Scholarships for Educational Opportunities Project Annual Implementation Plan – FY 2024

This project contributes to global frameworks, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM), as well as IOM's global Strategic Vision and Regional Strategy for Central America, North America, and the Caribbean. The project is aligned with national development and migration policies, the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for El Salvador 2022 – 2026 (UNSDCF), and the strategies of the Government of El Salvador in the field of Education, Technology, and Migration. El Salvador is characterized by high levels of migration, with at least 1.4 million Salvadoran citizens living in the United States. Migrant and displaced populations face enormous risks to their safety and dignity at various stages of mobility, including human rights violations, violence, rape, and trafficking in persons. The return process may bring new protection risks, especially for people returning to the same conditions that compelled their decision to migrate. Diaspora remittances to El Salvador have been steadily rising since 2016, reaching 24% of all Salvadoran households and representing 26% of GDP in 2022. The Government of El Salvador has made efforts to transform migration governance, including the passage of a more progressive and protection-focused Law on Migration and Foreigners in 2019. However, there are still challenges to prevent irregular migration and care for returned migrants and their human rights. The project aims to promote meaningful access to education, health, and mental health services, and decent work for this population. Economic concerns are a primary reason for migration in El Salvador, with 50% of those who intend to migrate citing economic concerns as their primary reason. Unemployment rates in El Salvador are high, particularly among young people, with 11.8% of those aged 16 to 24 years old unemployed. The two departments with the highest unemployment rates are San Vicente (8.2%) and Cabañas (6.7%), followed by the three eastern departments with unemployment rates higher than the national average. Starting a business reduces the desire to migrate of the Salvadoran population by 10.1 percentage points, according to a study on the impact of starting a business on migration. The project aims to increase assistance to Returned Migrants through promotional campaigns focused on this population, as well as the implementation of a strategy to motivate returnees to enroll in short-term courses that will provide them with new technical skills and more opportunities to improve or get new jobs or entrepreneurship. The project will also increase its network of strategic partners and strengthen its current alliances with counterparts such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Migration Directorate, Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, and municipalities and civil society organizations. The project will implement several objectives, including increasing individual education, skills development, and training needs assessment for 6,450 returnees and likely migrants, providing innovative incentives or stipends to at least 6,450 returnees and likely migrants to pursue skills development, job placement, and alleviate their economic burden, and providing tuition cost to service providers to deliver technical, vocational, and training. The project will also develop a school assessment tool in collaboration with Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) to determine educational supplies needs for the MEGATECs and Lower and Upper Secondary Schools, and provide school expendable and non-expendable supplies and equipment in El Salvador's MEGATECs and Lower and Upper Secondary Schools to create articulated technical and vocational upper secondary education. The project will also implement an awareness campaign to reach high-risk migration communities, and disseminate evidence-based information for decision making and reporting. The project will also focus on cross-cutting themes, including rights-based approach, social inclusion, gender equality and disability, and sustainability. The project will be implemented from October 2023 to September 2024, and will be monitored and evaluated to ensure its effectiveness in achieving its objectives.