Youth Livelihood’s Opportunities Program in Abyan · 2020-04-30 · Youth Livelihood Project in...

Youth Livelihood’s Opportunities Program in Abyan

Project Final Report

Submitted to: CLP

Submitted By: For All Foundation

March 2012

Disclaimer: This document has been drafted to be submitted to the USAID funded Community Livelihood Program (CLP). The views expressed herein are those of For All Foundation and therefore in no way reflect the official opinion of CLP or USAID” Cover page: Youth involvement in the livelihood/ income-generation projects conducted in Abyan through the small grants from For All Foundation-Yemen. Project funded by CLP/ USAID. Photo: © For All Foundation

Acknowledgements

For All Foundation would like to thank the CLP Team at all levels; the Ministry of Youth and Sports Office in Abyan Governorate, Abyan Local Council, and the leaders of the civil society organization participated in this project as well as the workgroup members of the project and partners from civil society who positively and effectively contributed to the successful implementation of the project. For All Foundation

Contacts

Sabah Badri Bakir Executive Director For All Founation Sana’a, Republic of Yemen Tel: + 967 733157777 Email: [email protected]

Report Contents:

A B

Acknowledgment

Contents

A. Executive Summary

B. Project Overview

3 4 5 5

C D E

C. Progress towards implementation of activities

Implemented activities including management and M&E Activities that have not taken place

D. Results and impact

E. Overview on cross cutting issues

7

G

F. Lessons learned and steps forward

Annexes Annex 1: Project’s main milestones Annex 2: Summary matrix of main strategies/ activities and results.AR Annex 3: Project Plan Annex 4: Financial report and contractual documents with partners.AR Annex 5: Success stories.AR Annex 6: Lists of Partners and their implemented livelihood projects.AR Annex 7: Brief report of the project introductory workshop.AR Annex 8: Brief report of the end of project ceremony.AR Annex 9: Brief report of the evaluation.AR Annex10: Media (List of web sites, newspapers, journals, social communication sites, and others used to promote project and youth actions) Annex 11: Other important security reports, press release, etc. Annex 12: Final grant completion certificate. AR. Draft. not signed Annex 13: selected photos and video on activities, workshops, youth projects

Youth Livelihood Project in Abyan. For All Foundation.Mar2012

A. Executive Summary This is the final narrative report of the Youth Livelihood Project in Abyan, which is funded by the CLP and implemented by the For All Foundation. This report covers project activities implemented during the project period (7 months; August 2011 to March 2012). It intends to provide an overview of progress, impact, challenges and lessons learned. The project has been contributing to empower youths (boys and girls) to build their capacities & gain access to opportunities that improve the quality of life of this targeted groups by strengthening Youths organization and granting income generation projects. This project focused on creating active structures or NGOs to mobilize and empower the youth groups. Intensive work and approaches were done to ensure that all limitations facing youth to start their projects are dealt with including challenges related to security, transportation, lack of some raw materials in the area, etc. Among the main coping strategies to get the project implemented in tough conflict area were the coordination and linkage with all partners and stakeholders from different development, public and private institutions, improving communication approaches and ways of describing project activities and their objectives to the Qaida members, etc. At the end of this project implementation, all project’s activities, budget, and timeframe have been successfully completed. In addition, all recommendations gained at the preparatory phase have been successfully fulfilled leading to slight reduce of some activities that are related to media and marketing work through the local radio, which became not functioning after the occupation of Abyan by Al-Qaida members. Youth and NGOs participated in the project evaluation as well as local authorities have admired the progress of the project, its impact on the targeted organizations and youth, and the positive link created between youth and their NGOs and local authorities and stakeholders. For All Foundation was highly recommended to continue supporting youth livelihood and rights as well as supporting capacity building of youth NGOs to be able to cope with and sustain within the

demanding and emerging situation at all levels in Abyan given the current humanitarian crises as a result of the domination by Al-Qaida and the on-going conflicts and the lack of supporting programs in the area neither from government nor from non-government sector or humanities agencies.

B. Project Overview

B.1. Context/ Background Yemen is faced with a mixed emergency situation, having a combination of natural and conflict-induced disasters in both northern & southern regions of the country. Abyan is considered one of Yemen’s poorest and most vulnerable governorates in the region with poverty rate 53%. Food insecurity, hunger, lack of access to water and lack of other basic services are widespread. Illiteracy rates amongst rural women are extremely high (over 74%). School enrollments in secondary education are 26% female and 49% male. These percentages further drops to 6% female and 14% males for tertiary educations which directly contributes to lack of opportunities, instability and food insecurity for households. According to UNFPA the country has one of the highest population growth rates globally. Nearly half of population in Abyan is younger than 25 years. The problem is that infrastructure and development are not improving in a rate quick enough to contain the demands of population growth. Additional to the high population growth rate, weak management of the education system and not matching the education system outcomes to the market demand is a main factor for unemployment with a rate exceeding 30 percents leaving youths insecure & vulnerable. At the same time, without any access to micro-credit, sub-grants or knowledge of basic business practices, these impoverished rural youths – and their families – remain reliant on subsistence fishery & farming in a hot, harsh climate In September, 2008, Save the Children (SC) began implementing the USAID-funded Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) in Abyan, Aden, Ibb & Sana’a. A program for the strengthening and of civil society with a focus on children’s rights organization, including the Yemen Children’s Parliament. SC supported these organization with capacity building and subgrants for community


development activities. In continuation and to complement the efforts of the project, “For All Foundation” aims to create more jobs opportunities and empowering youths & youths organizations in Zinjibar by involve more youths into vocational & professional capacity building programs, in collaboration with civil society organization previously targeted in the YEP.

B.2. Project Description The livelihood project has been building on the gains achieved in the previous project and has been seeking the greatest leverage for improving youth's social and economic situation in the poorest and most vulnerable communities in Abyan Governorate by providing capacity building and sub-grants to seven targeted youth's organizations that in return will implement income generation projects for youths to secure sources of income and build youth capacities rather than providing them direct services. Overall objective: “To empower youths (boys and girls) to build their capacities & gain access to opportunities that will improve the quality of life for this targeted groups by strengthening Youths organization and granting income generation projects ”

Implementing NGO: For All Foundation Duration: 7 months (During August 2011 – March 2012) Location(s): Abyan Governorate (districts and areas include : Zinjibar, Sawahel, Hesin, Shaddad, Al-Osla, Sarh, Al-Jool, Amoodya, Mesaimra, Jiear, Khanfar, Al-kod, Bajidar, Al-Mahal, Sheikh Abdullah, Sheikh Salim, Dahal, Bashihara, Al-Maraked)

Targeted Beneficiaries/ groups in Abyan:

140 Youth (male and female)

7 civil society organizations Partners from Abyan CSOs: 1. Family & Community Development Association 2. Goal Women Development Association 3. Coast Women Association 4. Blood Donors Association 5. Youths Scouts and Guides Association 6. Youths Unemployment reduction Association 7. Al-Kawd Youth Association Partners from government authorities 1. Youths & sports Authority office- Abyan 2. Local Council- Governorate of Abyans Main expected outputs/ results:

improved capacity building of targeted Youths Organizations in project development, management and marketing in Abyan

a range of job creation and income generating activities established and operational & targeted youths engaged in the project’s activities

youths activities, implemented projects, progress and outcomes of project are promoted


C. Progress towards activities: Overall, all project's SCOs capacity building, youth livelihood projects, promotion of activities, as well as the administrative and management activities were successfully implemented. The only left activities are those related to security challenges (e.g. media work in Abyan; documentary film and supporting the radio station). These issues were communicated at early stages of the project and its expenses were not included in the final revised budget. Progress reports, photos, receipts of all costs incurred, and other documentation on costs shred by For All Foundation, were submitted to CLP when available during each phase of project implementation as agreed in the schedule of the project’s milestones/plan. Most of these documents were also attached to this final report of the project.

C.1. Main implemented Activities: All activities related to this component were successfully implemented. Different capacity building and training activities were conducted to targeted Youths Organizations on how to manage and foster project growth of the organizations. These include (but not limited to) the following activities: Induction meeting/workshop: A 3-day introductory and orientation workshop was conducted during the initial phase of the project (August 23-25, 2011). This meeting was organized in collaboration with the Abyan Governor Office and Abyan Youth and Sports Office. 25 participants from the leaders of the targeted 7 SCOs attended the workshop. Due to the security situation in Abyan, the workshop was hosted in Mercury Hotel in Aden not in Zinjibar/ Abyan as was planned. The workshop activities focused on 3 major issues;

introducing the project’s objectives, role of For All foundation and CLP/ USAID, projects’ ways of working, criteria of selecting the youth, application to get the grant by the CSO, procurement and procedures, reporting activities and success stories and or challenges, etc.

giving the participants from CSOs more ideas and skills to select their ideas for working with youth, targeting youth, overall planning for their

livelihood projects including planning for expected opportunities, risks and threats, their technical and management strengths and weaknesses in terms of implementing their planned livelihood projects,

Sharing ideas and ways of working on how to deal with the current circumstances in Abyan, especially dealing with challenges related to the instability and domination by Al-Qaida and armed groups, and how to communicate clearly to avoid any misunderstanding or accusations by religious groups or others.

This workshop was considered as the main milestone in the activities implementation due to its positive impact in enhancing the capacities of CSOs in designing a youth livelihood project as well as enhancing their commitment and confidence to re-activate their direct work at the community level following 1 year of displacement in Aden and working mainly with the displaced IDPs in Aden.

Project’s Planning and Designing Workshop: To assist CSOs in designing the details of their livelihood projects for the youth, a short planning workshop was conducted for 14 participants from the line management members of CSOs. This workshop took place in Aden for 3 days (September 17-19, 2011). During this workshop participants worked on the details of their initial ideas of their livelihood projects that were shared during the induction meeting. Participants were coached to clearly design their projects, methodologies of implementation and targeting, expected outputs and feasibility of their projects, and the required resources and budget to start the income generation project. Other issues were also re-discussed such as plans for expected opportunities, risks and threats, their technical and management strengths and weaknesses in terms of implementing their planned livelihood projects, etc. As a result of this workshop


7 income generation projects were designed by the participating CSOs and became ready to share with For All Foundation to get funding. (average cost for each CSO’s project is USD 4000-5000). Partnership contracts with SCOs and provision of the equipment and materials related to their agreed projects: Following the finalization of projects by the CSOs, For All Foundation started the partnership contractual process with CSOs. The main partnership issues agreed were that each CSO will start an income generation project that involves 20 youth members (male and female) and that the project income will be shared between the youth (60%) and the CSO (40%). It was also agreed that due to this newly established partnership and the current

limitations of the CSOs, the materials and equipment needed for each project will be purchased by For All Foundation in close work with the appointed staff by each SCO to ensure transparency, quality, and follow up of standard financial and procurement procedures. Concerns of the projects sustainability were also discussed. During the contractual process 1 CSOs (Coast Women Association) decided not to launch its project due to the emerging attacks and tough security situation in the area they were planning to start their income-generation project. However, to ensure reaching the total number of youth targeted by the whole project, For All foundation agreed with the 2 CSOs to increase their targeted youth and their budget to cover the 20 youth members who were supposed to be reached by the dropped-out CSO.

Figure 1: CSOs involved in the project:

6 projects were agreed and funded following their initial market assessment and feasibility studies by CSOs. Due to the current crisis humanitarian and security crises in Abyan, it was revealed that all suggested projects are highly needed in their areas. Figure 2 provides a list of these projects. However, Annex 6 provides more details about each project,

location, status, youth involved, production process, challenges, etc.). The current lack of raw materials and equipment for projects in Abyan, has increased efforts and operational costs to get them from Aden and transport them to projects’ implementation areas.

Figure 2: list of livelihood projects by CSOs

Youth working in project

Project CSO

20 Banana traditional Refrigerator Youths Unemployment reduction Association (YURA) 1

20 Restaurant Blood Donors Association (BDA) 2

20 Food packaging (snacks) Al-Kawd Youth Association (KYA) 3

30 Fish & Vegetables Youths Scouts and Guides Association (YSGA) 4

30 Production of Incense Al-Goal Women Development Association (GWDA) 5

30 Fish & Vegetables Family & Community Development Association (FCDA) 6

150 6 Projects 6 CSOs

7

7

6

3

1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Targeted CSOs

CSOs involved in capacity building activities

CSOs launched youth livelihood project

Women CSOs running a project

CSOs could not start their youth livelihood project


Building capacities of CSOs’ in implementing and developing their livelihood projects: Following the initial training and capacity building activities, series of activities were conducted to enhance CSOs capacities to implement and sustain their livelihood projects. Different capacity building approaches used including training for SCOs leaders, Training for youth involved in projects, coaching and on-going support during the monitoring visits in all aspects of the activities and income generation projects implemented by partners/CSOs. The main activities implemented within this theme were (but not limited to) the following actions: Assisting CSOs during the start-up of activities in

terms of setting up plans, transparent procurement, selection of preferred suppliers, etc.

Assisting CSOs in setting up criteria for selecting

the youth ensuring gender sensitive approaches in selection. However, although most partner CSOs are women based and/ or having quite good representation of women in decision making, the domination of fundamental Islamic groups and their unpredictable reactions, made women reluctant to join income generation activities in this year. Thus instead of reaching quite good balance in the number of male and female youth, the female youth number joined the project was only 33 female members compared to 117 male youth. However, the project reached higher number in terms of the overall proposed number of youth to be targeted by the projects of CSOs.

Assisting and supervising the contractual process between the youth and CSOs including clarity of share division and contracts conditions and obligations of both CSOs and the staff from the youth joining the CSOs livelihood projects. Within 7 days work at the filed level with CSOs, contract were signed between 6 CSOs and 150 youth members with an average of 20-30 staff in each CSOs’ project.

Providing training in key strategies "development

& marketing of products" for implementing partners. Followed by series of capacity building sessions for the 150 youth involved in the income generation projects with CSOs. Trainings were conducted in Abyan by trainers either from the same area and/ or from Aden. The main issues and skills enhanced during these trainings were designing projects, feasibility of income generation activities, marketing strategies, distribution and allocation of project shares, management of projects and staff, documenting process, lessons learnt, and impact, communication, etc.

CSOs were also provided with on-going support to supervise their projects and the performance of the youth in addition to the process and impact of the project on youth and the NGO. About 180 questionnaires were conducted in collaboration with the CSOs to collect data on the perceptions of the youth, communities and parents on the impact of the project on the youth. CSOs were also coached on follow up of the projects’ financial issues and profit.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Male Youth FemaleYouth

Total

70 70

140

117

33

150

Targeted Youth

Planned Reached

117

33

Impact of the instability in Abyan on the # of female youth in livelihood

Projects

Male Youth Female Youth


The following table provides a summary of the projects and its progress in terms of income and

increase in overall profit shared between the youth and CSOs.

Project management and promotion activities: All project's management activities were successfully implemented. An office for the project’s operations was rented and equipped in Aden instead of Abyan due to the challenges faced in setting up the office in Abyan. Project core staff members were recruited as planned following announcement in different media sources. It was so helpful getting staff from Abyan itself given the limitations for the For All foundation in terms of movement in Abyan. Core staff and Associate NGOs were trained at earlier phase on the major CLP/ USAID procedures required for effective project implementation and documentation especially the finance aspects. Monitoring visits were conducted more than expected due to the limited capacities of CSOs.

Visits were used for on-the-job training for youth and CSOs leaders, as well as to monitor the progress of activities and measure project’s impacts on targeted youths. Documentation of entire projects' activity & trainings/workshops was also carried out in each step of implementation with media coverage for all training & meetings conducted throughout the project cycle. In addition some security issues was shared when needed with project line management at different levels. A final evaluation was done in a participatory manner with partner CSOs. Although most figures in this report were built on the results of the evaluation, Annex 9 provides more details for further reading. When applicable, pprintout of visibility items throughout the project were made to promote and deliver the message of the project.

profit % Profit YR Expenses YR Total income/sale YR Project CSO

Quarter2 Quarter1 Quarter2 Quarter1 Quarter2 Quarter1 Quarter2 Quarter1

83.05% 03.05% 008333 66850 003333 111950 008333 178800

Banana

Refrigerator

(YURA)

Youths Unemployment

reduction Association 1

81.03% 03.02% 000333 83253 083333 108333 200333 150383 Restaurant

(BDA)

Blood Donors

Association 0

03.01% 23,57% 003333 10833 000333 80833 000333 33333

Food

packaging

(KYA)

Al-Kawd Youth

Association 0

00% 3.80% 030333 00053 082303 000003 801303 001333

Fish &

Vegetables-

(YSGA)

Youths Scouts and

Guides Association 0

38.80% 00.13% 818333 008333 053333 123333 528333 818333

Production

of Incense

(GWDA)

Al-Goal Women

Development

Association

8

00.03% 3.00% 003333 02303 300000 023233 803333 803333

Fish &

Vegetables

(FCDA)

Family&Community

Development

Association

0

00.30% 03.08% 1300333 800303 0380303 1035053 0301303 1201883 Total all projects


A closing ceremony in Aden was also conducted that included 20 participants from the youth of Abyan who managed to come to Aden in addition to more than 65 participants from stakeholders and authorities at different levels. This ceremony was used as an opportunity to promote projects and youth activities as well as acknowledging CSOs and youth projects best, inspiring and replicable practices.

Progress reports, photos, receipts of all costs incurred, and other documentation on costs shred by For All Foundation, were submitted to CLP when available during each phase of project implementation as agreed schedule of the project’s milestones/plan.

C.2. Activities that have not taken place: Overall, all project's SCOs capacity building, youth livelihood projects, promotion of activities, as well as the administrative and management activities were successfully implemented. The only left activities are those questioned by conservative and armed Islamic groups (e.g. media work in Abyan, especially producing the documentary film in a context where getting few photos to document youth activities was a risky action. Annex11 provides an idea of the tough

time faced by the project coordinator when they wanted to check on some issues about our work in Abyan including questioning taken photos for youth work. The wife of the group Qaida area leader “Ameer”, did pay a visit to few female youth to explore information on the youth actions as well as role of the project with them. In addition, the challenge to work with the radio station in Abyan was communicated to CLP at early stages of the project and its expenses were not included in the final revised project budget.

D. Main Results and Impact:

This project has revealed many direct and indirect results and impact on CSOs, youth, and the implementing organization, For All. Some result were illustrated in previous section of the project activities. The following (but not limited to) points provide more insight to other impact issues.

A range of job creation and income generating activities established and operational & targeted

Although, the youths engaged in these activities. amounts income raised by individual youth members is still low (50-60 USD) per month per person, these projects indicated quite good progress it terms of how it is functioning as well as in terms of progress in its profit which give youth more confidence that these projects were the right choice for the market demand as well as youth ability to manage and sustain following the training they received and the accumulated experience during the initial phase of projects establishment.

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

BananaRefrigerator

Resturant Foodbackaging

Fish &Vegetables 1

Production ofIncense

Fish &Vegetables 2

All

37.38%

27.29% 23.57%

7.52%

63.10%

7.36%

27.25%

50.38% 51.40% 47.41%

36%

75.54%

44.40% 43.06%

% of profit gained by each project

% of profit in first month % of profit by the 5th month


150 youth members gained more confidence to get involved in an income generation activity and indicated quite impressive positive change in their attitudes toward the future and livelihood projects. Most of them are willing to start their own individual and/ or family based projects. The final evaluation done through 180 respondents from youth, their

families and members from the community, reported satisfaction on hoe the project changed those who got involved from the youth. Annexes related to the final evaluation and its analysis provide details on the revealed impact.

95% 82% 83%

92%

58%

78%

0%

8% 2% 0%

0%

0%

5% 10% 15% 8%

42%

22%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Confidence Work in a team Getting avocational skill

Improvedlivelihood

Betterinvolvement in

social life

Changedperception

towards future/life

Impact as seen by Youth

Yes No to an extent Do not know No respnse

87% 88% 92% 83% 90%

0% 5%

0% 0%

2% 13% 7%

15% 17% 7%

0% 0% 2% 0% 0%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Change of youthbehaviour

Contribution by youthin family expenses

Feeling ofresponsibility

Enhancedrelationships with

others

Changed perceptiontowards future/life

Impact on youth as seen by Families



Sana is a 23 years old lady living in the province of Abyan. She has 4 sisters and 1 brothers. One of her sister is married and the other are staying at home due to their physical disability. After got retired, her father got stroke and passed away. Her brother got married when he was 17. He also passed away as a result of shooting fire during a wedding. The amount they are getting from the father pension is not enough to cover even basic food needs for the family given the recent crisis Abyan. “I found myself responsible to keep the family alive. I had to work. I was selected from among a number of young men and women to participate in the USAID livelihood project. We decided to make take-way food (Potato/ chips).” “At the beginning our project faced many difficulties. We did over-come this challenges due to the efforts of young men and women and the leadership of the association. Our income got improved gradually. We started targeting schools. I got selected by the association assembly to lead the women department in the association.” Our project is now generating a satisfactory amount. I can cover most basic needs of my family. Due to the benefit of this project, I became more enthusiastic to get as much projects through the association to respond to the high need by the youth in my area. I am looking for greater projects that can respond to the aspirations and requirements of most youth in This community”. Sana said.

77% 75%

95% 90%

20% 17%

5% 10% 3% 7%

0% 0%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Involvement in communityservice

Better investment of youthcapacities

Created positive role for theyouth

Improved youth behaviourin the community

Impact on youth as seen by community members



Hameed Fareed Hameed is a 18 years old man lives in Abyan governorate Alhesn village – khanfer district, he lives with a family of 8 members supported financially by the father only, hameed is in the eighth grade but he had to stop studying because of the family’s low livelihood situation , and the overall situation in the governorate which led to the displacement of a lot of the citizens there. Hameed got the chance to work in the community livelihood program supported by the USAID, where Hameed works as a carrier of the banana from the farm to the fridge. Hameed’s father used to insist on Hameed to find a job and help him in providing the family’s expenses but Hameed couldn’t find one. “ I feel so proud because I can help my father with what I get (10000-12000 YR/ USD 50-60 monthly), to provide the family’s needs , and I can feel that my father is proud of me too” Hameed said. Hameed wishes to finish his studying and he is planning to do so, “ I gained a lot of experience as well as parents satisfaction which leads to the satisfaction of Allah” Hameed Fareed.

Improved capacities of targeted youth Most capacities reported by CSOs organizations:

as being developed due to the direct work with this project can be summaries in the following (but not limited to) issues: 1. re-functioning in Abyan after 1 year of

displacement in Aden and lack of confidence that SCOs can bring about change in Abyan within the current conflict and un-predictable security situation and threat.

2. increased resources and hands-on experience and skills in designing, fundraising, management, marketing and direct implementation of small income generation/ livelihood activities that are run in partnership with youth for mutual learning and development. Including monitoring and evaluation of projects, youth performance, and increasing projects capital from resources other than this CLP funded project.

3. Moving from CSOs individualistic approaches in

provision of and advocacy to get the basic rights and needs to the communities in Abyan,

towards more networking and joint initiatives by CSOs to enlarge their impact and strengthen their voices to be heard by different stakeholders when designing the current and future situation of Abyan and its population.

The Aden newly established office of For All Foundation and the joint meetings by CSOs provided a space for SCOs to re-thing their ways-


of working and challenges their current communication and coordination. As a result a SCOs network for Abyan got emerged and got promising potential initiatives to send a message

to all parties that SCOs are here and CAN BRING ABOUT CHANGE AND SHALL NOT BE FORGOTEN WHEN TALKING ABOUT ABYAN FOUTURE.

From an interview with Feidel Mandok, Secretary General of the Youths Unemployment Reduction Association, Public Relations and Media Officer of the newly established CSOs Council in Abyan.

“Networking is our preferred future approach as civil society organizations in Abyan”

“We started working in this livelihood project with For-All Foundation as individual NGO. Each NGO used to think only about its project and how to implement it in such situation. Some NGOs could not commit themselves to a community project given the tough circumstances in Abyan and the domination of Al-Qaida and Islamic groups in Zijibar. Out of the consulted and targeted 9 Civil Society Organizations, only 6 NGOs started youth livelihood initiatives.” “Being displaced and functioning from Aden, where we have no offices to work, For All provided for us the space to come and plan our projects. Thus we found ourselves in the same location on daily basis, sharing similar concerns as NGOs and citizens from Abyan.

We started with sharing ideas on how we can manage our agreed projects with For All Foundation. Due to our joint activities in coordination for workshops, communication with government to facilitate our activities, and sharing ideas on how to deal with the threat by armed groups, we gradually liked how we feel strong in working jointly.” “The idea of forming a network, got shared and supported by the Ministry of Social Affairs in Aden, that registered us as “Abyan Civil Society Coordination Council”, and provided us with an office/ space to function as a network. The ifea started with the NGOs working in the livelihood project supported by USAID through For All Foundation, then more NGOs joined us. Our network has about 20 member NGOs so far. We stared working on proposals for some projects, and targeted other supporters including Oxfam and Unicef in Aden.” “Yes we still very young as a network and require many initiatives to grow. However, the confidence and feeling of more power and stronger voice, as well as more respect by others, are the main reasons for our strong commitment to keep and sustain this network.”


Mainstreaming cross-cutting issues During each step in project implementation, For All Foundation was so keen to ensure mainstreaming most cross cutting issues such as (but not limited to) gender, people participation, institutionalization, pro-poor orientation, security and safety, linkages with national policies and initiatives, etc. Lessons Learned and steps forward:

Adding individual/ family livelihood projects

Supporting informal vocational training

Reasonable and wise involvement of government institutions

Giving partners more delegation in terms of procurement of projects materials

Participatory search for common ground on how to help youth to avoid the negative impact of conflict

Use culturally appropriate introductory issues and initiatives.

Participatory M&E (in conflict situations), participatory market assessment and identification of interventions/ projects

Reducing visibility profile and increasing security profile

Networking for stronger role and voices of youth CSOs.

Enhancing partners participatory networking capacities and skills. Very important to use very professional participatory and facilitation skilled organizations and individuals to lead this issues to reduce any negative impact on the network establishment process, putting some individuals at risk, as well as manipulation of networks to serve a certain agenda or themes by implementing donor or agency that lead to less participation and ownership of process and network as the case of many attempts in Yemen in networking and facilitating networks and its secretary/ executive teams/ tasks.

Implementing Livelihood projects for youth is not a

stand-alone activities. It is so interrelated with many factors, technical, social, conflict, communication, management, etc. Therefore, providing participatory- on the job technical assistance to implementing partners as (for all), is so crucial in this complicated context to avoid any future negative impact on CSOs (including For all). This technical assistance/ guidance can be done by experts in participatory and grassroots work in development and relief context and or by the technical staff of the contracting authorities (e.g. CLP).

Annexes Annex 1: Project’s main milestones Annex 2: Summary matrix of main strategies/

activities and results.AR Annex 3: Project Plan Annex 4: Financial report and contractual

documents with partners.AR Annex 5: Success stories.AR Annex 6: Lists of Partners and their projects.AR Annex 7: report of project introductory workshop Annex 8: report of end of project ceremony.AR Annex 9: Brief report of the evaluation.AR Annex10: Media. List of web sites, newspapers Annex 11: Other important security reports. Annex 12: Final grant completion certificate

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