Towards Flourishing Futures: The Role of Public and Private Sector Engagement for Sustainable Youth Solutions in Mali
By: Koumassé Traore, Youth Empowerment Officer, Albarka
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This blog was submitted by Albarka as part of the ‘Nourishing Inclusion: Committing to Gender and Youth in the Food Crisis’ series, which showcases implementers’ examples of committing to inclusion not just in words, but in action. This post highlights Commitment 8: Engage the private sector more intentionally, especially with respect to youth. Learn more about the series here.
Amidst the challenges of persistent armed conflict and economic hardships in northern and central Mali, the Albarka program engages the public and private sectors to achieve more sustainable impacts on youth livelihoods. This five-year Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA), funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), focuses on creating solutions for youth that work within the realities of the region.
In the sparsely populated regions of Gao, Timbuktu, and Mopti, as many as 70% of people live below the national poverty line (compared to a national average of 26%), with extremely high rates of people experiencing food insecurity. Within these regions, young people, and particularly girls, are severely affected by forced marriage, limited access to education opportunities, frequent school closures, unemployment, and underemployment. While tourism was previously a promising sector in Mali, representing hundreds of thousands of jobs in 2010 and growing, it diminished abruptly in 2012 with the increase in armed conflict, and never recovered. By engaging public and private sector stakeholders, the Albarka activity works to identify and create sustainable economic opportunities for youth.
Inspiring Confidence: Identifying Gaps to Inform Youth-Focused Interventions
In 2021, the Albarka team found that young people and women are disproportionately affected by the humanitarian crisis through the Gender and Youth Analysis. In particular, the team found:
- Young People Lack Self-Confidence and Soft Skills: An overwhelming 95% of young people reported struggling to set personal goals, 58% reported having no public speaking skills and no business skills, and over 40% of youth in conflict zones reported having no conflict prevention and management skills.
- Young People Lack Technical Skills: With school closures and lack of access to vocational training, young people reported that they lack technical skills and do not know where to acquire them.
- Young People Lack Job Opportunities: Young people reported that not only has the security and humanitarian crisis exacerbated unemployment, it has also created a sense of despair among young people who do not see opportunities to improve their conditions. According to a mobile household survey, 91% of jobs in the region are in the informal sector. Formal employment opportunities are minimal, as most small businesses are too small to absorb new workers. Most work opportunities are found in family-based informal businesses.
Leveraging Public and Private Sector Engagement for Sustainable Impact
In response to these findings, the Albarka team collaborated with private and public sector stakeholders to develop a comprehensive package of interventions to address these challenges. The Albarka team started by identifying potential private and public sector stakeholders in each region, enlisting champions willing to work with Albarka, and assessing their potential contributions related to skills training, mentoring, and offering networking opportunities. These included Craftsmen’s Associations, regional Chambers of Commerce and their affiliates, Communal Youth Councils, and the National Directorate for Technical and Vocational Education. Through an initial mapping of stakeholder contribution capacities, the team identified that no one sector could provide the full package of resources needed to support sustainable youth business ventures.
The Albarka team developed a life and business skills curriculum to address the needs young people expressed during the Youth Needs Assessment, including strengthening skill sets in problem-solving, goal setting, communications, creativity, critical thinking, and business planning. The team then trained an initial group of facilitators to deliver the curriculum. Within the curriculum, young people gained valuable skills to conduct market analyses of income generating opportunities and to develop business plans. So far, these facilitators have trained 421 youth, including 198 young women. Of those trained, the Albarka team selected 312 young people, including 143 young women, to receive technical training, mentoring, and funding to start a small business.
Once these groups had developed business plans, private and public sector stakeholders, including the National Directorate for Technical and Vocational Education and regional Craftsmen’s Associations, provided technical training to help them achieve their business goals. This included conducting trainings on welding, bricklaying, animal husbandry, poultry production, and agriculture, including the safe use of pesticides and the use of natural and chemical fertilizer. By engaging with the private and public sectors, Albarka was able to provide a wide range of technical training to help youth engage in diverse entrepreneurial ventures.
After this technical training, the Albarka team provided funding to groups to start their small businesses, often in the form of direct purchase of equipment and cattle. Because Albarka knows successful businesses depend on so much more than available funding, private and public sector stakeholders continued to provide mentorship, advice, and networking to these groups as they began their business ventures
An Ecosystem of Support
By collaborating with public and private sector stakeholders, the Albarka team leveraged expertise to provide holistic support for young people starting their business ventures. Each stakeholder brought something different to the table. For instance, while Albarka provided the life and business skills curriculum and startup grants, the public sector, through the National Directorate for Technical and Vocational Education, provided technical training and expertise. Moreover, both the private sector, through trade associations, and public sector, through the chambers of commerce, provided mentorship and networking support.
When working in a difficult context such as this one, with persistent armed conflict, a scarce population, and low presence of both the private and public sector, it is important to leverage all available resources to create viable opportunities for young people. Through the combination of efforts, young people, once constrained by limited opportunities, found themselves equipped with newfound confidence, technical expertise, and essential business skills. The collaborative efforts between Albarka and the private and public sectors have been instrumental in fostering an ecosystem of support that nurtures the seeds of entrepreneurship, resilience, and innovation.
Get Involved
Do you have an example of how your organization has committed to inclusion in the food crisis to share? We’d love to hear about it! Send them to gaya@savechildren.org.
