Quarterly Performance Report #4: Youth:Work Mozambique

The program aims to improve livelihood opportunities for highly vulnerable in- and out-of-school youth and members of their household. The project has a start date of January 1, 2012, and a duration of three years with a budget of US$1.2 million. The program objectives are to strengthen the employability and entrepreneurship skills of youth, ensure that these skills are aligned with labor market demands, and improve collaboration and build local capacity through alliances, partnerships, and exchanges among training institutes, youth-serving organizations, and the private sector. The target group includes orphans and vulnerable children between the ages of 15 and 18, youth under 24 years of age living with HIV and receiving anti-retroviral treatment, and their household members who are caregivers or provide economic support. The program will be implemented in two phases. Phase 1 will focus on establishing and piloting a model, while Phase 2 will focus on expanding the pilot activities, integrating entrepreneurship activities, operationalizing the stakeholder alliance, sharing lessons learned, and documenting the Y:W Moz model. During the period of January-March 2013, IYF staff focused on partner identification and proposal development. A Request for Letters of Intent (RLOI) was disseminated in January to gather preliminary information on organizations interested in working under the redesign of the project. Responses were received from many provinces, but IYF decided to focus on rapid start-up in Maputo province. A first review of LOIs was done in mid-February, and a total of 15 responses to the Call for LOIs had been received. Seven letters of intent were from organizations that work in Maputo province, and five organizations were visited. Based on the review and on-site visits, only two organizations were potentially viable: Unidos Para Ajudar (UPA) and ARISO. UPA proposed a two-tiered intervention that provides a package of a 5-day work life orientation and subsequent access to an employment center. ARISO works with HIV-infected young inmates in Maputo's central jail and others prison facilities, providing vocational training, life skills, and rehabilitation. However, USAID indicated its preference not to work in the jails, and ARISO was invited to submit a follow-up LOI focused on their interventions at the community level and with women. Since only one viable candidate was identified in Maputo by the end of February, and there was a consensus between USAID and IYF that the project needed to move forward as quickly as possible, a competitive process was not held beyond the LOI process. UPA was invited to submit a detailed proposal, and IYF has provided close technical guidance on proposal development. IYF continues to review incoming LOIs, and a total of 36 LOIs had been received and reviewed as of the end of the quarter. Quarterly trips to Maputo were made to assess potential partners for implementation, and IYF met with and evaluated other organizations suggested by USAID and other partners in the Maputo area. The revised Program Description (PD) submitted by IYF and the action memo approving geographic location change and PD changes have been approved. IYF will move forward with additional site visits, follow-up questions, and invitations for full proposals to solidify a second, and possibly a third, partnership.