VZCZCXRO0551
OO RUEHPB
DE RUEHPB #0029/01 0540420
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 230420Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5805
INFO RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY IMMEDIATE 3453

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT MORESBY 000029 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR S/GWI AND EAP/ANP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM AID CDC COM TRSY PP
SUBJECT: S/GWI PROJECT PROPOSALS - VANUATU 
 
REF: STATE 132094, STATE 012531 
 
¶1.  Embassy Port Moresby is pleased to submit a proposal from 
Youth Challenge Vanuatu - Life Skills Training and Employment 
Readiness as Vanuatu's first preference from post. 
 
 
 
¶2.  BACKGROUND 
 
Youth Challenge Vanuatu (YCV) was founded in Port Vila in 2001. 
YCV is a non-profit, non-religious organization that has become 
renowned as one of the leading youth service organizations in 
Vanuatu. YCV provides youth in Vanuatu between the ages of 16 
and 35 with access to quality employment and business training 
and services with a drop in center for employment and business 
counseling and programs such as Ready for Work and Ready for 
Business. They also offer a leadership program for youth to 
participate in community development projects throughout the 
islands of Vanuatu with volunteers in partnership with youth 
volunteers from Canada, the United States and Australia. Their 
funding has come from various sources over the years including 
AusAID, Oxfam Australia and the International Labor Organization 
(ILO). All of YCV's 7 staff are former graduates of YCV programs 
and have extensive training in business and employment training, 
adult education and community development. YCV also utilizes 
consultants from the community who are experts in business, IT, 
life skills training and employment readiness. 
 
 
 
¶3. PROJECT SUMMARY 
 
YCV will focus on young women's economic empowerment in 2010 
through the development of young rural women's business 
development program and promotion of employee rights and 
responsibilities. 
 
 
 
The Young Rural Women's Business Development Seminars will be a 
pilot program utilizing YCV's skills and expertise from their 
Ready for Business Program currently being run in Port Vila. 
Vanuatu has few programs like this outside of the urban area of 
Port Vila on Efate Island, primarily because of the cost 
associated with traveling to the outer islands. They would like 
to provide young women with access to informal seminars which 
discuss topics such as creating a business idea, marketing your 
idea to your community (and tourists), financial management, and 
record keeping. A trained YCV business counselor will conduct 6 
seminars in rural areas from July 2010 to June 2011. They will 
work with women's groups and other youth groups to create the 
seminars with information that is pertinent to young rural 
women. They will work with the provincial governments throughout 
Vanuatu to identify areas where pilot seminars could be offered. 
They will also work with VANWOODS, a Port Vila micro-finance 
institution for women, to provide information to young women in 
these rural seminars on micro-finance options. 
 
 
 
The Know Your Rights and Responsibilities Project will help 
advance opportunities for females to obtain decent and 
productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security, and 
human dignity by promoting  rights at work and encouraging 
decent employment opportunities. It will also educate young 
women on their responsibilities in the work place. Based on 
feedback from hundreds of members of the Youth Challenge Centre, 
many youth do you not know their rights in formal or informal 
employment settings. In recent months there have been two cases 
of young female employees being sexually assaulted by their 
employers. Many young women are unaware of legislation in the 
Labor Act which states women are not allowed to work alone at 
night and that no woman can be fired for becoming pregnant. 
 
 
 
YCV will create numerous educational posters describing 
employment rights geared toward young women and an information 
booklet to be distributed to local NGO's and major employers in 
Vanuatu. This public awareness campaign will involve 
partnerships with both the Vanuatu Department of Labor and 
various women's groups in Vanuatu. 
 
 
 
¶4. PROJECT DESCRIPTION 
 
Business and employment-related training for young women are 
issues that need to be addressed in Vanuatu. Women's roles 
outside of the home are limited; men have primary control over 
the social, political, economic and cultural institutions. 
Traditions dictate that the male is the head of both the 
 
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household and the community. Tradition has also led many chiefs 
to see their own roles as preserving community relations, rather 
than protecting individual rights. This failure to believe women 
have rights has carried over into business and employment. YCV 
wants to work to encourage more women to start businesses and 
understand their rights in the workforce. 
 
 
 
In 2009 YCV partnered with the ILO and the Department of Labor 
of the Republic of Vanuatu to pilot an employment service for 
youth. This successful partnership resulted in a job vacancy 
website and email newsletter specific to Vanuatu - wok i kik 
(HYPERLINK "http://www.wokikik.com"www.wokikik.com). 
 
 
 
Feedback from stakeholders has been positive, but this was 
primarily an urban initiative and most participants were male. 
This pilot program also did not address the lack of awareness of 
employee rights and responsibilities, especially for young 
women.  From media promoting the wok I kik program, YCV was 
inundated with requests on live radio shows or in response to 
newspaper articles to begin focusing on rural areas and assist 
in business training and employee rights for youth in the rural 
tourism areas (Santo and Tanna). Therefore YCV would like to 
expand on the work it is already doing and offer a rural women's 
business training program and an employee rights campaign for 
women. 
 
 
 
According to the 2007 publication The Unfinished State: Drivers 
of Change in Vanuatu in recent years Vanuatu has experienced 
strong economic growth, mostly from tourism, estimated at nearly 
7% in 2005. However, this growth has been driven primarily by 
foreign investment and is not making much of an impact on the 
lives of most ni-Vanuatu. Formal employment in Vanuatu is under 
15% and the micro-business sector is overcrowded, primarily by 
foreign business owners and operators which do not allow most 
ni-Vanuatu people to have an opportunity to participate directly 
in the formal economy. As such, the income disparity between the 
urban and rural population is growing sharply. 
 
 
 
Unemployment is a major issue in Vanuatu - especially for youth 
under 25 who make up approximately 60% of Vanuatu's population 
of 211,000 people. According to a survey conducted by the Young 
People's Project in 2008 of 1,134 youth between the ages of 13 
and 25, only 498 of them were employed; the majority of those 
employed were employed as house girls (15.1%) and cashiers 
(12.7%). Many unemployed females in this survey stated they ran 
away from previous employment because of harsh conditions - 
wages below minimum wage, abuse, and long hours. 
 
 
 
Young Rural Women's Business Development Seminars will be held 
from July 2010 to December 2011. 
 
 
 
(A) DETAILED ACTIVITIES 
 
-Consult with women's centers and microfinance centers to 
develop a young rural women's business development seminar. 
 
-Conduct 6, one-week business seminars in various rural 
locations identified in consultation with Provincial Governments 
and NGO's based on the outer islands. 
 
-Provide a two day follow up seminar, 6-8 weeks after each 
training to follow up with participants in person. 
 
-Create relevant community posters and information booklets on 
running a business and micro-finance options in Vanuatu 
 
 
 
(B)  DESIRED OUTCOMES 
 
-Seminar program developed utilizing YCV business training 
experience and experience of women's organizations to offer a 
business program of relevance to rural young women in an 
informal, comfortable setting. 
 
-6 Seminars will be provided by a qualified YCV trainer in 
different rural locations throughout Vanuatu for 15 young rural 
women interested in learning more about starting a business. 
 
-During follow up visits interested participants will be able to 
 
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speak in person to the business trainer to follow up on their 
idea and find out more information on accessing start up funds 
if need be from organizations such as VANWOODS or the local 
mobile banking system. 
 
-In consultation with communities and local micro-finance 
institutions in Vanuatu. A local artist will create resources to 
leave in the communities for others to access describing running 
a business and micro-finance options in Vanuatu. 
 
 
 
(C)  PERFORMANCE MEASURES 
 
-Anecdotal evidence from all stakeholders indicate the materials 
and information presented were of relevance to rural young women 
interested in learning more about running a business. 
 
-90 young women who live in rural areas will be provided with a 
one week seminar, and access to follow-up counseling, from a 
qualified YCV trainer. At least half of these women will take 
measures to start their own small business. 
 
-At least half of the original 15 participants return for the 
follow visit, and that 1 to 2 participants explore further 
micro-finance options. Others in the community will be able to 
learn more about running small businesses and accessing 
micro-finance. Posters will be disseminated to the communities 
where business training takes place as well as other rural 
communities. At least 100 posters and 200 business booklets will 
be created and disseminated. 
 
 
 
¶5.  BUDGET 
 
Staff Expenses: $20, 880.00 
 
Seminar: $26,150.00 
 
Resources/ Stationeries: $28,940.00 
 
Total: $75,970.00 
BERG