Youth, enterprise, livelihoods and reproductive health : how can small enterprise and sustainable livelihoods help address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa?

This report incorporates evidence of best practice from the small enterprise literature (chapters II and III) in order to develop practical tools to assist donors and practitioners in effectively linking reproductive health, youth livelihoods, and enterprise development in sub-Saharan Africa. Four tools are developed (chapter V). The purpose of tool one -- enterprise support - is to consolidate and display the field of small enterprise development and to place individual initiatives within a broadly defined enterprise development framework. Tool two - typology of program design parameters - is used to define individual initiatives in terms of their key operational characteristics. The purpose of tool three -- reproductive health and youth livelihoods "linkages" -- is to conceptualize the point of effective linkage. Finally, tool four design and assessment tools -- presents a typology of program approaches, considers the latter in relation to four key issues (relevance, cost, equity, and asset building), and discusses the implications (in terms of the four key issues) of adopting each approach. Tool four is a synthesis of best practice evidence. Lessons learned include the following: (1) It is difficult to identify the point of effective linkage between youth livelihood and reproductive health initiatives. (2) Common practice is not generally consistent with best practice, in part because the point and manner of effective linkage does not appear to be well understood. (3) Only a narrow range of enterprise development options are commonly used, fewer yet in conjunction with reproductive health initiatives. (4) Effective youth livelihood and reproductive health synergies may result from indirect rather than direct linkages. (5) Best practice evidence suggests that the most effective manner of linkage is "networking". Thirty case studies are appended. While representative of common practice, they were not on balance found to constitute "good" practice.