Ian Dereck Oyoo Oduori

T PROJECT CONCEPT PROPOSAL Project Title Intervention Focus Target Areas Direct Target Beneficiaries Indirect Target Beneficiaries Target Stakeholders Total Budget Implementation Period Lead Partners/Grant Manager Other Implementing partners Project Summary Smart Youth! Smart Environment! [ SYSE] Mentorship, eco-innovations, vocational training and advocacy Kenya: Tharaka-Nithi, Nairobi and Bungoma counties Botswana: Lentsweletau, Letlhakeng and Molepolole subdistricts of Kweneng district 1800 youths aged between 18 – 35 years (60 youth groups per target site x 6 project sites x 5 members/youth group). 5400 people (adults, youths and children) - one target youth to support /benefit at least 3 beneficiaries. National and sub-national governments, religious institutions, associations /networks, non-government organisations (NGOs), private sector and community leadership in the target areas- SEK 18 Months (January 2023 – June 2024) NGAO Foundation Kenya: CARD Ltd, Quantum Ltd Botswana: Touch A Life – Shanza Centre 1. Context Analysis Greenhouse gases are the drivers of climate change globally. Climate change happens due to rising temperatures associated with an increase in the amount of heat as greenhouse gases get trapped in the atmosphere. These changes have altered patterns, intensity and frequency of precipitation leading to climate variations. The net effect of climate variations is the unpredictable climate conditions in different regions of the world. The unpredictability of the climate affects human activities such as rainfed agriculture, frequency and intensity of rainfall and occurrence of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and droughts. While climate change is now a global challenge, developing countries are paying the price for its negative effects despite their low contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Africa is the most affected because of over-reliance on weather-sensitive activities such as rainfed agriculture, herding and fishing. The water stress, devastating floods, disruption of rainfall patterns, shrinking of water bodies and prolonged droughts have resulted in the loss of crops, livestock and people’s lives. In addition, the rising water demand combined with diminishing grazing lands has also aggravated resource-based conflict in Africa. According to the report on the state of climate in Africa 2021, extreme weather and climate change are undermining human health and safety, food and water security and socioeconomic development1. Since the start of 2022, at least 4000 people have died and over 19 million affected across the continent with Nigeria, Chad, Mozambique, Madagascar and 1 https://reliefweb.int/report/world/state-climate-africa-2021 1 Tunisia being cited as the most affected countries by various extreme weather events2. In 2022, severe drought has affected the lives of millions of people across Africa, particularly in eastern countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. This was an unprecedented extreme weather event. It has left a devastating state of livelihoods and caused sharp increases in food, water and nutrition insecurity according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) report3. Young people are the most affected segment of the population by the effects of climate change. In Kenya and Botswana, on average, almost half of the population are young people. Globally, according to the World Youth report (2019), 142 million youth of upper secondary school age (approximated to be 16-19 years) are out of school and the number is increasing especially in developing countries. The report further cites that 71 million young people remained unemployed and 156 million working youth are poor4. The effects of climate change on socio-economic and agricultural sectors have left young people with few economic opportunities and facing harsh economic conditions. This has pushed them to indulge in destructive behaviour such as drug abuse and criminal activities. The negative effects of climate change and economic hardships are the two challenges this project seeks to address in Kenya and Botswana. A Swedish organization in partnership with Kenyan and Botswana local organisations will intervene through a youth mentorship program with climate change adaptation innovations (eco-innovations) built in the program. The interventions as explained in this concept seek to provide youth with economic opportunities while providing solutions to the impact of climate change in Kenya and Botswana. 2. Problem Statement Climate change continued to increase the risk and intensity of droughts, erratic and unpredictable rainfalls in Kenya. Deforestation, watershed degradation, encroachment into natural forests, urbanization and poor management of waste threatens the livelihoods of Kenyans. These human activities have depleted water sources, arable land and increased water and air pollutions further endangering lives. Increased urbanization in cities such as Nairobi and Bungoma town, has resulted to air pollution from dangerous gases produced by industries and unroadworthy vehicles. Dumping of waste including plastic waste materials continue to increase environmental hazards in the cities and towns. In rural counties such as Bungoma and Tharaka Nithi, there is high rate of deforestation to clear land for farming, burning charcoal and logging. While cutting trees for farming and encroachment into natural forests is blamed on lack of economic opportunities, it is clear people have little knowledge on the link between cutting trees, economic losses, unpredictable rainfalls and low agricultural productivity especially in rural areas. Botswana sits on Kalahari Desert and largely a semi-arid country. It is highly vulnerable to climate change due to its high dependence on rainfed agriculture, high levels of poverty – particularly in rural areas, and a low adaptive capacity to deal with effects of climate change. 2 Carbon brief, 2022: https://www.preventionweb.net/news/analysis-africas-unreported-extreme-weather2022-and-climate-change#:~:text=Drought%20and%20famine,Severe%20drought%20continued&text=Carbon%20Brief%20analysis%20of%20EM%2DDAT%20data%20shows %20that%20drought,east%20Africa%20is%20%E2%80%9Cunprecedented%E2%80%9D. 3 https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/threat-starvation-looms-east-africa-after-four-failed-rainy-seasons 4 https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/02/world-youth-report/ 2 The main challenges are water resource availability, changing precipitation patterns and increasing population. Just like in Kenya, the unpredictable climatic conditions make the communities vulnerable to food insecurity due to crop failure and livestock losses, particularly in Kweneng district which experiences steppe climatic conditions. The similarity between Kenya and Botswana in relation to effects of climate change makes young people experience similar challenges such as high poverty levels, high school drop-out and most of the young people being involved in precarious informal work in rural and urban areas. The youth unemployment rate remains high for both countries56. Unemployment is aggravated by high drop-outs at upper secondary level with an average of 35% in both Kenya and Botswana as stated in the latest report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UN-ESCO) on the progress made by countries towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 47 and Kenya economic survey report of 20218. 3. Technical Approach A three-stage iterative approach in a youth mentorship program will be used for the implementation of this project. It takes a period between 12 weeks and 12 months depending on the ability of the youth participants in the program. The youth can exit the mentorship program at any stage when he/she feels empowered. Stage 1: A robust framework will be developed to identify and enrol youth in the project. This will involve coming up with predetermined criteria informed by the country specific context in Kenya and Botswana and local contexts in the specific target sites. The outputs from this stage will be 60 youth groups (each with 5 members) per project site making a total of 1800 youths. Some of the criteria include; secondary school drop-outs, 18-35 years, interested in improving their lives and must have at least 3 beneficiaries (who could be parents, siblings or their children). After recruitment, they will be taken through a series of participatory exercises to create self-awareness, critical thinking, creative thinking, problem-solving and decisionmaking skills. This will make them understand their current state and the environment they are living in and identify opportunities to improve their lives. A self-assessment and empowerment test will be undertaken by individual youths and youth groups to determine whether they should proceed to stage 2 or 3. If they attain a certain threshold, they will move to stage 2 or jump to stage 3. Stage 2: At this stage, the youth will be taken through a process of identifying selfimprovement initiatives. They will also be facilitated to develop short-term and long-term actions to improve their lives. At this stage, the project will support some of the youths to proceed to vocational training and youth groups to start eco-innovations initiatives. The project will not limit the youths from undertaking other self-improvement initiatives in relation to their interest and passion. The implementing partners will support the youths by linking them with relevant service providers or any other stakeholders willing to support the initiatives. A systemic approach will be applied to give young people an opportunity to think and embark on initiatives that they are interested in and passionate about. They will be 5 https://www.statista.com/statistics/811692/youth-unemployment-rate-in-botswana https://www.statista.com/statistics/812147/youth-unemployment-rate-in-kenya 7 https://tcg.uis.unesco.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/12/Benchmarks-Country-Profile-Botswana.pdf 8 https://www.knbs.or.ke/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Economic-Survey-2021.pdf 6 3 facilitated to develop a comprehensive plan to get them from their current state to a state of confidence and empowerment. Stage 3: This is maturation stage where youth are given momentum towards the exit from the mentorship program. This stage will be done through job displacement for those in vocational training, linking with markets for those in eco-innovations and linking youth groups with other service providers and stakeholders. At this stage, the youth will have matured into independence. They will have an opportunity to remain together or not. The project will encourage the youth groups to come together to form an association, networks or saving and lending credit scheme for purposes of sustainability. NB: Since the three stages are iterative, youths who feel like repeating a session in one of the stages, will be given the opportunity and get supported by the project. 4. Project Objectives, Interventions, Expected Results and Indicators The aim of the project is ‘to create economic opportunities for young people in Kenya and Botswana. Specifically, the project is expected to: 1. Build critical thinking and self - confidence of 1800 youths to improve their lives based on their strengths and interests 2. Support 1800 youths to undertake youth-led eco-innovations initiatives as ways of improving their livelihoods 3. Support at least 20% of the target youth to undertake vocational training and get job placement The project will fulfil the project objectives through the four interventions which are complementary to each other. The following considerations will be made during the implementation of the interventions: - Enrolled youths will be expected to sign a consent /commitment letter to take all sessions in stages 1 to 3. - Eco-innovations will use locally available materials such as maize stock and sugarcane remains, to make poultry and livestock feeds using silage bags. These feeds will help increase production of poultry and livestock products for youth groups. - Partnership with line ministries such as environment and agriculture to support youth groups in tree planting and establishment of seedbeds. NGAO foundation and Touch A Life will use their networks to provide markets for seedlings. - 1800 youths will also be expected to plant seedlings corresponding to their ages and number of dependents they are taking care of. - Leverage on Technical & Vocational Education and Training (TVET) program, nationwide campaign on environmental conservation and private sector to offer job training, apprentice and job opportunities for graduates from vocational training. 4 Project Interventions, Expected Results and Performance Indicators Interventions Mentorship Key activities - Identify and recruit 1800 youth to the project - Carry out self-awareness sessions with 1800 youths - Develop self-improvement action plans to build critical thinking and self -confidence - Implement self-improvement action plans Results - 1800 youth recruited and gone through stage 1 to 3 of mentorship program - Youths have acquired critical thinking and confidence to face lives Ecoinnovations - Allocate funds to support ecoinnovations - Capacity building trainings on innovations and good agricultural practices - Implementation of ecoinnovations initiatives - digital tree nursery, silage sacks, Brickettes making and biogas among others. - Identify youths willing to pursue vocational trainings - Support youths to undertake short term trainings and courses in Technical & Vocational Education and Training (TVET) - 1800 youth undertaking ecoinnovations - Increased income from eco-innovations initiatives - Improved environmental practices Vocational Training Advocacy - 20% of the youth supported to undertake vocational trainings - 20% put into placement in different sectors - Youth groups are linked to ready markets and service providers - Start to influence urban policies to address environmental pollution - Meet national and sub national governments on youth and environmental policy issues - Participate in stakeholders’ forums to lobby for support of your work in the target areas - Link youth groups with potential markets and service providers Indicators - Number of youths enrolled in the mentorship program - Level of confidence and empowerment of the youth graduates from mentorship program - Status of ecoinnovations initiatives by individuals and youth groups - Number of youths with increased income and supporting their dependants. - Number of youths successfully graduated and job placement - Number of youth/ youth groups with access to markets and services - Instances of government officials support to youth work 4. Research, Performance Tracking and Learning The project will have a comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and learning framework. It will support tracking of the results at output and outcome levels guided by performance indicators. Through indicator tracking and analysis the implementing partners will carry out quarterly reviews of the progress, identify lessons learnt and best practices. They will be expected to produce quarterly progress reports on implementation status and achievements. With leadership from CARD Ltd, the implementing partners will be expected to conduct monitoring visits to collect data on the project implementation and results being realised. In addition to project monitoring, the youth experience will also be tracked from stage 1 to 3 using self-assessment and empowerment tests that indicate how the youths’ participants are learning and gaining life skills. 5 On the eco-innovations, the implementing partners will track the implementation of those innovations and generate evidence to show how they are working and benefitting the target youths. For purposes of learning, the youth groups will have regular participatory reflections on their progress. The reflections will empower them and take collection actions as youth groups. It will also encourage sharing of best practices across the youth groups. To enrich the reflection, CARD Ltd will carry out performance analysis based on performance indicators. The data will be disaggregated under variables such as the two countries, target sites, gender of youth, interventions, individual and youth groups, types of eco-innovations and number of direct and indirect target beneficiaries. In some of the reflections, other stakeholders will be invited to participate to learn and share the knowledge. The lessons learnt and best practices will be used to improve the project performance as the implementation is going. A baseline survey and end of project evaluation will be conducted to assess the extent to which the project achieved its intended objectives. Through consultations with Swedish organisations, the implementing partners will agreed on which eco-innovations to conduct a participatory action research. CARD Ltd will lead the research on eco-innovations with support from NGAO Foundation (Kenya) and Touch A Life (Botswana). 5. Project Budget The budget has been broken into different cost items and partners responsible Items Personnel (NGAO) Estimated Costs 100.000 Mentorship & Capacity building 400.000 Eco-innovations 800.000 Advocacy 100.000 Vocational Training 200.000 Administration 200.000 Research and Tracking results 100.000 - Percentage Partners Responsible Distribution 5% NGAO is the lead partners and grant manager 20% This will be implemented by NGAO, Quantum Ltd and Touch A Life. 40% NGAO, Touch A Life and CARD Ltd will implement this intervention 5% To be done by NGAO, CARD Ltd and Touch A Life 20% NGAO and Touch A Life will implement this intervention 10% Shared among the 4 implementing partners based on work allocations 5% CARD Ltd to lead this process with support from NGAO and Touch A Life. 100% 6 6. Implementing Partners Capacities The project will be implemented by 4 partners. The consortium was formed based on the strengths of each of the partners as explained below. NGAO Foundation: It is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation facilitating communities to realize their own potential to initiate sustainable change using Asset Based community development (ABCD) Model. Through community conversations, NGAO brings the communities to their consciousness in terms of asset, strength, capacity and opportunities that lie unexploited within them. NGAO is now running three programs that include water sanitation, food and nutrition, mentorship program and vocational training. NGAO will implement interventions on eco-innovations, mentorship, advocacy and vocational training. CARD Ltd: Centre for Analytical Research in Development (CARD) is a consulting and implementing organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. CARD operates under evidence-based principles that guide all its operations and initiatives. It stimulates evidence-driven actions among individuals, community groups, organizations and institutions to develop home-grown innovative solutions to current social challenges through carefully guided processes. CARD Ltd has supported organisations in implementing participatory action research studies and monitoring and evaluation projects for both local and international organisations. CARD Ltd will lead the research, monitoring and evaluation component of the project and coimplement the eco-innovations with NGAO foundation and Touch A Life. Quantum Ltd: The company is known for life skills and youth empowerment. It will support NGAO in Implementing mentorship program in Kenya. Touch A Life: It is a non-profit organization formed in 2004 and registered in 2008 with a vision to improve the livelihoods of orphans, youth and marginalized communities in villages/cattle posts across the country of Botswana. It is focused on poverty eradication through job creation, youth empowerment, education for all vulnerable children, youth and adults, health education and awareness in the areas of behavioral change, HIV & AIDS, Stroke, Disability, Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Touch A Life has many achievements including a successful Mokolodi youth HIV prevention project, which resulted in the organization receiving World Bank funding, through the National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) to impart Multiple Concurrent Partnership messages to the community. 7