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Liberia economic empowerment of adolescent girls and young women project


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LIBERIA ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN PROJECT
GIRLS’ VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report
This report presents findings of a Girls’ Vulnerability Assessment conducted to inform the preparation of the Liberia Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Project. The project aims to improve employment and increase income for adolescent girls and young women in the Monrovia area through access to skills and business training, and links to jobs. The objective of the assessment is to identify the risks that make girls and young women potential beneficiaries, vulnerable, limiting their successful participation and performance in training and other activities provided by the project. The report is based on a review of secondary information about youth in Monrovia, including three large scale recent surveys – The Demographic and Health Survey, the Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire, and the Food Security and Nutrition Survey; 6 focus groups conducted in Monrovia and peri-urban areas of the capital; a Girls’ Vulnerability Survey, specifically developed for the purpose of this assessment, conducted among 200 girls’ and young women’s in Kakata (60 Km from Monrovia), and two other locations of Monrovia; and interviews with key informants, namely youth services providers and government officials in Monrovia.
Findings
The evidence presented in the report shows that girls and young women in Greater Monrovia live in a very fragile environment fraught with risks and problems which make them extremely vulnerable. The combination of an unstable family environment, poverty, a high level of physical and sexual violence, cultural acceptance of abusive practices like transactional sex, and the fact that many girls are mothers themselves, is an extremely dangerous cocktail which puts girls and young women in a very vulnerable position. This will affect girls’ and young women’s ability to participate in training, and to focus on it and be able to learn. This will also impact a successful transition from training to work and girls’ and young women’s ability to find and keep jobs.
The main risks and factors contributing to girls’ and young women’s vulnerability identified by the report are:

  • Adolescent pregnancy;

  • Early sexual initiation, risky sexual behaviour, and transactional sex;

  • Alcohol and substance abuse;

  • Physical violence – from boyfriends, at home, bars and discos and at school;

  • Sexual violence – from family members, teachers, and employers, at home, on the street and at school;

  • Isolation due to family breakdown and weak social capital;

  • Emotional distress and poor psychological wellbeing;

  • Low access to education;

  • Work and income generation activities to provide for their families;

  • Domestic work and family responsibilities;

These risks are partly caused, and their consequences aggravated by the absence of traditionally protective structures and contributing factors for healthy youth development, usually available in society, but missing in Liberia’s post-conflict context. Family, social networks, community social infrastructure, and services for youth are some of them. In Liberia however, for a number of reasons, families are currently more a source of risk than a source of protection for girls and young women. Absence of one or two biological parents, large household sizes, poor housing conditions, and economic need which pushes girls and young women to work (and family members to encourage risky behaviours like transactional sex as a source of income) are some of the risk factors that girls and young women find in their family environment. Also, lack of community cohesion, lack of trust among youth, and lack of organizational activity make extended social networks unavailable to girls and young women in Greater Monrovia. In addition to this, due to the burden of conflict, and the multiple demands of the early reconstruction, support services for the youth are virtually non-existent, except for a few NGO-run centres. Overall, girls’ and young women’s potential formal and informal sources of support in case of need are extremely limited. Similarly, supportive factors for healthy development (through caring adults, role models, etc.) are also lacking.
The absence of protective factors for girls and young women implies that the project will need to invest in creating some of them. A strong soft services component to complement mainstream training and labor market activities will be key to the success of the project. This will help minimize threats to the project coming from girls’ and young women’s personal and socio-demographic background. Activities under this component may range from psycho-social counselling to institutional strengthening of girls’ groups, to recreation and healthy life style related activities. The recommendations section presents a detailed description of potential activities.
The main problems that girls and young women find to participate and successfully complete training:

  • The conflict between spending time in training and spending time earning to support themselves and their families is the main problem that girls and young women find to participate in training.

  • Pregnancy is the second most important, although this is considered more a reason for drop out than for not attending the training in the first place.

  • Parent’s restriction or opposition to girls’ and young women’s participation in training is another important factor limiting girls’ and young women’s participation in the training.

  • Lack of motivation, lack of seriousness, or laziness play also an important part in girls’ and young women’s inability to complete the training.

  • The difficulty of the training is a problem to successfully complete it, especially among the youngest girls.

  • Sexual harassment from teachers, and demands of sex in exchange for grades/remaining in the program has also been identified as an important problem.


The main problems that girls and young women find to obtain and keep a job:

  • Lack of productive skills is the main problem to find a job.

  • Lack of contacts is the second most important factor in finding a job.

  • Lack of business skills is a problem to keep jobs.

  • Bad character of potential employees (stealing, rough talk, lack of punctuality, etc.) plays also an important part in girls’ and young women’s inability to keep their jobs.

  • Sexual harassment from employers is also an important problem to keep a job.

  • In addition, lack of communications skills, boyfriends’ opposition (out of jealousy); and girls’ and young women’s worries about children are other problems, although less important, which come in the way of finding and keeping a job.


The main problems that girls and young women find to start and stay in business:

  • Lack of starting capital (money or materials) is the main problem when starting a new business.

  • Lack of contacts is the second most important issue coming in the way of starting its own business.

  • Lack of business skills is the most important impediment to remain in business.

  • In addition, the following factors are identified as problems to start and stay in business, but not ranked among the most important: (i) regulations, referred to the fact that 16 years olds cannot sell legally in the street; (ii) lack of market information; (iii) lack of customers given that there is high competition among businesses; (iv) boyfriends’ opposition (out of jealousy); and (v) girls’ and young women’s worries about children.


Overall, the pressing need to earn money is one of the main threats to girls’ and young women’s participation in project activities. Preliminary analysis of CWIQ labor statistics points to high labor force participation for young women 20-24 (63 percent) and slightly less but still significant (54 percent) for girls and young women 15 to 19 (ILO/ CWIQ, 2007). The results of the Girls’ Vulnerability Survey show that almost 10 percent of girls and young women interviewed are the main provider of the household; half of the girls and young women do some kind of income generation activity to support their families; and that they spend 5 hours a day on average doing income generating activities. The need to earn (either to fully support or to contribute to support their families) seems to be such that girls and young women cannot afford not to work in Greater Monrovia. During training, this may imply that girls and young women may need to choose between working and attending the training. In the transition from training to work, this may imply that girls and young women may need to focus on jobs rather than apprenticeships (specially if they are long or unpaid) or if faced with the choice, they will select economic activities which offer quick returns compared to other where the investment period is longer.
Although to a lesser extent, girls’ and young women’s involvement in the domestic sphere is also an important threat to the project. Motherhood, family responsibilities, and domestic work are key activities for girls and young women which may come in the way of training, finding jobs, and keeping certain types of jobs. Statistics point to a significant involvement of girls and young women in taking care of family members. This has direct implications for girls’ and young women’s participation in the labor market (41 percent of girls and young women cite this as a reason for their inactivity). Similarly, the overwhelming majority of girls and young women interviewed in the survey preferred self-employment to working for others, mainly because of lack of skills, but also because it allows them to balance work and family responsibilities. Family responsibilities may also limit girls’ and young women’s ability to participate in training, and whether they are concentrated and adequately focused to learn.
Sexual abuse and harassment from training instructors, employers, and other actors involved in project implementation is an important threat to the project. While difficult to ascertain through hard data, qualitative information points to sexual abuse and harassment from teachers and training instructors as a well-established practice in training programs as well as in the school system in Monrovia and across Liberia. Focus group participants as well as government officials recognize the importance of the issue. Sexual harassment is an important threat to the project because of its deplorable consequences for girls’ and young women’s well-being and empowerment, because the perceived risk of sexual harassment lowers girls’ willingness to be trained, and because of its potential reputational risks for the World Bank and the Nike Foundation. The project cannot claim to empower girls and young women if this type of practice occurs during training. Under such circumstances, the project needs to give due consideration to developing mechanisms to ensure that training is provided under safe conditions. The recommendations section of this report explores some of the options available to combat sexual abuse in the context of the project.
Finally, the project needs to carefully consider the role of service providers and the level of outsourcing, and identify incentives for providers to deliver ‘quality services’. Many of the risks identified in this report can be prevented, mitigated, or circumvented through appropriate project design. Outsourcing services to external providers has however important implications on the ability of the project to control risks. The trade-off between efficiency (through outsourcing) and quality (through own implementation) must be taken into account when defining the level of involvement of external service providers. If full outsourcing is considered, the project needs to identify the right incentives, and implement adequate monitoring mechanisms to ensure that providers deliver ‘quality services’. Quality services are understood as, among other things, those whose design and delivery include strategies to mitigate the key risks identified by this report.
Recommendations for project design
Options to offset the trade-off between earning and participating in the project
First, according to the survey and focus groups findings, the training should be free of charge. This should include training materials (if any) and probably transport. Secondly, the project needs to consider one of the following: (i) providing a stipend conditioned on participation in training; (ii) providing a targeted grant to the most needy participants; and/or (iii) providing food for training (in the form or one or two meals) to training participants. Different options have different advantages and disadvantages as well as different costs. The recommendations section discusses pros and cons of these different incentives.
Childcare
Given girls’ and young women’s family responsibilities, and high rates of adolescent motherhood, the project should provide some sort of formal or informal childcare arrangement. The recommendations section discusses the different options.
Outreach strategy
The project could use its outreach strategy to address some of the risks that girls and young women face. The strategy should target communities. Different aspects of the strategy should be used at different stages of project implementation. At the beginning of the project, community meetings should be used to inform community members of the objectives and activities of the project, and get their support for the project in order to avoid suspicions and potential community backlash. Special emphasis should be made to ensure the participation of the guardians (and/or boyfriends) of the girls and young women, along with the girls and young women themselves. Throughout the life of the project, continuous involvement with the communities, in the form of investments in soft infrastructure for the youth in general (not only girls and young women) like tournaments, funding of sports materials, etc. could be done, if problems of community backlash arose.
General recommendations about training


  • Skills training. The training should be as short as possible – a maximum period of 6 months should be considered if this does not jeopardize the quality of the training. Teaching methods should be interactive and adapted to girls’ and young women’s interests and learning needs. A baseline learning assessment is recommended at the beginning of the course. There should be an ongoing evaluation of the quality of the training, which includes girls’ and young women’s feedback. Selection criteria for the training should be transparent. While involving the community in the selection of the participants may have its advantages (getting buy-in, and tapping on their knowledge of the participants), care needs to be taken to ensure transparency. Creating a committee with several key community members as well as project representatives could be a way of avoiding co-option. Also, care needs to be taken to ensure that the time of the training does not conflict with school schedule, which depends on the community and target group. Whenever possible, skills training should be provided in areas with quick economic returns.




  • Entrepreneurship and business training. Business training should be followed by business support and technical assistance after the skills training has been completed. Contracts with training services providers should include not only the training, but also the technical assistance and follow up in the period immediately after the training (overlapping with the apprenticeship/start up of the new business). Business training should promote the participation of leading/key business figures, in targeted sessions. The Liberia Women’s Business Association could be a source of support and advice, and their involvement as training providers in the project should be explored. Equally important, facilitating the exchange of experiences with other young female and male entrepreneurs in Monrovia is recommended. This can at the same time create role models as well as networks of contacts in the business world for trainees. Finally, the project could invest in the creation of girls/young women’s groups in the entrepreneurship component so that later they can start a group business.




  • Life skills and functional literacy training. Life skills training should be provided as a complement to skills training. Youth service providers in Monrovia typically provide training on the following types of life skills: gender relations, citizenship, conflict resolution skills, sexual and reproductive education, and parenting education. At the end of the training cycle, training could be provided on job competencies, as well as job searching techniques. Life skills training should use interactive learning methods and should be provided in the girls’ clubs promoted by the project (see below). In addition to productive skills and life skills, functional literacy training should be small part of the curriculum if the training targets the most disadvantaged girls and young women.


Options to combat sexual abuse
The use of female instructors as trainers would mitigate the risk of sexual harassment. However, it is difficult to find female instructors, especially for non-traditional female types of skills. If the type of training allows it (because it is not too complex), the project could consider investing in creating a pool of female trainers using intensive Training of Trainers with young college graduates. Alternatively, or in combination with female teachers, male instructors (and employers participating in the apprenticeship program) should be trained on ethics and gender. They should commit to the project’s ‘code of conduct’ which will include among other things a zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse, transactional sex, or bribery. Additionally, the project needs to put in place accessible reporting mechanisms for girls and young women to inform of any misbehavior/complain regarding instructors.
Social empowerment services for girls and young women
The project should provide support services to strengthen and complement girls’ and young women’s economic empowerment. The creation of girls’ clubs is a fundamental part of this component, and considerable effort should be put into the formation and institutional strengthening of the club to make it cohesive and functional. The club could then become the hub for the delivery of the rest of services (psychosocial counselling, family planning, parenting skills training, leadership training, conflict resolution skills training, life skills related activities, gender awareness, sports and other recreation activities.
Key partnerships to enhance girls’ and young women’s economic empowerment
The following partnerships and agreements are recommended for different purposes:


  • Communities. A critical partnership must be established with communities where the project takes place. The project should create a formal structure for community leaders (including youth and women representatives) to participate in the project through a community advisory committee.

  • The Liberia Business Women’s Association. A partnership with the Liberia Business Women’s Association to provide business advice, technical assistance, mentoring, apprenticeships, and eventually business training services could be established. The project can include them in the form of ‘informal advisor’ or ‘friends of the project’.

  • NGOs and service providers. Since the project plans to outsource some of its services to external providers, the selection of the appropriate provider is critical to address some of the risks identified in this assessment and implement the right mitigation strategy. The institutional assessment of the project should do a rapid review of key youth service providers’ strengths and weaknesses.


How to use the findings of the Vulnerabilities Assessment
In addition to inform the general lines of project design, and help shape the main features of the project, the project team could use the findings and detailed recommendations of this assessment to guide the selection process of external service providers. The project implementation team could build a matrix with the key risks identified by the assessment and evaluate potential service providers on the basis of their proposals to address these risks. The recommendations’ section, and table 6.1, offer some guidance on how to address the risks identified, but service providers may come up with equally valid alternatives to mitigate them.

1. INTRODUCTION
This report presents findings of a Girls’ Vulnerability Assessment conducted to inform the preparation of the Liberia Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Project. The project aims to improve employment and increase income for adolescent girls and young women in the Monrovia area and to develop a new model for demand-driven training of youth in Liberia. The project will contain training options for both wage employment and self-employment (entrepreneurship). Adolescent girls and young women will be able to self-select into the training option that best suits their needs and preferences. The training for young women entrepreneurs will focus on skills and business development services. In addition, links will be provided to micro-credit. Training will be delivered by providers (which may be quasi-governmental, NGO or private sector) who will be invited to submit bids to provide services under the project. The project will target adolescent girls and young women (aged 16-24) in urban and peri-urban Monrovia. The project is a partnership between the Government of Liberia, the Nike Foundation, and the World Bank.
The objective of the Girls’ Vulnerability Assessment is to identify the risks that limit girls’ and young women’s successful participation and performance in training and other activities provided by the project. The assessment also identifies strategies to mitigate these risks. While young women and adolescent girls are vulnerable to a variety of risks in Liberia’s post-conflict context, this assessment will focus exclusively on those factors and risks which may threaten: (i) girls’ and young women’s successful participation in training activities provided by the project; (ii) girls’ and young women’s successful performance in training activities provided by the project; (iii) girls’ and young women’s successful transition from training to work.
Methodology. A conceptual framework to assess girls’ and young women’s vulnerability in the context of the EPAG project was developed on the basis of a review of the youth literature. The information to conduct the assessment has been obtained from the following sources:

  • A review of the findings of three recent large scale surveys conducted in Liberia – the Demographic and Health Survey (2007), the Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (2007) and the Food Security and Nutrition Report for Greater Monrovia (2007).

  • Six focus groups, with girls and young women of different ages and backgrounds conducted in Kakata (60 Km from Monrovia) and three other locations in peri-urban areas of the capital1.

  • A Girls’ Vulnerability Survey developed for the specific purpose of this study and implemented among 200 girls and young women in Kakata and Monrovia.

  • Interviews with key informants, namely youth services providers and government officials in Monrovia.

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