Launched in October 2014, Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) is a multi-stakeholder coalition among public sector, private sector, and civil… Read more society actors that aims to provide leadership and resources for catalytic action to increase the number of young people engaged in productive work. The S4YE coalition includes Accenture, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Youth Foundation (IYF), Plan International, RAND Corporation, the World Bank, Youth Business International (YBI), Microsoft, the MasterCard Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the governments of Germany, Norway, and Albania. Discussions with several other potential partners are currently being finalized, as S4YE would like to further expand its partnership base. The S4YE coalition has an explicit commitment to work over a period of at least fifteen years to achieve its objectives. This timeline is proportionate to the size and scale of the challenge of understanding and addressing constraints to employment that young people face. In the coming years, the Coalition plans to sharpen its focus on innovation, piloting and scaling innovative interventions on youth employment, especially those that better connect supply-side with demand-side interventions, and working very closely with the private sector. This focus on innovative second-generation youth employment programs is an outcome of a meta-analysis of youth employment programs1 . This report highlights innovative practices of 19 youth employment programs and will provide rich input to the design of the second-generation programs. Read less ...

Analysis of women’s subordinate status in society by feminist academics and activists combines two sets of concerns: individual-level gender inequalities… Read more in the capacity to exercise choice and agency in different domains of women’s lives and the societal-level rules and norms that generate these inequalities on a systematic basis and reproduce them over time. The idea of women’s empowerment refers to the processes of change which expand their capacity for voice and agency by addressing these inequalities at both individual and societal level. In speaking of economic empowerment, we are attempting to capture one aspect of this change, their economic aspect. Economic empowerment focuses our attention on the specific processes that expand women’s market opportunities and improve the terms on which they access them. The focus on economic empowerment resonates with those who believe that that material inequalities play a central role in reproducing gender inequalities more broadly. It also makes the case for policy efforts to make markets work more fairly for women. Kabeer argues that too narrow a definition of economic empowerment is likely to undermine the transformative potential that such efforts might achieve. In particular, the failure to take account of the non-market constraints which curtail women’s ability to respond to new opportunities is not only likely to limit the effectiveness of these efforts but is also unlikely to realize the full potential of economic empowerment to impact on different aspects of women’s lives. Read less ...

UNHCR established a Graduation Programme pilot in Egypt in 2014, with the overarching objective of supporting refugees in urban areas… Read more to sustainably improve their livelihoods and ultimately become self-reliant. The first of their kind, the pilots in both Cairo with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Alexandria with Caritas presented an opportunity to adapt a proven methodology to the refugee context in order to better respond to protection needs. This mid-term evaluation of the UNHCR Egypt Graduation Programme presents findings in three key areas: impact, process/performance and project monitoring activities. The report provides evidence-based recommendations for UNHCR and its partners on the ground to continually improve the implementation and monitoring of the Graduation Programme and thereby increase its impact. Read less ...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ecuador has developed a livelihoods, methodology with refugees and asylum seekers,… Read more who have been forced to escape from armed conflict and persecution. The methodology emphasises the importance that these households reach dignified and sustainable livelihoods that allows them to build a home in their host country. As part of this effort, the so called Graduation Model is a comprehensive programme of support for refugees who are economically active or have the potential to generate income, and find themselves in a situation of vulnerability. Based on UNHCR´s multiannual strategy, the Comprehensive Solutions Initiative (2016-2018) firmly anchored in the defence of human rights with a multidimensional perspective (economic, social and legal), the Graduation Model uses innovative tools such as a the base line, local integration index and market studies to allow for a better understanding of the socioeconomic situation and integration challenges that the refugee population faces in Ecuador. Read less ...

Recognizing the limitations of humanitarian funding, donors and international agencies have increased their investments in programs that focus on the… Read more skills, experience, and economic values of refugees. The recent emphasis by UNHCR in particular on self-reliance and livelihood programming reflects recognition by the agency of the importance of local integration in sustainable responses to displacement. This report outlines the types of livelihood efforts that aid agencies have undertaken in countries of first asylum and explores the challenges they face in realizing the full promise of these approaches. The section that follows briefly describes the goals and approaches used by assistance providers to support livelihoods. Section III considers the limitations and shortcomings of such programs. Finally, the report concludes with observations on where political and financial investments by aid agencies and donors are most likely to yield rewards. Read less ...

The objective of this report is to present the main results achieved in the framework the “Graduation Model” (GM) project, implemented… Read more by the UNHCR in partnership with The Association of International Consultants and Advisors (ACAI) in Costa Rica over the period 2014-2016. The present document analyzes the main quantitative results of the project, based on the systematization of the information gathered from the files of each individual case. It presents the impact that the initiative achieved in the cases that already successfully completed the process. Read less ...

Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction- Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) program of BRAC implements two interventions for the ultra-poor:… Read more a grant-based support package for specially targeted ultra-poor (henceforth STUP support package), and credit plus grant support package for other (better off) targeted ultra-poor (henceforth OTUP support package). The target group of the OTUP support package is drawn from relatively well-off households than the STUP ones. Furthermore, the STUP support package is more expensive compared to the OTUP. An attempt has been made in this paper to evaluate these alternative approaches to poverty alleviation. Using non-experimental evaluation design, it was observed that both the STUP and OTUP support packages increase self-employment, total labour supply, per capita income, consumption of high-value food products, and productive asset-base of the ultra-poor. There is also evidence that these supports lead to some additional non-food improvements such as increased clothing and reduction in domestic violence against women. Read less ...

The graduation approach focuses on helping the poorest and most vulnerable households develop sustainable livelihoods, increase incomes, and move out… Read more of extreme poverty. It consists of a carefully sequenced, multisectoral intervention comprising social assistance to ensure basic consumption, skills training, seed capital, and employment opportunities to jump-start an economic activity, financial education and access to savings, and mentoring to build confidence and reinforce skills. The interventions are time bound (generally 24–26 months) to preclude longterm dependence. The participating household’s trajectory, however, continues beyond the phase of the program interventions. Sustained progress rests on continued income earning and asset building and effective social protection systems to cushion against shocks. Given the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG) global focus on eradicating extreme poverty by 2030, the graduation approach should form an integral component of national social protection and poverty reduction strategies, along with social transfers, guaranteed employment, social insurance, and labor market support. Read less ...

The present report summarizes findings of the first PtoP case study on rural women’s economic empowerment and focuses on the… Read more public works component of Rwanda’s Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP) – the Government of Rwanda’s flagship programme for poverty reduction providing countrywide social protection. The research was based on a mixed method approach comprising in-depth qualitative methods and quantitative surveys conducted in Rwanda during the autumn of 2014. Read less ...

The book Production, Protection, Promotion: Exploring Sinergies Between Social Protection and Productive Development in Latin America constitutes a compilation of… Read more the main results obtained throughout the project lifespan from its inception to its culmination in 2015. With the idea of establishing the existence of synergies in the region, CEDE, at the Universidad de los Andes School of Economics, coordinated and supervised the development of six assessments in different countries in the region. Read less ...