THE WORLD BANK GROUP

Application for Youth Innovation Fund 2009 in ECA

Country:
FYR Macedonia / Seasoned TTL Mentors, if any:
Georgios Politakis, Andrea Anayiotos
Project Leader (Youth): / Project Leader's Supervisor
Dimitrios Lagias / Lee Meddin (IFC CSP department)
Amount Requested:
US$9,355 / Total Cost of Project / Matching Funds:
US$16,155 -73% (US$6,800) matched funds
Title of Proposed Project: Vocational and Health Training for Youth Farmers in FYR Macedonia
Purpose of Funding (Should demonstrate how the proposed activity will impact the Youth Community and/or address Youth- targeted issues in World Bank client countries; how the activities will contribute to the delivery of sector and/or country priorities; and how they will foster partnerships with youth organizations within the client country.) Please include a description of activities envisaged.
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia) is a young country with a population of only two million but over seven ethnic groups, including Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, Roma, and Serb minorities. In the last 20 years, ethnic tensions have plagued the nation, often leading to violent conflict that threaten the integrity of the state as a whole, while also limiting the scope for economic development.
In recent years, FYR Macedonia has suffered a significant economic downturn. According to national statistics, industrial growth in December of 2008 was 10% lower than growth one year earlier. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) estimates that GDP growth in 2009 will be limited to 3%. One of the main problems of FYR Macedonia lies in its exceptionally high rates of unemployment, the highest in the region according to the World Bank Country Partnership Strategy Report. Indeed, the World Bank has maintained that one of its core pillars for partnership is fostering growth and job creation, including but not limited to improving agricultural competitiveness. Within this context, those who work in agriculture are most vulnerable to income shocks and have few opportunities to tap vocational training resources. Similarly, according to the United Nations Statistics Division, youth unemployment specifically is currently double the national average. As such, we (my self and team of consultants) hope to introduce a pilot program that targets the economic difficulties of youth farmers, while tackling underlying ethnic tensions.
Abstract: As such, we plan to organize a series of workshops that provide vocational and business training skills, as well as practical know-how on occupational health and safety for youth farmers (ages 16-25). The goal of the project is to create a safe space for inter-ethnic dialogue and cooperation, by highlighting and tackling the common challenges that this vulnerable group faces. As such, the program consists of a 10-day summer training on issues relevant to youth farmers, followed by continued mentorship and support throughout the year.
Training and Partnership: The initial 10-day training will be held in a rural region of FYR Macedonia (Doiran Lake), with the logistical and technical support of the Foundation Open Society Institute-Macedonia (FOSIM) and the Foundation for Rebuilding and Development of Ovce Pole (FOROP). The training will provide seminars on two relevant thematic areas: basic business and entrepreneurship skills, and occupational health and safety for youth farmers. Issues to be covered include: saving and microfinance, agro-tourism and sustainable agriculture, occupational health risks and safe practices, as well as how to tap into other available support services in the community (including government calls for proposal). Participants will be selected through an open but competitive application process, which will examine their readiness for such a program and whether they would benefit from long-term support. The curriculum will be designed by experts in the SEE region including professors from Greece, Italy, and FYR Macedonia and doctors from the WHO that have specialized in the greater Balkans region (parties have already committed upon success in YIF application). These experts will then train locally-based trainers, who will present the information in local languages in cooperation with our local NGO partners. Each lecture will be followed by small group workshops led by the local trainers. Each small group will be ethnically diverse and will be given a locally based ‘mentor’ or expert who will follow the group and their projects throughout the year. This framework allows for the capacity building of local NGO trainers. We hope that the program participants will be equipped to be trainers for the next round, one year later.
Goal: Ultimately, we hope to provide practical skills for a population that is at-risk of unemployment and marginalization, while also encouraging cooperation and social networking across ethnic divides. We hope that the workshops will provide vital information and know-how on the economic opportunities for this vulnerable group, including health and safety standards, while also making clear that youth from different ethnic groups are facing similar circumstances and can work together towards a common goal. By involving the local NGO trainers and mentors directly, we hope to facilitate the growth of similar programs in the region, thus furthering the World Bank’s goal of improving agricultural competitiveness for the next generation of farmers.
Sustainability: The training workshops will be integrated into the strategy of FOROP, our local NGO partner as a pilot program. The program will, therefore, be evaluated rigorously to determine: a) its feasibility as a sustainable, annual endeavour; b) its impact on relevant knowledge c) its impact on longer-term practices d) its impact on inter-ethnic cooperation and networking. If the project is successful, we hope to mainstream the program as an annual FOROP program.
Key Target Group(s) / Key Youth Issue to be addressed :
Key Target Group: Youth farmers in high poverty rural areas and particularly from conflicting ethnic groups.
Key Youth Issue: The project is addressing some of the most prominent issues for this vulnerable population, namely unemployment and occupational health. The project focuses on improvement of agricultural competitiveness while tackling underlying ethnic tensions
Relationship of Proposal to Operational and Policy Work (Sector/Country Priorities):
The 2009 World Bank Country Partnership Strategy Report cites fostering growth and job creation as one of its core pillars. Under this pillar, “improving agricultural competitiveness” and “developing a productive and appropriately skilled labour force” are described as key aims. The workshops presented in this proposal have the same explicit goals, emphasizing innovations to agricultural competitiveness as well as training in modern health and safety standards for this vulnerable population. We have engaged in conversations with the World Bank office in Skopje where we discussed our proposal and received initial positive comments and inputs and we have been reassured that the proposal's general area of focus is important for the country's development and prime focal point for the next 2-3 years. Our project will complement the ongoing World Bank efforts to help the government redirect assistance toward on-farm investment rather than subsidies in a manner consistent with EU pre-accession requirements.
Preliminary Timetable of major events (Milestones):
·  Step 1: Curriculum Development
Duration: One Month (April 2009).
Summary: Experts on vocational training, occupational health and safety, agriculture, and FYR Macedonia coordinate (electronically) with local partners to develop two-week curriculum.
·  Step 2: Selection of Trainers and Mentors
Duration: One Month (May 2009)
Summary: NGO partners in country select trainers and eligible mentors.
·  Step 3: Training of Trainers
Duration: Five Days (in June 2009)
Summary: Video conference between trainers and experts, to explain curriculum materials and answer questions. Experts are also open to follow up on other questions up to and during the training.
·  Step 4: Recruitment and Selection of Participants
Duration: One Month (June 2009)
Summary: Local NGO runs communication campaign to the communities in which they work regarding the application to the program. Youth participants apply to program and eligible participants fill out baseline questionnaires. Participants are chosen amongst eligible candidates by lottery (see evaluation strategy below).
·  Step 5: Training Preparation
Duration: One Week (in July 2009)
Summary: Trainers come together at NGO headquarters to practice training material, run role play games, and ask any final questions before training.
·  Step 6: 10-day training Seminars
Duration: 10-day (end July 2009-early August 2009)
Summary: Program on vocational training and health and safety standards for youth farmers.
·  Step 7: First Follow-up
Duration: One Day (in September 2009)
Summary: Mentor contacts all mentees to answer questions and check project development. Reports back to NGO.
·  Step 8: Second Follow-up
Duration: One Month (November 2009)
Summary: Eligible participants and non-participants fill out end line questionnaires; mentors organize meetings for their group to share knowledge, developments.
·  Step 9: Impact Analysis and Report
Duration: One Month (December 2009)
Summary: Consultant analyses data from questionnaires. Presents impact and potential improvements to partner NGOs, participants, and World Bank Skopje office.
Implementation and Quality Assurance Responsibility: (Keeping track of objectives planned and met, budget expenditures, project compliance with Bank guidelines, impact assessment, risk analysis, planned outcomes).
The consultant will be responsible for designing and implementing an impact evaluation that will consider how the training workshops affected program participants as opposed to non-program participants. Specifically, amongst all eligible applicants to the program, only 20 will be selected to participate in this year’s training due to budget constraints. These 20 will be selected by lottery, and others will be guaranteed a spot in next year’s training program. Since the 20 participants were selected by lottery, they are statistically similar to other eligible participants on all fronts, and thus, we form two comparable groups – one which received the training workshops, and one that didn’t. We hope to measure the relevant outcomes for both groups, to see if the program itself had any additional effect on program participants.
Specifically, we hope to measure, before and after the program:
A) Knowledge on savings and investment tools
B) Agricultural practices and savings practices
C) Knowledge of European health and safety regulations
D) Changes in health and safety practices
This methodology will isolate the effect of the training workshops on program participants and inform future designs of such workshops. In the long term we also want to follow:
A) Number of participants applied and number of participants graduating each year
B) Number of participants that become trainers in following years
C) Number of participants applying for microcredit
D) Number of participants obtaining credit
Envisioned direction of potential project extension
When the project is fully executed, we will assess its impact through the previously mentioned framework (short-term) and long term framework metrics (please see Appendix). We will present the results to the country office and initiate discussions with the government counterparts and other relevant stakeholders, in an effort to extend the training project and mainstream the educational material. Moreover we have committed to presenting to the board of our NGO partners in order to incorporate the project into their national strategy.
We will also engage with a major, and already established microfinance organization (currently have initiated conversations with FINCA, Kiva, Ashoka) in order to include this training as a potential prerequisite for all new loan applicants (agriculture specific) in the region.
Other Comments:
The consultation with specialists on agriculture and on the country provided useful background information and feedback for this proposal. We have received great support and input from Markus Repnik (FYR Macedonia Country head) and particularly from Denis Boskovski, (operations Analyst) who helped us, shape the proposal to fit as a pilot for this crucial and yet untapped area of the country’s development. The Skopje team is looking forward to examining the results of the pilot and initiating the conversations with the Government counterparts to mainstream and scale-up the pilot. Asa Giertz (Jr. Officer Sustainable development sector unit within the Agriculture and Urban development segment) who is currently involved in the existing agriculture programs in the country consulted us on the material that will be included in the seminars.
Georgios Politakis and Andrea Anayiotos (advisors to Executive Director) provided our team with valuable mentoring for crystallizing of our proposal and along with the help of Panos Tzanopoulos (Delivery and Results Management unit) helped us shape a practical framework for project implementation and a set of variables to measure the impact of our pilot. Moreover, in crystallizing partnerships, this proposal has been discussed and shaped according to the expertise of our local partners, Zoran Cali from the Foundation Open Society Institute – Macedonia (FOSIM) and Danijela Andonova from the Foundation for Rebuilding and Development of Ovce Pole (FOROP). Specifically, we have agreed to tap into FOROP resources and municipal contacts to set up the training workshops and also to train local trainers in this material for their future use. FOROP is committed to participating in the logistical set up of the program, and will engage with the community to select participants and trainers. Finally we received input from a number of past YIF winners that shared their experiences but primarily helped us identify and tackle typical “roadblocks”.
Proposed Use of Funds (breakdown of use of resources for consultants, travel, materials, etc. Please note that ONLY variable costs can be met from the Fund). All Budget items must comply with Bank guidelines*.
Accommodation and Travel Cost: US$5,640 (see budget attachment for details)
Organizational Costs: US$2,715 (see budget attachment for details)
Third Party Evaluation Consultant:US$1,000
Total: US$9,355
Pro Bono and mobilized funds
Workshop space Rent: US$ 1,000 Donated by FOROP (see budget attachment for details)
Materials for Workshops/Training of Trainers: US$3,000 Donated by FOROP (see budget attachment for details)
Specialists (man hours): US$ 2,000(Pro-Bono)
IT support: US$ 800 Donated by FOROP (see budget attachment for details)
Total: US$6,800
Statement of Confirmation
I confirm that this activity has been cleared by the manager of the responsible unit listed on page 1 and that I fit the applicant criteria outlined in the project guidelines.
Signature of Project Leader: / Dimitrios Lagias