© Saikat Mojumder/Oxfam Novib
Ethiopia
Empower Youth for work
Transforming social norms relating to women and girls by
empowering them to become more economic active
Context
Ethiopia is one of Africa’s poorest nations, with half
of its 100 million people currently below the poverty
line. Most of the country’s youth population live in
rural areas with limited access to essential services.
Unemployment levels are high, especially among young
women. Drought and environmental degradation have
become major issues, forcing large numbers of people
to migrate. The Empower Youth for Work (EYW) project is
being implemented in selected communities of Oromia
and Somali regional states.
VISION
Working with long-term partners Rift Valley Children
and Women Development Organization (RCWDO) and
Horn of Africa Voluntary Youth Committee (HAVOYOCO),
our vision is of poverty reduction, youth empowerment
and gender equality for young women and men in rural
and semi-urban climate change affected areas. Women
in rural Oromia and Somali regions lack capacity and
assets to invest in agricultural and pastoral livestock
productivity. EYW addresses policies and norms to
alleviate gender-based violence (GBV), reduce the
care work forced on young women, and to improve
The condition of women in a nation is the real measure of its progress.
– Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). EYW
collaborates with partners in both the service delivery
and influencing work.
STRATEGIES
Our strategic goals focus on increasing agency and
skills, improving economic opportunities and creating
an enabling environment. EYW aims to help targeted
young people to be part of well-functioning and
sustainable youth groups; to gain the soft, technical
and entrepreneurship skills that are demanded by
employers and are in line with market opportunities;
to establish new, climate-resilient micro-enterprises;
and to obtain access to fair, affordable finance for
these enterprises and improve business and social
performance. Creating an enabling environment
includes: reducing GBV and gender discrimination;
recognizing, reducing and redistributing care and
domestic responsibilities; removing barriers to SRHR
that inhibit young women’s economic empowerment;
and influencing the government to adopt policies or
practices in support of young women and men’s social
and economic empowerment.
 BIFTU’S STORY
Biftu Mohammed Abdi, 18, lives in Erer
district in Ethiopia’s Somali region. She
is one of the unemployed youth who
graduated in May 2018 after completing a
one-month EYW vocational skills training.
This training was coordinated by project
partner HAVOYOCO and covered skills
such as furniture production, cooking,
hairdressing and construction.

In Somali region, young people like Biftu

have few opportunities for skills training
and employment. She says: “Equipping
the youth with this kind of skills training
means a lot to the youth in the area I come
from. It gives us hope – it can save us from
the deadly illegal migration which is now

© Fekadu Ethiopia / Oxfam

common here.”

Biftu, who has been trained in cooking,

now hopes to form a group with other
young people to run their own restaurant.
EYW will link the young people to financial
institutions and provide business
development support.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
EYW identifies and organizes youth
groups and cooperatives and then
provides capacity-building support. To
date, 33 existing youth groups and 545
small and medium enterprises have been
strengthened, and 114 new youth groups
formed. 31 youth groups have been linked
with microfinance institutions and received
loans to start their own businesses. 1,603
young people who have received loans from
the government’s Youth Revolving Fund
have received technical support from EYW
in business management, record keeping
and entrepreneurship.
EWY has collaborated with the Ethiopian
Federal Technical and Vocational
Education and Training Agency (FTVETA),
an autonomous government organization,
to develop 5 technical, vocational and
agricultural training modules. These have
been distributed electronically to all TVET
colleges across Ethiopia, significantly
extending the project’s reach. Printed
versions will be distributed to selected
training institutions in the 2 regions
targeted by EYW, and a total of 376 youths
will receive training in year 3.
In order to create the enabling environment
and the shift in social norms necessary for
long-term change, the project uses a range
of methods to raise awareness of unpaid
care work, GBV and SRHR issues. These
include reflection forums, bringing together
community elders, clan and religious
leaders, and local government officials to
discuss gender and social norms. Weekly
radio programmes have been broadcast
to raise awareness and promote wider
debate. To discuss existing practice and
knowledge, multi-stakeholder dialogues
were organized. More than 650 youth have
taken part in community conversations to
discuss the issues.
EYW ensure that young people participate
in all aspects of implementation. For
example, youth reporters have been
involved in the project’s influencing
strategy development, the Human Centred
Design (HCD) inception workshop, research
and ideation sessions as well as collecting
data to develop personal stories which can
be used to influence decision makers. One
youth reporter has been mentored by a
reporter from Fana Broadcasting Corporate
(FBC) on interview techniques.
Innovations and pilots
Innovations and pilots are at the heart of
the implementation of the EYW project.
The innovations and pilots carried out by
the project include a loan guarantee fund
scheme, a mobile business development
service, a youth apprenticeship scheme
and development of youth-friendly training
modules.
Challenges and risks
The main challenge to project
implementation was the political unrest,
mostly involving youth, that happened in
many parts of Ethiopia, including in the
project areas. There were also deadly
conflicts between members of 2 ethnic
groups along the border between Ethiopia’s
Oromia and Somali regions. A state of
emergency prohibited public gatherings,
adversely affecting events planned by the
project. Engagement of youth reporters was
jeopardized due to lack of free movement.
For more information, please visit:
www.empoweryouthforwork.org
Edition: June 2018