VZCZCXRO2448
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHWN #0659/01 2892116
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 162116Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7896
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHDG/AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO 5983
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SEC IA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRIDGETOWN 000659 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLS PASS AID FOR LAC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI EAID PREL XL
SUBJECT: YOUNG MEN IN GRENADA NOT MAKING THE GRADE 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. (U) Throughout the Eastern Caribbean young men are in 
crisis.  Few are pursuing higher education and many are 
facing difficulties finding gainful employment.  By contrast, 
young women in the Caribbean are moving rapidly ahead of 
their male counterparts:  nearly 70 percent of college 
students in the region are female, and females are 
increasingly dominating professional employment 
opportunities.  Grenada offers an illustrative case in point. 
 USAID and Peace Corps are responding with programs 
specifically targeting employability skills for at-risk young 
people -- programs that should dovetail perfectly with 
anticipated CBSI-related programming in future fiscal years. 
End Summary. 
 
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Young Men Not Making the Grade While Women Move Ahead 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶2. (U) During a recent two week TDY in Grenada, Poloff heard 
repeatedly from Embassy interlocutors about the dismal state 
of young males in Grenadian society.  The Peace Corps Country 
Director pointed out that 17 of the 19 Permanent Secretaries 
(senior civil servants) in government ministries are now held 
by women, and the Chamber of Commerce and the Grenada 
Investment Corporation are both run by women.  In higher 
education, the picture is largely the same:  60 percent of 
the students at the community college are women.  Women even 
form the majority in traditionally male-dominated fields of 
study such as engineering and construction management.  Union 
leaders confirm that in many formerly mostly male professions 
such as construction and masonry, many of the younger workers 
are female.  Union leaders complain that young men are simply 
not coming to work with a proper work ethic, while women are 
coming to the workplace engaged, educated, and with the 
proper work ethic to succeed.  One social service director 
pointed out that many young men seem content to take odd jobs 
and live off their girlfriends' salaries.  They are in his 
words, "becoming bums and parasites."  Young women, on the 
other hand, are getting good jobs, moving ahead in 
professional careers and buying their own houses.  Others 
pointed out that, with the decline of industrial agriculture 
as well as the decline in construction over the last few 
years, there are fewer jobs for unskilled laborers.  Most 
young Grenadian men do graduate from high school, but lack 
the grades or motivation to go on to college.  Many of them 
are drifting into petty crime, drug dealing, gambling and 
alcohol abuse.  The problem of "at risk youth" has become a 
serious one throughout the region. 
 
¶3. (U) According to some Grenadians, one of the key factors 
contributing to the dismal state of young men in Grenada is 
that, during the revolution of 1979-1983, many legal and 
other social barriers that kept women from competing were 
dismantled and efforts were made to dramatically increase 
female professional opportunities.  Those efforts continued 
even after the revolution ended, uprooting the male-dominated 
social order and giving women new opportunities to compete. 
Twenty years later, women have pulled ahead of their male 
counterparts in almost all fields.  Not only are women now 
the majority of college students, but female students in high 
school and college outperform their male counterparts 
academically, with the top students typically all being women. 
 
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USAID Program Targets At-Risk Youth 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) In recognition of the problems facing youth at risk, 
particularly young men, USAID has recently begun a new 
project in Grenada (as well as in Antigua) that offers 
at-risk youth, both male and female, competency-based 
training, complemented with life skills training aimed at 
increasing their chances to secure and retain jobs in sectors 
of the economy with a growing demand for labor.  The target 
group is vulnerable young men and women ages 17-25, who did 
not complete secondary-level education and are unemployed due 
to a lack of rudimentary employability skills.  This 
Caribbean Empowerment Youth Program is a two-year, US$750,000 
project being implemented in both countries by the 
International Youth Foundation, in partnership in Grenada 
with the T.A. Marryshow Community College.  The initiative 
 
BRIDGETOWN 00000659  002 OF 002 
 
 
will provide 250 vulnerable youth with entry-level 
employability skills (technical vocation and life skills) 
complemented by a private sector work internship.  The 
Grenada Chamber of Commerce is an important and energetic 
partner in this project.  Employment training courses will be 
offered in the following fields:  tour guide, food 
processing, craft production, dining room and bar service, 
marine service, vegetable and condiment production, 
apiculture, hair care, landscaping, steel work, 
garment-making and child care.  Once the training is 
completed, graduates will receive individualized job 
placement support.  Additional USAID programs for at-risk 
youth are being planned to be launched across the Eastern 
Caribbean during calendar year 2010 and beyond. 
 
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Comment 
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¶5. (U) The phenomenon of women outperforming men is not 
limited to Grenada.  In Barbados, nearly 70 percent of the 
undergraduates at the University of the West Indies, as well 
as at the community college, are women.  Similar patterns 
appear in the other islands of the Eastern Caribbean, 
suggesting that the problems have common roots in the social 
structure and economic picture in all of the countries in the 
region.  Programs such as the USAID initiative, as well as 
some Peace Corps programs in the region that target at-risk 
youth (who are mostly males), will help meet a very real 
sociological need in these societies faced with rapidly 
changing economic circumstances.  These programs, which all 
heads of government in the region have been urgently seeking, 
could be significantly expanded in future fiscal years under 
the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative.  Failure to address 
the challenges posed by at-risk youth will lead to a 
continued rise in violent crime that could undermine the 
tourism-based economies in these vulnerable countries. 
HARDT