Story:
Building Alternative Pathways to Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship for Women and Young Mothers in Tanzania
Building Alternative Pathways to Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship for Women and Young Mothers in Tanzania
About this Project
Country:
Tanzania
Project Type:
Program Development, Institutional Strengthening
Sector:
Business
Delivery Format:
In-Person
Partners:
Folk Development Colleges (FDCs): Munguri in Kondoa and Bigwa in Morogoro; Community Based Organizations (CBOs): Justice in the Society for Transformative Change (JUST) in Kondoa and Young Strong Mothers Foundation (YSMF) in Kiegea; Seneca Polytechnic; Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan); Global Affairs Canada (GAC)
Project Year & Length:
2022-2026; four years–ongoing
The Opportunity
- Tanzania identified a need to invest in developing opportunities for women in marginalized areas to access formal education.
- Kondoa and Morogoro districts in Tanzania are rural areas, with limited opportunities for vulnerable groups, especially women. Both local FDCs offer unique avenues for skills training and employment and can tackle challenges that prevent women from accessing education and skills training.
- Local FDCs require capacity building to enhance gender equality and human rights practices.
- Community organizations in Kondoa and Morogoro areas present themselves as strong partners in promoting increased interest, engagement and prioritization of young women in accessible education and socio-economic engagement.
- Institutions and partners have opportunities to develop and facilitate labour-market responsive short courses targeting the social and economic challenges faced by women in Kondoa and Morogoro areas.
Our Approach
- Conduct needs assessment to identify key priorities that can be addressed through the Empowerment Through Skills Program (ESP-05) – Education for Employment Program (EFE) for partner FDCs and CBOs.
- Co-develop and co-delivery of gender, leadership and advocacy training to staff and students at the partner FDCs through a Train-the-Trainer approach, including activities with the Gender Equality committees, faculty and students.
- Accessing a Train-the-Trainer approach.
- Participate in Partnership Implementation Committee and Institutional Advisory Committee meetings, conducting focus groups and town hall discussions in Tanzania, as well as holding one-on-one meetings at each FDC to gather insights and establish a network of gender teams and female mentors.
- Provide gender equality and human rights training to staff, teachers, and volunteers at both FDCs and CBOs.
- Assess program content and teaching methods to better integrate gender equality and human rights.
- Work towards establishing appropriate support services for women and adolescent girl students, especially young mothers.
- Technical assistance activities
- Curriculum review
- Public awareness activities
Partner Outcomes and Success
- Three modules of virtual training sessions for capacity-building were successfully developed for CBOs:
- Situational Analysis
- Monitoring and Evaluation Introduction
- Monitoring and Evaluation Systems and Tools
- Inclusive and participatory gender-balanced Gender Equality committees have been created and are functioning at the Munguri and Bigwa FDCs bases.
- Model workshops in gender equality and human rights were delivered to the partner FDCs and CBOs.
- Industry Engagement has been established through FDCs principals with industry entrepreneurs and businesses to incorporate local market needs and industry requirements into the development of short courses.
- The following gender-responsive, environmentally sensitive and labour market-driven short programs were developed:
- Tailoring
- Vegan/Vegetarian Cookery
- Baking
- Entrepreneurship
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