|
Brief Description
The overall objective of the project is to create an enabling
national environment for the promotion of youth employment and
enterprise development to support poverty reduction initiatives in
Lesotho.
A meeting with trainees in Qacha's Nek
and two shops opened by trainees of the project
To achieve the above objective, the
project will aim for the following:
-
The project will strengthen the
national institutional capacity of the Government of Lesotho to
develop a broad based National Action Plan on Youth Employment.
-
Particular emphasis will be given to
placing the employment of young women and men in the centre of
national and sectoral policies, entrepreneurship development
training to enable youth to start and run enterprises to provide
more and better jobs.
-
The project will provides a mechanism
for establishing strategic linkages between the UN organizations and
Government, the youth organizations, private sector businesses,
trade unions and the civil society.
-
The project’s target population is
defined as youth within the age group of 15-35 years.
-
The project will initially target
three districts within Lesotho, one urban and two rural districts.
Outputs / Achievements:
-
To enhance a conducive national policy
framework for youth employment development all preliminary
activities have been completed and the next step is to finalize the
Draft NAPYE, incorporate findings from research and studies, to hold
a presentation workshop, and submit the NAPYE to the Cabinet for
official adoption.
-
To establish an Entrepreneurship
Development Programme for training and mentoring young women and men
commenced at the beginning of July, and successfully created a
number of mentoring relationships. As of August 6th, 290 (160
female; 130 male) entrepreneurs were trained.
-
To assist young women and men in
establishing new enterprises in urban and rural areas the project
adopted a Lesotho Youth Credit Initiative (LYCI) to provide a
micro-financing facility to youth who are willing to venture into
entrepreneurship.
-
To create strategic partnerships and
resource mobilization for youth employment, the Small, Micro and
Medium Enterprises (SMME) Network, MAMMOTH International, and the
Ministry of Employment and Labour have been selected as strategic
partners. These institutions will also target other groups outside
the projects target population.
|
Project Period: |
July 2006 – March 2009 |
|
Location: |
Lesotho |
|
Status |
Ongoing |
|
UNDP Programme Officer |
Ms. Charu Bist |
|
UNDAF Outcome: |
Promoting Employment Creation and Income Generation |
|
Management Arrangement: |
National Implementation |
|
Implementing Partner: |
Ministry
of Gender and Youth, Sport and Recreation |
|
Other Partners: |
Ministry of Gender and Youth, Sports and
Recreation Ministry of Employment and Labour
Ministry of Trade, Industry,
Cooperatives and Marketing
Ministry of Law, Justice and
Parliamentary Affairs and youth organizations
Business and Trade Union |
|
Budget and major
sources of funding: |
UNDP TRAC $370,000
UNICEF $85,000
Government Cost Sharing $41,950 |
|
Delivery: |
2006:
$20,553.82
2007:
$257,694.22
2008 financial year not
closed yet |
|
Other (parallel funding): |
ILO in technical support and study fellowship
FAO in kind |
Contact:
Ms. Charu Bist
charu.bist@undp.org
|
