USAID Youth Actively Create Opportunities Activity Year 1 Work Plan

The activity aims to increase positive youth contributions to society and collective youth leadership through partnerships in support of economic opportunities attractive to youth, strengthening youth's competencies for jobs, progressive careers, and civic life, and promoting values and experiences that underpin self-reliance. The activity is aligned with USAID's Local Systems Framework and engages a diverse range of actors within the local system that surrounds and impacts youth in North Macedonia. This includes the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy (MLSP), Employment Service Agency (ESA), Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), chambers of commerce, youth-serving organizations, private sector businesses, industry associations, non-formal training centers, municipal governments, diaspora, and inclusive civic groups. The activity prioritizes interventions under three components: Component 1, Partnerships created to support economic opportunities attractive to youth; Component 2, Youth's competencies for jobs, progressive careers, and civic life strengthened; and Component 3, Values and experience that underpin self-reliance promoted. These components are specifically designed to relate to and reinforce each other, with the goal of increasing young people's economic participation, improving their competencies, and civic engagement, and developing confidence about their futures in North Macedonia. During the first year of the activity, IESC anticipates completing several deliverables, including a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plan, a Grants Manual, and Year One Quarter 2 and 3 Progress Reports. The work plan is considered a living document and can be amended on an as needed basis with the approval of the Agreement Officer's Representative (AOR). The activity will engage a diverse range of stakeholders, including marginalized youth groups, to form resource partnerships that range from marginalized youth groups to stakeholders proven to be influential and effective. This will enable YACO to be intentional in forming partnerships that meet youth "where they are" in terms of skills, interests, and leadership, aligned with USAID's Youth in Development Policy. The activity will deliver locally tailored solutions and continually learn what works best and most sustainably, including emerging windows of opportunity. The local systems approach enables YACO to be intentional in forming resource partnerships that range from marginalized youth groups to stakeholders proven to be influential and effective, strengthening youth's power within the socio-economic system and engaging young people in shaping interventions that meet youth's needs. The activity's purpose is to increase positive youth contributions to society and collective youth leadership through partnerships in support of economic opportunities attractive to youth, strengthening youth's competencies for jobs, progressive careers, and civic life, and promoting values and experiences that underpin self-reliance. The activity will achieve this through a youth-centered local systems approach, engaging a diverse range of actors within the local system that surrounds and impacts youth in North Macedonia.