Girma Project

Challenge

Niger is affected by long-standing crises that limit the consistent delivery of basic education and the availability of employment. It remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Fifty-eight percent of the population is under age 15, and out-of-school children number nearly 3.3 million, or 66 percent of school-age children. Young people lack meaningful learning opportunities in which to engage and the skills necessary to capitalize on the few jobs available to them.

Funded by USAID’s five-year Food for Peace project, Girma (which means “dignity, prestige, and growth”) is being implemented by a Catholic Relief Services-led consortium. As a partner of the consortium, EDC is strengthening the youth-serving resources and technical capacity of Assistance au Développement Communautaire (ADC), a local nongovernmental organization engaged in positive civic and economic participation activities.

Key Activities

• Build the capacity of ADC to offer and support employability and school-to-work transition programming to youth seeking employment and starting businesses
• Adapt Work Ready Now (WRN) and Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) curricula through consultations with national and local stakeholders
• Develop local labor market approaches, tools, and strategies for identifying promising opportunities in entrepreneurship and employment
• Incorporate gender equality, social inclusion, and empowerment in supportive coaching and accompaniment practices to improve access to training, upgrade physical spaces, and provide individual career counseling

Our Impact

• EDC will work with and equip ADC to deliver life and technical skills training to 12,000 youth, aged 12–24 years, from extremely poor and chronically vulnerable households.