Gender Mainstreaming, Employment and Youth - Denmark

This Project covers Kilifi District, Coast Province and is implemented by Moving the Goal Posts (MTGK). This Community Based Organization has over the years mobilized girls in football teams. MTDG uses football as a starting point for helping girls acquire the playing, coaching and refereeing skills on the field as well as the leadership, entrepreneurial and other life skills off the field. Today over 1,100 girls on 71 teams in four of the seven divisions in the District actively participate in the MTGK football competitions and its community leadership, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS prevention and other training Programmes.

The overall objective of the Project is to give more girls a sporting chance to excel in life in seven divisions in Kilifi District in Coast Province.

Project Objectives:

• To expand girls football activities for more age groups, schools, and areas;

• Improve and expand the training of girls’ football coaches, referees, and instructors;

• Involve girls increasingly in governance and decision making;

• Increase the participation of girls in community environmental improvement activities;

• To accelerate training for girls on reproductive health and AIDS prevention;

• To help the best volunteer girls leaders to stay in school;

• To train and help more girls on vocational and entrepreneurial skills for employment; and

• Strengthen, organizational governance, management, research Monitoring and reporting.

TP3 will support agribusiness as a key driver of growth and employment and consists of two engagements, described in more detail below: the DFID-led CARD-F and the ARTF National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP).

1. Comprehensive Agriculture and Rural Development Facility (CARD-F)

Support will be provided via a delegated partnership with UK DFID. CARD-F focuses on developing and delivering economic development packages (EDPs). EDPs are relatively large project interventions in a limited geographical area, supporting specific value chains with technical assistance, training, and infrastructure, mostly on a cost-sharing basis. Market-driven value chain approaches are applied, and inclusive planning processes with self-selecting procedures minimize conflict.

1. Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) focused on National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP)

The NHLP is designed to improve productivity and overall production of horticultural goods and to improve animal production and health. The operating strategy is to deliver extension and investment support through strengthened systems in three components: (i) horticultural production; (ii) animal production and health; and (iii) implementation management and technical assistance support.

NHLP’s Component 1 on horticultural production provides organisational support to farmers and extension services focused on orchard management, value addition and marketing. It also provides capacity-building to support productive investments that will facilitate adoption of improved technology packages that mirror those disseminated in extension messages.

Component 2 on animal health and production works in a similar way, although its investment support utilises two approaches. For the private sector it applies a capacity building approach to facilitate the adoption of improved technology packages alongside extension messages. In the public sector, Component 2 also supports investment to develop an animal health surveillance and control system.

The Country Programme will strive to achieve the following strategic objectives of the Country Policy Paper:

• Strengthen stability and peace;

• Enhance access to basic rights for ordinary people; and

• Reduce extreme poverty with a focus on resilience.

Development partnerships between Denmark and Niger have evolved since 1974 and in 2011 Niger became a priority country. Long-term development assistance has been built up in two sectors in particular, drinking water and sanitation as well as agriculture and rural development. The current governance and human rights program is oriented towards promoting women’s rights and strengthening of democratic institutions i.e. the National Assembly and the media.

Danish support to agriculture and rural development is focused on developing local production systems in the Zinder and Diffa regions combined with institutional support to a range of local and national partners. A program for rural development running from 2009-2014 has supported a range of micro projects benefitting around 30,000 producers hereof 45% women. These micro-projects have allowed for developing irrigated 22 agriculture, security of land tenure, the transformation of local products and related activities in the fishery. Initiatives of local and regional governments were also supported concerning collective infrastructures and works for irrigation, markets, livestock production and environmental protection. Danish support has contributed to reinforcing the national chamber of agriculture and its regional offices, a semi-public organization having the mission of providing services to local producer organizations. A new program, “The program on the promotion of jobs and economic growth in agriculture” (PECEA) with a budget of DKK 195 million has been defined for the period from 2014-2018. The program builds on achieved results and adds a focus on value chains to improve economic growth and job creation based on the agriculture and livestock sectors. Five value chains have been identified as entry points: green pepper, niabé beans, ground nuts, poultry and cattle rearing including sub-products such as milk. The program also includes activities on the business climate and framework conditions for private sector development. The programme is anchored with a national coordinating entity, the High Commission for the 3N initiative (Nigeriens Nourish Nigeriens).

The Programme (BSPS IV) has three components with a total of 6 engagements:

• Agricultural Markets Development under which a Trust (AMDT) will engage in a number of value chains and thereby facilitate the equivalent of 100,000 full-time jobs and increase income for 300,000 farmers. The immediate objective is defined: The incomes and employment opportunities of poor women, men, and young people are increased in agricultural value chains in Tanzania. Contributors are DANIDA, SIDA, Irish Aid and Swiss SDC.

   

• Improved Business Climate has the immediate objective: (i) Improved business climate for the private sector, inducing businesses to grow and create employment opportunities; (ii) Local Investment Climate-focused on critical constraints to business growth and economic development at the district level by helping the local authorities and business communities to identify and prioritizes the constraints. Dodoma and Kigoma Regions are the focus areas; (iii) BEST-Dialogue will work with business organizations and government to improve business environment through regulatory reform, improved implementation and effective and efficient enforcement; and (iv) CTI/DI Twinning arrangement will strengthen the institutional capacity of CTI as a key private sector organization vis-à-vis the Government of Tanzania.

   

   

• Access to finance has the immediate objective: (i) Farmers, enterprises, and employees increase their access to quality financial services; (ii) Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT) has since 2004 financed the development of pro-poor financial services and new financial products for MSMEs; and (iii) Private Agricultural Sector Support (PASS) operates on commercial terms offering a combination of credit guarantees and business development services to Tanzanian farmers and agribusinesses. The present upscaling of PASS businesses are based on new financial products with a significant potential for increasing the number of beneficiaries.

The development objective of SPSD II, which is aligned and contributing to these policy goals and the PSDS II vision, is defined as: Creation of sustainable and decent jobs The SPSD II outlines two main strategic objectives: (i) to improve the conditions for business operation, enhance local and foreign investor confidence; and (ii) to foster the development of sustainable corporate strategies for enterprise growth and job creation.

Challenges to be addressed with SPSD II include: (i) low competitiveness of agriculture and small and medium-sized enterprises; and (ii) a small formal sector which has insufficient capacity to absorb Ghana’s youth and realize their potential. Since there are more students and apprentices than the entire formal sector labor force, a significant number will have to seek their livelihood in the informal economy where productivity and incomes are low.

The emphasis on sustainable jobs implies that: (i) jobs are created in firms that are commercially viable and can face the competition without the need for continuous public subsidies/protection; and (ii) the jobs are not based on exploitation of a finite non-renewable resource or on unsustainable use of natural resources (e.g. soil mining resulting in declining soil fertility and yields). The emphasis on decent jobs indicates that: (i) the enterprise or farm generates a value added per employee/entrepreneur/farmer which allows for an income/salary that is decisively above the poverty line; (ii) the jobs generate production and services which are of value to society (which excludes e.g. crime, prostitution, some types of petty trade, etc.); and (iii) the general labor conditions are satisfactory (e.g. occupational health and safety standards, social protection, gender equality, no utilization of child labor etc.).

Danish Aid for Trade has supported several projects by TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) that promote cross-border and regional trade in East Africa. Development assistance from Denmark has co-funded TMEA since 2011 both on a regional basis across the whole EAC, and also bilaterally to Kenya and Uganda.

Denmark’s trade facilitation support through TMEA is multi-faceted. It covers a variety of complementary activities to make trade easier, more efficient, and less costly. This work is consistent with international efforts led by the WTO to facilitate trade, and hence to increase economic growth, job creation and household incomes in developing countries.

The TMEA programmes and projects specifically concern Denmark’s support for women cross-border traders; harmonization of product standards; one-stop border posts; automation to modernize trade procedures; and a new Trade Logistics Information Pipeline initiative carried out in partnership with the Danish shipping company, Maersk.

In the East African Community (EAC), most cross-border trade is conducted by women, who run informal, small scale businesses. This project, therefore, supports the establishment and strengthening of women cross-border traders’ associations at borders as well as at national and regional levels. TMEA also facilitate simplification, translation into the local language, and dissemination of the EAC Common Market Protocol, customs, and other trade information. TMEA facilitates dialogue between association representatives and border officials, ministries, and agencies to address the problems that traders face. TMEA partners have lobbied for representation of women traders in Joint Border Management Committees, which have presented and resolved cases of harassment.

TMEA has also supported the establishment of resource centers in 7 border cities, where women traders can access market and trading information, report cases of sexual harassment, or seek arbitration in cases of illegal confiscation of goods.

In Rwanda TMEA has helped women exporters to transition from informal to formal trade, organizing them into cooperatives and supporting them through the formation and registration processes. Support has also been given to build the capacity of women with regards to bookkeeping, business management, and customs procedures.

The project has increased the number of women trading through organized groups across borders. E.g. in Busia, on the border between Kenya and Uganda, membership grew from 44 in 2012 to the current level of 150 today. At the regional level, an association of women cross-border traders has been formed, representing all EAC partner states. The project has further increased cross-border women issues considered in EAC policies and bills.