GARISSA YOUTH PROJECT & YES YOUTH CAN! NORTH EASTERN REGION

FINAL REPORT

JANUARY 2016 THIS PUBLICATION WAS PRODUCED FOR REVIEW BY THE UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. IT WAS PREPARED BY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTER GARISSA YOUTH PROJECT & YES YOUTH CAN! NORTH EASTERN REGION FINAL REPORT

October 28, 2008 – January 31, 2015

Award No: AID-623-A-00-09-00005, through the USAID EQUIP3 Leader with Associate Award mechanism (Cooperative Agreement #623-A-00-03-00010-00)

Prepared for: Dr. Lucy Kithome, AOR United States Agency for International Development/Kenya C/O American Embassy United Nations Avenue, Gigiri P.O. Box 629, Village Market 00621 Nairobi, Kenya

Prepared by: Education Development Center 43 Foundry Avenue Waltham, MA 02453-8313

DISCLAIMER The authors’ views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

I. Executive Summary ...... 1

II. Project and activity Overview ...... 2 Program Timeline ...... 5

III. Achievement of Results ...... 6 Phase 1: Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth) ...... 6 Phase 2: Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth) ...... 21 Phase 3: Yes Youth Can! North Eastern Region (YYC! NER) ...... 42

IV. Assessing Achievement of Results ...... 56 Qualitative Assessment Study ...... 56 Quantitative Assessment: Youth Employment and Civic Engagement Survey ...... 65 Impact of the YYC! NER Project...... 66 Revisiting The G-Youth Project ...... 68 Implementing in the Volatile North Eastern Region ...... 71 Gender...... 72 Engagement with the Community and Government ...... 73 Challenges ...... 76

VI. Sustainability and Way Forward ...... 77 Sustainability Issues ...... 77 Progress on USAID Forward ...... 79 Links to Government of Kenya Agencies ...... 79

VII. Lessons Learned and Recommendations ...... 80 Lessons Learned ...... 80 Recommendations ...... 82

VIII. Deliverables ...... 84

IX. Operations and Management ...... 90

Annex 1: List of Radio Programs ...... 91

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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ADM Annual Delegates Meeting AGM Annual General Meeting CBF County Board Forum CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate CKC Cisco Corporation’s Community Knowledge Center COFI Community Owned Financial Initiative CSL Community Service Learning CVE Countering Violent Extremism DEO District Education Officer DQA Data Quality Assessment EDC Education Development Center EVI Eco Ventures International EX-COM Executive Committee FGD Focus Group Discussion FOG Fixed Obligation Grant GOK Government of Kenya GYDA Garissa Youth Development Association ISY In-School Youth IYO Interim Youth Organization KCDF Kenyan Community and Development Foundation KNLS Kenya National Library Services MOHEST Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology NEP TTI North Eastern Province Technical Training Institute NER North Eastern Region NYBA National Youth Bunge Association NYC National Youth Council OSY Out-of-School Youth

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PIRS Performance Indicator Reference Sheet PMP Performance Monitoring Plan SACCO Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization SUPKEM Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims TOT Training of Trainers USAID United States Agency for International Development WRP Work Readiness Program YPDP Young Professional Development (Internship) Program YYC! NER Yes Youth Can! North Eastern Region YYC! R Yes Youth Can! Regional

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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Garissa Youth Project/Yes Youth Can! North Eastern Region project, an Associate Award under the EQUIP3 Leader with Associate Award mechanism, was implemented in Kenya by Education Development Center (EDC). The project began as the Garissa Youth (G-Youth) project (2008 - 2013), which was implemented in Garissa municipality. 1 The G-Youth project engaged youth in career development, livelihood, civic participation activities and empowered youth to design and lead initiatives to improve their economic opportunities. The Yes Youth Can! North Eastern Region (YYC! NER) project was implemented in the three counties of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera from March 2013 to January 2016. The project’s goal was to promote peace and prosperity by empowering youth and; to aid youth to play an active, peaceful and positive role in their communities by creating economic and social opportunities. YYC! NER was part of the USAID funded national Yes Youth Can! (YYC!) program (2011 – 2015) that empowered Kenyan youth to expand their economic opportunities, contribute to their communities and become responsible members of society. The region is known for high employment and high illiteracy when compared to the rest of the country. The youth are considered an at-risk population and there is a history of Al Shabab recruitment of youth. The aim of the Garissa Youth Project was to empower the youth to make sound career and life decisions as they transitioned from high school to the next phase of their lives. The project had four core areas of work: Youth Action, Youth Work, Youth Education, and Youth Civics. Under Youth Action, youth obtained leadership skills by participating at summits to discuss issues of importance in their lives and by leading community-based projects funded through a youth fund. Under Youth Work, a career resource center was established where youth received career counseling, support was provided to increase attendance at a local vocational institution, labor market research was conducted, and youth received work readiness training and entrepreneurship training. Under Youth Education, local teachers provided career counseling and work readiness training in secondary schools, the project established a CISCO Academy, and provided scholarships. Under Youth Civics activities, the project used multimedia approaches to promote principles and practices of tolerance and peaceful coexistence among diverse communities both through interactive audio instruction in schools and through community radio programs developed by youth. The YYC! NER project mobilized youth to form bunges (Kiswahili for parliament). These youth bunges democratically elected leaders, who in turn formed a County Board Forum (CBF) in each of the three counties. Each CBF in turn developed work plans to implement activities (sports tournaments, helping youth get IDs, managing scholarships, providing trainings on small businesses and peace issues, relaying social and health information etc.) for local youth and also carried out some community projects.

1 The YYC! NER served as the third phase of the G-Youth project when USAID asked EDC to join the national YYC! program and to change the third phases’ name (from G-Youth to YYC! NER). The first two phases of the G-Youth project, however, were not connected to the national YYC! program & also did not cover Wajir and Mandera.

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YYC! NER thus built the organizational and management capacity of CBFs to oversee youth activities and community projects; empowered youth with income generating activities (IGA), leadership, peace building, health etc. trainings; enabled youth to conduct various IGA and small businesses; provided scholarships; developed Somali-language radio programs (on issues such as peacebuilding, religion, health etc.) and; began Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) in each of the three project counties where youth could make savings and apply for matching loans. Lessons learned to be imparted by the project include:

 Involve the community from the beginning  Involve youth in meaningful ways and set realistic expectations  Focus on opportunities for livelihoods development  Scholarships are needed and greatly appreciated  Radio is prevalent in Somali communities and effective in promoting messages of tolerance  Structured opportunities are key in areas plagued by radicalization and recruitment  Allow plenty of time and space for dialogue  While providing structure, allow organizational development to be ground-up  Implementing financial models that are widely accepted in other parts of Kenya may not work in North Eastern  While diversity in youth programming is important, keep interventions focused  Operating in an insecure environment requires flexibility  Encourage gender inclusion in through the project design  Hire local Somali-Kenyans as much as possible The G-Youth/YYC! NER project brought benefits to youth and also had a significant impact in empowering youth, building better connections between youth and their communities and addressing issues of peace and security. This was demonstrative by the qualitative and quantitative assessments presented in the assessment of program achievements. The goal of the YYC! NER phase was to empower youth to promote peace and prosperity; and to aid youth to play a positive role in their communities by creating economic and social opportunities. The project’s qualitative study demonstrated that this goal and the objectives were addressed; and the project had an impact on youth and brought them diverse benefits. Yet the issues the YYC! NER project addressed are also profound and thus require more time, resources and efforts to be resolved. The specific context of the North Eastern region of Kenya (including high unemployment, poverty, radicalization etc.) along with some of the challenges the project faced can seriously impact the future sustainability of the project’s achievements.

II. PROJECT AND ACTIVITY OVERVIEW

The Garissa Youth Project/Yes Youth Can! North Eastern Region project was an Associate Award under the EQUIP3 Leader with Associate Award mechanism. It was funded with funds from different US government sources including USAID Education, USAID Democracy and

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Governance, and Department of Defense 1207 funds. This summary outlines the three major phases of the project. Phase 1 (October 2008 – October 2010): The Garissa Youth (G-Youth) Project began as a two-year project operational in Garissa town, the Provincial headquarters of the North Eastern Province in Kenya. In November 2008, EDC conducted an assessment in Garissa to ascertain the needs and assets of youth, determine the factors that push or pull youth into extremist behavior, and inform the initial 20-month project design. The project initially targeted 1,600 in- and out-of-school youth between the ages of 16-30 years in all 36 villages of the Garissa Municipality. The aim was to empower the youth to make sound career and life decisions as they transitioned from high school to the next phase of their lives. Garissa Municipality is known for high employment and high illiteracy when compared to the rest of the country. The youth are considered an at-risk population and there is a history of Al Shabab recruitment of youth. Addressing these problems, the G-Youth project offered youth interventions that helped to build leadership skills, facilitate appropriate career choices, support in seeking employment and/or income generating information, bridge technical and university education opportunities and provided a fun and safe space for youth to socialize. The project goal in phase 1 was to constructively engage Garissa’s youth in career development, livelihood, and civic participation activities. In order to achieve this goal the project established four components: The establishment of a Career Resource Center; the strengthening of the North East Provincial Technical Training Institute (NEP TTI); the development and implementation of a Workforce Readiness Program; organizing a Youth Action Summit.

Phase 2 (November 2010 – January 2013): In G-Youth’s second phase, EDC used a youth-centered framework to create enabling environments that empowered youth to design and lead initiatives that improve economic opportunities for themselves and their communities. The project aimed to achieve youth empowerment through four program components: Youth Action, Youth Work, Youth Education and Youth Civics. Under Youth Action, G-Youth supported youth to design and lead the development of their own community initiatives through capacity building and a small grants fund. Under Youth Work, the project sought to increase the numbers of Garissan youth with greater access to livelihood opportunities and who are better prepared to enter and succeed in the world of work. Under Youth Education, the project also aimed to increase youth retention and transition to secondary schools and higher education. Finally, under Youth Civics, the project will promote principles and practices of tolerance and peaceful coexistence among diverse communities through radio education and building youth’s skills in developing and producing radio programs.

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Phase 3 (January 2013 – January 2016): The Yes Youth Can! North Eastern Region Project built on the successes of the Garissa Youth Project by expanding to Wajir and Mandera Counties. The goal of YYC! NER was to empower youth to promote their own development and become responsible citizens for peace and prosperity. YYC! NER organized youth in the region and empowered them with skills and experience through the process of democratically electing leaders, implementing community projects, developing Somali-language radio programs about issues such as peacebuilding, and investing in savings and lending groups in order to fund small business. Through these activities, the youth of North Eastern were able to become productive and responsible citizens who can lead the progress of their societies in future. Yes Youth Can! was a national program that aimed to empower Kenya’s youth in new and meaningful ways. As youth-led, youth-owned, and youth-managed, YYC! was an unprecedented project that put youth in the lead of their own development. YYC! partnered with the Kenyan government and included various implementing partners across the country. The goals of YYC! which targeted youths between the ages of 18 and 35 were to:

 Empower youth to expand their economic opportunities and contribute to their communities  Encourage youth leadership and youth voices in local and national policy dialogue  Increase youth participation in local “As a result of the project youth development and peace initiatives can make statements for themselves, run their own

affairs and can speak with the The YYC! arose directly from the need to address government and community the root causes of social and economic leaders” marginalization among young people. The program also aimed to prevent a recurrence of the Bunge Member, Female, 21, Wajir widespread violence that followed the 2007 presidential election in Kenya; with particular “No other project is tackling the problem of youth in Garissa and attention to contributing to peaceful presidential assisting them, training them, elections in 2013. helping them study and giving them skills. If not for this YYC’s approach was to work with youth to help project some youth could have them organize themselves into groups called bunges joined Al Shabaab. The project (Kiswahili for parliament). A key focus of YYC! was has kept the youth busy. We on training bunges in organizational management know what the project gave our and democratic organizational practices. Bunges children…it supported our youth” across the country selected representatives to participate in their county level bunges, called Male Community Member, Garissa County Board Forums (CBFs), and leaders of the CBFs comprised the National Youth Bunge Association (NYBA).

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The NYBA has 50 board members with an equal number of men and women. Presidents and senior officials are elected from among county and village groups. Each year, all of the bunges of a county send 2 delegates to a County Youth Delegates Meeting that elects a county board, which in turns elects official to represent the county at the NYBA. Following the national YYC! structure, the project mobilized youth to form bunges. The youth bunges democratically elected leaders, who in turn formed a County Board Forum (CBF) in each of the three counties. Each CBF in turn developed work plans to implement activities for local youth and to also carry out some community projects. The local bunges were also aligned with the NYBA through the CBFs.

The objectives of YYC! NER varied slightly from the national program and were as follows: 1. Mobilize and empower youth to organize themselves to address their priorities and needs 2. Support youth to implement work plans that reflect their expressed priorities 3. Strengthen youth voices on priority issues through youth radio

Program Timeline

Summary of the 3 Phases of the Award:

Phase Summary Timeframe

Phase 1 (G-Youth) The project engaged youth in Garissa town in career October 2008 – development, livelihood, and civic participation activities October 2010 through four components: The establishment of a Career Resource Center; the strengthening of the North East Provincial Technical Training Institute (NEP TTI); the development and implementation of a Workforce Readiness Program; and organizing a Youth Action Summit.

Phase 2 (G-Youth) EDC used a youth-centered framework to create enabling November 2010 environments that empowered youth to design and lead – January 2013 initiatives to improve economic opportunities for themselves and their communities through four program components: Youth Action, Youth Work, Youth Education and Youth Civics.

Phase 3 (YYC! NER) The project joined the national YYC! Program and January 2013 – expanded to Wajir and Mandera Counties and the whole of January 2016 Garissa county.

Summary of Phase 3 (YYC! NER) – Key Milestones:

County Activity Date Accomplished

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County Activity Date Accomplished 1st stakeholder forum to introduce YYC! NER April 2013 Activity Zero Mobilization April to July 2013 1st delegates meeting December 2013 1st ExCom election and work planning session January 2014 Garissa Sharia compliant SACCO development and August 2014 - capacity building September 2015 SACCO registered August 2014 1st Annual General Meeting June 2015 2nd ExCom election and work planning session June 2015 1st stakeholder forum to introduce YYC! NER August 2013 Activity Zero Mobilization September to December 2013 First delegates meeting April 2014 1st ExCom election and work planning session May 2014 Wajir Sharia compliant SACCO development and August 2014 - capacity building September 2015 SACCO registration September 2014 1st Annual General Meeting August 2015 2nd ExCom election and work planning session August 2015 1st stakeholder forum to introduce YYC! NER March 2014 Activity Zero Mobilization April 2014 to June 2014 1st delegates meetings* October 2014 - January 2015 Mandera Sacco registration January 2015 Sharia compliant SACCO development and January 2015 - capacity building September 2015 1st ExCom election and work planning session February 2015

* Elections were not successfully held at the first delegates meeting due to clan tensions. A sub- county level strategy was used instead to ensure inclusion.

III. ACHIEVEMENT OF RESULTS

Phase 1: Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth)

October 2008 – October 2010

In November 2008, EDC conducted an assessment in Garissa to ascertain the needs and assets of youth, determine the factors that push or pull youth into extremist behavior, and inform the initial 20-month project design. Fieldwork included 15 focus groups with Garissan youth, a youth rapid demographic survey, and key informant interviews with NGOs, international donors, public sector officials, police, private sector institutions, and the media.

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Major assessment findings included the following2:

 The North Eastern Province (now divided into 3 counties during the process of devolution), where Garissa District is located, has the highest illiteracy rate in Kenya (94% among females and 71% among males). The province also has the lowest primary and secondary gross enrollment rates in the country (26% and 4.4% respectively). NEP also has very high unemployment rates--estimated at 80% for women and 70% for men.

 Garissa’s youth have limited education and employment opportunities. There is a high rate of youth unemployment, estimated by some to be as high as 90%. Unemployment is the dominant concern of youth. Young women may be less likely to be unemployed than young men, due to a greater willingness to contemplate a variety of income earning occupations. Male secondary school youth seem to be more hampered by attitudinal problems which preclude them, for example, from considering positions in the skilled trades.

 Garissa’s youth had few structured opportunities for recreation and healthy socializing. Adults were increasingly concerned about the growing prevalence among youth of unproductive pursuits including habitual qat (or khat) chewing, viewing pornography on cell- phones, pick-pocketing and petty crime, and pre-marital sex. There were no youth- friendly health services in the district.

 The assessment team identified a variety of "pull" and "push" factors that make Garissan youth at-risk for social disaffection. "Pull" factors included: the steady radicalization of the religious environment; the presence of the Shabab and other extremist groups; and external events, such as clerics from Ethiopia and Somalia moving to Garissa for safety. "Push" factors included: the marginalization, poverty, and inequality that exists in the Garissa environment; the high rates of youth unemployment; the low quality of Garissan schools; the high school drop-out rate; the lack of formal services or social amenities for youth; delayed marriage for males; and the culture of corruption that emphasizes the need for "connections" to get jobs. The goal of the first phase was to constructively engage 1,600 Garissan youth in career development, livelihood, and civic participation activities. The assessment team concluded that the youth most at-risk of disaffection in Garissa were secondary school students in forms III and IV (11th and 12th grades), high school graduates, and those who have dropped out of secondary school. A Project Advisory Committee of community stakeholders helped guide the work of the project, the first of its kind in Garissa. The project had four components to achieve this goal: (1) The establishment of a Career Resource Center; (2) The strengthening of the North East Provincial Technical Training Institute (NEP TTI); (3) the development and implementation of a Workforce Readiness Program and (4) organizing a Youth Action Summit.

2 All statistics were gathered in 2008, and are referenced in the full assessment report found in modification 1 of EDC’s Cooperative Agreement.

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Figure 1: G-Youth Project Components and activities

•Career Guidance & •Institutional Assessment Counseling •Labor Market Assessment •ICT Center •Marketing & Community •Safe & Fun Spaces for Youth Outreach •Youth Library •Career Counseling •Outreach to In-School Youth Component Component 1 2 Career NEP TTI Resource Strengthening Center

Component Component 3 4

•Career Counseling & Work Youth Action Mentoring Readiness •Youth Leadership Training •Work Readiness Training •Youth Symposiums/ Program Summit •Entrepreneurship Training •Youth Grants •On-the-Job Training •Capacity Building of Youth Organizations

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Component 1: G-Youth Career Resource Center Objective 1: Establish a Youth Resource Center that provides career development support and access to livelihood opportunities for Garissa youth The Career Resource Center (CRC) was the heart of the G-Youth Project as all other project components were connected to it and impacted by it. The ultimate objective of the center was to provide the primary target population with structured career development information, skills, and pragmatic opportunities to pursue careers or transition into higher education. In addition, the Center provided a friendly, respectful and safe space for youth to meet, socialize, explore opportunities and get involved in positive recreational activities.

G-Youth partnered with the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS), Garissa branch to establish and co-manage the center. EDC established an in-kind subgrant with KNLS. EDC refurbished the KNLS premises to create a youth-friendly library, career counseling rooms and an ICT center. New furniture and equipment was purchased for both the ICT Centre and the Youth Library. Approximately $10,000 USD worth of books, DVDs, and posters were purchased for the library and 20 computers were purchased for the ICT Center. The project provided capacity strengthening, training and support to KNLS staff in the management of the CRC. Below provides a snapshot of the services available to youth at the Career Resource Center:

 Youth Library The Youth Library features over 3,000 books with a variety of titles on different subjects and the books are specific to the interests of young people. Book titles range from career and business skill development to biographies, how to books, novels and books of regional interest. The youth library is divided into a reading corner, career corner, study area, a game area and recreational area for educational and recreational films. The youth library’s career corner provides updated information on tertiary education opportunities categorized by institution, course offerings, entry requirements, cost/fees, and scholarship opportunities. Information is provided about course offerings at university, technical/vocational schools, colleges and polytechnics such as: the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Moi University, Mt. Kenya University, Methodist University, Kampala International University, North Eastern Province Technical Training Institute, Garissa medical training College, Mikono, Teachers’ Training Colleges, other national and regional institutions. Youth are provided with career guidance and counseling services to support them as they make their choices. The library also maintains updated information on tertiary education opportunities in terms of institutions, course offerings, entry requirements, costs and scholarship opportunities. The game and recreational areas in the Youth Library provides indoor games like chess, scrabble, monopoly and playing cards. The CRC coordinated with Kenya Football Limited (KFL) and other local groups to organize opportunities for youth to participate in football, basketball, volleyball, and other sports. In terms of entertainment the Youth Library also features educational shows and selected films, which include inspirational

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films, documentaries and National Geographic programs. There are also videos of specific career topics such as developing interview skills, job searching techniques, small business development, and marketing.

 The ICT Center The Career Resource Center features a state-of-the-art technology/ICT Centre. The center offered basic computer training for work readiness program trainees who lack basic computer skills. The ICT Centre was also used for training by other USAID-funded programs. In addition, the center was launched as a Cyber-café in August 2011 as part of its sustainability plan and was being used by the youth in the evenings to access the internet.

 Career Counseling The CRC provided structured one-to-one and group counseling. It features two counseling rooms (one for each gender) to cater for both female and male clients who are interested in counseling. G-Youth offers young men and women both life/social counseling and career counseling along with supplemental support. The CRC was formally introduced to the youth through a reading event during the April 2010 youth summit and a soft launch in August 2010. The key objective was to introduce the facility to the youth as “their own” center and to orient them to the program services available at the CRC. Youth were taken through visits and talks from G-Youth staff on how to access/use the Youth library, ICT center and the counseling rooms. During the soft launch, a total of 417 youth were taken on tours through the library and were oriented to the CRC program services. To assist the youth on the use of the CRC, there were two youth volunteers available at the CRC daily, in addition to the CRC Coordinator.

As management was later transferred to KNLS, EDC worked closely with KNLS to develop a strategic sustainability plan for the center. The CRC Management and Sustainability plan was finalized with KNLS, and incorporated into a modified sub-agreement with KNLS. Under the terms of the modification, G-Youth continued to provide financial and technical oversight and support at the CRC until April 2012 (support extended into phase 2). Before the handover of the CRC facility to KNLS, the project employed a ‘grandfathering/phase-out’ approach where support was incrementally reduced.

Component 2: North East Province Technical Training Institute (NEP TTI) Strengthening Objective 2: Increase the number of Garissa youth who pursue a technical education and NEP TTI as a viable option versus a formal university education Component 2 focused on strengthening the Northeast Province Technical Training Institute (NEP TTI), a major technical training center in Garissa that was greatly underutilized by local youth. At the time of the assessment, NEP TTI was working at about 50% capacity. NEP TTI offered courses in business studies, entrepreneurship, computer and library, and technical skills such as welding, masonry, plumbing, and garment making. Only 10 percent of students were enrolled in the technical skills area. Overall, approximately 45 percent of students came from the

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Garissa area. Garissan youth were not taking full advantage of education and training opportunities offered by NEP TTI to build the necessary skills that will lead to careers and employment. In the phase 1, G-Youth undertook several efforts to strengthen NEP TT. First, by conducting an institutional assessment to determine the key areas where NEP TTI needed to be strengthened. Second, through the implementation of a marketing and outreach campaign that helped to increase the visibility of NEP TTI to Garissa youth and the community at large. And lastly, by conducting a labor market assessment collaboratively with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology that identified markets where employment opportunities exist for NEP TTI graduates. Initial plans to establish a Center of Excellence at NEP TTI were put on hold until phase 2 in order to open up funds for the new Youth Action component which wasn’t part of the initial program design. Institutional Assessment and Capacity Building Plan An institutional assessment was conducted in April - May, 2009 as part of the institutional capacity strengthening activities of NEP TTI. The assessment was led by an external consultant who was accompanied by four senior technical staff of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (MOHEST) to assist and learn how to conduct similar assessments in the future. The institutional assessment report included recommendations on the roles and responsibilities of respective partners: EDC, NEP TTI, and the Ministry of Higher Education Science and Technology; and a two-year work plan detailing the activities that were to be implemented during the course of the project to achieve the ultimate objectives. The assessment findings and recommendations were organized according to the five institutional strengthening areas: marketing, financial aid, course offerings, institutional capacity, and career guidance and counseling. The key findings were presented to NEP TTI’s management, staff, and board members, at NEP TTI’s Community Outreach program and in Nairobi at the MOHEST office. The assessment report produced a set of actionable components that served to guide G-Youth’s technical support to NEP TTI during phase 1. Following the assessment, a one-day workshop was organized for NEP TTI’s management and staff to develop a work plan. Marketing and Outreach to Youth During the Institutional capacity assessment, it was determined that NEP TTI needed a different marketing strategy to reach its target population in Garissa town. As a result, G-Youth and NEP TTI developed a marketing and outreach strategy composed of the following components:

 Webpage - NEP TTI’s website was linked to G-Youth’s website. The project supported the marketing of NEP TTI to the local youth by creating a link to G-Youth Project website.  Facebook - G-Youth created a Facebook page with more than 230 youth who accessed G- Youth’s web page regularly. NEP TTI’s website was also linked to this page for the youth to access and continuously get updated information on services and educational opportunities available.

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 Blast SMS- The project reached more than 700 youth through the SMS system. Messages were created to specifically reach youth on course offerings available at NEP TTI and inform them of the availability of NEP TTI brochures at the reception desk in G- Youth’s office.  Brochures - NEP TTI’s brochures were made available at the G-Youth office and the CRC. Through this effort, G-Youth reached and distributed approximately 340 brochures and provided information on the viable options available in conjunction with NEP TTI.  Open Days – Form four students from area high schools came to NEP TTI to learn about the institution and its offerings.  Lecture Series - Through G- Youth’s Work Readiness Program’s Lecture Series, NEP TTI’s management were invited to talk to youth who undergo the WRP. Through this arrangement, NEP TTI was able to provide information to the project’s out-of-school youth about their course offerings and certificate programs Secondary students participating in an open day at NEP TTI available and how youth could access additional information.  Youth Action Summit (May 2010) - NEP TTI was provided space to conduct recruitment and market itself to the youth who were participating in this event. During the event, NEP TTI was interviewed by STAR FM about the various courses they offered.  Technical Training Institutes National Exhibition - The Directorate of Technical Education organized a national competition for all Technical Training Institutes in the country. G- Youth supported NEP TTI with resource materials including photos and videos to help them participate and compete in the National Exhibition in Nairobi. Labor Market Assessment A principle activity in phase 1 was to conduct a Labor Market Assessment. The NEP TTI Director has adjusted several of the Institute’s course offerings and certificates over the past; however, it has not been based on concrete trends and opportunities of the local and regional labor markets. To date, the Institute had not conducted any formal information gathering on local or regional labor markets in terms of formal and informal employment opportunities. The objective of the assessment was to understand labor market conditions by identifying immediate employment and self employment opportunities for youth and the skill and support needed by the youth to be able to respond to these opportunities. The field research was intended to narrow the scope of economic growth sectors and pinpoint accessible youth entry points. The geographic focus of the assessment was Garissa, with secondary study sites of Mwingi, Ijara,

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Dadaab, Nairobi proper, and the community of Eastleigh in Nairobi. The secondary sites were included for their geographical proximity, economic connections, employment opportunities they could potentially provide to Garissan youth. Eco Ventures International (EVI) conducted the Labor Market Assessment. The field research was conducted in cooperation with project staff and officials from MOHEST. The field assessment included interviews and surveys with youth, local and national business leaders, local government and NGO representatives, entrepreneurs and national policymakers. The study made extensive use of secondary data including regional reports, statistics and plans by the Government of Kenya and NGOs as well as current events and news by both the national and international press. The study also made use of an innovative methodology of monitoring social media sites to gain youth perspectives of local context. The study paid special emphasis to economic sectors that either reduce environmental vulnerability or expand resource security. A list of sectors that offered the most relevant, age-appropriate and sustainable employment opportunities for youth was developed. The field assessment narrowed the economic growth sectors to the following sectors, which were determined to have the capacity to support immediate and medium to long-term opportunities for youth employment and enterprise development. Final List of Economic Growth Sectors of Interest with Immediate Opportunities:

 Professional  Livestock and By-  Hospitality Services products  Energy  ICT  Agro-processing  Construction  Agro-forestry  Waste Management

EVI presented the main findings of the Labor Market Assessment in February 2010 to MOHEST, USAID and G-Youth representatives at the Directorate of Technical Education in Nairobi. The presentation was also attended by representatives from the Kenya Association of Technical Training Institutes (KATTI). EVI made a second presentation of the key findings to the general Garissa community in Garissa. The meeting was attended by representatives from the business community, NGOs, government representatives, youth leaders and local leaders. EVI provided the G-Youth Project staff, NEP TTI and the Centre for International Voluntary Service (CIVS), the partner responsible for workforce development trainings, with specialized training on how to operationalize the findings in a way that empowered them to take immediate action to integrate those findings into their project work and decision-making. Action plans were developed by G-Youth on how to use the results for job placements. NEP TTI made an action plan on how integrate the LMA findings into curriculum development and CIVS made an action plan on how to use the LMA findings for entrepreneurship training. Career Counseling at NEP TTI As part of its institutional capacity support efforts for NEP TTI, the project provided funding for a career counselor as outlined in the MOU between the two institutions. The career

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counselor position strengthened the ability of NEP TTI to provide students with relevant career counseling and access to livelihood opportunities. The Career Counselor’s salary for the first year was paid by the project, and thereafter MOHEST assumed financial support for the position of the Career Counselor as an integral part of NEP TTI’s staff.

Component 3: G-Youth Subgrants/Work Readiness Program3 Objective 3: Expand and strengthen local NGO programs that provide livelihood and civic participation opportunities to Garissa youth Work Readiness Training and Career Development The objective of this component was to develop and provide work readiness training and career development support to 800 out-of-school youth to prepare them for the formal or informal workforce. The work readiness program for out-of-school youth provided work readiness training, entrepreneurial training, community service, and applied work experience through internships and apprenticeships. Participating youth engaged in community service activities and an ongoing career-focused lecture series. The program began in October 2009 with facilitators engaged directly by EDC. In February 2010, the Center for International Voluntary Services (CIVS) was contracted by EDC to implement this component. CIVS’s core competency is its livelihood and entrepreneurship training to community youth. G-Youth training staff provided mentoring to CIVS and monitoring and evaluation of the WRP training. As the OSY program was being designed, G-Youth worked with the District Youth Officer of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to gain information from Garissan youth who completed secondary school to ensure that the program that was developed in a manner that fully prepares young people for the workforce. It was determined that G-Youth’s Out-of-School youth program would target Garissan youth ages 16 – 30 who have graduated from high school and were not working or pursuing higher education or who have dropped out of 3rd or 4th forms to prepare them to transition to the workforce. Each cohort progressed through three phases:

 Phase 1: Work readiness core training (initially implemented by G-Youth and by CIVS after the first cohort), Community Service Learning and career panel (managed by G- Youth)  Phase 2: Entrepreneurship training (conducted by CIVS)  Phase 3: Applied work experience (conducted by CIVS) Phase 1: Work Readiness Program, Community Service Learning, and Career Panel

A total of 747 out-of-school youth were reached. The shortfall can be attributed to high dropout rates and low attendance early in the training. Youth were only allowed to miss 3 sessions (in order to prepare them for workplace expectations) and opportunities for makeups were provided in the earlier cohorts.

3 While the program description labels this component as G-Youth Subgrants with the primary activity being work readiness training, the Performance Monitoring Plan and program reports refer to this component as the Work Readiness Program.

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The project adjusted the training hours and provided snacks and lunches and transport, which greatly improved retention rates. The Work Readiness Program’s curriculum focused on personal and career development broken into three modules comprised of 17 three-hour lessons. Module 1 is entitled Personal Leadership Development, Module 2 is entitled Career Development, and Module 3 is entitled Skills for Work Success. A 70-page facilitator’s guide and 50-page participant workbook were developed. Periodic evaluations were conducted to determine the relevance and appropriateness of the curriculum content and training approach and make improvements. A seven-day Training of Trainers workshop was developed for the Work Readiness Program. The objectives of the training were to ensure that the facilitators would be able to describe the purpose, components, and philosophy of the Work Readiness Program; prepare the module lessons with confidence; participate effectively as a “team” to lead a successful program; perform their role as facilitator. A key component of Phase 1 of the WRP was a community development program called Community Service Learning (CSL) – a methodology adopted by the project to build “inside- out” leadership in the youth through service to people and organizations in their community. Through service learning, youth were expected to grow their personal leadership skills and expand their circle of influence in their community. The CSL component of the program was complementary to the career development training and geared toward civic participation. The anticipated outcome was to help youth identify needs in the Garissa area and offer them a chance to build their strengths and interests while meeting these needs. WRP participants performed a service-learning activity once a week for three hours. Each week a different service theme was explored: environmental cleanup, voluntary services at the Child Rescue Center, voluntary services at the Provincial General Hospital, and palliative care for HIV/AIDS patients. Following the CSL activity, youth were required to participate in a reflection exercise that focused on having the participants discuss what the CSL activity meant to them. Discussions centered on if youth thought the CSL activity was relevant to the needs they identified in the community. They were also asked to share their leadership strengths, interests, and personal experiences related to the CSL exercises. The majority of the youth found the CSL experience to be positive and self-enhancing. During the reflection sessions, some youth spoke passionately about the CSL activities and the role they saw for themselves in their community. Indeed there were a number of success stories to speak of that resulted from the CSL. One of the most proactive and profound stories was about a group of youth who following the cleanup exercise at CLS created a Garissa Youth Environment Movement, which aimed to create environmental consciousness among Garissans. The first phase featured a Career Development Lecture series. Each week, a career panel from different sectors of the economy allowed the youth to gain exposure to different career opportunities at different levels of the career path. The career panelists were from the following industries: banking and financial services, education, health, public service, and NGOs. Youth participants were able to use this opportunity to practice their networking skills as they were able to interact with the panel members in one-on-one discussions.

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As part of the work readiness training it was mandatory for the youth to attend 30 minutes of counseling. Most of the issues highlighted during the counseling sessions were related to access to scholarships for further education, how to acquire skills in ICT, and how to access credit for a business. Phase 2: Entrepreneurship Training CIVS came into the partnership with G-Youth with an existing entrepreneurial curriculum. This curriculum was revised to specifically address the youth that G-Youth targeted. Starting in January 2010, G-Youth added entrepreneurship Training to the WRP. Entrepreneurship training exposed youth to private business enterprises like Equity Bank, Barclays Bank, Medina Pharmaceuticals, Hiddig Hotel, and Garissa Home Depot. Students learned first-hand about the businesses’ operations, competitors, the business environment, products, pricing, packaging, customer care, and business sustainability. Several participants of the Entrepreneurship training took the opportunity to start their own businesses. Following the training, they developed business plans and submitted them to various banks for consideration. For example, two female youth used their skills training to prepare a business plan for a Cyber Café in Garissa. Some of the participants said they would restructure their existing business or family business with the new skills they acquired. Phase 3: Applied Work Experience Phase 3 of the WRP required trainees to complete internships of at least 3 weeks to gain practical workplace experience. CIVS employed a placement specialist who sought internship placement opportunities for participants undergoing Phase 3 of WRP. An assessment carried out by CIVS’ facilitators and Youth Placement officer, indicated that youth generally performed well in their internships and that most youth were considered to have strong potential for long-term employment by the employers with whom they were interning. Following a successful internship, six WRP participants found long-term employment as clerks at the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC). Basic Computer Training In July 2010, G-Youth began offering basic computer training at the Career Resource Center. The G-Youth IT specialist led a modified version of a free Microsoft training course. As demand for the course was quite high, G-Youth then offered the course to youth who have successfully completed the work readiness program.

Component 4: Youth Action (new activity under Mod 2) Objective 4: Increase the number of Garissan youth with leadership and civic action training and opportunities In December 2009, USAID’s technical office requested EDC to add a fourth component to the project, which focused on enhancing youth engagement in Garissa, specifically among youth leaders to solve problems unique to them. The Youth Action component enabled the youth of Garissa to become active participants in the design and implementation of programs and services

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that directly impact their lives and futures. The Youth Action component laid the groundwork for civic engagement activities in phases 2 and 3 of the project. The component began with mapping and assessing the assets and constraints of existing Garissa youth groups and associations. The component then turned to leadership development for youth leaders from 36 villages provided through 2 symposiums, youth-led community projects and culminated in a youth summit in May 2010. The youth action concept was supported locally by the Project Advisory Committee, District Commissioner (DC), the District Youth Officer (DYO) Garissa Central, all the location chiefs, and G-Youth’s principal partners: MOHEST, MOYAS, KNLS and NEP TTI. Private sector support for the Youth Action Summit was sought from the Garissa branch managers of the Equity Bank, First Community Bank, Cooperative Bank, Barclays Bank and STAR FM radio. Planning for the Youth Summit event involved partnerships from Garissa’s political and religious leadership as well as youth and community leaders from over 30 villages. At the national level support for this initiative was well received by key project partners and several national youth organizations. Youth leaders from Garissa District’s 36 villages were selected through a consultative process involving the local bulla (village) elders, Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs, local youth and other key organizations in Garissa. Youth were identified because of the leadership skills they demonstrated in their respective villages. The participants were comprised of both genders with almost equal representation. Leading up to the Youth Action Summit, the youth leaders attended two two-day trainings over called Youth Symposiums. The overall purpose of the Symposiums was to build leadership and project design and implementation competencies among youth while creating a platform for youth to talk about things that matter to them. Youth leaders also received mentoring in their villages and at the G-Youth office. Youth Action Symposium 1 Symposium 1 was aimed at building the capacity of the youth leaders. The Leadership Training focused on developing leadership skills of youth and assisting them in the implementation of small projects in their localities. The community projects aimed at linking and integrating youth activities in the community agenda through the projects they implement in their villages. During the training a total of 72 youth members representing 36 bullas were engaged for a period of two days. Each youth leader was asked to find a mentor, identify/recruit a co-team leader, and enroll another ten youth from the village to implement the project. The leaders were also asked to enroll other stakeholders including NGOs, communities, faith-based organizations and the private sector players to support the youth project. The youth leaders faced a number of challenges including the difficulties posed by lack of motivation by the communities and the promotion of shared values of ownership between the various stakeholders at the village level. Youth Action Symposium 2 The second symposium was held the following month. The event built on the first symposia and all of the community leaders of the Youth Action activity came together. In addition to

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continuing to develop youth voices and leadership skills, the objectives of the second symposia were to strengthen individual project designs, create an opportunity for youth to learn from each other on their community approaches, develop public speaking skills through a contest, and tell the story of their community projects and define their project’s success. A guest speaker from the largest slum in Kenya, Kibera, Paul Otiende, shared his community project with the youth. After these two hardworking days, the youth left with more self-confidence, improved leadership skills, and feeling confident that they could successfully implement their projects. Garissa Youth Action Summit The objective of the Youth summit was to increase the number of Garissan youth with leadership and civic action training and opportunities. A youth action summit was organized in May 2010 at the Agricultural Training Centre. The three-day event was attended by youth, USAID officials, EDC officials from home office, the local MP, Garissa’s religious and community leaders, other USAID funded organizations, local community organizations, private sector, various media houses, representatives from national youth organizations, and youth from all walks of life in Garissa. The event attracted an estimated 720 youth over the span of three days. Youth leaders set up booths at which they depicted their projects and awards were made to the best projects. The Youth Action component also worked to develop youth voices. This was organized in two events at the summit: a Young Women’s Village and Youth Voices Dialogue. During these dialogues, youth discussed challenges and issues important to Garissa’s youth. At the end of the event the youth developed action plans. The Career Resource Center at the Kenya National Library Services Garissa branch had its first official event during the Youth Summit. In collaboration with EMACK, Ministry of Education and Kenya National Library Services the project organized a reading session for 200 primary school children from 5 primary schools where they each received a copy of a Somali-language picture book. Phase 1 Results Achieved

# Indicator Type G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

Objective 1: Establish a Youth Resource Center that provides career development support and access to livelihood opportunities for Garissan youth

F-indicator: Number This number includes of persons Number of youth who 747 all the youth who participated in the 1.1 participating in USG- are reached with 672 492 M funded workforce Career Resource Workforce development Center Services 255 F Development programs Program.

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# Indicator Type G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

These services included the following: career group/individual counseling, ICT basic Number of youth training, motivational lecture series, career 1.2 G-Youth Custom support services 7 7 Indicator offered by the career clinic, the Workforce resource center Development Program, indoor/outdoor games and motivational video shows.

This number includes all the youth who F-indicator: Number participated in in- of learners enrolled 1133 Number of secondary school career in USG supported 1.3 school children in life 1002 873 M counseling or career secondary schools or counseling as a part of and career counseling 260 F equivalent non- the Workforce school-based settings Development Program.

Objective 2: Increase the number of Garissan youth who pursue a technical education at NEPTTI

F-indicator: Number This number reflects of people the increase in transitioning to Increase in the enrollment between further education and number of Garissan 2009 and 2010 in four 2.1 training as a result of 100 144 youth enrolled in NEP departments: participation in USG- TTI. Entrepreneurship, funded workforce ICT, Business and development Technical. programs F-indicator: Number of USG-supported These changes include organizational Number of positive an improved improvements that institutional changes marketing and 2.2 N/A 2 strengthen the made at NEP TTI. outreach activities, institutional capacity and labor market

of host-country assessment. higher education institutions

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# Indicator Type G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

Objective 3: Increase the number of Garissan youth provided livelihood and civic participation opportunities

This number includes the total number of youth who completed the workforce development training. F-indicator: Number Number of youth Completion rates of persons 680 trained in life skills, were short of the completing USG- 3.1 entrepreneurship, and 750 444 M target due to the funded workforce offered community project’s high development 236 F volunteer programs. standard of allowing programs youth to only miss 3 classes in order to prepare for workplace expectations (make ups were available).

Training attendance lists functioned as distributions lists for F-indicator: Number both facilitators/ of textbooks and Number of work other teaching and educators and 3.2 readiness materials 150 2182 learning materials learners. (includes and manuals provided provided with USG materials for WFD, assistance CSL, Youth Symposia and Entrepreneurship)

This includes 8 WRP facilitators, 12 CIVS staff, 19 G-Youth F-Indicator: Number Number of educators staff and 3 career of teachers/educators trained for Work 3.3 150 39 counselors. Target trained with USG Readiness and life and was set at onset of support career counseling project and never revised to reflect implementation plan.

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# Indicator Type G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

F-indicator: Number of workforce Number of businesses development contributing 3.4 initiatives created internship and other 40 37 through USG work learning assisted public- opportunities. private partnerships.

Objective 4: Increase the number of Garissan youth provided leadership and civic action training and opportunities

This includes the F-indicator: Number 72 youth leaders who of people who have Number of youth who participated in both 4.1 54 36 M completed USG complete community Youth Action assisted civic leadership training. 36 F Symposia in Jan-Mar education programs 2010.

This includes youth participating in the F-indicator: Number Youth Action of participants in Symposium, the USG-funded Youth Voices programs supporting Number of people Dialogue and the participation and 4.2 participating in Youth 270 1153 EMACK/Ministry of inclusion of Summit activities Education/Kenya traditionally National Library marginalized ethnic Services Reading minority and/or event. religious minority groups

Phase 2: Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth)

November 2010 – January 2013 Phase 2 was divided into four components: Youth Action, Youth Work, Youth Education, and Youth Civics.

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Component 1: Youth Action Outcome A: Establishment of a new, sustainable district-wide Garissa youth organization, led and managed by youth One of G-Youth’s primary deliverables was the formation of a youth district-wide organization. This was accomplished through the formation and organization of the Garissa Youth Development Association (GYDA) which was registered with the Government of Kenya in July 2012. GYDA emerged organically from 20 youth groups who were also the first set of grantees to implement community development grants. Following the first leadership camp, youth leaders from Garissa decided to form a Garissa youth network. When GYDA was formed, the youth established a set of set of values and principles that each member committed to in order to lead positive change in their communities. G-Youth’s Youth Action team supported the organizational development and registration of GYDA. Significant time and efforts were invested into training and capacity-building assistance and organizational development support to the Executive team of GYDA. Many of the trainings that were provided to GYDA officials focused on leadership, governance, communications, public speaking and accountability. GYDA was involved in the preparation of the second Leadership Camp and Youth Action Summit and participated in the Community Dialogue session in September 2012. The development of GYDA was preceded by the recruitment of 144 youth representatives into the Interim Youth Organization (IYO). The recruitment exercise took place in December 2010 for approximately one week and resulted in 144 youth leaders being nominated from the 36 bullas (villages) in Garissa municipality into the Interim Youth Organization. Following their nomination into the IYO, the 144 youth leaders participated in multiple leadership and teambuilding workshops. Challenges with the IYO leaders that caused the project to review and revise its tactics towards establishing a district-wide youth organization. Following a reflection exercise focusing on what went wrong and what needed strengthening, the project decided to shift its focus from establishing an Interim Youth Organization to empowering more diverse youth groups through the grants program to undertake income generating activities and a scholarship program from the Garissa Youth Fund. Rather than put the goal of “an umbrella youth group” first, G-Youth would allow such a structure to emerge out of the experiences of the groups receiving grants from the Youth Fund through a natural discovery of purpose. Outcome B: Establishment and disbursement of a Youth Fund led and managed by youth The G-Youth grants fund was launched in November 2011 with the local partner, the Kenyan Community and Development Foundation (KCDF), who was responsible for administering and managing the grants fund grants and scholarships. Initially the grants were envisioned as loans, and due to multiple challenges, a program modification changed all loans to grants. The objective of the grants fund was to enable the youth of Garissa to become active participants in the design and implementation of programs and services that impact their lives, the future generation of youth and communities in Garissa. Through the grants program, the project engaged youth leaders in solving problems unique to them and their communities. There were two sub-

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components to the G-Youth grants fund: the Community Development Grant component and the Civic education and engagement component. The grants program began in October 2011. Calls for applications were open for 30 days. During the 30-day application period, G-Youth and KCDF organized Grants Information clinics. The information clinics provided an opportunity for youth to be taken through a step-by- step review of how to fill-out the grant applications and provided with a sample copy of what constitutes a “good proposal”. Youth were also provided with an overview of the community priorities for their respective locations and were informed that their proposals were expected to respond to community priorities as were identified by their community members. Calls for proposals were followed by an aggressive information campaign in an effort to ensure that as many youth as possible were given the opportunity to respond. The review process for grant applications followed the processes outlined in the G-Youth Fund Grants Manual and is depicted in the diagram that follows.

As planning and implement projects was new to most of the youth groups, G-Youth’s grants management partner, the Kenyan Community Development Foundation (KCDF) invested significant time and resources in capacity building training and support to them. The project offered capacity building through workshops, leadership camps and exposure visits to youth groups implementing similar types of community/income generating projects. Specific technical skills training was also organized for youth groups. KCDF and G-Youth staff also spent time and effort coaching, and supporting youth groups in an effort to help ensure that groups were keeping on track with their work plans, program targets and budgets. In total, there were three calls for proposal applications for the Community Development Grants and one call for the Youth Civic Grants. The Community Development Grants which were restricted to Garissa Municipality, and the civic grants were open to youth groups from the entire Garissa County. Once the Grants Approval Panel met and approved the grants to be

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awarded, a ceremony was held in each community to formally hand-over first disbursement checks to youth groups. It was important that first grant disbursements were made in front of the Chief and elders of the community so that they could witness the awarding of grants to youth groups and could also be participants in helping to hold youth groups accountable for the implementation of their grants. A total of 25 community grants covering projects such as a bee farm, poultry farming, garbage collection, and recycling. and 21 civic grants were awarded for focus areas such as good governance, the new constitution and devolved governance system, and sports for peace building and conflict resolution. There were many challenges as well as successes in supporting youth to implement their projects. One challenge was that many of the youth community grants were actually business projects in which youth had minimal technical experience to implement. Therefore, to ensure that youth groups could successfully implement their projects, KCDF sponsored youth groups to attend the KIBT led Start Your Business Training and required 2-3 participants to attend the training. A KCDF Business Development Consultant provided on-the-ground technical assistance to youth groups. Youth groups went on exposure visits to meet with other youth groups doing similar projects. Outcome C: The implementation of two large-scale, district-wide Youth Summit meetings involving the participation of 5,000 youth The youth summit undertaken by G-Youth was held over a 3-day period in May 2012. Planning for the Youth Summit commenced at the G-Youth project retreat in Naivasha in January 2012. G-Youth formed a steering committee of interested youth for the planning of the youth action summit. Prior to the summit, a series of small “mini summits” were held for a core group of 50 youth leaders who received grants funds who recently formed themselves into an umbrella body called the Garissa Youth Development Association (GYDA). The goal of these mini-summits was to engage youth early on with the goal of creating a youth-initiated, led and facilitated youth action summit. This required the youth to define the agenda, select a name for the summit, provide content, and steer implementation activities with G-Youth. The 2012 summit was a combined Youth Action and Work summit. The combination of the two areas was to help streamline the synergies between the two components and allow more resources to be allocated to creating one successful summit. The Youth Summit was entitled: Wakati Ni Sasa ~ The Time is Now (for youth leadership)! Members of GYDA presenting the County Action Plan during the Summit The summit marked the culmination of a series of skills-building events, dialogues, and priority setting for a The Summit successfully attracted approximately 2,000 youth and adults over the three-day period. Youth delegates from USAID’s Yes Youth Can National Bungee Association as well as other youth delegates from Eastleigh, Mandera and Wajir were in attendance at the Summit. The presentation of a Youth County Action Plan was followed by a youth talent show and a football match between two youth football clubs on the 3rd and final day of the Summit.

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Due to increased security and concerns with large gatherings, as well as to allow an increase in scholarships, the project changed course to only have one large summit and a series of smaller events. The smaller events included 2 mini-summits that preceded the May 2012 summit and a community dialogue session that was coordinated by KCDF in September 2012. The mini summits were organized to ensure youth’s awareness, participation and excitement for the larger event. 530 youth attended the mini summits. The dialogue session provided an opportunity for the project and youth groups to reflect as phase 2 came to a close. Youth reported that the project has contributed to a positive impact on their own capacity and sustainability. In particular, they noted having learned helpful strategies for project implementation and grant management. Outcome D: Two regional Youth Action Plans developed and implemented; In 2012, the Action Plan was developed by GYDA and presented for feedback during the Youth Action Summit. The Garissa Youth Consortium Action Plan (GY-CAP) focused 4 key thematic areas which youth determined to be pertinent to their growth, leadership and participation in the community, which included: 1) Employment; 2) Education; 3) Mentorship; 4) Peace; 5) National Identity Cards (My ID My Life).

Component 2: Youth Work Outcome A: Enhanced linkages between youth and the private sector Private Sector Advisory Council As part of the Project’s central strategy to strengthen youth access to employment and livelihood opportunities, the project engaged prominent members of Garissa’s business community to join an advisory council which was named the Private Sector Advisory Young women participating in the Work Readiness Council (PSAC). The PSAC was officially Program launched in October 2011 by G-Youth to engage youth of Garissa with an aim to helping boost economic and livelihood opportunities for youth and livestock youth farmers. The PSAC includes members of the Somali diaspora who are prominent businessmen and women in Kenya. The PSAC served as mentors and advocates of the project by engaging in dialogue with the project team to find new and creative ways of boosting economic and livelihood opportunities for youth in Garissa. Members provided internships and professional support to youth entrepreneurs through coaching, mentoring and business counseling. The PSAC helped coordinate the Youth Work Summit and led many of the sessions. Internship Program G-Youth’s Young Professional Development (Internship) Program (YPDP) provided practical workplace experiences for graduates of G-Youth’s work readiness training. The project worked

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with local partner organizations in Garissa to engage the Work Readiness Program (WRP) graduates in professional career development through the youth internship program and successfully exposed over 262 youth to hands on work experience in various sectors. Based on lessons learned during the previous internship program where the duration/time period was three weeks, the restructured internship program was offered to youth for a minimum of three months. As a result, youth were given greater time and exposure in a work environment. The project placed youth either internally in the project or externally. Internal internships offered WRP graduates opportunities to support G-Youth in the implementation of its program activities while external internships placed youth in different organizations both in the public and the private sectors. The project structured a comprehensive youth support system for interns which ensured that they were taken through regular mentorship by the project staff while they served as interns to enhance their professional growth. Outcome B: The organization of two Work Summits that bring together youth and employers A key deliverable in the Youth Work component was the implementation of Youth Work Summits. During implementation it was agreed that the project would do one work summit instead of 2. The Work Summit was folded into the larger Youth Action Summit which took place in May 2012. The Work Summit was the focus of Day 2 of the 3-day Youth Action Summit and focused on helping to connect youth with employment and educational opportunities in Garissa. This “Opportunities Fair” invited employers and higher education institutes, entrepreneurs and employers to set up exhibitions on the opportunities they offer Garissa youth. The Fair also provided youth with the opportunity to dialogue with employers and representatives from academic institutions on a one-on-one basis. During the fair, G-Youth staff provided counseling and a drop—in clinic where aspiring entrepreneurs were able to learn about enterprise opportunities in new and emerging markets in Garissa and its environs. A special session was held with young women from Garissa to discuss the role of women in entrepreneurship. A total of 1,441 youth (1,177 males and 264 females) attended Day 2 of the Youth Work Summit. The success of this day was partly attributed to the generous donations totaling over $10,000 USD the project received in cash and in kind from organizations including the Nomad Palace Hotel, Medina Pharmaceuticals, Barclays Bank of Africa, Equity Bank, First Community Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, and Coca Cola. Outcome C: Expanded entrepreneurship opportunities for Garissa youth Microenterprise Training G-Youth’s Labor Market Assessment report developed by Eco-Ventures International in 2010 identified entrepreneurship as a priority career consideration for Garissan youth. It stated that given the right opportunity, youth would prefer to pursue entrepreneurship as their career/livelihood opportunity. Furthermore, formal sector employment is quite limited in the county. In line with this and under the project’s phase two objectives, the project strategized on the process for creating opportunities for aspiring youth entrepreneurs to have access to

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microenterprise training, business development support services and micro financing/business startup loans. The project spent significant time and effort in identifying and strengthening partnerships with organizations that were capable of fulfilling this mandate. G-Youth sought to partner with organizations which has two key capacities: 1) the ability to develop and implement a microenterprise training program to be integrated in G-Youth’s work readiness program; and 2) the ability to provide business support services (post-training support) to youth trainees planning to set up micro-businesses or for those who have already ventured into a business. Ultimately, the project partnered with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Kenya Institute of Business Training (KIBT). KIBT was chosen to take the lead in implementing the ILO’s micro-enterprise based Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) training. KIBT is mandated by the government to offer business training to all Kenyan citizens, which subsidized training costs. KIBT provided follow-up services to their graduates through their District Business Solution Center. The ILO’s SIYB training program equips youth with the skills needed for them to conceptualize, start, manage and sustain a business. For G-Youth, the training program was a 3-week program comprising of 2 weeks training and 1 week for research on business idea/ planning which culminated into the development of a viable business plan which may be used by the youth to access the capital needed to start a micro or small business. To fast track launching the SIYB training, G-Youth sponsored a 10 day SIYB Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop for 16 participants selected from G-Youth staff, WRP Peer Educators, the Ministry of Trade’s KIBT and DIT parastatals, and NEP TTI. The project was also mandated to assist NEP TTI in developing a microenterprise training program and as such, invited two NEP TTI staff members to participate in the ILO/SIYB TOT and further paid for the staff members to be certified as ILO trainers. ILO donated the SIYB resource materials to G-Youth and KIBT in preparation for the official launch of the microenterprise training program in February 2012. The microenterprise trainees were expected to pay a commitment fee of Kshs 1000 each as stipulated by KIBT. Many of the youth were unable to pay, however, so G-Youth negotiated with KIBT to allow the youth to proceed with the training as they sourced ways of paying the 1,000 fee. Access to Micro-Credit and Business Development Services The project initially sought to develop a partnership with a local Garissa-based financial institution to establish a micro-credit program in order to provide microfinance services to youth. Significant time was spent meeting with members of First Community Bank (FCB), a local organization called the Nomad Welfare Group (NWG), and the Ministry of Cooperative Development. It was hoped that once approved, that the Nomad Cooperative Society SACCO would be able to provide startup capital and other financial assistance to SIYB graduates to enable them to set up their businesses. In early March 2012, USAID recommended that the project consider changing its approach from setting up a micro-credit program to support youth to start a business and to converting the $200,000 USD that was set-aside for loans to grants. In June 2012, USAID approved a program modification to redirect the funds allocated for loans to start-up grants.

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Once the program modification was approved, EDC negotiated with KCDF to support the establishment of a business start-up program for aspiring youth entrepreneurs. Toward this goal, G-Youth and KCDF worked on setting up a business start-up program and also negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with First Community Bank for them to supplement the small business start-up funds with sharia compliant asset financing. The last cohort of youth who benefitted from SIYB training were youth groups whose grant applications were initially rejected. These youth were encouraged to attend the training so that they could be given an opportunity to access the project’s business start-up grants and scholarship programs. SIYB graduates who intended to access business start up funds were assisted to develop their group/individual business plans and G-Youth is helped them to identify financing in partnership with FCB. Individual and youth groups received business grants through the grants fund managed by KCDF. Outcome D: Engagement and retention of greater numbers of Garissa youth in an updated work readiness program The project re-adapted the Work Readiness Program (WRP) from phase 1 in order to make it more simplified, relevant and friendly for youth who are seeking jobs and livelihood opportunities in Garissa, and so it could be facilitated by peer educators. The training targeted out-of-school youth who were jobless. The revised WRP was facilitated by certified youth peer educators who participated in a Training of Trainers (TOT). This successfully resulted in developing a cadre of vibrant youth who were both effective trainers in the classroom and great peer supporters of each other. Male peer educators trained male WRP participants and female peer educators did the training for female WRP participants. To ensure that peer educators were fully prepared to train, the project organized a half day interactive induction program for the peer educators prior to the roll out of the WRP training program. The project implemented WRP trainings using centralized and decentralized strategies. The WRP centralized training was conducted in locations within Garissa’s town center, at locations that were easily accessible for out-of-school youth. The centralized approach was taken first so G-Youth could closely support and monitor newly-inducted peer educators. The decentralized WRP training was organized in close collaboration with the District Education Officer (DEO) who graciously allowed the project to conduct the WRP in selected public primary schools during the times when the school was not in session. This successfully increased the accessibility of this training for a cross- G-Youth Work Readiness Program section of youth, and especially young women who had difficulty attending the centralized WRP training in town. The project focused on creating and strengthening linkages between the WRP training and other skills training programs for youth to pursue in line with their career goals and interests. For example, youth who participated in WRP training during the year attended career guidance and

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counseling sessions. In those sessions, the youth were informed and prepared to take advantage of follow-on training and livelihood opportunities such as:

 Training on basic computer skills to enable them to confidently tackle the main question they were often asked when applying for a job: “are you computer literate?”.  ILO/KIBT microenterprise training program which prepares youth to start up micro- businesses and enables them to access loans from micro-credit lending facilities.  Internship program where youth were able to gain practical work experience in the formal employment sector.  CISCO training at NEP TTI where youth could be trained as computer technicians to fill the existing gap in the market.  Vocational/technical skills training at NEP TTI and other institutions who offer market- relevant training in Garissa growth sectors.  G-Youth’s radio training programs with STAR FM where youth were trained as radio journalists and producers.  Training of Trainers (TOT) programs to enable interested youth to participate in the project’s peer educator programs. Outcome E: Enhanced services and expanded youth participation in the Career Resource Center G-Youth worked collaboratively with the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) since 2010 to provide a friendly, respectful and safe space for Garissa’s youth to socialize, explore opportunities, and get involved in positive recreational activities through the Career Resource Center (CRC). Youth continued benefited from different career development support services and trainings among including: guest speakers, library services, career clinics focused on specific topics, career guidance and counseling services, motivational video shows, ICT and WRP training, internet and printing services, and scholarship/grants services. The Cyber Café launched in June 2011. The project’s policy to engage youth as community connectors and set up its youth scholarship and grants information desk at the CRC to run the scholarship and grants application process played a key role in improving youth involvement in CRC activities. The project organized mandatory career guidance and counseling sessions for youth seeking scholarships at the CRC. In 2011, the CRC became a Cisco Corporation’s Community Knowledge Centers (CKC) where it provides holistic information support to the members of Garissa’s community. As a community knowledge center, the CRC was able to interact with other established CKCs in the country. This linkage provided an enhanced communication system through electronic media and has improved the marketing strategy and capacity of the CRC to widen its scope in essential service provision to the youth and the wider community. In partnership with KNLS, the project explored sustainability strategies for the CRC. In late 2012, the project focused on transitioning oversight and management responsibilities of the CRC to the KNLS team. Two KNLS staff were deployed to work at the CRC library and ICT Center. The project organized an induction program for the two officers to be trained on the operation and daily routine of the CRC activities and enhance their management skills. As part of the

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sustainability plan, the project installed a DSTV channel at CRC to air live English Premier League football matches and to charge a small fee and provided community access to the internet at for a small fee. EDC encouraged KNLS to consider partnering with Inoorero and Mt. Kenya Universities both of which expressed interest in establishing e-learning programs at the CRC’s ICT center. The handover of the CRC management to KNLS was problematic due to the Garissa branch staff’s poor responsiveness for assuming some of the management responsibilities. It is also not clear if KNLS will be able to cover certain operational costs for the CRC that G-Youth had assumed during the period of the partnership. G-Youth has tried to train the Garissa branch staff on key tasks and procedures but it is not clear if they will be able to manage the CRC at the same level of quality and attention as it was during G-Youth’s period of support. G-Youth worked diligently through the end of 2012 to transfer skills to CRC and KNLS staff in order to make the transition a smooth one.

Component 3: Youth Education Outcome A: Quality of education strengthened in secondary schools The project worked to strengthen the quality of education, learning opportunities and skills needed for in-school youth to successfully transition into the workforce. Through the In-School Youth (ISY) program, the project committed to helping to make secondary school more relevant to the needs of youth by strengthening career guidance programs in schools. At the local schools the designated career counselors are also teachers. The project worked in close collaboration with the DEO’s office, principals and career guidance and counseling teachers from G-Youth’s ten partner secondary schools to adapt EDC’s work readiness curriculum to create a career guidance and life skills handbook for school teachers. The handbook is entitled “Empowering Youth’s Futures: Interactive Career Awareness & Life Skills Activities - A Handbook for Secondary School Teachers”. The handbook focuses on developing pedagogical techniques that teachers can employ to integrate selected career development and life skill topics into the existing school curriculum for secondary youth. G-Youth’s core team of teachers was instrumental in helping to complete a full cycle of the handbook activity in the classroom which incorporated changes that were recommended in the handbook. In School Youth (ISY) Handbook topics

Career Awareness Topics Life Skills Topics 1. Study skills 1. Self awareness 2. Time management 2. Creative thinking in decision making 3. Education after secondary school 3. Self discipline for a healthy life 4. Setting career goals 4. Solving conflicts 5. Teamwork and cooperation

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Through the DEO, teachers were given express permission to implement the program during the guidance and counseling lesson which under normal circumstances are not usually utilized in most schools despite this being a directive from Kenya’s Ministry of Education. Through consultation, it was agreed that the program focus on Forms 1 and 2 high school students who, in the opinion of the head teachers, require these important skills to help them make informed career choices in the early stage of their secondary education. Groups of 50 -100 students from each of the 10 partner secondary schools were taken through the interactive and learner friendly career guidance and life skills activities. Each activity implementation was followed by a two-day teacher capacity building/reflection workshop which aimed at giving the teachers/counselors an opportunity to share experiences and key lessons learned during the activity implementation exercise. The ISY handbook was developed over the course of 2011-2012 and is composed of nine units. The handbook was being printed and the program was handed over to the partner schools and the District Education Office (DEO) in October 2012. As the schools prepared to incorporate the handbook, the teachers/counselors took the initiative to induct their colleagues into the program. The teachers fully embraced the ISY handbook, and provided full support to the program implementation. At the end of Phase 3, the handbook is still in use. The teachers and County Education Officer requested to have more copies printed for other schools that were not in pilot schools and create induction sessions. While the project did not continue these activities under YYC, it is worthwhile to note that the Garissa secondary schools appreciated the activities and continued the career training as part of their work. Outcome B: Quality of education strengthened in Madrassas As part of the project’s vision to strengthen the quality of education delivered at madrassas and in response to requests from the religious community, G-Youth created a process of designing, developing and implementing an English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum for selected madrassas in Garissa. The purpose of this intervention was to enable the madrassa youth to acquire literacy in English language to be mainstreamed into Kenyan society and be active participants in the economic development of their societies. The ESL program was developed in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM), Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK), Kenya Councils of Imams and Ulamas (KCIU). The project held several consultative meetings with SUPKEM and madrassa principals to come up with an agreeable strategy for implementing the program, a process which was lengthy and created significant delays in implementing the program. When there was an impasse with identifying an agreement for moving forward, the intervention of the local Member of Parliament was required to reach consensus with both SUPKEM and the madrassa principals. One of the outcomes of this collective bargaining was agreement to use the English language teachers within the madrassa institutions to conduct the ESL program. It was also agreed that SUPKEM, as a youth-serving organization, could apply for support to the madrassas through a grant from Youth Fund. As a result, SUPKEM was awarded a grant including equipment to enable SUPKEM to monitor and provide support to the ESL program implementation and to support the Madrassa administrators and English language teachers in teaching and overall implementation of the ESL program. During these negotiations SUPKEM and the madrassas

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decided that they no longer wanted access to the Arabic language reference libraries described in the G-Youth project description. The ESL curriculum for a madrassa audience was developed by a consultant with inputs from the project team. The draft curriculum was reviewed by SUPKEM and the Madrassa principals. The final product was an interactive and learner-centered ESL curriculum, teachers guide and students’ handbook. The consultant led a four-day training for bilingual madrassas teachers from 11 madrassas using interactive/experiential methodologies. A total of 14 teachers were training in interactive methodologies of teaching ESL. During the training it emerged that most of the teachers did not have any teaching background and had not had any previous professional training. It was established that most teachers were basically relying on ‘on the job experience’ to carry out their teaching duties. The training (TOT) was therefore an eye opener to most of them and a necessary intervention as they interacted with materials on learner centered teaching and learning methods and acquired relevant skills to employ while teaching. SUPKEM also attended the training whose role included assisting the project in giving the teachers support as well as monitoring and reporting on implementation of the ESL program. Prior to roll out in September 2012, ESL placement tests were conducted for selected madrassa students by G-Youth, to gauge madrassas students level of English language understanding and to determine the suitability of the ESL curriculum. The test which was developed from the ESL curriculum targeted students who are left with one year to graduate. The test results indicated that most students English language skills were generally above average. This was closely followed by an ESL pre-test activity which was conducted to a sample of madrassa students as a tool to gauge the impact of the program on students after ESL intervention. Post-testing would have occurred after the end of Phase 2 after the partnership with the madrassas had ended. Outcome C: Quality of education strengthened at NEP TTI The quality of education at NEP TTI was primarily strengthened through the establishment of a Cisco Networking Academy. Developing the CISCO Networking Academy was prompted by G- Youth’s Labor Market Assessment, which found that “…the most significant immediate employment opportunities in the ICT sector are in PC troubleshooting – assisting users with everyday problems with their hardware, and networking – assisting offices to connect computers and share information. …Nearly all government and NGO offices have computer systems--but few if any have in-house expertise in troubleshooting or network maintenance.” A nationwide USAID/Kenya youth assessment also identified computer technology as an emerging market with strong growth potential. G-Youth sponsored the training of three NEP TTI teachers in two core Cisco training courses – IT Essentials and the Cisco Certified Network Associate training (CCNA). CCNA 1- 4 are now taught at the institution. CISCO IT Essentials classes started in October 2011. A total of 148 youth completed the program and the courses are currently on going at NEPTTI. One major factor impacting the project falling short with our target of reaching 500 youth was the fact that the project did not launch the Cisco training until the second year of Phase 2 as documented in the quarterly reports. As a result, the target for year 1 was not realized. EDC worked proactively with NEP TTI to find creative strategies for

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increasing enrollment numbers in the Cisco program. One action that G-Youth took was to provide scholarships to youth to allow them to cover the fees for the Cisco trainings. NEP TTI promised to work to increase enrollment. However, despite best efforts enrolment fell short of our target of 500 youth. In 2011, 565 form 4 students from local high schools had an opportunity to interact with different institutions of higher learning, which were invited during the Open Career Day hosted at NEP TTI over a 3-day period. The event was organized to assist youth to have a deeper understanding of higher education options available to enable them make sound career choices. Each group went through a labor market orientation so that they could learn about available livelihood opportunities within Garissa municipality. Youth were also invited to visit all the departments at NEP TTI to acquaint themselves with the programs offered at the college and to learn about their respective entry requirements. Youth were also provided with group career guidance sessions organized by the respective institutions where they freely interacted and were able to seek clarification on critical issues which were not clear to them. Youth were also provided with brochures from all the training institutions represented. Outcome D: Scholarship assistance provided to vulnerable students G-Youth and KCDF launched the scholarship program under the Youth Fund in 2011. The scholarship program became a hallmark of the project as the youth and community at large have greatly appreciated the project’s support of youth to continue or advance their education. According to focus group discussions held with the community at the end of Phase 2, the scholarship program Scholarship Award Ceremony was the most appreciated component of the G-Youth Project. Youth have been enabled to pay for their on-going school programs and many have been able to transition to more advanced training such as vocational and professional training courses and as such, have been able to upgrade their knowledge and skills and increase their employability. The Phase 2 scholarship fund provided scholarship funds, ranging from 8,000 to 80,000 Kshs to 1,229 disadvantaged, vulnerable youth interested in enrolling in NEP TTI or other higher/middle level learning institutions. The program targeted Garissa youth aged between 14 - 30 years from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and have been residing in Garissa for 3 or more years. As much as possible the project worked towards ensuring an equal number of scholarship recipients across the five locations in Garissa municipality.

Since youth needed support in making informed career decisions, they were required to undergo career guidance and counseling sessions organized by G-Youth’s counselors to help select their training programs.

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Component 4: Youth Civics Outcome A: IRI civics education program developed and used by 25,000 upper primary school students in Garissa and PEV regions From early 2011, G-Youth has worked with the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) to increase the level of civic awareness among upper primary school youth in class 6th, 7th and 8th through interactive radio instruction (IRI) programming. A total of 30 Learning for Living radio programs were developed, produced and implemented in 68 primary schools in the post-election violence regions of Nairobi, Garissa, Nakuru and Naivasha between February 2012 and June 2012. EDC distributed 250 MP3 radios to be used for the IRI program. The Learning for Living Programs far surpassed its target of reaching 25,000 youth in the post-election violence regions and by reaching 27,574 learners in the target areas. The EDC/G-Youth staff conducted post-evaluation tests for students and key informant interviews were held with a sample of the teachers. According to the key Informant interview results, 97.9% teachers indicated that they used the Learning for Living programs as part of their regular curriculum. All the teachers surveyed felt that the lessons helped them become better teachers and better prepared to teach life skills and social studies topics. EDC also conducted an outcome evaluation of the IRI program using a pre-test-post-test quasi- experimental design for assessing the 6 graders and retrospective baseline at the endline design, with one-time assessment of student knowledge of civic matters for assessing the 7 and 8 graders. The evaluation concluded the program had a positive effect on the understanding of civic matters among 6, 7 and 8 graders. The comparison of means between the pretest and the posttest at the 6th grade level showed that boys and girls learned a lot from the program. Since only one-time assessment at the conclusion of the program was used with the 7 and 8 graders, it was not possible to estimate how much they learned from the program. Instead, the evaluation analyzed the student responses on self-assessment of how much they learned. Overwhelmingly, they said they said they either learned a fair amount, or a lot. There were some gender and area differences in self reports of the amount learned, with more girls reporting they learned a lot in Nairobi area schools, and more boys reporting they learned a lot in Garissa schools. On average, fewer students in Garissa schools said they learned a lot, compared to students from other areas. Nevertheless, on average nine out of ten students said they learned a fair amount or a lot from Learning for Life IRI programs. Outcome B: Weekly student led civic education program produced and broadcast on STAR FM to 35,000 listeners Activities under this component focused on completion of pre-recorded and the launching of live youth radio civic programs that were developed and aired through STAR FM. G-Youth’s radio programs were launched in September 2011 airing 30 minutes weekly civic-themed radio programs three times per week. Programs were broadcast on Star FM on 97.1FM in Garissa, 105.9 FM in Nairobi, 97.3 FM in Wajir, 97.5 FM in Mandera an also on 97.1 FM in Dadaab and Tana River, respectively. STAR FM Radio was the company, G-Youth partnered with to air the radio programs in North Eastern. Youth radio producer trainees were able to conclude the production and broadcasting of the weekly pre-recorded program. The targeted 26 thirty minute

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programs in Kiswahili and English were aired. Some of the pre-recorded programs were repeated owing to the overwhelming requests from listeners through Star FM.

Radio broadcasts tackled specific areas of interest for youth such as: the new constitution, peaceful coexistence, democracy, good governance, girl child education, female genital mutilation, early marriage among other topics. G-Youth’s programs were aired twice a week on Thursdays and Saturdays. The program time schedule was readjusted to air on Thursdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm as of February 9th, 2012, in response to a Synovate monitoring report which indicated that the 3:00 – 3:30 p.m. slot was the maximum listenership time for youth. On 26th May 2012, G-Youth’s weekly pre-recorded programs officially ended. Star FM graciously gave G- Youth eight, 15 minutes bonus programs aired in the month of May 2012. This however concluded the overall target of production of 26 half-hour radio programs.

In February 2012, G-Youth launched its first live broadcast using the Somali Financial Literacy Program Dab iyo Dahab (Financial Literacy for Somali Youth) that had been developed for USAID-funded Somalia Youth Livelihood project in Hargeisa, Somalia. Day iyo Dahab is a Somali financial literacy series that was originally produced by EDC for the Somali Youth Livelihoods Program (SYLP) in Somalia in the form of IRI but was later re-edited by G-Youth Radio team to fit into broadcast style. The Day iyo Dahab programs was aired for approximately 20 minutes and was followed by an interactive dialogue session and call-in segment led by youth presenters where the presenter invite audience participation through call ins. Day iyo Dahab had 40 episodes with two episodes airing every week. The series was devoted to topics that offered young people skills that are immediately applicable to their daily lives and help them think about their, short, medium and long term personal goals, and how money could help them achieve them. During the live-radio program launch a number of guests were invited to witness the occasion. The youth responded positively to the Dab iyo Dahab and Wakati ni Sasa civic programs.

The 35,000 target youth listeners were surpassed with programs having reached 664,318 youth between the ages of 16-30 years (442,065 males; and 202,253 females) according to Synovate, an independent research firm contracted by EDC/G-Youth. The full list of radio programs can be found in Annex 1. Outcome C: Establishment of a cadre of 400 Garissa youth civic leaders Leadership Camps In 2012, G-Youth organized two leadership camps in Mombasa and Nakuru in March and August respectively, with the overall participation of 96 youth. The participants were drawn from youth organizations that have received community development and civic engagement grants. The purpose of the camp was to strengthen the leadership and networking skills of youth group representatives. This would further enable them to bring new ideas and support networks back to their individual youth groups as well as commit to promote the spirit of networking and mutual support among all of the youth groups. The first leadership camp was facilitated by Elizabeth Robinson and the second coordinated and facilitated by Ms. Beverly Nuthu, and Mr. Martin Karanaja of B&G Consultants. The objectives

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of the camp were to enable participants to: explore their leadership journey stories to discover individual strengths; network and build relationships among the collective and find common needs, challenges, and hope; visit other youth leaders, groups, and networks in Kenya to exchange experiences and see new possibilities; begin collective planning for actions they want to take up in Garissa as a network of youth leaders; and identify leadership principles and values they all want to model in their youth groups and across groups. Participating youth commented that the camp was transformative and their eyes were opened to new ideas and possibilities. They made a commitment to share with the youth in their groups all that they other had learned and to work together to make a positive difference through their projects and their participation in GYDA. Strong bonds were developed between the various youth leaders who were invited to participate in the camp. Youth leaders came from Yes Youth Can in Coast Province; Shabaa in Mombasa and Nairobi and young women leaders from Meeting the Goal Post. Garissa youth spoke about inviting these leaders to visit them in Garissa and see their projects in the near future. The bond between Garissa youth leaders and Yes Youth Can youth leaders share a lot of commonality as the youth leaders are both participants and beneficiaries of are USAID-funded projects; and their leadership activities focus on developing their communities and starting youth livelihoods. Community Connectors The community connectors were youth who worked closely with G-Youth to help provide information about their communities’ needs. In the earlier part of the project, EDC recognized that reaching certain youth remained a challenge. An innovative idea of creating youth who could access those youth and the general community was formed. These youth would be called community connectors and would help collect and disseminate data to and from the community. The community connectors also helped disseminate information about project activities to their communities. Some of the activities that the community connectors engaged in included: 1. Acting as liaisons between the youth and the office on project activities. 2. Making the cyber café at the Career Resource Centre available to the youth and the general public. 3. Informing the youth of the need to form groups at the location level and submitting the data to the office. 4. Visiting vocational technical institutions like Garissa Village Polytechnic to familiarize themselves with the institution offering so that they can relay the same information to other youth. 5. Support in the logistics of the scholarship and grant award ceremonies. Mentorship Training All youth who received civic grants underwent mentorship training. The training used Emergence International’s Emerging Leader Mentor Course Training materials. The purpose of creating a Community Mentor Program was to ensure that the project built a movement of community supporters enthusiastic to partner with youth to help them succeed. Mentors would

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build relationships with youth groups that keep youth in the ‘driver’s seat’, support youth to work as a team, and help youth maintain inner resolve to find solutions to stumbling blocks. Phase 2 Results Achieved

Indicator Type # G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

Component 1: Youth Action

In coordination with the AOR, the team decided to not have a second big summit Number of youth due to security 1.1 participating in youth 5000 2,800 reasons. Mini- Peace and Security F- summits summits and listening Standard Indicator: events were held Number of people instead which resulted from 'at-risk groups' in lower numbers of reached through participants. USG-supported Number of youth conflict mitigation 1.2 who completed 144 238 activities leadership training 2,050 This number Number of youth represents the 1.3 accessing the Youth 2000 1,338 M number of youth Fund 712 F awarded with grants and scholarships Includes: blast SMS, Number of public radio announcement, Peace and Security F- 1.4 information 26 258 Facebook, public Standard Indicator: campaigns conducted notice boards and Number of public project website information Youth Action/Youth campaigns completed Work Summit, two Number of youth by USG programs 1.5 2 4 Mini-Summits and summits conducted one Community Listening Event.

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Indicator Type # G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

Includes: WRP peer educator handbook, In School Youth Guidance and life skills handbook, Community Service Learning handbook, Microenterprise curriculum, Basic ICT Investing in People Training Manual, F-Standard Indicator: Community Mentorship Number of textbooks Connectors Training curriculum/guide; and other teaching 1.6 2 14 Manual, youth leader leadership training and learning materials coaching toolkit, curriculum provided with USG opportunities menu assistance booklet, Emerging leader mentor facilitator guide, Emerging leader mentor course book, community needs assessment manual, ESL curriculum, ESL teachers guide, ESL student handbook Project design and implementation activities include: Number of youth Internal youth interns, participating in G-Youth Custom Not youth participating in 1.7 project design, 502 Indicator defined focus implementation and groups/seminars and M&E activities workshops that inform G-Youth programs. G-Youth Custom Number of youth Not Garissa Youth 1 Indicator 1.8 action partnerships defined Development established Association Number of G-Youth Custom community projects Not 1.9 46 Indicator implemented by defined youth G-Youth Custom Number of hours of Not 896 Indicator 1.10 community service defined served by youth

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Indicator Type # G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

Component 2: Youth Work

Peace and Security F- 951 Standard Indicator: Number of youth 1000 611 M Number of people 2.1 trained in work from 'at-risk groups' readiness program 340 F reached through USG-supported Number of youth and conflict mitigation 2.2 adults who attended 150 831 activities mentor workshops 262 G-Youth Custom Number of youth Not 2.3 152 M Indicator gaining internships defined 110 F

Component 3: Youth Education

Peace and Security F- Standard Indicator: Number of youth Number of people receiving scholarships 1229 from 'at-risk groups' to continue education 3.1 1000 817 M reached through through the Youth USG-supported Fund (10% of the 412 F conflict mitigation Fund) activities

Investing in People F-Standard Indicator: Buy-in from Number of learners Number of Madrassa 758 1000 SUPKEM and enrolled in USG- students receiving 3.2 413 M madrassa principals supported secondary English language caused significant schools or equivalent instruction 345 F non-school-based delays. settings

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Indicator Type # G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

The training was not started until the second year of phase 2 due to time required Investing in People to establish the F-Standard Indicator: academy and train Number of adult Number of students instructors. There was learners enrolled in enrolled in Cisco 3.3 500 148 less interest in the USG-supported Networking Academy program than schools or equivalent at NEP TTI anticipated, so the non-school-based project offered settings scholarships for the training, which helped but the target was not achieved. Number of Madrassa Not teachers trained to 15 3.4 defined Investing in People deliver ESL F-Standard Indicator: curriculum Number of Number of secondary school career teachers/educators 3.5 10 18 trained with USG counselors and head support teachers trained Number of NEP TTI 3.6 teachers trained for 3 3 Cisco academy Investing in People This represents the 181 F-Standard Indicator: teachers and Number of Not Number of 102 M education officials 3.7 administrators and defined administrators and trained on IRI officials trained 79 F officials trained methodology- 102 males and 79 females. Includes in-school Number of textbooks Work Readiness and other teaching Investing in People Curriculum, ESL for and learning materials F-Standard Indicator: 3.8 Not Madrassa Students, provided to 4 Number of textbooks defined Cisco curriculum (4 secondary school and other teaching levels), IRI programs teachers and learning materials (3 levels, 10 activities provided with USG per level) assistance Number of computer Not 21 3.9 equipment provided defined to NEP TTI Component 4: Youth Civics

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Indicator Type # G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

Governing Justly and Democratically F- Number of IRI Standard Indicator: curriculum modules 3 modules and their Number of curricula for grades 6, 7 and 8, accompanying 4.1 3 6 created or modified and accompanying Teacher Guides for to include focus on teachers guides classes 6-8. Human Rights with developed USG Support

Investing in People F-Standard Indicator: Number of learners Number of upper 27,574 enrolled in USG- primary students 13,696 M supported primary 4.2 reached through IRI 25000 schools or equivalent Civic education 13,878 F non-school-based program settings

This represent the Peace and Security F- numbers reached for Standard Indicator: youth 16-30 years Number of people Number of youth through Star FM from 'at-risk groups' 664,318 reached through listenership in North reached through 4.3 35000 442, 065M radio civic education Eastern topography USG-supported 202,253 F programming for the period of Oct- conflict mitigation Mar 2012 as research activities by Synovate

Number of 15 to 20 minute IRI programs 10 radio programs for 4.4 in English for 6, 7 24 30 each grade were and 8 grade developed. Investing in People developed F-Standard Indicator: Fewer teachers were Number of textbooks Number of IRI needed than originally and other teaching 4.5 teacher training 500 400 projected in order to and learning materials guides developed reach the total provided with USG number of students. assistance Fewer teachers were Number of MP3 needed than originally 4.6 players provided for 300 250 projected in order to IRI classes reach the total number of students.

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Indicator Type # G-Youth Indicator LOP LOP Comments Target Cumulative

38 fifteen minute pre- recorded programs have been produced and aired per week on Star FM from Sept Number of 30 2011; 34 three hour minutes youth led weekly live broadcast 26 112 4.7 and produced civic programs have been education radio produced and aired programs on Warsan FM from Feb 2012 and 40 episodes of financial literacy have been aired.

Phase 3: Yes Youth Can! North Eastern Region (YYC! NER)

January 2013 – January 2016

Objective 1: Mobilize and empower youth to organize themselves to address their priorities “Joining the bunge made me and needs more focused in my life. I met other youth that I would not have Outcome 1. Youth mobilized at the village met if I wasn’t part of a bunge. I level through Activity Zero also got more knowledge and awareness. Being in a bunge also In its phased approach, EDC started the program helped me not be idle.” in Garissa in April 2013, Wajir in August 2013 and Mandera in March 2014. Initial mobilization Bunge Member, Male, 23, Garissa drives were the first YYC! programmatic activities. Stakeholders’ forums were organized in each “The YYC! NER came at a very county to introduce the project and introduce the right time as it gave the youth something to do. Otherwise some re-branding as YYC!, and seek support from the of these youth would have been county government, local leaders, youth and brain washed.” women representatives, religious leaders and other NGOs. About 50 stakeholders attended each Female Community Member, Wajir event. The stakeholders were impressed by the planned youth activities and pledged their support. “Through the bunge we have learned teamwork and Mobilization began after the stakeholders’ forums. networking…we know the rights Youth were mobilized to form village-based youth of youth…there is now unity of groups called bunges. Government data was youth” obtained on where large youth populations resided Bunge Member, Female 22, Wajir in the three counties and the project staff and

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volunteers traveled to these areas to hold meetings with youth. In these meetings (in villages and towns) the project and the bunge system was explained to the youth, local chiefs and other community leaders. Further, during these mobilization events additional youth volunteers were also recruited, who then helped in mobilizing additional youth in far flung villages. In some cases, community leaders also spoke to the youth during these meetings.

The structure of the bunges in YYC! NER was as follows:

 A bunge had to have a minimum of 15 members  Each bunge elected four leadership positions: President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary (1 of these 4 leadership positions had to be female)  Two delegates from the four leadership positions were picked to represent the bunge at the sub-county level (1 of these 2 delegates had to be a female)  From all the bunges delegates sent to the sub-county level, 5 delegates were elected to represent each ward at the county level (2 of these 5 had to be female)  A total of 30 delegates were elected to represent each county and these 30 delegates formed the County Board Forum (CBF)  6 of the 30 CBF members were elected to form the Executive Committee (Ex-Com) consisting of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer (2 of these 6 had to be female)  The President and senior most female of the Ex-Com (of each CBF) attended the NYBA quarterly meetings in Nairobi

The launch of the youth bunge mobilization process in Garissa was delayed due to the elections “The project was successful to mobilize youth and the CBF, in a in Kenya, the election petition and the security short amount of time, has been situation in North Eastern Kenya. For travel to able to develop work plans to certain sub regions, police escorts were necessary carry out activities for youth. to accompany the project vehicle and certain This is the first time something villages were avoided because travel to those areas like this has been done for youth was too risky. In addition, the vast distances in Wajir.” between each village in Garissa and Wajir counties CBF President, Wajir, Male, 27 made mobilization at the village level a more protracted process. The project worked with the “We had some security issues in Ministries of Youth, and Social Services and the mobilization process and we Gender offices on the need to provide support to had to travel large distances to bunge registrations. However, unresponsiveness reach some villages, but overall it by the government to approve youth bunge was successful and hundreds of registration delayed the registration of youth bunges were formed and registered.” bunges in Garissa. As a result, the delays in

Garissa slightly shifted back the project’s Youth Mobilization Volunteer and CBF timeframe for the county board formation in Secretary, Garissa, Male, 22 Garissa and mobilization in Wajir.

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During the mobilization process a bunge tracker form (which recorded data on the bunges members and activities) was provided, which each bunge leadership had to complete and return to the project team. The youth did not have to pay a fee to join a bunge, however all bunges had to be registered either as a self-help group or a CBO with the Department of Social Services (as required by Kenyan law). The registration of a CBO cost 5000 Kenyan Shillings (KS), while the registration of a self-help group cost 1000 KS; and the funds to register a bunge were paid by the youth themselves. The CBFs, however, had to be registered as a CBO. The project then also aided the bunges to register with the Department of Social Services in each county. Each bunge also paid a small subscription fee to the CBF. EDC continued supporting the mobilization and registration of youth bunges in all three counties through the county board structures that were established by the project. By the end of the project 1,229 bunges were registered with 411 in Garissa, 290 in Wajir and 528 in Mandera. Outcome 2: County Elections Held & County Boards Formed Delegates Forum “The youth in Wajir are facing After the project mobilized youth to form bunges, a no jobs, poverty, drug and delegates forum was held in each country. The delegates alcohol abuse…and there is forum was attended by 1 male and 1 female from each also danger of bunge. At this event, the County Youth Bunge Forum radicalization…so we need (CBF) comprised of 30 people (5/constituency) was youth programs to reduce formed when the representatives of the village bunges these issues.” voted for their county representatives. They reviewed Chief of Wajir City and approved a draft constitution and bylaws for the CBF. Each CBF is linked to the National Youth Bunge “Everything worked well and Association. we had no problems in electing our bunge President and other Executive Committee Elections (Board Meeting) leaders. We also have full freedom to bring up any issue The next event that followed each delegates meeting we want with the bunge was the Executive Committee elections and work President.” planning session. This event was also referred to as a board meeting. An executive committee (Ex-Com) of 6 Bunge Member, Male 20, Garissa individuals (1 representative/constituency) was elected to run the affairs of the county bunge forum. The positions to be elected were the President, Vice President, Secretary, Organizing Secretary, Vice Secretary, and Treasurer. In order to vote, it was required that the 6 positions were represented by each of the constituencies and there needed to be at least 2 female representatives. Oftentimes, a period of discussion and debate was required in order to ensure that they were fairly including both females and minority communities in their representation. Once voting was finalized, the CBF discussed their priorities, and developed work plans for their priority activities.

Quarterly Meetings

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The CBFs would gather quarterly. During these quarterly meetings, the CBF members shared their quarterly reports from their constituencies so the ExCom could prepare a county report to be shared with EDC and during their quarterly ward meetings. In addition the Ex-Com members would report back to the CBF members on work plan activity progress, linkages with the community, and would report back from the NYBA national meeting. The members also discussed the progress of work plan activities, matters arising from the bunges and strategies for cultivating good working relationships between the Ex-Com and CBF members. For example, during quarterly meetings they decided to open a WhatsApp forum to share information regarding project implementation. Ward-Level Meetings The purpose of the ward-level meetings is to provide updates and feedback to the CBF from the bunges. The 5 representatives from each constituency meets with the members of their bunges at the ward level to exchange these updates. The ward level meetings happened before each quarterly meeting. Special Ex-Com Meetings Special Ex-Com meetings were held as needed to discuss activity progress, review subaward requirements and progress towards achieving milestones. For example, a meeting was held in 2014 to provide capacity building and address delays in work plan activities, and in 2015 to start the handover process from the previous committee to the new one. Annual General Meetings Annual General Meetings are held after the first year in each county to gather representatives from the bunges. Each of the bunges in good standing order with the CBF sent two delegates (a female and a male) to the meeting. The AGMs were held at the constituency level due to the insecurity at the time because the government banned large gatherings. Garissa held its AGMs in May and June 2015 (with and Wajir held its AGMs in August 2015. Mandera’s first AGM will take place after the period of performance of YYC! NER. During this event, dues are paid and the new CBF representatives are elected. The leadership of the previous CBF presents a report to the AGM on the achievements made in the prior year. After the annual delegates meetings were held, the elected representatives again came together and elected a new executive committee.

CBF Member The 21-year-old Garissa CBF Vice-Secretary is from the village Bula Oscar Youth bunge in Lagdera sub-county. He first joined the YYC! NER project as volunteer in the mobilization process, then became his bunge’s president and was then subsequently elected to the CBF. As the bunges in his ward have both literate and illiterate youth members he was very careful to ensure that everyone understood the IGA trainings he conducted. He also beamed with pride while relating that some of his bunge members had also started a milk business after the IGA trainings he carried out.

When discussing his role, he was quick to point out that he related the work of his CBF to the bunges in

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his ward therefore he was an important connection in the bunge system. When asked what benefits the YYC! NER project has provided him, he said the ability to learn and to exercise leadership; and for the youth a chance to be heard at the county level and to be engaged with political issues. He also stated the importance of the bunges in peace building as his own village bunge acted as a peace keeping group when clan clashes erupted in the area.

With the project coming to an end in the region he remarked, “In my village people talk about what I have achieved and about my leadership as I represented my village bunge and many other bunges in the ward. After the project ends my mentality for leadership for youth will not go away.”

Outcome 3: EDC & Youth Joint Work plans developed Annual work plans are developed by the CBFs after their Ex-Com elections. At these meetings, youth discuss the issues that are important to them and then design activities and develop work plans. All work plans also included quarterly meetings and sending representatives to the NYBA meetings in Nairobi. The Garissa CBF’s first work plan was developed in January 2014. Initial work plan activities included: using football tournaments to conduct civic education on topics such as the benefits of the new constitution for the youth, the rights of the youth to acquire ID`s (my ID my life) and peaceful coexistence; radio trainings; scholarships for vocational and tertiary education; and establishing a SACCO to fund income generating activities. In March 2015, they developed their second year work plan activities. The new work plan activities included post-secondary scholarships, training for bunges involved in income generating activities, civic education programs through radio, exchange visits to other counties whose CBFs are making impressive achievements. Initial Wajir work plan activities included football tournaments as a platform to address health and substance issues; radio programs to address peaceful coexistence; educating youth about their rights to acquire national IDs; scholarships; trainings on leadership, financial management and income generation; and establishment of a SACCO. In March 2015, the Wajir CBF held their board meeting to develop new work plans. New work plan activities included bunge-level income generating activity trainings, establishing an office for the CBF, conducting two quarterly meetings and sending representatives to the NYBA meetings. In Mandera, activities supported promoting youth participation in peace building through sports; creating awareness about the importance of peace in the communities; creating public awareness on devolution; creating awareness on the effects of drugs and early marriage; scholarships; CBF capacity building; and SACCO development. Once the work plans and budgets were approved by USAID, activity costs were either run through a fixed obligation grant (FOG) or paid for directly out of the EDC Windows of Opportunity Fund budget. For instance, for events, EDC paid costs such as conference packages, and the youth paid for local transportation costs. This allowed EDC to bear some of the larger costs and preserve vendor relationships, and allowed the youth to build internal accountability measures as they tracked their spending.

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Objective 2: Support youth to implement work plans to reflect their expressed priorities Outcome 1: Youth work plans implemented Most of the work plan activities were run through sub grants, with EDC coordinating specific activities such as capacity building and initial SACCO development. The Implementation of the Garissa CBF Work plan activities started in the fall of 2014. General Work Plan Activities - Overall Achievements and Challenges The project team supported the CBFs in the implementation of their activities. To build the capacity of the CBFs, project staff and external consultants conducted leadership, teamwork and financial and organizational management trainings (on organizational policies and procedures, procurement, book keeping, payment documentation, internal controls, financial reporting etc.) for the CBF members. A number of CBF work plan activities involved delivering training, so CBF members were also provided trainings on IGA, entrepreneurship, peace building, health issues “The project had provided (HIV/AID) etc. The CBF members then went to their us education through wards, with appropriate resource materials, and relayed the scholarships and developed content of these trainings to the bunge presidents and other a sense of community bbasedased leadership. In some cases, external consultants were also business that youth can do involved in providing these trainings. It was then the together.” responsibility of the bunges presidents and the other Bunge Member, Female, 22, leadership to hold meetings to cover the content of these Garissa trainings in their own bunges. Specifically, structured Income Generating Activity (IGA) and peace trainings were provided to youth in bunges (some community members also attended these meetings); and the IGA trainings were very appreciated by the youth. Further, a certain number of youth in bunges also got specific short term agricultural sector productivity or food security trainings.

Youth Bunge’s Farming Business

The 30 members of a bunge in Wagalla village (Wajir county) started thinking about what income generating activities they could do. Led by their President who was also a youth volunteer during the project’s mobilization process, the youth decided on doing some small scale farming. With the help of their CBF, and facilitation of the project staff, they were connected to the county government and were able to get some trainings in hay production and livestock from the Ministry of Livestock; and in preserving vegetables from the Ministry of Agriculture. While going through these trainings the youth also found a piece of land in their village owned by two families who agreed to let the youth cultivate it.

The youth then pooled money to buy seeds, built a water tank by hand on the site and later also bought two water pumps. They have planted papayas which they sell in Wajir city and have also grown hay to sell

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during the draught season. They also share some of their papaya and hay harvest with the two families who own the land.

Overall they have been able to make some profits but there are challenges. The weather can be very severe in the region which ruined some of their papayas; and they also tried to grow tomatoes, but their first yield got infected. Their waters pumps broke and now they need to raise funds to get them repaired. For now, the youth are eager to continue with their work and plan to meet with the Wajir CBF leadership so they can be introduced to some appropriate officials in the county government who can provide them information on getting government loans.

Scholarships were highly demanded in each county and were in each CBF’s work plan. EDC developed scholarship guide, which outlined in detail the process for awarding scholarships. The project provided post-secondary academic and vocational scholarships. These partial scholarships were in fixed amounts, which could cover tuition and related costs such as books. Scholarship calls were issued in order to manage the process. Scholarship recipients were selected by a scholarship committee managed by the CBFs and; some community members and the project staff also took part in the selection process. Once awarded and the proper paperwork was in place, payments were made directly to the institutions. SMS blasts created a surge in demand in the last year of the project.

Scholarship Recipient

“After I joined my bunge in 2013 our bunge President told us about the scholarships. Five youth from my bunge applied for scholarships and all of us got it. My scholarship was used to pay for my studies at the Teacher Training Institute in Wajir. The course is for four years and without the aid of the scholarship it would have been very difficult for me to continue studying. When Al Shabaab started attacking the region the national teachers’ union asked all non-Muslim teachers to leave so there has been a shortage of teachers in the county. I want to get my diploma so I can teach children from all over Wajir county who don’t have a chance to get a good education because of the lack of teachers.”

Scholarship Recipient, 21, Wajir West Bunge Member

The youth in Garissa expected the project to be like the G-Youth project - despite numerous explanations from the staff, they still hoped and thought that the project will give them direct grants for income generating activities and projects at the bunge level. The team had to reiterate the new program approach which focused on savings cooperatives for small businesses and ensure a consistent message. The newer counties were quicker to start implementing income generating activities and adopt the SACCO philosophy and approach.

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The CBFs demonstrated that they were lax about meeting the deadlines of the milestones within the grant agreement. EDC continued coaching the Ex-Com on the systems adherence. However, some activities were hampered due to issues beyond the project’s control. Due to a series of terror attacks in 2015, the government authorities advised the CBFs that the issuance of identity cards would be limited due to security concerns. However, they assured the youth of their right to obtain the document. They urged the youth lacking national identity cards to liaise with their local chiefs to create a list that is ready when the government allows registration. The Mandera CBF was formed last and was able to implement activities in a relatively timely matter. During the last quarter of the project, peace building training in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera was conducted. EDC trained the CBFs on peace building skills and had Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) round table discussions. The peace building was meant to give skills to CBF`s since the region has experienced heightened clan conflicts this last year as well as terror threats because of the proximity to Somalia which harbors the Al Shabaab terror group. EDC also conducted Income Generating Activities (IGA) skills training for bunges in Garissa and Wajir during the last quarter of the project and sent trainers to impart entrepreneurship skills to the youth bunge members at the grassroots level. EDC helped the SACCO management teams in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera go for an exchange visit to see the activities of the Kirinyaga County Youth Bunge SACCO. The Kirinyaga County Youth Bunge SACCO is involved in income generating activities such as rabbit and tomato farming; making of beads and artworks and environmental conservation. SACCOs A major achievement was the establishment of SACCOs in each county. SACCOs are savings and credit cooperative organizations regulated by the Kenyan government. All YYC! Projects developed SACCOs to facilitate lending for income generating activities. In the YYC! Model, savings are matched by the project. As the project prepared for formation of the SACCOs, EDC consulted with the other YYC! projects and built on their experiences. SACCOs are new in the North Eastern Region of Kenya due to culture and beliefs – there is a perception in the region that they are not compliant with Islamic Sharia law, so unlike the rest of Kenya, the concept had never taken off in the region. In order to address this concern and ensure that the SACCOs would be successful, EDC conducted extensive research on formation of sharia-compliant SACCOs and met with two SACCOs that target the region, Crescent Takaful and COFI. EDC engaged a consultant to train youth on developing sharia compliant products for the SACCO and support the SACCO to develop bylaws for the SACCO. The SACCO officials from each county were trained by a consultant on designing Sharia compliant products. SACCO officials were taken through a pre-cooperatives management training facilitated by officers from the Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development. The training focused on building their capacity in SACCO Management, particularly regulatory frameworks, principles of sharia compliance for financial products, book keeping and roles and responsibilities. The SACCOs were registered between August 2014 and January 2015. The SACCO program continued in 2015 with an annual delegates meeting (ADM) that was used to elect interim officials for the SACCO. These officials were confirmed in a subsequent ADM. All

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officials receive training. EDC supported the registration of the SACCO with the registrar of cooperatives. In 2015, The SACCO management committees went through three levels of training led by a Cooperative Director from the national government. The first level introduced the youth to the co-operative business model; the second level concentrated on management and; the third level covered governance, corporate governance, oversight, loan policies, HR policies, procurement policies, team building etc. to run the SACCO. The first level consisted of a five-day training while levels two and three were three days of training each. It was found that the Wajir youth were the most enthusiastic in forming the SACCO and linkages to the county government. They demonstrated the initiative to start income generating activities before the SACCOs were fully operational. The level three training took place in Wajir with all the three counties which encouraged the SACCOs learn from each other. An exchange visit to Kirinyaga youth SACCO was also organized to expose them on how other SACCOs plan to operate after the project. SACCOs needed to reach a threshold in savings and members needed to save for six months before loans could be issued. That threshold was met in late 2015. Additionally, loanees are required to identify a guarantor within the SACCO. These requirements caused some delays in the issuing of loans. A major challenge faced was the requirement from the national cooperative board that there is a guarantor for each loan who is a member of the SACCO. Youth were resistant to be a guarantor because they didn’t know if the other young person would actually pay back their loan. This had been an issue in other YYC! counties as well. Additionally, because the SACCO officials live at a distance from one another, the project team supplied computers and scanners, airtime and transport costs to ease some of the bottlenecks in approvals. The major challenges were continuous member saving, guarantor, and distance of having the officials coming together to approve loans. The achievements are the number of total loans disbursed, the mind change on SACCO concept, and the linkage between the youth SACCO and the cooperative arms. The management committees of all three SACCOs participated in an exchange visit in Kirinyaga in Central Kenya in December 2015. The lessons learn from the visit were the following: record keeping is essential for the survival of the SACCO, a good working relationship between the SACCO and the county government is essential, a change in mindset that the youth can save without the donor is occurring; and finally that the SACCO’s can survive beyond project period if youth are willing. The other SACCOs had faced difficulties with loan repayments as youth were treating the loans like grants, so the SACCOs became more careful to loan to youth who were business oriented and showing a willingness to repay. By the end of their awards in January 2016, the SACCOs were finally fully understanding the process and issuing loans. Unfortunately, the award ended before they were able to earn as much in matching grants as possible and thrive based on repayment rates since it is still quite early and youth have a 2-month grace period before they need to repay. In the end, the following numbers of loans were approved for disbursement:

County Coca Cola Standard SACCO

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Qty Kshs Total Qty Kshs Total Garissa 12 288,000.00 4 416,400.00 Wajir 20 400,000.00 10 878,000.00 Mandera 28 84,000.00 0 0.00

Coca Cola Loans EDC’s award was amended in 2015 to add the Coca Cola 5by20 initiative. USAID/Kenya and Coca-Cola 5by20 have entered into a partnership through which both parties will support the promotion of livelihoods of women in Kenya. The mutual goal of the partnership is to empower youth, especially women, within the CBFs and Youth Bunge SACCOs by creating an opportunity for USAID/Kenya and Coca-Cola , via the bottlers, to collaborate on the 5by20 initiative in Kenya. YYC! NER joined the partnership so that its youth SACCO members could benefit from increased income generation opportunities by obtaining a SACCO loan to purchase the equipment required to become a Coca Cola vendor. In order to implement the Coca Cola 5/20 program, EDC worked with the SACCOs to raise awareness of the program, established the application process, organize launch events, and monitor the SACCOs as they issued loans to youth in accordance with their regular loan policy. Implementation of the Coca Cola 5/20 program was dependent on the local Coca Cola bottler providing equipment, training and distribution and sales support. The bottler informed USAID and EDC that the cooler boxes couldn’t be provided due to issues in other locations and lack of access to ice in North Eastern. USAID encouraged the project to continue to issue the Coca Cola loans without this equipment. However, the project is there was less interest in these loans now that the cooler boxes were no longer being made available by Coca Cola. Coca Cola was supposed to provide entrepreneurship training, but since the equipment was not provided this was not done. Due to Coca Cola’s inability to provide the equipment, the uptake for loans has been much lower than anticipated and the target of 264 Coca Cola loans was not met. A total of 12 Coca Cola loans were issued in Garissa, 20 in Wajir, and 28 in Mandera. While this number is short of the target, it is impressive given the short time that the SACCOs were issuing loans before the program ended. In the program description addendum submitted to the Agreement Officer on July 14, 2015, EDC had alerted USAID that “implementation of the Coca Cola 5/20 program will be dependent on the local Coca Cola bottler providing equipment, training and distribution and sales support; if the Coca Cola contributions are not provided, this component may not be implemented.” Outcome 2: County boards trained on leadership & management After the approval of the CBF work plans and budgets, EDC conducted financial management and leadership trainings to the 30 members of each CBF to impart skills on organizational management and leadership. Areas covered included reasons for financial management, application of organizational policies and procedures, procurement, basic book keeping, payment documentation, internal controls, policies and procedures manual, and financial reporting. The leadership training covered leadership skills and teamwork. The initial result of the training was a change in mindset as the CBF members started to see themselves as leaders. In general, management of the CBFs was better for CBFs whose members went through the training than

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other youth groups that we had worked with previously. For example, internal communications improved which minimized in-fighting as members had a clear sense of their own and others’ roles and responsibilities. This training was only provided for the first CBFs because it was in their work plans, but was not done for the newly elected CBFs, which would have been beneficial for their oversight role. EDC provided follow up through 1-on-1 coaching as the youth prepared their deliverables and troubleshooted management issues together. For example, they would need assistance with how to best organize a meeting such as to share the agenda in advance. For many of the youth, they’ve never had formal employment, let alone managed a sub- grant. Despite these trainings, the CBFs faced challenges in managing their sub-grants. Challenges were faced with achieving milestones, the lack consciousness on milestone timing, proper planning and also understanding what documentations they should prepare and how. EDC worked closely with the CBFs to identify specific challenges and identify ways to address them. For instance, communication is difficult the youth live at great distances from one another and phone service is limited. The project provided for travel costs and printers and scanners to improve their ability to prepare documentation. In addition, as the CBF members hold accountable the Ex-Com accountable for management and administration of the FOG, the members were eager to hold the ward meetings in order to have discussions with the youth in the villages and come up action points and an improved way forward for the management of their affairs. All in all, the CBFs have grown immensely in their abilities to manage subgrants, which has prepared them to interface with RTI for the Tusome subgrants. In the end, the each CBF achieved about 90% of their milestones.

Youth Bunge Member

I was involved with a CBO that did community development and social work and during the mobilization process for the YYC! NER project I became a volunteer. After our bunge was formed I now serve as its secretary. Our bunge has 20 members and they have all benefitted from the IGA trainings we have received. Some of the youth in my bunge have also benefitted from scholarships and have become motivated to do things for themselves. I myself got really motivated after the IGA trainings and now want to open a poultry farm in 2016. The only complaint I have about the project is that our bunge does not get enough information from the CBF…I think the CBF should do a better job of telling us what activities they plan to do in the future.”

23, Garissa Town Bunge Member

Objective 3: Strengthen youth’s voice on priority issues through multimedia approaches Outcome 1: Capacity of youth to engage in civic matters improved Building on the successes on Phase 2, radio was a center point activities in phase 3. Youth developed radio programs geared to support peaceful coexistence for communities in North

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Eastern region. The programs were aimed at giving the youth a chance to engage one another and address their needs and priorities. Topics included youth mobilization and bunge formation, civic matters such as youth radicalization and peace building, effects of early marriage and leadership. See Annex 1 for a listing of all of the radio program topics. Programs were both pre- recorded and live with a call in component. Radio programs were aired on both Star FM across North Eastern, and its sister station in Wajir, Warsan FM. The programs were aired weekly. The project trained youth on radio production skills and techniques in partnership with the Garissa and Wajir CBFs and Star FM. Two groups went through a 6-month training. During the training, they would go to a class to learn fundamentals of journalism and studio operations and script writing and audio editing. They then conducted interviews and produced actual radio programs. The youth were selected based on their interests in radio and journalism and had to have skills in all 3 languages – English, Somali and Swahili. Trainees came only from Garissa because of the location of the studio. A total of 24 youth were trained in radio production. While the target was for 30 trainees, the project team only selected qualified applicants. Listenership data was collected by Ipsos Synovate, an independent media research firm. However, as early 2015, the project was no longer able to obtain listenership data due to changes in national data collection. The agreement with IPSOS/Synovate needed to be terminated. Over the course of the YYC! phase, the youth produced 144 new radio programs.

Youth Producing Radio Programs

Three of the youth from bunges in Garissa (aged 22, 20 and 20) who were trained and produced radio programs saw the advertisement for radio trainings on the YYC! NER Facebook page. After being selected they went through a six months training; which covered media, ethics, journalism and radio program production. All three of them then got internships with a radio station in Garissa for three months. Two of the trained youth served as producers of the radio programs and also trained other youth who came into the program after them; while the third served as a field reporter getting opinions of youth and the community for the radio programs.

Themes for the programs were chosen by the production team keeping in mind the pressing issues for youth and inputs that youth who contacted the program provided. The radio programs had multiple announcers and during the broadcast of each episode, two telephone numbers were provided for youth to call and provide their comments. On an average 50 youth called during the live portion broadcast of each program and a further 70-80 text messages were also received. These 3 youth didn’t hesitate in stating that thousands of youth were regular listeners and they also had numerous stories of how when they were traveling around the counties, many youth would tell them that they listen to the radio programs.

When asked what benefits the radio programs have brought to the youth all three were in agreement that that the radio programs: have raised awareness of youth on peace and social issues; experts could answer youth’s questions about religion, health, drugs etc.; and youth got entertainment as the issues being discussed were in the youth’s interests plus songs were also played.

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As the project ends in North Eastern Kenya the radio programs will cease however these three youth are convinced that during their duration the radio programs helped in changing youth behavior for the better as youth got informed about governing and peace and also got religious guidance. As for themselves two of the youth are going to study journalism at the university, while the third wants to work for a few years before thinking about going back to media work. However, all three have a desire to work on TV programs in the future.

Phase 3 Results Achieved

YYC! NER Indicator Tracking Table

Indicator Indicator LOP LOP Comments Number Target Cumulative

1.1 Number of people attending 23,000 24,501 USG-assisted facilitated 13,161 M events that are geared towards strengthening 11,340 F understanding and mitigation conflict between groups 1.2 Number of host national 695,102 695,102 inhabitants reached through 496,658 M USG assisted public information campaigns to 198, 450 F support peaceful resolutions. 1.3 Number of people 11,000 17,005 participating in USG 9124 M supported events, training, or activities designed to 7881 F build mass support for peace and reconciliation. 1.4 Number of civil society 3 3 organizations (CSOs) receiving USG assistance engaged in advocacy interventions. 1.5 Number of youth elected to 90 90 positions of leadership on 54 M county boards, executive boards, or village 36 F committees 1.6 Number of county elections 3 5 Two elections held in Wajir held and Garissa

1.7 Number of county boards 3 3 formed

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YYC! NER Indicator Tracking Table

Indicator Indicator LOP LOP Comments Number Target Cumulative

1.8 Number of county-level 3 5 Two work plans developed work plans developed in Wajir and Garissa

2.1 Number of individuals from 500 485 Cumulative falls short of underserved and/or target due to a shortfall in 417 M disadvantaged groups qualified candidates for accessing tertiary education 68 F scholarships. programs 2.2 Number of individuals who 150 169 Numbers include youth in have received USG bunges doing agricultural 63 M supported short term activities and those youth agricultural sector 106 F who participated in IGA productivity or food security trainings in Q1 2016. training 2.3 Total number of clients 350 1001 Efforts by the project team (households and /or micro yielded interest in the 579 M enterprises) benefiting from SACCOs far above what financial services provided 422 F was originally targeted. through USG-assisted financial intermediaries, including non- financial institutions or actors.

2.4 Number of financial 3 3 Intermediaries support by USG assistance 2.5 Number of persons 200 3798 Numbers reported reflect receiving new or better results from internal 2559 M employment (including assessment done in better self-employment) as a 1239 F FY2016 Q1. 2573 youth result of participation in (1742M, 831F) reported USG-funded workforce new employment and 1225 development project (817M, 408F) reported better employment. Better employment was primarily based on youth recollections of their employment state before and after the program.

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YYC! NER Indicator Tracking Table

Indicator Indicator LOP LOP Comments Number Target Cumulative

3.1 Number of youth led and 144 144 produced civic education radio programs produced and aired with USG assistance 3.2 Number of youth trained on 30 24 Project shortfall due to radio production, journalism attrition in the training as and broadcast with USG well as lack of interest assistance among the youth on being trained in radio production.

IV. ASSESSING ACHIEVEMENT OF RESULTS

At the end of the YYC! NER phase, EDC conducted both quantitative and qualitative assessments in order to assess the program’s results. The qualitative assessment focused on youth employment and civic engagement. This section presents the results of these assessments, overall impact of the YYC! and G-Youth phases, the implications of working in the volatile North Eastern Region, reflections on gender issues as well as engagement with the community and the government, challenges faced by the project, and challenges.

Qualitative Assessment Study

In December, 2016 EDC conducted a qualitative study to assess the YYC! NER project’s performance to empower youth to promote their own development and to become responsible citizens for peace and prosperity. The study addressed the following key themes:

 Success of the project in reaching vulnerable youth in the North Eastern region and mobilizing them to organize themselves into active youth groups (bunges)  Success of the bunges in retaining/expanding membership, formulating objectives and work plans and achieving them  Benefit to youth from participating in bunges & other project activities  Project impact as demonstrated by best practices and lessons learned  The project’s relevancy, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability  Challenges and recommendations  The long-term impact of phases of the G-Youth project (in Garissa)

The main issue facing youth in the North Eastern region of Kenya pertains to unemployment. As educated and uneducated youth are not able to find jobs they develop a lack of direction, focus and confidence in their future. This state of mind is further compounded by issues of

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poverty and, in some cases, drug and alcohol abuse. In this scenario youth are also susceptible to radicalization. The youth in the North Eastern region thus face a vicious circle as lack of jobs and poverty breeds frustration and idleness; which further creates an opportunity for recruitment for violent extremism. In this type of scenario there was a very critical need for youth programs that could positively engage the youth and the YYC! NER project was therefore greatly welcomed by the youth and the communities in all the three counties.

Objective 1: Success of Mobilization and Activeness of Bunges

The data gathered clearly demonstrates that the youth mobilization drive was a successful exercise. During the first year of the project the main emphasis was on the mobilization effort; and this drive was also not a one off activity as the project staff continued supporting the mobilization and registration of youth bunges in all three counties, through the CBF, during the project timeframe. The initial mobilization, however, first took place in Garissa and then expanded to Wajir and Mandera; and this phased method followed the approach proposed in the project proposal. However, security issues in the North Eastern region, the Presidential elections of 2013 and delays in registration of the bunges. In Garissa County (outside of Garissa municipality) many youth in villages already knew about the G-Youth project hence they were very receptive to the YYC! NER project’s mobilization efforts. Further, also due to G-Youth, a structure in Garissa municipality was already in place that the project took advantage of to mobilize youth. In Wajir and Mandera, this was the first time a project was being implemented that specifically targeted youth. Hence, this emphasis of the project on youth greatly aided in the mobilization efforts across the two counties. Community leaders and members and parents of youth, in all three counties, were also supportive of the project; and wanted the youth to join bunges to avail of the opportunities the YYC! NER project provided By the end of the project 1229 bunges were registered in the three counties. The activeness of all of these bunges, however, is difficult to ascertain. Generally, the bunges that remained active during the project timeframe mainly comprised the following:

 Bunges that had a proactive leadership  CBF members bunges  Bunges that were involved in small business activities  Bunges that were involved in community activities  Bunges that had received structured IGA and peace trainings  Bunges whose members were pooling ideas to plan to start a small business  Bunges that had regular meetings for members  Bunges that did not lose members

There were, however, a variety of factors which inhibited the project team from getting accurate data on the numbers of active bunges. The main issue was that it was the responsibility of the

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CBFs to maintain contact with the bunges and to then inform the project staff about the bunges activities. So while the CBFs would provide information on some active bunges, in other instances, they might not relay information about other active bunges. In ward meetings bunges would discuss what they were doing, however, the issue that arose again was that if the CBFs did not provide this information, it was very difficult for the project staff to ascertain which bunges were active and which were not. Compounding this scenario was the fact that even though some bunges in far flung villages or in the towns were active, many of them had limited contact with the CBF. Another issue was that each bunge had to provide a bunge tracker sheet to the project staff and also provide quarterly updates. This form, however, was only partially completed by many bunges and, further, many bunges also did not provide updates on their activities.4 Therefore tracking the activeness of the bunges, through the tracker form, also had limitations. The youth who participated in the study, though unanimous in stating that their bunges were active, did provide some reasons as to why some youth would leave a bunge. These reasons included:

 Youth who passed the age of 35 had to leave the bunge due to the bunge bylaws  Some youth felt that they would get financial benefits (i.e. business grants) by joining the bunge, however, when they felt these benefits were not forthcoming they left the bunge  Some bunge members went to other towns and cities to study so they left their bunges, however, in many cases when these youth came back to their homes for holidays they recommenced their participation in the bunges

Objective 2: Supporting Youth to Implement their Work Plan Activities

The data gathered for the study clearly demonstrates that the project activities reflected youth priorities and benefitted them.

CBFs The benefits from the CBFs were derived at two levels. After having their organizational and management capacity built the CBFs kept the bunges system functioning and conducted various activities for youth (sports tournaments, helping youth get IDs, managing scholarships, providing trainings on IGAs and peace, relaying social and health information etc.); while also engaging with the community and doing some community projects (picking up garbage, helping orphaned children etc.). The CBFs thus managed a youth structure and led a platform where issues affecting youth could be addressed, while also getting recognition in their communities.

At an individual level the CBF members got first-hand experience on how to manage an organization that promoted youth issues. All the CBF members (including the Ex-Com members) who participated in the study were unanimous in their feedback that not only had the

4 To address this issue the project staff made use of opportunities such as trainings, AGMs, CBF meetings, personal contacts with bunge presidents etc. to get updated data for the bunge tracking forms.

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CBFs enabled activities for youth; but they personally were able to demonstrate leadership through the work of the CBFs. They were also of the view that being part of the CBFs provided them with a status to interact with community and government leaders in a manner they could never have done before. On the other hand, all the community leaders and members who participated in the study were also complimentary towards the CBFs role in conducting youth activities and in building bonds with the community.

However, the CBFs did face some challenges as there were delays in the development of work plans and in the achievement of milestones. Nonetheless, it has to be recognized that the CBFs existence and their work was a great achievement. The CBFs were created by the project; their capacities were built and; the project staff aided them as much as they could. However, these were nascent organizations staffed by volunteer youth who had never led or managed such an entity before. Thus the CBFs had to work around the schedule of the members who in some cases were not all available at the same time. Further, there were logistical issues to bring the CBF members together in one place (as members lived across the county with some residing in remote areas) when decisions needed to be made or when paper work had to be filled out. In addition, CBF members came from different regions and spoke different dialects, hence, there were also language issues and communication was not seamless among the members themselves. They needed time to be able to be fully self-sufficient and to master the context of their counties to lead a youth agenda; while also being able find alternate sources of funding for their long term future.

Trainings The YYC! NER provided management, financial, leadership, peacebuilding, IGA etc. trainings to CBF members, who then in a structured manner acted as master trainers to provide IGA and peace trainings to youth in bunges; with the IGA trainings being much appreciated. Trainings in other topics were also provided to youth in bunges, but they were not as structured; though many youth benefitted from getting informed about health issues etc. All of the CBF members who participated in the study were again unanimous in stating that the trainings they received helped them in managing the CBF, provided them with skills to personally grow as leaders and to get information and knowledge on various other topics. For the youth in bunges, however, the most structured trainings they received pertained to IGAs, developing small businesses, entrepreneurship and on peace issues.

Youth Trainer

“Before being part of the YYC! NER project I also participated in the G-Youth project. I was a member of a youth group during G- Youth and our group was doing a small milk preparation business in our village. When the YYC! NER project started our group became a bunge. I was then elected to be the bunge President and in the sub- county elections I became a member of the CBF. As a CBF member I got trainings in the following areas: finance, management, leadership, IGA and peacebuilding.

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I served as a trainer for bunges in my ward. So far I have trained 45 youth in three groups of 15 over a period of a 3 days on IGA. IGA is the main area where I have provided trainings and this is a topic that youth are the most interested to learn about. I found that the IGA trainings were very helpful to the youth; and some bunge members have even set up their own small businesses like running small kiosks and selling livestock and poultry. For the other topics when I go back to my village I talk to my bunge members about what I have learned. For example, after my peace building training I went to my village and talked to all the youth about peace building issues. These trainings, however, were not as structured as the IGAs ones that I carried out.

The YYC! NER project has given me a lot of benefits as I also got a scholarship to study and being a member of the CBF gave me leadership skills and qualities. The trainings I provided have helped other youth to get information on entrepreneurship and some bunge members have joined together to start small businesses. Mainly, the project has got the youth to connect with each other and the CBF has helped build a youth network.”

Bulla Gadud B Youth Bunge President, CBF Member & Trainer, 23

Small Businesses and Jobs The result of the IGA trainings as well as the ability of the youth to connect with other youth in their bunges to discuss business ideas led to some small businesses being conceived and implemented by the youth themselves. Many of the youth who participated in the study were able to recount how they themselves or someone in their own bunge (or in another bunge) had started some sort of small business after becoming part of the YYC! NER project. Some youth either pooled their ideas and resources together to do a small business after they got information and skills from their IGA trainings; or in other cases just by becoming the member of a bunge gave them an opportunity to meet and brainstorm with other bunge members on how they could create some small business. Hence, the bunge system by itself or the IGA trainings, specifically, provided the impetus for youth to start thinking and discussing what they can do to generate income; leading to some small businesses being formed. The resulting small businesses that the youth did included livestock, poultry, farming (rice, vegetables and fruit), butchery, salons, kiosks, bakeries, selling groceries etc.

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More specifically, the youth who participated in the study and who had actually started a small business (either alone or with other youth bunge members) were equivocal in stating that being part of a bunge gave them courage to start thinking about doing a business. They further claimed that they would never have thought of doing a small business if they had not had the opportunity to meet other youth and to discuss business issues with them. Being part of a bunge thus helped them to be confident to pool their ideas together and to collective think through what small business they could implement to generate income.

Nonetheless, the study cannot make a broad claim that the small businesses that the youth started during the YYC! NER project led to great increases in their or their households’ wealth. The youth recognized the potential of increasing their incomes by doing small businesses; however, no youth claimed that either they or anyone they knew had made big financial gains from the small business that were started. In terms of economic empowerment, however, the study can claim that youth in bunges did start to recognize the potential of business opportunities that existed for “The IGA trainings enlightened them; which is something many of them did not our knowledge of business as we realize before their participation in the project. had never done any kind of business before.”

The YYC! NER project also contributed to helping Bunge Member, Male 25, Wajir some youth get employment as participants in the study said that they knew of youth who jobs in shops, as drivers etc. during the project timeframe. The end line survey conducted by EDC (as part of the final M&E data collection for the project) also demonstrated that thousands of youth recollected that they had better employment at the end of the project as compared to when the project commenced. The results from the Youth Employment Survey outlined in the following section provides more information on new and better employment gains of program youth.

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Youth Bunge’s Poultry Business

When the 15 youth (10 males/5 females) in Wajir city formed their bunge they started thinking about what business they could do together. During one of their brainstorming sessions, after they had completed their IGA trainings, they came up with the idea of starting a poultry farm. After doing some research they were convinced that hens and eggs would sell in the city and this led them to pool 100,000 KS together. One of the bunge members also offered a piece of land adjacent to his house to host the hens. The money they had pooled was then used to buy materials to build a metal and wire shed and to buy hens.

Once everything was in place they were successful in selling hens and eggs in the city and were able to make some profit, which was shared among all the members. Seeing the success of their first hen farm, the bunge members decided to build another shed in another location. With the help of another bunge member, whose family had some open land, they have just constructed another metal and wire shed and are now waiting to buy more hens. To further expand their business activities, they have also started growing papayas near the new shed, which they will also sell in the city.

The youth are enthusiastic about their business venture, but at the same time they are realizing that doing this type of business is not as simple as it appears. The food for the hens is not cheap and they also need to get water pumps to have a steady supply of water for growing the papayas. Thus, they would like to get some funding so that they can buy these water pumps and a generator to run them. Down the line they would also like to get some more training on how they can further scale up their business ventures in Wajir county.

Scholarships One of the most popular activities of the YYC! NER project was the scholarships and there was unanimous feedback from the youth and the community members about their benefits. Hundreds of youth were able to continue studying, to obtain diplomas and to attend vocational institutions as a result of these scholarships. Without their presence many youth would have had to stop studying and to give up on their educational dreams. Further, even though the scholarships were limited (in the amount of funding they provided as they did not cover the full costs of getting a diploma) all the youth who had obtained them stated that they would not have been able to continue or complete their studies without this financial aid. Some of the

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community members who participated in the study even had children who had obtained scholarships; and they were very thankful as they felt this activity really aided poor families.

None of the youth participants, one the other hand, reported any problems with the scholarship process or favoritism in the handing out of scholarships, which is largely due to the lottery process that was used to select from qualified applications. However, a nearly unanimous complaint was that the number of the scholarships should have been increased. Further, another issue was raised by some youth pertaining to a rule for the allocation of the scholarships. The scholarships were only provided to youth who resided in the three counties and who attended a college or institution that was located in the three counties. Hence, some youth felt that even though they were residents of the three counties, they could not get a scholarship as the college or institution they were attending was located outside of the three counties.

Scholarship Recipient

“Four members of my bunge applied for a scholarship and we all got it. I’m using the scholarship at the Kenya Institute of Criminal Justice (Wajir Branch) to study business. The scholarship has given me encouragement as my family has financial problems and without it I don’t know if I would have been able to continue. After I get my diploma I want to work in Human Resources.”

Scholarship Recipient, 22, Bulla Cabadulla Bunge Member, Wajir

SACCOs The SACCO members that participated in the study were all in agreement that being part of the SACCO had been helpful as they had learned about savings, enterprise development and how co-operatives work. Many of the youth also felt that being part of the SACCO had brought them together with other youth to think about doing some business together for their future.

There existed some real challenges with the SACCOs. The concept of SACCO was new in the North Eastern region and this novelty along with the perception that SACCOs were not sharia compliant hindered their acceptance among youth. Even after pertinent trainings and dissemination of information that the SACCOs were sharia compliant; many youth were still not convinced that this was the case. Hence, the mobilization process of getting youth to join the SACCOs suffered in this regard; and this issue was also compounded by the fact that the SACCO, itself, is a novel concept in the North Eastern region. Further, the youth who were members of SACCOs were mostly unemployed so it was difficult for them to be active members who made savings. In addition, the government regulation calling for a member to get another youth (in the SACCO) to be his/her guarantor for a loan also impeded youth from applying and getting loans. Overall there was confusion among the SACCO members and leadership regarding the SACCO rules and regulations; and with the project coming to an end they were not clear how their SACCOs would function or survive in the future.

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Ultimately the SACCOs required much more time that the project timeframe to get acceptance in the communities in North Eastern Kenya; and also need a committed leadership that is willing to work for years to permanently establish the SACCOs. Further, in the short project timeframe, it was also not possible to demonstrate the positive impact of the SACCOs as only a relatively small amount of loans were made and the repayment grace period had not yet ended for those loans. Therefore, the youth were not able to see the successful implementation of loans and their benefits to youth. The long term future of the SACCOs is precarious as EDC will not provide any matching funds to the SACCOs to give loans after the end of the project. Further, the SACCO leadership and members are also not clear how they will continue in the future or who will replace EDC to provide matching loans in the future, even though this is not a typical feature of SACCOs. Though it has to be noted that the vast majority of the SACCO leadership and members were adamant that they were willing to work hard and to do what it takes to find a solution to make their SACCO a success in the future.

SACCO Member

“I joined the SACCO to save money to get a loan, but so far the SACCO leadership has told us that the loans are in the process of being given “The SACCO has a lot of and that the loan money is being arranged. I’m not sure potential as it can help youth why there is a delay and why this is happening. launch a business and get However, even without getting a loan I have gotten employed. I have informed a lot some benefits from joining the SACCO as I got of youth about the SACCO, but trainings on financial management and on how to save the problem we have right now and budget money. The trainings we got about sharia is that only about half of our compliance was also very good as this is a very members are active in making important religious issue for us.” savings and there are many difficulties in giving loans. But I SACCO Member, 26, Wajir have the motivation to work hard after the project ends to make the SACCO work, as I’m convinced it can help youth.” Objective 3: Strengthening Youth Voices SACCO Chairman, Male 27, Garissa Through Radio

Building on the success of the radio programs in the G-Youth project, the YYC! NER continued to train youth in journalism and radio production to produce 144 new radio programs. A total of 30 youth were trained over a period of six months; and after their trainings with the expert guidance of a project staff member (Radio & Communications Manager) they produced these programs. The radio programs were

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broadcast once a week5 over a private radio channel (Star FM); and the costs of the broadcasts were borne by EDC. Listenership data compiled by an independent media research firm also showed that the radio programs were reaching a million audience members in the North Eastern region of Kenya.

During the course of the field visits, however, only anecdotal examples of the benefits of the radio programs were found; as in the interviews and focus group discussions most of the youth knew about the radio programs, but only a few had actually listened to any of them. The few youth that had listened to some radio programs were of the opinion that they were informative and addressed topics that were relevant to youth. The three youth who were trained to produce radio programs, however, were adamant that thousands of youth listened to the programs and hundreds of youth provided feedback by calling and texting opinion during the live discussion portions of the programs themselves. Nonetheless, what is clear is that the radio programs addressed various issues that were of importance to youth and disseminated information on social and health topics; and also, very tactfully, addressed issues of radicalization, while also incorporating issues of peace and religious guidance. Thus those youth, and other community members, who listened to the programs definitely got some useful information and benefits from them.

In sum, 144 radio programs were also broadcast in the North Eastern region that addressed topics pertaining to youth, while also advocating for issues of peace. Thousands of youth listened to these programs and were able to get more information and knowledge about pertinent issues as a direct result of the broadcast of these programs. 24 youth were trained to produce these programs.

Quantitative Assessment: Youth Employment and Civic Engagement Survey

The YYC! NER Youth Employment (YES) and Civic Engagement Survey (CES) was implemented with YYC! youth in three counties: Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera. These tools measured youth’s current and prior work situations and perceptions and activity related to civic engagement and governance before and after the project implementation. While baselines were originally implemented in all three counties, ceiling effects required revision of the tool, making comparison to a baseline difficult in Garissa and Wajir, where youth took the final versions of the YES and CES only at endline, while Mandera youth took both a baseline and endline YES. Garissa and Wajir youth were asked about employment outcomes before their participation in the project using a question that gathered recall data about youth’s previous employment situations. Mandera youth received the surveys at baseline and endline, though a cross-sectional design was used whereby different Mandera youth at baseline were surveyed than the Mandera youth surveyed at endline. A summary of the different designs used for the counties is below:

5 The last 20 programs were broadcast once a day as they were produced towards the end of the project.

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 Garissa and Wajir: A post-test only design in which youth were asked about current and prior work situations.  Mandera: A pre/post cross-sectional design in which youth were asked about work situations at both moments. This analysis uncovered YYC’s employment and civic engagement outcomes through an endline survey that examined a sample of youth that came from Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera counties; additionally, this analysis examines a baseline and endline employment survey that was implemented in Mandera county. Findings on employment reveal that YYC! exceeded its targets for new or better employment:

 2,5736 youth in the entire population of YYC! achieved new employment.  1,2257 youths in the entire population of YYC! achieved better employment.  The majority of YYC! youth in the sample had permanent or casual jobs instead of internships or self-employment.  While an examination of Mandera youth at baseline and endline yielded no positive quantity of employment changes, Mandera youth did have higher quality employment in terms of job safety. Analysis of civic engagement across the whole sample at endline revealed that YYC! again exceeded its targets:

 6,5428 youth served in a leadership position in their bunge. Examining the data further reveals that youth feel competent to engage in collective action and civic activities, but it also revealed that youth more frequently took action related to community problems and involving community leaders. Youth report feeling less heard, less able to understand, and less of a priority to decision-makers when it comes to more formal, non- community based politics. When Mandera’s baseline and endline is examined, however, significant gains in this area can be observed: at endline, Mandera youth had more frequently contacted a government official and had a greater belief that their voices were heard outside of election time. Youth improved their competence for civic action by improving their ability to create plans to address problems and identify individuals who could help. Further, youth reported increased civic engagement through participation in community organizations, engagement in civic action and comfort contacting officials and community leaders by the time of the endline survey.

Impact of the YYC! NER Project

There are critical issues facing youth in the North Eastern region including unemployment, poverty, idleness, lack of motivation, drug and alcohol abuse and radicalization. The data gathered in the qualitative study clearly demonstrated that in this difficult context the YYC! NER

6 Note that this is extrapolated from findings from a non-randomly selected sample and may be biased. 7 Note that this is extrapolated from findings from a non-randomly selected sample and may be biased. 8 Note that this is extrapolated from findings from a non-randomly selected sample and may be biased.

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project not only brought diverse benefits to youth through its activities, but also made a broader significant impact. This impact is demonstrated in many profound ways including the following:

Youth Empowerment “The project had provided  Youth were empowered and enlightened as they realized us education through they could do things on their own to address their scholarships and developed needs, and started to do them. Hope was created that a sense of community based youth problems could be tackled by youth groups. business that youth can do together.”  The status quo was changed as youth created a space and platform in the North Eastern region that had not Bunge Member, Female, 22, existed before; and through which they could advocate Garissa for their needs.

 Youth unity was developed. Being part of bunges led to enhanced social interaction among youth. Youth were able to network with each other, learned teamwork and discussed ideas to implement activities to address their needs, to do some small businesses together and to generally bond with each other.

 Youth got an opportunity to discover themselves, avoided idleness, obtained knowledge and awareness and harnessed their skills for their own benefit.

 Being part of the bunges had an impact on youth self-development, self-reliance, self-confidence and self-esteem. Leading to a more positive focus in their own lives.

 Youth self-image was improved, which translated into improved interactions with others, particularly those holding positions of leadership within the community

 Youth got opportunities to organize and govern themselves, thus leadership skills were installed among them.

 Youth leadership (for both males and females) emerged and there was recognition of this leadership by the community and local government

 Youth political involvement increased as they became more engaged with political issues and the political process.

 Youth were discouraged from engaging in substance abuse & community and youth leaders became active in speaking about substance abuse

 Youth’s minds were prepared to think about and engage in entrepreneurship

Community & Local Government

 The project improved relations between youth and their communities. Youth worked with their communities in an organized manner on community projects and also informed and involved community members in their activities

 Youth got the ability to speak in formal forums with government officials and community leaders and got recognition from the community and the government

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 Passive youth became involved in their communities interacting positively with community leaders and members

 There was an increase in trust and respect for youth in the community and youth received support from elders, chiefs, and religious leaders in organizing youth and community events

 Youth feel competent to engage in collective action and civic activities, but they more frequently took action related to community problems and involving community leaders. Youth report feeling less heard, less able to understand, and less of a priority to decision- makers when it comes to more formal, non-community based politics.

Peace and Security

 A harmonious unity was created among the youth. Keeping in mind the security issues in the North Eastern region and the history of clan warfare; youth from different clans, tribes and regions mixed with each other and came together for unity and peace.

 By participating in bunge elections and elections at the sub-county levels youth learned about and practiced democratic methods and ideals.

 Participation of youth in bunges and in various activities & interacting with community and religious leaders dissuaded them from becoming radicalized.

 A structure was established through the bunge system which the community, religious organizations and the county government can make use of to reach youth to further promote peace and security.

 Discussing violent extremism is a very sensitive topic but the project empowered youth and the community to talk more openly about it.

 Issues and information about peace and tolerance was disseminated more broadly among youth and their communities.

Employability

 The majority of YYC! youth surveyed had permanent or casual jobs instead of internships or self-employment.  While an examination of Mandera youth at baseline and endline yielded no positive quantity of employment changes, Mandera youth did have higher quality employment in terms of job safety.

Revisiting The G-Youth Project

After the end of the second phase of the G-Youth project there was a gap of 3 months before the YYC! NER project began in Garissa. The YYC! NER project, however, was significantly different from the G-Youth project as it followed many features of the national YYC! program. Hence, there was a change in emphasis and some of the main differences included:

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 The YYC! NER project reached youth in towns and villages but the G-Youth project only covered Garissa municipality and thus hardly targeted rural illiterate youth.  As the G-Youth project was only operational in Garissa municipality, the project activities could be carried out in a short notice. The YYC! NER project was more logistically challenging as it covered three counties and required a lot of time to put a structures in place to hold meetings for youth, to reach remote youth etc. The YYC! NER due to its geographical range also faced more security issues and uncertainties, which did not exist in the same scale in the G-Youth project.  In the G-Youth project there was a direct implementation of the project activities by EDC; and EDC also partnered with various youth groups, CBOs and NGOs to conduct project activities. In the YYC! NER project, however, EDC did not have any partners and all youth activities were conducted through the CBFs and the bunge system, who served as partners and beneficiaries. Further the whole bunge system had to be created as it did not exist before.  The YYC! NER was more prospective as it mobilized youth and organized them into bunges, but it could not give funds or grants directly to the bunges. Hence the youth were not in direct touch with EDC but had to be connected via the CBFs for their activities. In the G-Youth project, however, EDC was in direct contact with the youth beneficiaries.  The G-Youth project focused on youth employability and featured a work readiness component, set up a career resource center and trained career counsellors to provide advice to youth; while also setting up a computer center and a career library with information on colleges and degrees. Youth were also taken on trips to visit colleges in Garissa. Such type of career support did not exist in the YYC! NER project.  The amount of financial aid provided by the educational and vocational scholarships in the G-Youth project was much more than what was provided for scholarships in the YYC! NER project.  The role of the role of the community was more defined in the G-Youth project as an advisory committee of community members existed which aided the project, but no such structured community presence was there in the YYC! NER project. The YYC! NER project worked with the community during the mobilization process, however, after this phase it was up to the CBFs and the bunges to work with and build relationships with the community.

The data gathered in the qualitative study from some of the project staff (who were also part of the G-Youth project) also highlighted their view that the G-Youth project could do more for a smaller number of youth within Garissa municipality, while the YYC! NER project was more diffused. Nonetheless, it has to be acknowledged that the mobilization process in Garissa for the YYC! NER project was greatly aided by the existence of the G-Youth project as a certain structure existed to reach youth in Garissa municipality and many youth had also heard about the G-Youth project in other parts of the county; and therefore they were eager to be part of the YYC! NER project.

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The data from the focus group discussion (FGD) with youth were took part in the G-Youth project and also the feedback from certain youth in other FGDs (who had previously been part of the G-Youth project) demonstrated the long term impact of the G-Youth project nearly four years after it ended. This included:

 Youth who built their leadership skills and benefitted from the G-Youth activities got into politics and ran for county assembly elections. Some current members in the county assembly in Garissa are products of the G-Youth project.  Some youth still run business in Garissa after benefitting from the skills, information and entrepreneurship trainings they received from the G-Youth project  The skills and information youth got from their leadership and ICT trainings are still useful to them  Those youth who received scholarships were able to complete their education and get diplomas and those that did vocational trainings were able to get jobs. The vocational scholarships were very helpful for those youth who were not educated.  Youth who participated in the G-Youth project started thinking about their future, stopped being idle and became less susceptible to certain vices (such as alcohol and drugs)  Youth were empowered by the G-Youth project.

North Eastern Province Technical Training Institute (NEP TTI), Garissa

The G-Youth project offered scholarships for youth to study at NEP TTI; computer trainings were provided to youth at the Cisco Training Academy located in the Institute and; youth were brought to visit the NEP TTI campus to show them the institute and to promote the institute as a future place of study. As part of their participation in the G-Youth project the cost of computer training at the Cisco Training Academy for youth were also subsidized. The Institute has continued to subsidize youth for computer training courses at the Cisco Academy, thereby continuing one legacy of the G-Youth project. Since 2008 therefore around a 1000 youth have benefitted from this scheme. However, scholarships for youth to study at the institute, which continued under the YYC! NER project, will terminate with the end of the project.

The Assistant principal of the Institute was full of praise of for the subsidized computer trainings, but he

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was also cautious about the future as the terrorist attacks in 2015 at the Garissa University College have also had a detrimental impact on full time enrollment in the Institute.

Kenya National Library, Career Resource Center (CRC), Garissa

The CRC that operated in the G-Youth project in the government library in Garissa has now become a youth center where book clubs are hosted; and meetings and workshops for youth are held. The computers in the CRC (which were donated by the G-Youth project) are hosted in the same room, but the space is now called the IT center. The IT center has become a commercial space where a small fee is charged for the general public to use the computers thereby making the IT center self-financing and sustainable. Even though the G- Youth project ended in 2013, the long term benefits of the CRC still exist as there is a functioning computer lab where all the G-Youth project computers are in working order. Further, the CRC space is a youth center that still caters to youth albeit not for career development purposes. In another legacy the IT assistant who oversaw the computers in the CRC in the G-Youth project was hired by the new IT center in the library.

Implementing in the Volatile North Eastern Region

North Eastern Kenya’s volatility can be traced to clan tensions, recruitment by Al Shabaab and ISIS from actors across the porous Somali boarder and tensions between government security forces and the local population. Security was relatively calm during the first phase of the project, and significantly deteriorated during the second half of the project. Non-local Kenyans became targets of terrorist attacks. Garissa was the site of numerous grenade attacks and the attack on Garissa University College in 2015, where 140 students perished, and non-local school teachers in Mandera were targeted. The program was impacted by insecurity in several primary ways – activities would need to be delayed until a given situation stabilized, road travel could be unsafe and require armed escorts, and large gatherings were prohibited by the government. The program worked with the AOR to adapt program activities so the project could meet its objectives without putting the team or youth at risk. For example, the Mandera delegates meeting had to be rescheduled due to clan fighting that erupted in the county. Rather than a large centralized delegates meeting, smaller meetings at the constituency-level took place. Political pressure from politicians on clans was immense, particularly in Mandera county during mobilization. The political class felt the project was forming youth bunges that will be a threat to an existing council of elders in Mandera County. The council of elders “calls the shots” in the county during elections and more specifically during the last election where they had a say on who will contest and in which position. However, the new youth structure that is being formed was seen as a splinter group that was meant to defy this unwritten rule of the council of elders.

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EDC reached out to the County government to clear the notion that the youth bunges are politically motivated but creating an environment where youth could look at both their economic gain and create opportunities for them.

Gender

The impact of the YYC! NER project on gender issues was significant. Gender equality was in built in the design of the project as each bunge had to have female members and there were a certain number of female members that had to be in leadership positions in the bunge, CBF and in the CBF Ex-Com; and a senior female Ex-Com member also had to represent the CBF (along with the CBF president) at the NYBA quarterly meetings. These requirements gave women a voice in the bunges from the village to the CBF levels and thus women’s leadership was ensured in the bunge system. The female youth bunge members who participated in the study were unanimous in their views that the project had provided avenues for female leadership and some females were also taking part in income generating activities through small businesses. More importantly these participants felt that women’s voices “Women were treated equal could be heard and their views and opinions aired; and in to men in my bunge and we got the same opportunities to the bunges and the CBFs male youth members listened to do activities as the men…I them. The participation of women in the bunge system, never felt any receiving trainings and doing activities also gave them discrimination.” confidence. The male youth bunge members in the study were also unanimous in stating that having a certain Bunge Member, Female, 23, number of women representatives in the bunge leadership Garissa and in the CBF was positive as women’s voices were heard and their leadership was important; and they were also of the view that the project treated women and males equally. Though both male and female youth did point out that there were more males than females in their bunges and in the whole bunge system in general. The community leaders and members and the government officials in their interviews and focus groups were also all supportive of the role of women in the project. Many of them pointed out that attitudes in the North Eastern region were changing towards women; and families now wanted their daughters to get the same educational and business opportunities as their sons. Some community members who had daughters were also very vocal in stating that the project’s activities had benefitted their girls and provided an opportunity for female leadership. The data gathered for the study clearly demonstrates that the overall benefits and impact of the project were broadly similar for both male and female youth. However, there were more examples of male youth bunge members doing small businesses; and overall there were more male than female youth bunge members in the three counties. It should also be noted that the project staff also included female managers who were from the North Eastern region. These officials provided regular technical assistance and outreach with the youth; and also served as role models for female youth members in the bunges as well as in the CBFs.

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The project staff also included strong female managers who are from the region including the Chief of Party and the Grants and Investment Officer who provide regular technical assistance and outreach with the youth. These two female leaders in particular serve as strong role models for young women from the North Eastern Region and demonstrate skills in public speaking and management for female bunge and CBF members to model.

Female Bunge Members

“My brother was a member of a bunge and he told me about the YYC! NER project and so when I turned 18 I also joined a bunge. The biggest benefit I have gotten from the project, in the brief time that I have been involved, has been from the trainings on IGA. I have learned that to be a good entrepreneur you have to have knowledge, be aware of the challenges and know how to approach a business idea. My desire now is to start a business with my family and we are thinking about opening a poultry farm. I will go to university to start my BA, but I will start this business before I go and continue to work on it when I come home for the holidays. The project has made the youth in my area come out to build their future and to speak about their thoughts and their future. It has also helped us share ideas and to discuss challenges about what we want to do”

Member of Garissa Province Youth Bunge, 18

“I was elected to be the president of my bunge and then was elected to be a CBF member. As a member of the CBF I got leadership, IGA and peacebuilding trainings. I have trained more than 50 youth from different bunges on IGA in my ward. I have seen that some of the bunge members I trained have gone on to start small businesses such as small retail stores and some women have opened a hair salon. Women have benefitted from the trainings as they have got information about IGA to open their small business, their capacities have been built and they have been able to connect with other women to generate business ideas to work together.”

Garissa Town Youth Bunge President, CBF Member & Trainer, 18

Engagement with the Community and Government

From the start, the G-Youth project laid the foundation for successfully working with the Somali community in the region. In addition to a formal project advisory committee, the project would always host community sensitization events to introduce the project and team. This was critical when expanding in a region that could be highly suspicious of the project’s US-government funding. The project team was always almost exclusively Somali-Kenyan which made it significantly easier to interact with the local community. In phase 3, it was imperative that the Chief of Party was Somali-Kenyan, which allowed the project to adapt to challenges and negotiate with local communities and youth in a difficult working environment known for clan conflicts and distrust of outsiders.

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When YYC! was rolling out in the region the project ensured that it engaged the community. Before embarking on activity Zero, a stakeholders’ forum that brought together all the stakeholders including community members and leaders was held to introduce the project. During the stakeholders’ forum mapping of villages was done with the help of the government officials and the community members. When mobilizing youth at the village level, the staff would first meet with the area chief and brief him on the activities. During the youth meeting community members were also invited to attend. The general consensus among the participants in the qualitative study was that the community was more involved with the project, but the role of the local government was limited. The majority of youth in bunges were of the view that they were connected with their “Community leaders were involved and served as a shoulder for the communities; as they informed the community youth to cry on and to talk about leaders and members about their activities and peace, patience and radicalization. the community leaders were also supportive of This was the first time youth had the bunges and of the project activities. The such a structured support from the vast majority of these youth also stated that they project as well as the community. had no connection with the county government Youth issues were also raised by the as part of their bunges. The CBF members youth leaders to engage with expressed their views that the community community leaders.” leaders were supportive of their activities and Community Religious Leader, Garissa the CBF Ex-Coms could easily talk to these leaders; and the community members were “When the CBF took its activities to generally informed about the project activities the grass roots level they involved and supportive of the project. The CBF the community and religious members also stated that their interactions with leaders so the community felt a the county government were not as detailed or sense of ownership. Community and religious leaders have been developed as with the community leaders and involved with the project as they members. have been in meetings to mobilize In discussions, community leaders and and build capacity of youth and told them their role in society and about members, demonstrated a general following their religion peacefully.” understanding of the project activities, without knowing specifics; and also were supportive of Community Leader, Garissa the CBF. The community leaders also stated that they had regular interactions with CBF Ex- Com members. It should also be pointed out that community and religious leaders also spoke to youth bunge members during large events and in some trainings about issues of peace, religious tolerance and drug and alcohol abuse. Thus they connected with youth throughout the project and also provided advice and guidance to them. Ultimately the involvement of the community and the local government depended on the region and on the specific activities that were carried out by the project and the CBFs. Community and religious leaders and community members were appraised of CBF activities for youth and were also present in some of these activities.

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The local government officials that participated in the study were supportive of the project and felt that it had brought benefits to the youth. One of the officials had trained the youth on leadership and management issues. Another government official, stated that his government department was very interested to maintain ties with the youth. However, the involvement of the county government, in general, was not as extensive as the community. Nonetheless the local government was appreciative and supportive of the project as it realized that it was beneficial to the youth. One challenge that the project faced with the local government pertained to transfer of officials. During the project timeframe in Garissa the youth portfolio was moved to different government departments and the officials who addressed this portfolio were regularly changing. After the Garissa University attacks numerous government officials were relocated and offices were severely understaffed. Hence, there was no consistency as the project staff would talk to certain officials about what the project was doing, but a few months later they would have to start this conversation again with another official in another department. In Wajir and Mandera this was not the case as the youth portfolio remained with the same department, but the head officials in the department also moved so the project staff had to rebuild relations with the new officials that came in. The project staff also worked with government officials during the establishment of the SACCO and after they were registered, however, in all three counties the SACCO leadership were not able to sustain regular interactions with the pertinent government officials. The local governments in the three counties are also supposed to reserve 30% of their procurement in government contracts for youth, women and the disabled. However, this is not being practiced and youth are not able to get their share of this procurement. Further the CBFs were also not able to get government contracts or government funding for any of their activities. In addition, the involvement of the local government with the CBFs and the bunges was also complicated by the fact that a National Youth Council (NYC) exists in Kenya and local governments are close to this entity and its structure. The youth in the NYC are selected by the government so naturally there are closer ties between the local government and the NYC.

Director, Department of Youth and Sports, Garissa

The 30-year-old Director of the Department of Youth and Sports in the Garissa County government was a member of the G-Youth project and he stated that the project helped him learn about leadership and entrepreneurship. In fact, he added, many other youth who were part of the G-Youth project now have leadership positions after being elected to the Garissa County Assembly; and he had no doubt in stating that these youth County Assembly members decided to pursue a path in politics because of the exposure they got from the G-Youth project.

The Director stayed engaged with the YYC! NER project as he had been invited to the project activities; and he was interpersonally connected to the project as some of the youth from the G-Youth project who he knew were now part of the YYC! NER project. When asked about what role the county government and his Department can play when YYC! NER project ends, he says that his Department is reaching out to the same youth as the project and that the government can make use of the structure that has been

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created by the project from the villages to the wards to the county level.

He then detailed some other options he wants to pursue to help youth in the County in the future including:

 Working with the Directorate of Intergovernmental Affairs (that links NGOs and government departments) and the Sub-County Administration Officers as these organizations and officials have been involved with the youth in bunges  Getting all data about youth from EDC so they can use it to work with and reach out to youth  Linking the CBF to other leaders in the government hierarchy and to other stakeholders and businesses in the County  Informing youth about future government funding for youth  Involving youth in recycling, solar power, planting of trees etc. projects

In conclusion the Director said, “If the youth are not connected to another project or to other activities or don’t get further trainings they will go back to being idle and depressed, into drugs and then vulnerable to radicalization. So we have to do continue to do something for them.”

Challenges

The YYC! NER project had some challenges and these included:

 The security situation in North Eastern Kenya delayed the project’s activities and hindered reaching out to youth in certain areas. Further, distances between remote villages was a logistical challenge during the initial mobilization of youth.  The SACCOs faced challenges including distrust of youth thinking they are not sharia compliant, low savings of members, difficulties in getting guarantors for loans and lack of future plans.  Delays in SACCO subgrant approvals by the mission delayed the start of the SACCO lending process and reduced the amount of time available for lending before the project came to an end.  Coca Cola’s inability to provide equipment caused a decrease in demand for the 5x20 loans.  The project targeted urban/rural and educated/uneducated youth across the three counties. Thus the CBFs in some cases had illiterate members, members who lived in very remote areas and members who could not speak the same language. This diverse composition of the CBF membership led to delays in the development of the CBFs work plans and in the realization of key milestones.  The CBFs had some issues with getting bunges to pay this subscription fees and in maintaining regular communication with bunges in remote villages.  The CBFs do not have any source of definitive future funding after the project ends.  The maintenance of the bunge database was challenging as the project could not get many bunges to provide completed and updated bunge tracker forms.

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 Bunge leaders sometimes faced difficulties in motivating members to remain active and some youth assumed that they would be financially compensated for participating in the project.  The transfer of the pertinent officials addressing the youth portfolio in the local county governments hindered the building of long term relations. The transfer of officials in also delayed the registration of bunges as self-help groups.  Youth needed follow up trainings as one round of trainings were not adequate in many cases.  Due to long standing neglect of the North Eastern region by the government, the presence of large numbers of refugees, and prolonged droughts, the region has long relied on humanitarian relief. This has impacted the perception of people in the region (especially youth) toward aid groups and international NGOs where youth had expectations to be paid to attend trainings and meet during mobilization to discuss their issues and form groups. The project had a firm policy not to do this and the consistency paid off.

VI. SUSTAINABILITY AND WAY FORWARD

Sustainability Issues

The YYC! NER project has brought benefits to youth and also had a significant impact in empowering youth, building better connections between youth and their communities and addressing issues of peace and security. Yet the specific context of the North Eastern region of Kenya (including high unemployment, poverty, radicalization etc.) along with some of the challenges the project faced can seriously impact the future sustainability of the project’s achievements. Many of the achievements of the project are sustainable, while others face more daunting challenges. This includes:

 At an individual level youth have been empowered, have built unity, have hope that youth can work together to solve their issues and have learned about democratic ideals. This empowerment will not vanish.

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 The capacity that has been built of the CBF members in finance, management, leadership, “The youth in Garissa who IGA, peace issues, etc. will not disappear and went through the project have these youth will continue to manifest what they had their capacity built, but have learned many new youth from rural areas are coming to the  The youth in bunges who attended IGA and town…so who will build their peace trainings will benefit from them for the capacity in the future?” rest of their lives  The youth who were able to start a small Male 25, Bunge Member, Garissa

business have learned about and practiced “The youth have learned being an entrepreneur many skills from the project  Women have gained leadership positions, so this will help them in the obtained skills and connected with other future even after the project women to start small businesses ends.”  The positive relations that have been built Male 22, Bunge Member, Wajir between youth and their communities have led to a lot of good will for the future, but these “Youth leadership will not ties need to continue to be nurtured collapse after the  Youth have recognition from the community project…but the new CBF and the local government, but if they are not leadership has to be very able to maintain the bunge structure there is a active to make sure the CBF survives.” danger of a loss of this recognition  The project has enabled youth and their CBF President, 27, Wajir communities to talk about radicalization and has contributed to peace and security in the region. However, if projects and activities that target youth do not appear in the future; then there is a danger that high unemployment, idleness of youth and feelings of alienation will make youth again more susceptible to radicalization  If the CBFs are not able to get other sources of funding for their activities their existence and thus the whole bunge system itself will be under threat  The CBFs also need to find other organizations that can continue to mentor them and to build their capacities as EDC did during the project timeframe  If the SACCOs are not able to get members to make more savings and to be able to resolve the issue of guarantors, they will not be able to exist in the future

Ultimately there will be a vacuum after the end of the YYC! NER project and if future projects, activities and funds do not appear for the youth in the region then there is a big threat that the achievements of the project will gradually diminish. Further, if the achievements of the project are weakened, youth in these areas who did not take part in the YYC! NER project will also not have a frame of reference for youth empowerment, building better relations with their communities and achieving peace and security in the region. Nonetheless, what is remarkable about the YYC! NER project is that it has empowered youth and given them hope in such a

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manner that the vast majority of youth who participated in the qualitative study (when asked about the sustainability of the project’s achievements) stated that the youth will not disperse, they will continue to use the skills they have gained and will persist in advocating for youth issues.

Progress on USAID Forward

The project is designed to develop and support youth County board forums and SACCOs. As of now all the three counties have established County Youth Board Forums. Although the project is to support the youth in youth-owned, youth-managed activities, it is unclear if the CBFs have reached the level of capacity to be self-sustaining, particularly without a subgrant holding them to deliverables. Furthermore, with leadership changing every year, the abilities of the new leaders needs to be brought up to speed as quickly as possible. The CBFs applied for grants under RTI’s Tusome reading project, which is encouraging. The CBFs collect subscriptions from the members. The CBFs have an existing structure and network that will hold them together, all three CBFs have been working on how their activities and programs can be sustainable. They are working on ensuring that they improve on the Bunge subscriptions, as this will help them maintain the administrative costs in the office and hold the yearly CBF elections. All of the members of the CBF Ex-Com have created good linkages with the county government’s respective departments. During the last peace building training they had all the respective departments on peace and cohesion from the counties attend the trainings and promise to partner with the CBFs in area of peace building since the region has a lot conflicts. The network has created a good reputation and a brand for themselves over the last few years in the counties. They are well known and respected. The networks are invited to many functions that takes place in the region. If they use their brand wisely it could earn them excellent linkages to different partners. EDC strengthened the three county SACCOs through ongoing mentoring, training, the provision of administrative support, and providing matching funds. so that the youth could obtain loans to have startup businesses. The three SACCOs are using the experiences they gained to progress their activities through liaison with county governments and Cooperative officers to grow the loan base and membership. The partnerships created between the youth and government agencies will be a basis for engagement between National/County government agencies and the grass root youth bunges in future.

Links to Government of Kenya Agencies

Throughout its lifespan, the project worked closely with relevant government agencies, including (but not limited to) the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Kenya Institute for Education, the Ministry of Cooperative Development and the county governments.

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EDC linked the Mandera youth Bunge SACCO to the County Government’s Ministry of Cooperative Development which led the 3 levels of training. EDC also strengthened the linkages between the county CBFs and the county government to pursue the participation of the SACCO’s in the county development agenda.

VII. LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Lessons Learned

The following lessons from the three phases are as follows:  Involve the community from the beginning. Youth programs like G-Youth and Yes Youth Can! did not exist at this scale in the region. EDC conscientiously built in mechanisms to engage the community, religious leaders, elders, government officials, and business leaders from the beginning. In the G-Youth phases, this involvement was formalized in a Project Advisory Committee and Private Sector Advisory Committee. During the YYC! phase, stakeholders’ fora and village meetings with community leaders, chiefs and religious leaders built a foundation of trust by allowing the project team to discuss the project’s goals and activities when they expanded to a new location.  Involve youth in meaningful ways and set realistic expectations. From the beginning, youth were engaged in the program’s activities and direction. The initial assessment team included youth assessors and a number of focus groups with young people helped guide the program design. Civic engagement activities formalized youth leadership roles by allowing them to help plan and lead events and activities. This grew into youth-led groups and organizations, with missions to help their communities, organizational structures, and financial responsibilities. However, expectations set for young people leading organizations must be realistic – many young people have limited post-secondary education and often have not worked, and as such, need a lot of capacity building on the nuts and bolts financial and organizational management. Many are working on a volunteer basis, often in school with limited availability, and live at great distances where connectivity by phone and internet can be extremely limited. These factors contribute to delays in implementation of their tasks. However, holding them accountable to deadlines and quality of their deliverables and has led to immense growth. It is quite impressive that these young people were ultimately successful in managing USAID Fixed Obligation Grants which required them to employ new skills such as budget development and management, work plan development and managing multiple activities.  Focus on opportunities for livelihoods development. G-Youth began with an emphasis on employment, through the career resource center, career counseling, work readiness and entrepreneurship training and support to NEP TTI, a local vocational institute. With the YYC! phase, this took a backseat to leadership and civic engagement until the end of the project when the SACCOs and IGA trainings took root. Both community members and youth lamented the loss of some of these other interventions.  Scholarships are needed and greatly appreciated. Scholarships were not intended to be the hallmark of the program, but they are often cited by the community and youth as one of the best interventions. The initial assessment flagged scholarships as a need, and were in great demand by young people. It took two iterations of the scholarship program

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for EDC to refine the process. One factor that made them successful is that the process was always seen as fair and transparent. In the YYC! phase, the revised scholarship guide outlined a process where qualified applicants were selected by lottery in order to ensure fairness. In retrospect, the program could have increased the scholarship numbers, but quantity was always tempered by budget realities.  Radio is prevalent in Somali communities and effective in promoting messages of tolerance. Since the second phase of G-Youth, EDC employed radio to spread messages of tolerance. Radio listenership is very high in the North Eastern Region, and the youth radio program was aired on two Somali-language stations. While in the early stages the radio programs focused on topics such as health and substance abuse, towards the end of the project they focused on debates around radicalization and peacebuilding, topics that were seen as extremely sensitive and not often discussed in the earlier stages of the project. The civic engagement program was aired on MP3 player radios at schools allowing dialogue among younger students about tolerance.  Structured opportunities are key in areas plagued by radicalization and recruitment. EDC’s qualitative study demonstrated that the project was effective in providing positive alternatives to joining groups like Al Shabaab. Youth were given avenues to make their voices heard, improve their communities and earn a living. In fact, issues of radicalization were more openly discussed that when G-Youth began. Youth programs are essential in counties where they have not existed before, particularly Mandera, where the need is great and the programming has been extremely limited.  Allow plenty of time and space for dialogue. Somali culture is very verbal and discussion-oriented. The Somali Latin alphabet wasn’t officially adopted until the 1970s and written Somali is not widely used and due to high illiteracy written English and Swahili is also limited. The project team found early in the development of youth organizations that the youth would be prone to arguing and in-fighting. The team was successful in allowing them the space to debate, and stepping in and setting limits when needed.  While providing structure, allow organizational development to be ground-up. In the second phase of G-Youth, the project had to abandon the development of the Interim Youth Organization. The youth were so caught up in internal politics and in- fighting that the objectives of developing a work plan and helping their community were not being met. Instead, the project pivoted and GYDA was developed from the groups that had received grants to implement projects. The project team was able to apply these lessons as much as possible within the YYC! organizational framework.  Implementing financial models that are widely accepted in other parts of Kenya may not work in North Eastern. The project faced an uphill battle in implementing SACCOs in North Eastern. While originally proposing table banking models, USAID insisted that YYC! NER follow the model of the other YYC! regional programs and develop SACCOs. SACCOs were virtually non-existent in the region due to a large spread belief that they were not Sharia-compliant, and a cultural resistance to going into debt. The project spending over a year working with a Sharia-compliant specialist to develop a Sharia-compliant SACCO system and focused trainings on this particular aspect of the SACCOs. However, despite numerous trainings and explanations, at the end of the project there was still a widely held belief by youth that the SACCOs were not Sharia-compliant. Further, there was much resistance to the government regulation to have another SACCO member serve as a guarantor to the loan. Because the YYC! SACCOs featured matching loans, there is now an expectation for matching, which is

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not typically a featured of SACCOs. It is uncertain if the SACCOs will be successful in the long term.  While diversity in youth programming is important, keep interventions focused. The G-Youth model was much loved for its holistic nature, focusing on work, leadership, education and civics. However, within each of those core areas, there were a significant number of sub-activities. This became a lot for a small team to manage, and competing priorities caused a delay in some activities. In retrospect, focusing on a simpler model that embraced these core areas would have been more effective and is more easily scalable.  Operating in an insecure environment requires flexibility. During the years of implementation, the region faced numerous terrorist attacks, the most significant being the Garissa University College attack, and periods of intense clan tensions. This caused the government to impose limits on the size of groups that could gather, curfews, and would require armed security escorts in some areas. The project adapted activities in order to continue the work, such as holding delegates meetings at the sub-county level when insecurity was at its height. The team should be commended for its ability to still achieve its overall goals in this tenuous environment.  Encourage gender inclusion through the project design. The project held high standards for involvement of young women, whether in the work readiness program or recruitment into the bunges. Young women were actively involved in dialogue and leadership positions in the program and respected by their peers.  Hire local Somali-Kenyans as much as possible. When G-Youth began, there was a distrust of NGOs that often hired “down-country” Kenyans and were perceived as “suitcase NGOs”. EDC conscientiously hired from the local community as much as possible, less several positions where qualified applicants were not available from Garissa. This has allowed for acceptance in the community, as the staff were perceived as helping their own community. It also allowed them to communicate more easily in a region where English and Swahili can be quite limited due to extremely low literacy levels. In Wajir and Mandera, staff were hired from those counties which helped where dialects and cultural issues were quite different from Garissa. Further, the project could not have as successfully expended into Wajir and Mandera without a Somali Kenyan Chief of Party.

Recommendations

After working in North Eastern over the past 7 years, implementing with several different designs, EDC has the following recommendations:

Future Programming

 Both civic engagement and employability are critical in the region. Civic engagement programs should not take precedence over livelihoods as the need for sustainable livelihoods is critical, especially in a region with a weak formal economy.

 A more holistic model, such as the G-Youth model, would be of great benefit in the future. However, the G-Youth model became overly complex with so many sub-

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activities. A focus on core activities focused on youth work (work readiness, job placement, career guidance and entrepreneurship), education (particularly vocational education), and civic engagement through youth-led projects, leadership training, and creating opportunities for dialogue is highly recommended.

 Future projects that target youth in these three counties need to make use of the structures created by the bunge system.

 There is a great need for youth programming throughout the 3 counties of North Eastern. While Garissa is more accessible and has a result has benefitted from more programming, the youth of Wajir and Mandera are in great need for interventions, particularly in the areas of CVE and livelihoods development. Mandera is particularly starved for quality youth programs.

 The youth in the North Eastern region are diverse thus there is a need to demarcate youth based on their specific needs and backgrounds. The project was cognizant of this issue, but it would have benefitted from having a more customized plan for each different category of youth that it wanted to target. For example, youth who were uneducated, pastoralists, and live in urban areas, etc.

 CVE requires addressing core issues such as engaging with youth in terms of ideology. While religious and community leaders did engage with youth on these issues in AGMs, trainings and delegates meetings; the presence of religious leaders (sheikhs) to be constantly and consistently involved with any project that addresses violent extremism and radicalization is also required.

 Consider reach versus depth – the G-Youth project was more geographically targeted with a lower target number of youth beneficiaries. Individual youth had access to more programming and deeper interventions. The YYC! project had a much larger scale, and had fewer and shorter trainings and other interventions for a larger number of youth. Given the great need for economic opportunity, sufficient time spent with each young person on employability interventions is highly recommended to ensure quality and impact. CBFs and SACCOs

 EDC made efforts to introduce the CBF leaders to officials from another international development organization (RTI) that will start implementing a youth employment project (also to be funded by USAID) in Garissa County. However, all the three CBFs need to build better connections with USAID and other donors so they can explore getting funding for future activities.

 There is a need for follow up trainings not only for IGA and peace issues, but also for the SACCO members. SACCO members also need support in ICT trainings as advanced

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software pertaining to finances, enterprises, loans etc. exist; which these members should be aware of and using.

 The three CBFs need to be better prepared to inform the bunges in the wards as to what they plan to do for the future once the project ends & the steps they are taking to get funding for future activities.

 There needs to be improved alignment of the CBFs with pertinent government departments and officials & CBFs also need to be better informed about government funding for youth projects.

 The radio programs could be hosted for free on the Internet so that youth can continue to access them.

VIII. DELIVERABLES

The following deliverables have been completed by the program and submitted to USAID. Full details on the deliverable and method of submission are detailed below.

No. Deliverable Document Title Method of Submission General 1 Quarterly Reports Titled by period of performance Direct to AOR, DEC 2 Annual Reports Titled by period of performance Direct to AOR, DEC 3 Annual work plans with illustrative Titled by period of performance Direct to AOR budget Phase 1: G-Youth G-Youth Career Resource Center 4 Full responsibility for management and Partnership letter and in-kind subgrant Subaward implementation of Career Resource with KNLS request; DVD Center to local organization 5 Biographical profile of CRC Advisory Terms of Reference for Project Advisory QPR Year 1, Board Board Q3 NEP TTI Strengthening 6 NEP TTI Institutional Capacity Technical Assistance Report - NEP TTI QPR Year 1, Building Assessment and Plan Institutional Assessment Q3; DVD 7 MOU between EDC, NEP TTI, and Implementation Letter #14 MOHEST Annual Report MOHEST Year 2; DVD 8 Labor Market Assessment G-Youth Labor Market Assessment Direct Report Submission to AOR;

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No. Deliverable Document Title Method of Submission DVD

G-Youth Career Resource Center 9 Strategic Sustainability Plan See KNLS Mod 4 in Phase 1 folder for Referenced in revised SOW, including management Annual Report and sustainability plan Year 3; DVD 10 Work Readiness and Career Work Readiness Program Facilitators Direct Development Training for 800 OSY Guides; Submission to Work Readiness Program Participant AOR; Handbooks; Annual Report Mentoring the Entrepreneur; Year 2; Community Service Learning - DVD Facilitators Guide; Community Service Learning - Participant Handbook Attendance Sheets in M&E Files Youth Action 11 Mapping of youth constraints and Bulla Resource Map; QPR Year 3 opportunities Community Asset Mapping and Q3; Community Dialogue - Year 3 Q3 DVD Quarterly report 12 Documentation of Garissa Youth Garissa Youth Action Summit Agenda; Annual Report Summit - April 2010 Youth Action Summit May 2010 Year 2; Overview; DVD Attendance Sheets in M&E Files 13 Documentation of Two Youth Attendance Sheets in M&E Files; Annual Report Symposia to integrate leadership Youth Action Symposium 1 Workbook; Year 2; training Assembled Youth Leader Handbook; DVD Symposium 2 Phase 2: G-Youth Youth Action Outcome A: Establishment of a district-wide youth organization

14 Policies and procedures for est. of Guide to Interim Youth Organization; DVD youth org Club Officer Handbook; Cluster/Executive Committee Leader Handbook Leadership Workbook; 15 Youth Action Plan docs, training GYDA Action Plan; Annual Report reports, monitoring reports August 2012 Leadership Camp Program Year 4; G-Youth Leadership Camp Report DVD (KCDF)

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No. Deliverable Document Title Method of Submission 16 Organization charter and registration GYDA Constitution - hard copy with Annual Report and bylaws GYDA - no soft copy available Year 4

17 Management team and advisory team G-Youth Youth Action Learning the DVD meeting minutes Way Forward; Youth Action Report March 2012 Outcome B: Youth Fund 18 Operations Manual G-Youth Grants Manual DVD 19 Biographical profiles of members of Grants Approval Panel listed in G- DVD youth fund management team Youth Grants Manual 20 Proposal and documentation of grant Copies of applications, scoring sheets Direct award documents and awards in hardcopy files. submission to AOR 21 Account statements N/A - Converted to grants in mod 8 N/A 22 Minutes of fund steering committee N/A - Converted to grants in mod 8 N/A Outcome C: Youth Summits 23 Summit attendance records In M&E files In M&E files 24 Summit presentations by youth Youth Summit 1 Pager QPR Yr 4, Q3 Summit report in Year 4 Quarter 3 Report Outcome D: Youth Action Plans 25 2 youth action plans GYDA Action Plan (Note: The project Annual Report changed course with the development of Year 4 the organization and the IYO didn't develop an action plan)

26 Action plan monitoring reports August 2012 Leadership Camp Report Annual Report Year 4 Youth Work Outcome A: Linkages with the Private Sector 27 Inventory of private sector employers Opportunities Handbook; DVD and relevant opportunities for youth List of employers presented at Youth Work summit 28 Livelihoods Opportunities data bank Note: Also under entrepreneurship outcomes N/A and deleted in mod 8 Outcome B: Youth Work Summit 29 Attendance list for youth work summit See summit report in Summit report in QPR Yr 4, Q3 Year 4 Quarter 3 Report (Note: the work summit was combined with the 2012 youth action summit) 30 Conference proceedings Year 4 Quarter 3 Report QPR Yr 4, Q3 Outcome C: Entrepreneurship 31 Course Curriculum (in collaboration Used the ILO's Start and Improve Your N/A with KIBT) Business (SIYB) Curriculum - owned by

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No. Deliverable Document Title Method of Submission the ILO

32 Establishment of startup grants G-Youth Grants Manual (see Youth Annual Report program (grants manual established) Action) Yr 4; DVD 33 Provide start-up grants to KCDF files - target achieved by youth DVD approximately 250-500 youth group members receiving business development grants and community development grants Outcome D: Work Readiness Program 34 Revised work readiness curriculum Peer Educator Guide (3 modules); DVD Participant Handbook; WRP ICT Student Guide 35 Schedule for flexible WRP Year 3 Quarter 3 Report; QPR Yr 3, Q3, Annual Report Year 4 Annual Yr 4 36 Attendance records and copies of M&E files, including hard copies of Annual Report certificates for 1000 youth who certificates Yr 4 complete one or more WRP modules Outcome E: Career Resource Center 37 Expanded Individual Life and Career Guide for Clients; DVD Services (Services Guide) Client intake form; Therapy consent form; Referral form 38 Workshop programs at CRC Annual Report Y3, Q4: 240 youth Annual Report trained in IT (Table 6.1); Annual Report Y3 Y4, Q4: 244 youth trained in ICT (Table 6) 39 Records of youth who access the CRC M&E Files; Annual Report Annual Report Y3, Q4: 2,805 youth Y3 attended CRC (Table 2.3); Annual Report Y4, Q4 Table 8 Youth Education Outcome A: In-School Youth Program 40 Orientation syllabus for labor market Empowering Students Futures: DVD orientation Interactive Career Awareness and Life Skills Activities Note - Change of strategy - ISY curriculum based on the WRP 41 Completion of career interest surveys 42 Participation in career counseling QPR Y4, Q2 p. 18 "Number of ISY who QPR Y4 Q2 activities by 2000 secondary school participated in Career Guidance and Life students (Career Guidance attendance Skills Program activity"; documents) Attendance sheets from Open Days at NEP TTI in M&E files Outcome B: Improve Quality of Education at Madrassas

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No. Deliverable Document Title Method of Submission 43 Curriculum for ESL at madrassas G-Youth ESL Curriculum; Referenced in G-Youth ESL Syllabus; Annual Report G-Youth Training Manual for ESL Y3, Q4 & Teachers Annual Report Y4, Q4; DVD 44 Attendance records for ESL at M&E Records Annual report madrassas for 1000 students Note - 754 reached - shortfall due to Y4 delays in curriculum development due to prolonged negotiations with the madrassas and SUPKEM 45 Online links between Madrassas and During discussions with the Madrassas N/A Arabic Language reference libraries they decided they no longer wanted this established (url links) and for the project to only provide ESL support. Outcome C: NEP TTI

46 Copy of CISCO Academy curriculum Curriculum is owned by CISCO and Annual Report online, accessible by those with a license. Y4 NEP TTI had licenses under the project. 47 Microenterprise curriculum Removed in mod. 8 N/A 48 Copies profile of private sector Annual Report Y4, Q4: B.8 Private Annual Report advisory board members and minutes Sector Advisory Council (Table 11) Y4 of meetings Outcome D: 49 Award documents for 1500 Annual Report Y4, Q4: Table 13 Annual Report scholarships Scholarships awarded by gender; Y4 Scholarship award letters in M&E files; Copies of applications and scoring sheets in hard copy files

Youth Civics Outcome A: IRI civic education program for 25,000 upper primary students 50 Completion of 24 x 15-20min IRI civic Recordings and scripts for Std 6, 7 and 8 DVD education programs 51 Dissemination and use of IRI Disposition records for radios Annual Report programs to upper primary Schools Y4 (classroom distribution lists) 52 Completion of IRI course by 25,000 Attendance records in M&E files; Annual Report upper primary school students Pre- and post-evaluation survey - Y4 (listening group facilitator records) documented in Annual Report Y4 Outcome B: Weekly civic education program on Star FM for 35,000 listeners (Youth Radio) 53 Completion of 26 x 30 min student led Radio program recordings DVD and produced civic education radio programs (copies of programs) 54 Broadcast of programs by Star FM See year 3 and 4 Quarterly Reports QPRs

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No. Deliverable Document Title Method of Submission 55 Evidence of listenership (broadcast log Broadcast logs in M&E files; QPRs and listener surveys) Listenership surveys collected by Synovate, an independent research firm, and documented in quarterly reports

Outcome C: Cadre of 400 Garissa youth civic leaders 56 Copy of youth fund grant report (civic Original civic grant reports with KCDF, Annual Report leaders) summarized in KCDF Final report; Yr 4; Annual Report Yr 4 DVD 57 Civic leader certificates Certificates issued to Youth Group Certificates Community Mentors (mentor training) - issued to recipients of Civics grants; beneficiaries

Phase 3: YYC! NER 58 CBF Constitution Garissa County Network Constitution; DVD Wajir County Bunge Forum Constitution; Mandera County Bunge Forum Constitution; Constitution and Bylaws (for all 3 counties) 59 Registration as self-help group Proof of registration for CBFs Subaward request; DVD 60 CBF work plans Garissa and Wajir - 2 work plans; Approved by Mandera - 1 work plan AOR; DVD 61 Radio Programming audio files Radio program recordings DVD

62 Establish SACCOs in each county Proof of registration for CBFs Subaward (registration certificates) request; DVD 63 SACCO bylaws for all 3 counties Sharia Compliant Bylaws DVD 64 Application process (is this in the Loan Application Form DVD bylaws) 65 SACCO work plans SACCO Work plan for all 3 counties Approved by AOR; DVD 66 Entrepreneurship training for SACCO Attendance sheets in M&E Files Annual Report members and 5by20 businesses - Yr 6 attendance sheet 67 Coca Cola loans: 100 in GSA and WJR; Final numbers reported in final report Final report 64 in MDA 68 Implementation of SACCO subgrants Sub award documents for all 3 SACCOs; Subaward Milestone payment documentation in request; DVD finance files

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IX. OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT

As the project was incrementally funded in 3 phases, the staffing and management strategy typically reflected one for a two-to-three-year project. In phase 1, the project was managed by a US-based project director and a Garissa-based deputy director, with the project director and project coordinator making frequent trips to Kenya. In Phase 2, the projected turned towards a Chief of Party model, with a posted-expat Chief of Party (the former Project Director). Due to the project’s expansion into the 3 counties of what was North Eastern Province, the project turned to a local Chief of Party, the project’s former administrator, for phase 3. From its inception, the project always made an intentional effort to hire from the local Somali community. The project team was always almost exclusively Somali-Kenyan. In phase 3, it was imperative that the Chief of Party was Somali-Kenyan, which allowed the project to adapt to challenges and negotiate with local communities and youth in a difficult working environment. In phase 1, hiring locally meant that many of the employees were quite green. The project invested in capacity building, particularly for the finance and admin teams who attended InsideNGO’s USAID Rules and Regulations trainings. Overall, the project has been blessed with an incredibly dedicated and hard-working team. The team was clearly dedicated to improving the lives of the youth of the region. At the end of the project, about half of the staff had been with the project from the start. The teamwork demonstrated by this team by the end of phase 3 is laudable.

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ANNEX 1: LIST OF RADIO PROGRAMS

Date Program Title Geography 15/9/2011 Radio Feature Program 1: Drugs and substance abuse, its Garissa effects and abstinence. (Kiswahili) 17/9/2011 Radio Feature Program 2: FGM practices, its effects and Garissa abstinence (English) 22/9/2011 Radio Feature Program 3: Why do youth involve themselves Garissa in chewing Miraa? Miraa: Its effect and abstinence (Kiswahili) 24/9/2011 Radio Feature Program 4: Challenges in getting the national Garissa ID, the process of getting the document and how the community should support youth in getting ID to access the existing opportunities and exercise the right of voting. (English) 29/9/2011 Radio Feature Program 5: Opportunities for youth. Shifting Garissa the paradigm of youth being unemployed, marginalized to making use of the available opportunities and being proactive. (Kiswahili) 5/1/2012 Radio Feature Program 1: Usalama/amani na vijana Garissa

Youth and peace (A repeat) (Kiswahili) 7/1/2012 Radio Feature Program 2: Garissa Financial management among the youth (English) 12/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 3: Tharau la ajira- Youth shying Garissa away/ looking down upon certain employment opportunities. Change of attitude to enable youth make use of all available opportunities (Kiswahili) 14/1/2012 Radio Feature Program 4: Promoting human rights- What Garissa rights do people enjoy? Importance of knowing your right (English) 19/1/2012 Radio Feature Program 5: Vijana na uongozi- Youth and Garissa leadership- Kiswahili version (Kiswahili) 21/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 6: Youth and leadership Garissa opportunities (Kiswahili) 26/1/2012 Radio Feature Program 7: Ukosefu wa ajira kwa vijana Garissa Lack of employment opportunities among the youth (English) 28/1/2012 Radio Feature Program 8: Youth and unemployment Garissa (English) 2/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 1: Dulma kwa wanawake Garissa Violence against women (Kiswahili) 4/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 2: Garissa Bad effect of internet technology (English) 9/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 3 (03:05- 03:20): Ushawishi potovu Garissa miongoni mwa vijana Bad influence among the youth (Kiswahili)

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Date Program Title Geography 11/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 4: Human rights (English) Garissa 16/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 5: Vijana na uongozi- Youth and Garissa leadership (Kiswahili) 18/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 6: Youth and leadership Garissa opportunities (Kiswahili) 23/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 7: Kuishi amani miongoni mwa Garissa vijana Peaceful co-existence among the youth (English) 25/2/2012 Radio Feature Program 8: Youth and unemployment Garissa (English) 1/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 1: Usalama/amani na vijana Garissa Youth and peace (A repeat) (Kiswahili) 3/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 2: Garissa Financial management among the youth (English) 8/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 3: Changamoto ya kupata usajili Garissa (Kiswahili) 10/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 4: An overview of the new Garissa constitution (English) 15/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 5: Vijana na Mihadharati (Kiswahili) Garissa 17/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 6: Hope (Kiswahili) Garissa 22/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 7: Vijana kujituma (English) Garissa 24/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 8: Youth and unemployment Garissa (English) 29/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 9: Vijana na utumiaji wa madawa ya Garissa kulevya, athari zake. Youth, drugs and substance abuse, its effect and abstinence (English) 31/3/2012 Radio Feature Program 2: Youth and Talents. Exploring the Garissa existing talents (English) 23/7/2013 Youth mobilization to participate in YYC! NEP Garissa 30/7/2013 Youth mobilization to participate in YYC! NEP Garissa 27/8/2013 Youth mobilization to participate in YYC! NEP Garissa 3/9/2013 Youth mobilization to participate in YYC! NEP Garissa 10/9/2013 Effect of early marriage to young girls Garissa 28/1/2014 Creation of Garissa County board Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 29/1/2014 Effective ways youth can take part in County peace building Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 30/1/2014 The role of county peace committee to peaceful coexistence Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 31/1/2014 The various efforts the refugee community is contributing Garissa, Wajir and to maintain peace in the County Mandera 5/2/2014 Clan conflicts in North Eastern region. Genesis and ways to Garissa, Wajir and tackle the problem Mandera 12/2/2014 The role of religious leaders in combating clan conflicts Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 19/2/2014 Health Amenities and common health problems in Garissa Garissa, Wajir and

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Date Program Title Geography Mandera 26/2/2014 Availability of National ID cards to Garissa Youth Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 5/3/2014 Result of KCSE exams for Garissa County Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 12/3/2014 How students in NEP can Excel in Exams , interview with Garissa, Wajir and county top female student Mandera 19/3/2014 Garissa county youth forum Activities Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 26/3/2014 Youth and unemployment / Various ways youth can engage Garissa, Wajir and in profit making initiatives Mandera 2/4/2014 Religious Leaders as a role model to bring unity and Garissa, Wajir & peaceful coexistence Mandera 9/4/2014 Engaging youth in meaningful activities to minimize youth Garissa, Wajir & involvement in crime Mandera 16/4/2014 The role of youth leaders in conflict mitigation and how Garissa, Wajir & they can spearhead peaceful coexistence Mandera 23/4/2014 The role of district Peace & Development Committees in Garissa, Wajir & strengthening peaceful coexistence. Mandera 7/5/2014 Bringing harmony among youth through sports Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 14/5/2014 The role of religious leaders in combating crime and related Garissa, Wajir & activities Mandera 21/5/2014 The effect of conflicts on economic growth in the region Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 28/5/2014 The role of youth in supporting government’s effort to Garissa, Wajir & combat crime in the region Mandera 1/6/2014 Youth Voice in leading Peace Initiatives in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir & Region Mandera 8/6/2014 Women Voice in Peace Building Efforts in the region. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 15/6/2014 Participation of Imams on Peace Building and peaceful Garissa, Wajir & coexistence. Mandera 22/6/2014 Ending the Clan Conflicts. How the general community can Garissa, Wajir & propagate peaceful coexistence among diverse communities Mandera in the region. 6/7/2014 Drug abuse and how it contributes to crime and violence Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 13/7/2014 Religious Leaders and their contribution to Peace building Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 20/7/2014 Community Policing; Partnership the public and the Garissa, Wajir & government agencies to promote peace Mandera 27/7/2014 Conflict Resolution mechanism among societies Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 3/8/2014 Efforts by religious leaders in solving conflicts during clan Garissa, Wajir & tensions Mandera 10/8/2014 Enhancing peace and security. How peace can be Garissa, Wajir &

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Date Program Title Geography maintained among citizens. Mandera 24/8/2014 Insecurity and how it affects local business and Garissa, Wajir & development. Mandera 31/8/2014 The role of the youth in peace and conflict resolution. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 7/9/2014 Ethnic violence, disadvantages and how to coexist Garissa, Wajir & peacefully. Mandera 14/9/2014 Youth participation in Conflict Resolution and peace Garissa, Wajir & building efforts. Mandera 21/9/2014 Youth leaders Contribution to Peace efforts. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 28/9/2014 The Importance of Peace and Unity within the community. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 5/10/2014 Security Improvements in Garissa. What was done? Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 12/10/2014 How to disengage youth from violence Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 19/10/2014 Community Policing. A discussion on the ‘Nyumba Kumi’ Garissa, Wajir & Initiative Mandera 2/11/2014 National government efforts to improve security in Garissa Garissa, Wajir & – an interview with the Garissa County Commissioner. Mandera 9/11/2014 The after effects of insecurity – a religious perspective. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 23/11/2014 Community policing strategies and positive results Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 7/12/2014 The President’s Speech on National Security – Changes in Garissa, Wajir & the Security Sector Mandera 14/12/2014 The need for Coexistence – Garissa Peace Meeting Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 21/12/2014 The need for coexistence –Mandera Peace Meeting Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 28/12/2014 Peace and Security Initiatives in the Dadaab refugee camps Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 4/1/2015 Community Policing – Challenges and Successes. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 11/1/2015 Discouraging youth from violence-What needs to be done. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 18/1/2015 The input of religious leaders in solving conflicts in North Garissa, Wajir & Eastern region Mandera 25/1/2015 Peace and security partnership between the public and Garissa, Wajir & government agencies Mandera 1/2/2015 Impact of insecurity in North Eastern – the teachers’ strike. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 8/2/2015 Solution to the Mandera clan conflict – Message from Garissa, Wajir & Takaba youth. Mandera 15/2/2015 Solution to the Mandera clan conflict – Message from Garissa, Wajir & Rhamu youth leaders Mandera

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Date Program Title Geography 22/2/2015 Solution to the Mandera clan conflict – Message from Garissa, Wajir & Mandera township youth leaders. Mandera 1/3/2015 Sustained peace in Mandera; what worked. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 8/3/2015 Cross border peace building – the role of the Mandera peace Garissa, Wajir & committee. Mandera 15/3/2015 Cross border peace-building – the role of local NGO’s Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 22/3/2015 Challenges and successes to cross border peace. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 14/3/2015 Objectives of the YYC!NER Project in the region Wajir 21/3/2015 Wajir Youth Bunge SACCO. Establishment and Wajir membership mobilisation 5/4/2015 Garissa University Attack. What happened and how it Garissa, Wajir & happened. Mandera 12/4/2015 North Eastern leaders reaction to Garissa University Attack Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 19/4/2015 The fight against terrorism in North Eastern Kenya. County Garissa, Wajir & Meetings Mandera 26/4/2015 Measures to combat terrorist attacks in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir & Kenya Mandera 3/5/2015 Leadership Meetings in North Eastern to address violent Garissa, Wajir & extremism Mandera 10/5/2015 What the youth in North Eastern are doing to promote Garissa, Wajir & peace and end violence Mandera 17/5/2015 Security challenges in North Eastern Kenya and measures to Garissa, Wajir & address them Mandera 24/5/2015 The challenges facing the youth in North Eastern Kenya Garissa, Wajir & and how to address those challenges Mandera 7/6/2015 How the youth are taking the lead in addressing violence Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 14/6/2015 How insecurity has impacted education in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir & Kenya Mandera 21/6/2015 The impact of insecurity on trade and movement in North Garissa, Wajir & Eastern Kenya Mandera 28/6/2015 A religious perspective on how insecurity and violence ruins Garissa, Wajir & societies Mandera 29/6/2015 Peace building mechanisms in Wajir Wajir 5/7/2015 Life in Garissa after the dawn to dusk curfew imposed Garissa, Wajir & following the Garissa University attack in April. Mandera 12/7/2015 What is contributing to the continued violence in Mandera? Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 19/7/2015 Campaign to reopen Garissa University College after the Garissa, Wajir & April terrorist attack. Mandera 26/7/2015 The expectations of North Eastern residents during Garissa, Wajir & President Obama’s visit to Kenya. Mandera 2/8/2015 How the youth in Mandera are working to improve security Garissa, Wajir &

USAID/KENYA YYC! NER FINAL REPORT 95

Date Program Title Geography after recent terrorist attacks there. Mandera 9/8/2015 Terrorist attacks in Mandera? What the youth there think? Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 16/8/2015 Propagating peace and countering radicalism. A religious Garissa, Wajir & scholar’s perspective. Mandera 23/8/2015 Improving security and how the public can participate in Garissa, Wajir & countering terrorism Mandera 6/9/2015 Successes in the fight against terrorism in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir & Kenya Mandera 13/9/2015 Peace building in Wajir following recent ethnic clashes Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 20/9/2015 Conflict in the region. What elders think should be done. Garissa, Wajir & Mandera 27/9/2015 How violence and extremism affects the youth in Wajir. A Garissa, Wajir & discussion by youth leaders. Mandera 10/9/2015 What is contributing to insecurity and violence in Wajir? Wajir 16/9/2015 How violence in Wajir has affected the youth and what they Wajir are doing to address that. 23/9/2015 Chiefs and the critical role they play in maintaining peace Wajir and security in the Wajir County. 30/9/2015 Women participation in peace and security in Wajir. Wajir 04/10/2015 The continued fight against terrorists in North Eastern. Garissa, Wajir and Arrest of more suspects. Mandera 11/10/2015 How elders are leading the fight against terrorism Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 18/10/2015 Devolution in Wajir County and how insecurity has Garissa, Wajir and affecting education in the county. mandera 25/10/2015 The critical role played by chiefs in maintaining peace in Garissa, Wajir and Garissa Mandera

10/10/2015 The challenges facing the youth in Wajir and how they are Wajir coping 17/10/2015 How violence Wajir affected education and how the county Wajir government is addressing that 24/10/2015 How the Yes Youth Can project is helping the youth in Wajir Wajir. The programs in place. 31/10/2015 The fight against terrorism and extremism in Wajir. What Wajir the County government is doing 20/12/2015 The role of youth bunges in peace and security Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 21/12/2015 Leading youth voices on peace and security in North Garissa, Wajir and Eastern Mandera 22/12/2015 How the YYC! project has helped the youth in North Garissa, Wajir and Eastern Mandera 23/12/2015 Promoting coexistence between faiths in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 24/12/2015 Religious lecture on the current security incidents in North Garissa, Wajir and

USAID/KENYA YYC! NER FINAL REPORT 96

Date Program Title Geography Eastern Mandera 25/12/2015 The dangers facing the Muslim youth in Kenya especially Garissa, Wajir and North Eastern Mandera 26/12/2015 Countering the extremist ideology with a religious Garissa, Wajir and perspective Mandera 27/12/2015 The need to educate the youth on peace and security Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 28/12/2015 Youth led peace and security efforts in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 29/12/2015 The impact of insecurity on the business community in Garissa, Wajir and North Eastern Mandera 30/12/2015 Government amnesty to radicalized youth Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 31/12/2015 Government initiatives to improve security in North Garissa, Wajir and Eastern Mandera 01/01/2016 Why North Eastern is greatly affected by insecurity Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 02/01/2016 What motivates youth into violence Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 03/01/2016 How the youth can lead peace initiatives in their Garissa, Wajir and communities Mandera 04/01/2016 Empowering the youth through economic activities Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 05/01/2016 Community Policing in North Eastern region Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 06/01/2016 Conflict in North Eastern and how that hinders Garissa, Wajir and development Mandera 07/01/2016 The successes achieved on security in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 08/01/2016 The responsibilities of members of the public on peace & Garissa, Wajir and security Mandera 09/01/2016 The impact of insecurity on education in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir and region Mandera 10/01/2016 Key lessons learned from insecurity in North Eastern Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 11/01/2016 The impact of terrorism in Kenya (Westgate, Garissa Garissa, Wajir and University) Mandera 12/01/2016 Equitable sharing of resources. How devolution has Garissa, Wajir and improved life in North Eastern Mandera 13/01/2016 Role models for the youth in North Eastern Kenya Garissa, Wajir and Mandera 14/01/2016 What the business community feels should be done to Garissa, Wajir and combat insecurity Mandera 15/01/2016 Leading women voices on peace and security in North Garissa, Wajir and Eastern Mandera

USAID/KENYA YYC! NER FINAL REPORT 97