RFI_-_Liberia_Youth_Activity.pdf

Section 1 ACTIVITY TITLE

The name of the anticipated activity is Liberia Youth Activity.

Section 2 THEORY OF CHANGE SUMMARY

If youth gain relevant skills and have opportunities for social and economic engagement AND if the enabling environment supports youth productivity THEN youth will be more economically self-reliant and resilient.

Section 3: TARGET BENEFICIARIES

Target beneficiaries are urban and rural youth between the ages of 15-29 are as follows:

1) Youth with marginal literacy and vocational skills, working in the informal sector.

2) Youth who have a primary or lower secondary level of basic education.

3) Soon to graduate and unemployed college graduates seeking work in the private or public sectors.

Section 4: CONTEXT

Background

4.1 Youth demographics:

Liberia’s total population is 4.9 million; of this, 70 percent are youth1. Approximately, 3.2 million Liberians are under the age of 35; specifically, 63 percent of Liberia’s population is under the age of 25 and 42 percent are less than 15 years old.2 There are approximately five percent more females than males in the 15-34 age range, and the transition from being a dependent to becoming a spouse or household head happens earlier for girls: 50 percent are married or household heads by aged 24 years, compared to age 28 for men3. Youth are more concentrated in urban areas. Just over 40 percent of the population of Greater Monrovia is age 15 to 35, compared to 33 percent of the population in rural areas4.

Many youth have only reached low levels of education, and basic skills such as vocational skills and employability skills are limited. Over 50 percent of females between 25 to 34 years old have no schooling5. While younger cohorts of females have higher educational attainment and more closely match that of males the same age, education levels are still very low in Liberia. For example, in 2010 around 60 percent of both males and females 15 to 19 years old had no or incomplete primary education6. In addition, there are significant gender and regional disparities in literacy. For example, 72 percent of males over age 15 are literate, compared with just 48 percent of females7. In urban areas, 75 percent of Liberians over age 15 are literate, compared with 43 percent of those in rural areas8.

Ibid.

Op.cit. Ministry of Youth & Sports, 2019.

World Bank, Republic of Liberia: Liberia Skills Development Constraints for Youth in the Informal Sector, January 31, 2016, pg.14.

Ibid., pg 14.

Op.cit. World Bank, 2016, pg.72.

Op.cit. World Bank, 2016, pg.72.

Op.cit. World Bank, 2016, pg. 17.

Op.cit. World Bank, 2016, pg. 17.

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/25360/ACS18530-REVISED-PUBLIC.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

4.2 Challenges:

Youth are both a demographic dividend and a concern: they are able-bodied and willing to contribute to economic growth but without sufficient educational and vocational skills often find employment hard to obtain, leading to youth marginalization. Many of the older youth in Liberia were exposed to a wide range of traumatic experiences, including forced recruitment into armed groups, violence, substance abuse and victimization as a result of the fourteen years of conflict that ended several years ago. Today’s youth face the daily stresses of poverty, food insecurity and deprivation due to the continued economic downturn in an already impoverished country.

To better understand the overall situation of Liberian youth, USAID/Liberia commissioned the “USAID Youth Power” Learning project to conduct a cross-sectoral youth assessment in 2018.

The challenges facing Liberian youth identified by the assessment are myriad and multi-dimensional.

The major findings follow9:

Overwhelmingly, education is the number one aspiration among youth, and is strongly linked to—and very often equated with—earning a livelihood. Youth stress that education is most relevant when tied to job intermediation and entrepreneurship support.

Youth are often involved in multiple income-earning activities to support themselves and their families. Agriculture plays many important roles for both rural and urban youth: as a means of survival, as a stepping stone to other livelihood opportunities, and as a desired livelihood in and of itself.

Teenage pregnancy—often a result of transactional sex due to poverty—is a compounding factor that negatively affects young mothers who are forced to leave school to raise children, perpetuating the cycle of lack of education and poverty.

Youth face daily life disruptions due to security issues (crime, corruption, safety). Girls who are economically vulnerable are especially at risk of violence, rape, and sexual coercion in the home, at school, in the street, and in the workplace.

Pervasive substance abuse problem is a salient concern among youth. Drug-related problems are more present in urban areas, with youth in Monrovia naming it as a serious concern.

While some youth interviewed appeared satisfied with the level of youth involvement in community processes and decision-making; others were more skeptical and wanted to see a tangible result of their efforts.

Many youth see political engagement as a transaction, such as a source of income, as a way to earn food or clothing, or as a way to obtain a job or avoid political fall-out.

Youth have few outlets for positive engagement, especially outside Monrovia, and express a need for youth-friendly safe spaces where they can express themselves, learn from others, take on leadership roles, and engage meaningfully in society.

Liberia’s overall economic downturn compounds challenges for youth. The percentage of wage employment for youth is only 16.5 percent while non-wage, informal sector employment is 83.5 percent.10 Of those actively engaged in employment activities, approximately 80 percent of Liberians and 82 percent of youth aged 25-34 are self-employed or contributing family

Blum, Rachel, N’Tow, Saah, Woolf, Lindsey, Jessee, Cassandra. USAID/Liberia Youth Situational Analysis. February 7, 2019. The assessment utilized a positive youth development lens to capture the experiences of Liberian youth across a number of sectors.

Op.cit. Ministry of Youth & Sports, 2019 https://www.youthpower.org/resources/liberia-youth-situational-analysis members11. Consequently, youth, like most of the population, rely on multiple, yet weak, income streams for economic security. This lack of robust economic opportunity results in many youth remaining idle and without specific activities that facilitate their maturity and growth. With less than 30 percent of the population as older, seasoned adults, youth’s unhealthy behaviors are aggravated by a lack of guidance, support, mentorship, and healthy role models.

Teenage pregnancy—often a result of transactional sex due to poverty—negatively affects young women who are forced to leave school to raise their children on their own, as well as the children who eventually become young people raised in poverty. In 2013, well over one third (37.0%) of young women between the ages of 20-24 gave birth before the age of 18, giving Liberia one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world12. According to the youth assessment, many young girls attribute teenage pregnancy to the transactional sex that they engage in to earn money for school fees, food and other basic needs. The high rate of teenage pregnancy is also perpetuated by misconceptions around reproductive health and family planning.

On the whole, Liberian youth are not constructively engaged to fully realize their potential.

Despite youth being a major voting block and strong supporter of the current Administration’s rise to power, promises and expectations remain unfulfilled, leading to disillusionment on the part of youth. This disillusionment combined with limited economic opportunities is leaving the youth in Liberia disempowered, disengaged and disenfranchised.

4.3 The importance of livelihoods:

The Liberia Youth Activity will support market-driven, locally relevant educational and training opportunities to prepare young people to earn a livelihood and become productive members of society. The overall goal of the Activity will be to increase the economic self-reliance and resilience of targeted Liberian youth, with livelihoods development leading to increased incomes as the underlying theme. Livelihoods development will serve as the foundational base upon which other youth-supportive structures can be built. The rationale for the emphasis on youth livelihoods development is the following:

Liberian youth have identified education that is strongly linked to earning a livelihood as their number one aspiration.

USAID/Liberia projects and activities that were not initially designed to address youth livelihoods found that there was a great need and demand by youth for livelihoods support. For example, the mid-term evaluation of the Forest Incomes for Environmental Sustainability (FIFES) https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00T5TC.pdf activity found that community forest programming raised expectations about livelihoods, and that “male youth in the focus groups unanimously wanted to be engaged in remunerated work.”

Young pregnant women participating in the USAID Learning Links activity expressed a desire to transition to vocational training. The final performance evaluation of USAID’s Advancing Youth Project (AYP) recommended integrating short-term, practical skills training into accelerated basic education programs. Moreover, it stated, “solutions should not stop at just the provision of education. [The] best way [to] engage youth in positive youth development is also showing we are addressing their livelihoods needs.”

World Bank. International Development Association Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Credit in the Amount of SDR 7.2 million

(US$10.0 million equivalent) to the Republic of Liberia for a Youth Opportunities Project. October 15, 2015

UNFPA, https://www.unfpa.org/data/adolescent-youth/LR, data derived from 2013 Demographic Health Survey https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00T5TC.pdf https://www.unfpa.org/data/adolescent-youth/LR

Global research suggests that developing countries such as Liberia should focus their youth employment interventions on “resurgent opportunities in the informal sector.” 13 In Liberia, well over three-quarters (78 percent) of the population is engaged in “vulnerable” employment with inadequate earnings, low productivity and difficult work conditions, and youth are no exception14. Youth from all backgrounds are involved in multiple income-earning activities, characterized by low paying self-employment in the informal sector, in order to support themselves and their families.

Developing human capital in the informal sector will play a large role in growing Liberia’s economy in the near-term. Agriculture is likely to remain the largest source of employment for most Liberian youth (currently the sector represents an estimated 70% of the total labor force). At the same time, Liberia is witnessing a demand in the services sector (including construction, telecommunications, retail, hospitality, and vehicle repair), sustainable energy, as well as in public service jobs like teaching, child care, and health care.

The Liberia Youth Activity will be intentional in targeting youth cohorts, paying attention to vulnerable youth segments in targeting and tracking activity interventions.

Section 5 KEY LEVERAGE POINTS

5.1 Long and established relationship with relevant Government of Liberia ministries:

USAID’s principal Liberian education partners are the Ministries of Youth and Sports (MOYS) and Education (MOE). Both ministries have been consulted on activity designs and planning in order to ensure that activities respond to Liberia as well as USAID priorities, and that the successful interventions are sustained and replicated. The Liberia Youth Activity will leverage these relationships and establish additional relationships with other related GOL ministries and agencies as needed. This approach embodies USAID’s Journey to Self-Reliance principles of country ownership and leadership, consultation and coordination, and seeks to utilize them in order to leverage greater overall development impact.

5.2 Cross-sectoral collaboration:

The youth assessment findings listed above make clear that focusing on education and training alone to improve livelihoods will not be enough. In order to address the complex interrelationship of the multiple barriers to youth economic success that arise out of other sectors, the Liberia Youth Activity will use an intentional, integrated approach that is cross sectoral in nature. In other words, improved livelihoods will be the focal point around which supportive interventions from other sectors (e.g., health, governance, civil society, social protection, etc.) will be engaged. Linkages between the activity and other efforts to promote better health, including reproductive and sexual health, and civic education for youth are encouraged.

Boosting youth earnings in the informal sector involves the development of transferrable skills (soft skills), entrepreneurship and other work-ready skills among youth. It also requires an expansion of youth’s access to finance and the offering of other supports that are necessary to increase and sustain youth earnings. Importantly, targeting rural areas and the agriculture sector are important for reaching a wide swathe of more vulnerable youth.

Fox, Louise and Upaasna Kaul, The evidence is in: How should youth employment programs in low-income countries be designed?, 2017.

The World Bank. (https://data.worldbank.org). Derived using 2017 data from International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database. Data retrieved in September 2018.

https://data.worldbank.org/

5.3 Opportunities for collaboration with the public and private sectors:

A vibrant public and private sector drives national economic growth, and yet few youth are currently employed in both sectors. Careful market analyses with a focus on value-chain opportunities in emerging sectors of the economy can help pinpoint the most appropriate work-based learning and skills training opportunities to prepare youth to enter formal and informal employment.

On the “demand side”, Liberia Youth Activity must actively engage the private sector (formal employers, master craftsmen, and informal industries) to ensure that the skills and training provided match needs and growing demands in the labor market. Engaging these stakeholders will increase their willingness to hire and/or train young people.

The use of improved technologies in agricultural production and marketing are critical ingredients for engaging youth in agriculture and for increasing youth productivity. Liberia Youth Activity will encourage the provision of information on how to facilitate linkages to public and private institutions that have existing technologies that youth can access and disseminate.

There are several win-win private sector initiatives underway in Liberia that expand youth involvement in agriculture value chains while meeting private sector needs.

5.4 Opportunity to expand on the use of the positive youth development approach:

USAID uses a positive youth development (PYD) framework to orient all of its youth programming. PYD engages youth along with their families, communities and/or governments so that youth are empowered to reach their full potential. PYD approaches build skills, assets and competencies; foster healthy relationships; strengthen the environment; and transform systems.

Section 6 INTERVENTIONS

The Liberia Youth Activity will implement interventions under three Strategic Approaches:

6.1 Strategic Approach 1: Develop the basic education and foundational skills of youth

(TBD %)

The basic reading and writing skills of Liberian youth (including many of those who have graduated from high school), are weak. Opportunities for reading and writing for daily real-life purposes are limited. This strategic approach supports a literacy activity that purposefully integrates health, life skills, work readiness, and numeracy skills for youth economic self-reliance and resilience. The Liberia Youth Activity will provide support towards increasing the employment readiness of youth by supporting the development of soft skills and ethical and positive attitudes towards work. USAID seeks evidence-based input from stakeholders on interventions that will support the development of these skills. The Liberia Youth Activity will insist on coordination and partnerships with local organizations. The Activity will consider leveraging synergies in terms of both time and money that would broaden its interventions.

6.2 Strategic Approach 2: Support the strengthening of employment skills for improved livelihoods (TBD %) The Liberia Youth Activity will directly address some of the root causes of elevated unemployment levels –an uncompetitive workforce that is ill-prepared to meet the soft and hard skills demanded by the labor market. Another important root cause of high unemployment is the disconnected nature of vocational training programs and the industries or enterprises that are meant to potentially hire graduates of these programs.

https://www.youthpower.org/positive-youth-development-pyd-framework

Youth employability will be strengthened through supply-side interventions (i.e., skills training) and demand-side interventions (i.e., employer and private sector engagement). By training young people in high-quality, market-relevant vocational skills for self-employment and formal employment opportunities and by engaging the private sector (e.g., formal employers, master craftsmen, and burgeoning industries) on their identified labor market needs, young people can improve their livelihoods. Potential vocational skills training might include: basic masonry, basic wall framing, basic road construction, basic electrical, basic air conditioning repair, basic plumbing, basic roofing, basic painting, automotive repair, gold refining, basic equipment repair (like computers, cell phones, solar panel, rice mill, internet fiber optic cable)), cashiering, basic accounting, sewing/clothes tailoring, insurance administration, marketing, secretarial, nursing aide, laboratory technician), trainings accomplished through rigorous, reputable certificate-granting medium-term15 training courses. Care must be taken to ensure that training opportunities are not solely in male-friendly fields, but rather also offer opportunities for young women to be trained and employed or self-employed readily. Moreover, this strategic approach might include livelihoods counseling, service learning opportunities, internships, apprenticeships, and/or support to entrepreneurship and business start-up.

It is important to underscore that youth livelihood programs have tended to target young males for workforce development activities. While males should undoubtedly remain a target focus for training programs, linkages to world-of-work opportunities should in the same manner focus on females, helping young women move into activities that lead them to productive employment and healthy lifestyles, including the ability to delay and space pregnancies. Also, women should be encouraged to enter male-dominated fields.

The Liberia Youth Activity will seek to build public-private partnerships that extend the coverage and improve the quality and relevance of services for youth and that incorporate innovative approaches to skills training, enterprise development, job placement, and increased employability of youth. The Activity will also, to the extent possible, seek to dispel the negative image of agriculture among youth by supporting investments and thereby increasing revenue of youth agricultural producers.

6.3 Strategic Approach 3: Support the creation of an enabling environment for improved youth productivity (TBD %) The Liberia Youth Activity will provide youth with information about, and facilitate linkages to, influencers and major players in the job market. This may take place through mentorships, structured professional networks, job shadowing, youth job databases, work study, business development services, activity-based learning to explore various career opportunities and stimulate interest, service learning, soccer games, or other means. Moreover, this strategic approach will help improve access to resources for youth, while developing specific opportunities for youth to exercise leadership roles in their families, workplaces, and communities.

Recognizing that youth face a variety of problems and have differentiated needs, the Liberia Youth Activity will strengthen the range of alternatives for providing youth access to finance (e.g., savings and loans) and expansion of financial literacy.

There are three (3) anticipated outcomes under the Liberia Youth Activity: 1) Youth will gain basic education and foundational skills; 2) Youth employability skills for improved livelihoods are strengthened; and 3) the Enabling environment for youth productivity is improved.

As opposed to short-term courses.

Section 7 ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES

7.1 Youth will gain basic education and foundational skills:

Global evidence suggests that basic education (including literacy, numeracy, and social emotional skills) has an important role to play in social and cross-sectoral outcomes16. In the case of Liberia, it is essential that basic education not be considered nor provided as a stand-alone service, but rather as part of a package of integrated youth development services, such as the inclusion of soft skills, that build youth resilience. Soft skills refer to a broad set of skills, behaviors, and personal qualities that enable people to effectively navigate their environment, relate well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals. These skills are applicable across sectors and complement the acquisition of other skills such as technical and academic skills.

The Liberia Youth Activity will assist youth in recognizing the importance of basic education and the links that basic education has to economic advancement, even in the informal sector or self-employment.

7.2 Youth employability skills for improved livelihoods are strengthened:

Through the achievement of this result, a cadre of trained youth equipped with the skills that are required by the private sector and that will facilitate self-employment will be trained.

This anticipated outcome could include building youth’s skills in select technical fields, in a field of great market demand for which youth can be relatively quickly trained to enter Liberia’s job market, or other relevant areas.

7.3 The enabling environment for youth productivity is improved:

The Liberia Youth activity will support interventions that strengthen youth’s support networks through mentorships or professional linkages, and that improve access to resources for youth while developing specific opportunities for youth to exercise leadership roles in their families, workplaces, and communities. Youth leadership, community involvement, milestones along a career pathway, and milestones toward self-efficacy are all components of the positive youth development approach that will be explored. Community service and service learning are proven ways for youth to build citizenship skills, practice communication skills, build confidence, develop employability skills, and build the social capital necessary for launching micro-enterprises and finding employment.

Section 8 MAJOR ASSUMPTIONS:

1. That the political environment will remain stable for the implementation of future activities.

2. That there will be increased commitment and leadership from the GOL and the MOYS towards vocational training initiatives.

3. Improved skills development (entrepreneurship, employability, leadership and life skills) obtained through formal and non-formal education and training are viable methods for youth to achieve strengthened economic security and overall community development.

Section 9

Results Framework graphic is on next page

Alvarado,G.,Skinner,M.,Plaut,D.,Moss,C.,Kapungu,C.,and Reavley,N.(2017). A Systematic Review of Positive Youth Development Programs in Low-and Middle-Income Countries.Washington,DC:YouthPower Learning,Making Cents International.

https://static.globalinnovationexchange.org/s3fs-public/asset/document/Brief_MARCH%2020_FINAL_digital.pdf?ek4ZibtJKB0s0mQ56_7oFpei4SvE713J https://static.globalinnovationexchange.org/s3fs-public/asset/document/Brief_MARCH%2020_FINAL_digital.pdf?ek4ZibtJKB0s0mQ56_7oFpei4SvE713J

THEORY OF CHANGE: WHEN youth gain relevant skills, have opportunities for social and economic engagement, AND when the enabling environment supports youth productivity, THEN youth will be more economically self-reliant and resilient.

IR1: Basic education and foundational skills strengthened for improved livelihoods

IR1.1: Youth have gained functional literacy and numeracy skills

IR1.2: Youth have gained workforce readiness

(socioemotional and “soft skills”)

IR2.1: Increased access to high-quality, market-relevant vocational training for youth

IR3: Enabling environment improved for youth productivity

IR2: Employment skills strengthened for improved livelihoods

IR3.1: Youth support networks strengthened for socio-economic self-reliance

IR3.4: Increased capacity of youth-serving organizations to support innovative youth programming

IR3.2: Knowledge base strengthened to enable positive youth development IR2.2: Increased access to high-quality, market-relevant entrepreneurship training for youth self-employment

IR3.3: Increased access to financial resources and savings and loan services for youth livelihoods

Liberian youth in targeted areas have increased economic self-reliance and resilience

Beneficiaries: Liberian youth ages

15-29 in target counties of Montserrado, Grand Bassa and Lofa

IR2.3: Employers offer increased opportunities for youth to serve in apprenticeships, internships, or positions leading to employment

IR1.3: Youth have healthy and productive skills and behaviors