizenry will be promoted among the population. This is an important step towards democratic governance as it opens the channels for civil society as well as interest groups to demand greater responsibility by both parties, by generating and sustaining a citizenry-government dynamic that significantly supports the reforms. The long-term societal impact of this project has four aspects: First, communities will be aware of the gender dimensions of violence against children. Second, civil society will be more organised and empowered in rights enforceability, leading to a more participative democratic process. Third, this project will promote the application of legislation that protects, assists and prevents violence against women and children, reducing the number of cases of violence and cultivating a more gender-equal society. Finally, we will be promoting a more active and responsible citizenry. Building the capacity of civil society organisations and community based organizations should impact the country’s democratic reforms. The training aspects of the project will focus on contents and processes that strengthen the capacity for continued advocacy for children’s rights with other national and local governmental entities. The project also proposes coordination mechanisms between civil society and the state at national, provincial and municipal levels, which are expected to be adopted by authorities at all these levels and will continue to function after project completion. Finally, a strategy will be developed to ensure the sustainability of community protection networks in the medium and long term, not just in terms of financial resources but also for staff turnover. Plan will coordinate with community organisations, particularly with management committees, as well as with other tiers of the protection system at municipal level (e.g. Local Protection and Rights Restitution Boards) and provincial level (e.g. Provincial Protection Networks) to ensure that the community protection network continues to function effectively after project completion. The main objective of the project is to promote children’s rights to protection against all forms of violence by strengthening the role of community and civil society involvement in rights promotion. Children aged 8-12, adolescents ages 13-18, young men aged 18-24, families, schools, community and religious leaders, civil society networks, community based organisations, congress, political candidates Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Dominican Republic National Council for Childhood and Adolescence Coalition for Children NGO Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Plan Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 18.448431 -70.742896 18.813828 -71.229607 18.2165 -71.12799 18.035607 -71.747594 18.879766 -71.701694 18.474976 -69.949312 192784.00 186650.00 206114.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-PAK0267 Plan International Finland Increasing accessibility to Technical, Vocational & Education training This is a continuation of Plan’s "Building Futures with Rural Youth" project in the Chakwal district. This project seeks to ensure that young women and men have access to youth-friendly microfinance structures, quality and market-driven vocational and technical training, and life skills and enterprise development training in order to become economically empowered through self- or paid employment. Pakistan is undergoing a dramatic demographic transition. The total population of Pakistan is 184 million (2013 estimates) with a youth population (15-29 yrs) of 55 million, 62% of whom live in rural areas. The vast majority of those living in rural areas work directly or indirectly in agriculture, with a majority being under-employed and engaged in unskilled manual work. There are few opportunities to improve their technical/vocational skills and capacities. The situation for young women is especially difficult. Gender relations in Pakistan rest on rigid patriarchal perceptions that place restrictions on girls’ and women’s behavior, permitting them only limited contact with the opposite sex and limiting their mobility. This general attitude combined with inadequate facilities for learning vocational and technical skills severely limits women’s employment possibilities. The project is a continuation of Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ funded on-going project “Youth Economic Empowerment (YEE) through Creating Access to Quality Market Driven Technical Vocational & Education Training (TVET) and Business Development in District Chakwal.”The Pakistani Government provides TVET (Technical, Vocational & Education Training) institutions. Unfortunately, due to their design for school graduates of specific age, qualification and sex, these institutions are largely inaccessible to those who need them most: uneducated and impoverished young girls and boys. This is an especially challenging situation for girls, who regularly face discrimination and do not always have the opportunity to finish their education. The current phase of this project has two main focuses: (1) increasing accessibility to Technical, Vocational & Education training for youth—including disabled youth—from the most marginalized communities; and (2) strengthening components related to gender mainstreaming, ICT4D, disaster risk management, and youth-led advocacy for resource allocation. This project seeks to address these issues using the following strategies: 1. Capacity building at youth group level to enable them to conduct research, mass awareness, advocacy and social dialogue with key stakeholders including the international community. 2. Promoting market-based TVET and skill-based employment and enterprise promotion both in the formal and informal economy. 3. Advocating public, private, and social sector organizations for policy and institutional support including strengthening of selected local TVET Institutions to promote YEE agenda. 4. Introducing innovative ICT4V and POI Mapper software to continually monitor progress and maximize project effectiveness. In addition, this project will support existing TVET institutions and structures to: • develop demand-led, competency based, accredited curricula • establish operational linkages between employers and institutes, who support job placements and apprenticeships, • introduce workforce skills and enterprise development trainings • introduce current instructional methods, including problem-based learning • introduce quality assurance mechanisms through establishing systematic monitoring and evaluation systems • instruct staff on new course material and pedagogies • engage management and teachers of TVET institutes to improve access by disadvantaged youth and particularly young women and those living with disabilities. As a result of these initiatives, youth are expected to be able to increase levels of economic engagement (self or paid employment) in traditional and non-traditional occupations in an environment where local communities and parents recognize and encourage youth, particularly young women, to become socially and economically active members of society. All stakeholders (young women and men, communities, parents, TVET Institutes, public, private and social sector organizations etc.) will play a part in implementing the project and consequently continuing with its sustainability. The project will be implemented in line with the Action Plan for the National Youth Policy and skills policy at district levels. At present, policy legislation has been comprehensively designed but minimally implemented. In addition, skills training has been devolved to the mandate of provincial governments. This project will represent a flagship programme at both district and provincial levels, providing recommendations to the Pakistani Government for how to proceed in the future. Social and environmental sustainability Environmental factors will be considered in the choice of which vocational subjects to support. Plan and implementing partners will work with young people and TVET institutions to ensure that vocational practices are environmentally sustainable and mitigate disaster risks; e.g., participants will be asked during trainings to complete an environment checklist to ensure that no adverse environmental consequences are occurring due to the use of technology or production methods. Financial sustainability Financial sustainability will be secured by strengthening the capacity of the target households to maximise their opportunities for employment or self-employment, diversify income and build sustainable asset bases. The project hopes to strengthen the quality, relevance and demand for TVET services. Increased enrolment, in turn, will help bring about economies of scale for TVET institutions. In addition, the minimal investment in classrooms and tools will be made only after ascertaining that the infrastructure will continue to be maintained by institutions after the project has been completed. Phase-out strategy: The phase out strategy will support TVET institutes and allow them to sustainably carry out its operations by offering trainings for uneducated school dropouts who display career growth potential. Attitudinal change will be brought about at the community level through concerted awareness campaigns and at the Government level through youth advocacy. Disadvantaged youth, particularly young women, are socially and economically empowered to improve their position in society. This will be accomplished through better access to quality market-driven training and financial services; increased assets, agency, and skills to seek employment or entrepreneurship; better recognition and encouragement from communities and parents; ensuring that policies, plans, practices and products of government, private sector and training institutions are responsive to the employment needs of marginalised youth, especially young women. Young women and men, parents and community members, training institutions, provincial and national governments. Plan International Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Bedari Institute of Rural Management IRM Plan International Pakistan Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Mika Välitalo mika.valitalo@plan.fi 32.935779 72.865264 719856.00 FI-PRO-1498487-2-PAK0210 Plan International Finland Access to quality market driven Technical, Vocational & Education Training The project tackles youth unemployment in Pakistan with a target of 30,000 youth from Chakwal. Its objective is that youth from targeted areas, particularly young women, are socially and economically empowered to improve their position in society. Youth will have access to youth friendly micro finance schemes, vocational and technical training, life skills and enterprise development trainings. Pakistan’s economy has lost growth momentum since last 3 years; it is averaging around 2.6% as against 5.3% (last 8 years). Independent estimates suggest that poverty rate may have increased to an astonishing 43% of the total population estimated at 177.1 million in 2011. Pakistan is undergoing a dramatic demographic transition with approximately 66% of the total population below the age of twenty nine . The constitution of Pakistan gives equal rights to both men and women but in practice women are more confined to the family and household activities, comprising unpaid household work and farm and off-farm activities. The main hurdles to women’s employment are social customs and traditions, illiteracy and limited facilities to vocational and technical skills learning. The primary reason for youth unemployment is the lack of the education, life, vocational and technical skills. Youth Economic Empowerment Project (YEE) overall objective: Youth from the targeted areas, particularly young women, are socially and economically empowered to improve their position in society. Specific objectives: 1. Youth have access to youth friendly micro finance schemes, quality and market driven vocational and technical training, Life skills and enterprise development trainings to pursue economic occupations on self-employment or paid employment basis. 2. Youth particularly young women from the targeted areas increase their levels of economic work (self or paid employment) in traditional and non-traditional occupations. 3. Local communities and parents recognize and encourage youth, particularly young women, to become socially and economically active members of society. 4. By the end of year-3, Plan has a documented and tested a multi-stakeholder (e.g. private/public actors) intervention strategy for YEE that is culturally appropriate, applicable, promotes gender equality and is locally owned with particular focus on young women. The project is premised on pragmatic collaboration and sustainable partnerships between Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) providers and formal and non-formal sector-based industry and business. It strengthens existing TVET institutions and focuses on building institutional capacity to review and improve training models and competency-based curricula. As such it strengthens the quality, relevance and demand for TVET services. Increased enrolment, again, brings scale economies for the TVET institutes concerned. Minimal investments in classrooms and tools are only made after ascertaining that the infrastructure can be maintained by the institutions beyond the scope of the funding. Formal and non-formal businesses, again, are drawn to the project because it leads to savings in recruitment and training costs and as such, has high value also in the long term. The project is aligned with the National Youth Policy and its accompanying Action Plan, thus supporting the government in its youth employment agenda. At the same time, it builds the capacity of District-level youth forums to advocate for enhanced enforcement and inclusiveness of the Policy and to engage government on youth-focused, sustainable funding mechanisms, such as cost-sharing, loan schemes and ex-post fee structures. In order to ensure sustainability at the grassroots-level, communities play an active role in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project. Participants for basic workforce preparation trainings are selected through participatory, community-based methods that ensure the involvement of young men and women. From an environmental perspective, Plan and its implementing partner work with young people and TVET institutes to ensure that vocational practices are environmentally sustainable and mitigate disaster risks. The objectives of the programme include 1) Youth have access to youth friendly microfinance schemes, quality and market driven vocational and technical training, life skills and enterprise development trainings; 2) Youth, particularly young women, from the targeted areas increase their levels of economic work (self or paid employment) in traditional and non-traditional occupations; 3) Local communities and parents increasingly recognize and encourage youth, particularly young women, to become socially and economically active members of society. - Unemployed rural youth,especially young women and youth with disabilities. - Existing Technical Vocational & Education Training Institutes - Selected companies - Government Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Institute of Rural Management IRM National Rural Support Programme NRSP Plan International Pakistan Plan International Finland Akvo Foundation Plan International Finland Plan International Finland Suvi Halttula Program Manager +35896869800 Suvi.Halttula@plan.fi https://plan.fi/ Kumpulantie 3, 6th floor, 00520 Helsinki 32.931099 72.855086 33.729388 73.093146 263311.00 218677.00 113385.00