PROJECTS in ZAMBIA Final Cover Page to Include GRZ, UNICEF and Barclays Bank Logos Final Report – Updated Version
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UNICEF Zambia AN INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT OF BUILDING YOUNG FUTURES (BYF) AND WHEELS FOR CHANGE (WfC) PROJECTS IN ZAMBIA Final cover page to include GRZ, UNICEF and Barclays Bank logos Final Report – Updated Version AN INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT OF BUILDING YOUNG FUTURES (BYF) AND WHEELS FOR CHANGE (WfC) PROJECTS IN ZAMBIA REVISED DRAFT REPORT WfC beneficiaries in Livingstone during a mentorship workshop ©Matoka/2016 29th July 2016 11thJuly 2016 Acknowledgement We would like to thank UNICEF Zambia for commissioning the assessment of the Building Young Futures (BYF) and Wheels for Change (WfC) programme and giving us an opportunity to participate in this important exercise. We are grateful to representatives of the programme’s various stakeholders including, but not limiting ourselves to Ministry of Youth, Sport and Child Development, Ministry of Community Development and Social Welfare, Drug Enforcement Commission, UNICEF, Advocates of Hope, Africa Directions, Kasama District Business Association, Kasama One Stop Centre, Trauma Healing Centre, Young Women Christian Association, Zambia Chambers of Small and Medium Business Associations, Zambia Development Agency and Zambia Co-operative Federation who set aside time to be interviewed as key informants. We sincerely thank BYF and WfC projects beneficiaries who participated in the assessment through the questionnaire survey, focus group discussions and case studies. We have taken care to faithfully reflect the views and perceptions of the study participants and to ensure the accuracy of information used in this report. We, however, take full responsibility for any errors of omission and commission. The analysis and conclusions in this report are those of the assessment team and should not be taken to represent the official positions of the Government of the Republic of Zambia, Ministry of Youth, Sport and Child Development, UNICEF, Barclays or any other stakeholder. Assessment team Ephraim M. Dhlembeu International Consultant Chabila C. Mapoma (PhD) National Consultant Mwewa E. Kasonde Researcher Justine M. Nkaama Researcher Tambulani Chayima Nyirenda Researcher Herbert Tato Nyirenda Researcher (Team members’ profiles given in Appendix 5.2) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Youth empowerment situation in Zambia Zambia has one of the most youthful populations in Africa with 37 percent of its 15 million population being youths1. It has an annual population growth rate of 2.4 to 3.0 percent with a projected population of approximately 24.5 million by 20302. The youth cohort will continue to expand with an in built momentum of high fertility. Young people make up a significant proportion of the country’s labour force and the unemployment rate for the 20 to 24 years age group is estimated at five times greater than for those older. Among factors for this are misalignment of education and labour market needs, lack of experience, nepotism and corruption in labour markets and a lack of skills and entrepreneurship training. There are also gender issues in youth employment with certain sectors considered to be available only for men or women. Young women are more likely to report lower pay or not being paid at all for their work. The Zambian government has a number of policies and programmes aimed at uplifting the socio-economic lives of young people. Among these are the National Youth Policy, the Citizens Economic Empowerment Fund (CEEF), the National Action Plan on Youth Empowerment and Employment Strategy and the Youth Development Fund (YDF). The YDF seeks to promote active participation of youths in economic development by venturing into sustainable income generating activities (IGAs) and through sustainable youth employment opportunities. Government youth development initiatives are, however, resource constrained. Given the high numbers of vulnerable youth, resources for these initiatives fall far short of the demand. The BYF and WfC projects It is against the background of high youth unemployment rate that UNICEF, with funding support from Barclays, partnered with the Government of Zambia’s Ministry of Youth, Sport and Child Development (MYSCD) and other organisations on a programme for youth economic empowerment. The Building Young Futures (BYF) programme was implemented from October 2012 to October 2015 with a budget of US$1,392,870 and the Wheels for Change (WfC) component of this, which was aimed at providing young people with access to entrepreneurship opportunities and mentoring support, was implemented from August 2015 to April 2016 with a budget of US$246,293.97. BYF sought to establish sustainable solutions to supporting youths aged 15 to 25 years to enter the business world and labour force through: training of and equipping 4,500 youths with basic entrepreneurship, marketing and finance skills, helping 3,000 youth to start-up IGAs, helping 1,500 youth to access start-up funds, providing 1,500 youth with follow-up business advice, linking 1,000 youths to existing collective saving schemes and help at least 30% of these to open bank accounts and start saving. BYF was implemented in partnership with MYSCD, Advocates of Hope, Africa Directions, CAMFED, Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), Trauma Healing Centre, Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) Chipata, Mansa One Stop Centre, Kasama One Stop Centre, Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) and Zambia Bureau of Standards. The project was implemented in twenty districts. BYF is reported as having surpassed its targets with: 9,869 youths trained in basic business, marketing and finance using the Get Ahead and OSAWE programmes; most of the youths mentored by the various stakeholders and also referred to appropriate institutions for additional support; 1 CSO, 2010 Census of Population and Housing 2 UNDP, Zambia Human Development Report 2013 2 7,589 young people running their own businesses of which 2,865 received start-up capital from UNICEF; 1,164 youths linked to job markets by ZDA; 5,760 youths started saving either as individuals or part of collective saving schemes; and 2,654 opened bank accounts3. BYF monitoring concluded that the majority of the BYF graduates were unable to start or grow their businesses due to limited access to capital. It was for this reason that UNICEF and MYSCD with further funding support from Barclays Bank UK created the WfC grant support programme to provide seed money to eligible BYF beneficiaries. The objective of WfC was to stimulate creation of wealth and employment opportunities by supporting the growth and sustainability of youth-led enterprises. This was to be achieved through disbursements of small grants of up to 5,000 Kwacha (+US$500) to eligible BYF beneficiaries to enable them start or grow their businesses followed by mentorship workshops. Among topics covered in the mentorship workshops were: the art of planning, perseverance, hard work, financial discipline, opportunity seeking, risk taking, information seeking, art of saving and ploughing back profits, associating with successful people, willingness to start small even from own little resources, self-confidence, consulting others, ambition, self-starters, goal setting, motivation to excel, making the customer the most important person in the business operations, being creative and innovative, elimination of the “self-pity” feeling and shyness, and separating business matters from family and friendship issues. WfC was implemented in partnership with Advocates of Hope, Africa Directions, DEC, Trauma Healing Centre, YWCA Chipata, Mansa One Stop Centre, Kasama One Stop Centre, Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) and ZDA. It reached 575 vulnerable young people aged 15 – 25 years with grants in fourteen districts. The programme surpassed the originally planned figure of 250 grants4. Purpose, objectives and methodology of assessment In order to learn lessons from BYF/WfC programme and thereby contribute to the evidence base for further advocacy and inform existing and similar future youth programmes, this assessment was commissioned to: a) assess the BYF and WfC programmes in terms of the design, methodology, organisational structures and implementation and their efficacy with respect to youth empowerment b) document the lessons that can be drawn on project(s) design, methodology, implementation and monitoring of a youth empowerment programme, and c) document how lessons learnt from BYF/WfC can inform the Government’s YDF and CEEF as well as other programmes for the empowerment of youths. The assessment involved literature review, 20 national and district level key informants interviews, four focus group discussions (FGDs), eleven case studies and a structured questionnaire survey of 122 BYF and 155 WfC beneficiaries in 14 districts. Appropriate measures were taken throughout the study in line with UNICEF child research ethics. The main challenges experienced were a tight schedule, locating sampled beneficiaries and distances between interviewees. The assessment team navigated around these by working round the clock and piecing together information on beneficiaries held by Implementing Partners (IPs). On the whole, the team has high confidence in the findings. A draft assessment report was subjected to a validation workshop before finalisation. 3 UNICEF Zambia, End of Project Report, Building Young Futures, October 2015 4 UNICEF Zambia, End of project Report, Wheels for Change, April 2016 3 How the youths have benefited from BYF and WfC The assessment found the BYF/WfC programme implementation generally consistent with the design and with indications