JSDF-Djibouti: Promoting Women's and Community Resilience in the Fight Against Gender-Based Violence

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The proposed project is structured around 3 main components: Component 1: Livelihoods support for at-risk adolescent girls and young women who dropped out of school (approx. US$ 1,649,000)The objective of this component is to provide skills development and livelihoods support to at least 1,000 at-risk adolescent girls and young women through two sub-components: (i) soft skills, technical and business development skills training; (ii) and start-up support for income generating activities. Beneficiaries are women or girls who dropped out of school, and integrated either of the following three schools: the Center for Social Action and Women Empowerment (Centre d'action sociale pour l'autonomisation des femmes - CASAF) managed by the MWF in Balbala, the Second Chance School (Ecole de la Seconde Chance) managed by the UNFD, or the Boulaos Training Center (CFB). All of these schools target young girls and women who have dropped out of school, have left their families, or come from families below the poverty level.Sub-component 1.1.: Provision of soft skills, and technical and business development skills to increase entrepreneurship and employability The project will pilot an innovative non-formal educational program that combines soft skills and entrepreneurship trainings to at least 1,500 young women at-risk of GBV from vulnerable backgrounds in Balbala and Boulaos. The beneficiaries would have completed the curriculum of one of the two schools targeting at-risk women and girls managed by the MWF and the UNFD; and of the Boulaos Training Center, alias former Ecole Menagere (CFB). The modules that are designed to enhance the employability and business skills of trainees will be identified based on a rapid local labor market assessment combined with a needs assessment carried out through consultations and interviews with beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders at community level at the inception phase of the project. The curriculum package could include on an indicative basis: (i) soft skills that promote entrepreneurship and employability (i.e. critical thinking, problem-solving and creativity relevant to the entrepreneurship theme), employment (e.g. leadership, inter-personal communication, time and stress management, etc.) and empowerment (e.g. positive parenting, and awareness-raising about various forms of GBV including domestic and intimate partner violence, etc.); and (ii) technical and management skills that are essential to prepare and implement micro and small entrepreneurship activities, including financial literacy and accounting, business management and administration, marketing, etc. The training package will run over a short period of about two months.Sub-component 1.2.: Support for income generating activities and micro-entrepreneurshipAll trainees who complete the program and present an economically viable and environmentally sustainable business project or professional plan will receive funding and/ or equipment to implement their income generating activity. Support will be granted and tailored based on the feasibility of the micro entrepreneurship proposal submitted by the cohort participants. Feasibility assessment criteria will include cost, timeframe for implementation and market demand. Proposals that bring two or more young women together will be encouraged as it will contribute to mutual learning, greater cohesion, and cost-efficiency by increasing the business activity survival rate. Furthermore, beneficiaries will be required to match a certain amount (up to 15 percent) of the grant value with in-kind or financial contribution to create a greater sense of ownership, therefore improving the chance of success with sustained results. In addition to the business start-up capital, beneficiaries will be provided with mentorship support and career/ business coaching assistance delivered by the contracting NGO during the first 6 months following the start of the income generating activity.This sub-component is designed to provide sub-grants. The MWF will be responsible for providing seed grants to eligible beneficiaries to enable the start-up or expansion of their small business per their approved business plan. The sub-grants will not exceed the amount of US$ 1,000 per beneficiary, and will be disbursed in two tranches of 50 percent each, the second tranche being conditional on implementation progress made of the business activity. The review committee in charge of reviewing business plans and approving the matching grants beneficiaries will comprise of representatives from the MWF, UNFD, local government representatives including from the Ministry of National Education and Professional Training (Ministere de l’Education Nationale et de la Formation Professionnelle - MENFOP), representatives of the business community and any other specialized staff from the contracted service provider. Details on the mechanism and composition of the grants review committee will be provided in the Project’s Operations Manual.Component 2: Community-based interventions and capacity-building for GBV prevention and response (US$ 692,000)This component aims at supporting community-based interventions and capacity building for GBV prevention and response through the following two sub-components: (i) fostering community behavioral change and mobilization; and (ii) technical support to provide psychosocial and counseling services. Households and communities targeted under Component 2 will be those of the beneficiaries selected under Component 1. The community-based interventions and capacity building activities (Component 2) will be simultaneously implemented with livelihoods support (Component 1) to maximize positive results as both will jointly contribute to an enabling environment for at-risk populations participation in the local economy, including by mitigating risks of economic violence, one of the manifestations of intimate partner violence. Sub-component 2.1.: Fostering community behavioral change and mobilizationThis sub-component seeks to implement community awareness raising interventions, targeting at least 3,000 community members. Sensitization activities will take place through workshops and trainings and will notably cover specific forms of GBV that are not currently part of awareness campaigns – such as intimate partner and non-partner violence, including rape, sexual assault, physical violence, emotional and psychological violence, and economic abuse. This will be conducted by members of the CBOs referred to earlier as well as public school personnel, who tend to be at the front-line in their interaction with GBV survivors and at-risk populations. Acting as change agents and peer educators for the community or for the target school students, CBOs members and a number of school personnel will be trained by the lead NGO on how to sensitize community and households’ members on different forms of GBV, and to ensure awareness campaigns are inter-generational and include men and boys to increase chances for transformative gender attitudes, including at household level. Household members of projects beneficiaries receiving livelihood support (provided under Component 1) will be specifically targeted to be actively engaged in awareness building initiatives and mitigate potential adverse effects. A detailed mapping of relevant CBOs that will be further targeted and actively engaged through the project will be carried out at appraisal stage.At the inception phase of the project, a rapid mapping of existing social groups within the target communities will be conducted to identify groups comprised of both men and women, or exclusive to either men or women (e.g., men’ sports groups, women’s saving groups, etc.) to specifically target them to implement the behavior change interventions, and thereby increase the chance of retaining their attention and optimizing the success and impact of the outreach activities throughout the project cycle. Furthermore,