Livelihood and Women Empowerment

The economic dependency of young women on their families and spouses makes them more vulnerable to violence, abuse, and exploitation.

Girls and young women make up the majority of the world’s 628 million unemployed young people who have neither education nor vocational training.

Barriers caused by gender inequality and discrimination are preventing girls from going to school and getting the skills they need to access decent work and break out of poverty.

Not only is this unjust, but it is also a huge waste of potential.

Adolescents between 12-18 years old are often transitioning from rural to urban life, seeking entry into new environments whose social and economic dynamics they neither understand nor are prepared to navigate. This leaves them prone to experience violence and exploitation and with limited access to opportunities. Young girls are often the most marginalized of this group. Focusing on gender-sensitive programming for youth that includes job creation, education and access to services is important, as it increases ways to boost their resilience, especially during their transition into adulthood.  

Enabling young people to access employment opportunities is key to ensuring a long-term future, and we are committed to using considerable expertise in youth economic empowerment. We aim to establish mechanisms that permit the inclusion of the poorest people in the economy, building conditions that allow them to escape poverty and extreme poverty.

So far we have enabled about 860 poor and extremely poor adolescents and young people who did not have access to formal education, particularly young women, to develop personal and social skills such as self-esteem, self-confidence, rights, responsibilities, perseverance, savings, planning, budgets, taking advantage of information and opportunities. These people have accessed technical studies in metalwork, welding, crafts, cosmetics, and heavy machinery, in order to enter the labor market under better conditions, with other groups learning farming skills. Strengthening their productive technical abilities has led to some students obtaining employment in better conditions, while others have started small businesses, and all are hopeful for long-lasting, positive change in their lives and those of their families.