YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

"Young people are empowered when they acknowledge that they have or can create choices in life, are aware of the implications of those choices, make an informed decision freely, take action based on that decision and accept responsibility for the consequences of those actions. Empowering young people means creating and supporting the enabling conditions under which young people can act on their own behalf, and on their own terms, rather than at the direction of others.”

“This program is aimed at developing and implementing measures to promote the economic enfranchisement of young people” through micro-credit and entrepreneurship education

Introduction: Project manager

Nkwamira Sustainable Life trust is an NGO which has deepened its roots in fostering quality education in Tanzania. The NGO was officially launched in 2010 by a few pioneer’s with a deep desire to see local communities empowered, enabled and transformed. Their passion was to see these communities producing upright responsible citizens who respect humanity and fight illiteracy with a view of having meaningful & fulfilled dreams.

The NGO since its establishment has been working closely with corporate and individuals in raising awareness on the importance of contributing to the education sector in Tanzania

The NGO has a wide experience and capacity in training. The management has been consulted to train private companies on similar topics and been able to create partnerships with institutions such as the ILO through its training manuals and Mzumbe University in order to update the curriculum for the training on the subject matter and make it more updated.

Can we turn failure into success through youth empowerment? The answer is yes!

Through The Barclays out of school Youth Empoweremnt Programme

The education system in our country does not fully prepare young men and women to face economic challenges and hardships after school. Entrepreneurship is taught in schools as a subject and is measured through examinations instead of the practical aspects of the subject matter.

This project intends to capture the form four and form six leavers from both, public and private secondary schools and impart them with practical hands on entrepreneurial skills, financial skills and provide them with proper counseling to embrace self employment opportunities available. This project will also target girls who drop off school because of early pregnancies, forced marriages and other reasons such as unavailability of funds to educate a girl child.

Why should we act now?

“Tanzania needs skilled and well educated women and men to take part in the development of the country, so it cannot just stand aside while it is losing the most precious contribution of many young Tanzanian youth to the development of the country

Program Objectives

Barclays Out of school Youth Empowerment Programme aims at bringing youth of ages between 15 and 35 in the regions of Dar es Salaam and Morogoro. Future roll out will cover Arusha, Mwanza, Dodoma, Mbeya, Iringa and Zanzibar. Dar es Salaam and Morogoro will be the pilot region and the project will enroll participants using a competitive criteria, where youth will sit through a series of aptitude to ascertain their levels of understanding of the subject matters and be able to group them basing on their areas of interest.

Methods

The project will run under three-phase incubation programmes at centers which will run for a period of three weeks consecutively. Participants will go to the field for another three weeks under the supervision of mentors and return for a two-weeks session to finalize the training session where each participant will share field experience with each other and discuss the challenges and how each with similar challenges faced them and be guided on best practices.

The project will mainly address issues of how to start up and manage a small business, how to write business proposal, how to do simple accounting and financial management for small businesses, general life skills, management skills and how to write reports and keeping records which is essential for loans applications to support their businesses and expansion.

Scope of workThe project will cover the regions of Dar es Salaam and Morogoro initially. Later the project moves to Arusha, Mwanza, Dodoma, Mbeya, Iringa and Zanzibar.At the end of the pilot phase, two hundred (200) participants will have benefited from this training.

OUR TRAINERS(EXPERTS FROM ILO)

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) is devoted to promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights, pursuing its founding mission that labour peace is essential to prosperity. Today, the ILO helps advance the creation of decent work and the economic and working conditions that give working people and business people a stake in lasting peace, prosperity and progress. Its tripartite structure provides a unique platform for promoting decent work for all women and men. Its main aims are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues.

The ILO is the international organization responsible for drawing up and overseeing international labour standards. It is the only 'tripartite' United Nations agency that brings together representatives of governments, employers and workers to jointly shape policies and programmes promoting Decent Work for all. This unique arrangement gives the ILO an edge in incorporating 'real world' knowledge about employment and work. The main areas of work are:

• Promotion of an enabling and sustainable business environment• Business Development Services (BDS)• Value Chain Development (VCD)• Informal enterprise upgrading• Promotion of an entrepreneurial culture• Job quality in micro- and small enterprises• Youth Entrepreneurship• Women's Entrepreneurship Development (WED)

From the youth entrepreneurship program

• ILO has successfully trained 11,000 youth on entrepreneurship and 5,000 youth have their own business this started in june 2010.

A successful story from one of the trained youth

• Max is a very determined man; he did not finish his secondary school (run from school when he was in form three) but he is smart and focused. He has tried several businesses in his life but encounters a number of obstacles. The last business he was involved in before he started the current one was in the Tanzanite mining at Mererani- Arusha. He stayed in the mines for more than five years, got some money but did not do anything tangible, because of what he call “lack of focus”. With the influence of his parents who were worried about him he quitted the mining business and came back to Dar es Salaam. Luckily he had informally learned some welding techniques from his friend who was doing that welding business, so he decided he would involve himself in the welding industry in his friend’s workshop” ”

• What has changed about your social life?• “Owning my own business itself is a great change to myself and to people around me. It means respect trustworthiness and

maturity, and above all I meet a lot of respectable people and discuss business with them I make more money and I can decide what I want on my own. I help people who need my help and I feel to be useful”

• What are the challenges that you face?• “A new business is always challenging, you need to search for new customers and make sure that you satisfy their needs.

sometimes you don’t get customers at all for long period but because I have courage I move along with these challenges”• Where do you want to see yourself in a near future?• “I would like to own a big workshop and a showroom where I would display the products that we make. I would also like to

make my workshop as a learning facility to other young people who have ambitions like me.”

Sustaining project relevance

A selection group of farmers will be enrolled with the criteria of having started up Kilimo Kwanza so as to ensure that capacity is built to the right people. Each region will recruit a maximum of twenty farmers and if they have associate, it will also include the associate leaders so that they not only follow up best practices after training but also they make sure, those joining have access to information.

On this Nkwamira will involve the local government by large since they are the main players of the Kilimo Kwanza and the policy makers. Nkwamira will also source trainers from within the respective Ministry of Agriculture and land experts to advice on best practices to farmers.

Farmers will also be encouraged to deposit money to the bank and with good conduct, the bank will be advised to have a KILIMO KWANZA desk in those regions to render more support and advice on financial matters to the farmers and if the bank would consider soft loans or material loans to the farmers.

The Barclays out of school Youth Empowerment Programme

Roll out

Project activation

Project activation Illala

Project activation Mlimani City registration center

Project activation Mzimuni area using the local Authorities

Project activation Tabata Kimanga area using the local Authorities to identify vulnerable youth

Project activation movie night to engage with our target audience

Conclusion

We hope that this project will attract more supporters to get more young people trained in the years to follow. We have created partnership with the University of Dar es Salaam Business School and are in discussion with VETA and ILO for their support in content development and the workshop venues. We look forward to a strengthened relationship with Barclays bank in bringing about young and self-sustained entrepreneurs in Tanzania.

This being the first time this project will be implemented, we shall train a few number hoping to increase the number with the availability of funds and partners. We shall continue to engage other partners to make this program a national agenda in 5 years.

Nkwamira Sustainable Life Trust is Empowering, Enabling, Engaging, Evolving and We Serve the Communities.