Young females in Haiti receive World Bank training for the job market

In Haiti young women from poor homes have greater difficulties to find a first employment than boys.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 10, 2012 - A World Bank programme aimed at fostering economic independence among young girls and young women will result in 1,000 Haitian females between the ages of 17 and 20 receiving non-traditional vocational training.

The programme launched this week is called the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) and is part of a global public-private partnership aimed at fostering economic independence among 12,000 young girls and young women in eight countries.

The training will be carried out in poor neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince. 500 young girls will be trained in 2012 and 500 in 2013.

The training will take place in a number of selected training centres and the young females will be trained in areas such as work ethics, self-confidence, and professional conduct. They will also receive a stipend to be paid via a mobile banking system to cover the cost of transport and other costs associated with participation in the training program.

After the training they will be offered an internship which will be considered as the first phase of employment. The internship will take into account the needs of the partner employers involved in the initiative.

Sheyla Durandisse, Chief of Staff in the Ministry for Women’s Affairs and Women’s Rights, said: the Haiti AGI contains community, educational, and professional components to address the challenges young girls are facing in Haiti and thus to improve their social and economic conditions.

In Haiti, where people under the age of 30 account for roughly 70 percent of the population, adolescent girls and young women from poor homes have greater difficulties to find a first employment than boys with the same educational level.

Vocational training is a key factor for the development of human capital in Haiti. It is crucial to the employment challenges and the country’s growth over the next five years and beyond, said Alexandre Abrantes, the World Bank’s Special Envoy to Haiti.

The AGI was launched in Liberia in 2008 as part of the World Bank Group’s gender action plan Gender Equality as Smart Economics, which is aimed at helping adolescent girls make the transition to productive employment. 

The US$22 million initiative is already under way in Afghanistan, Jordan, Liberia, Nepal, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Rwanda, and South Sudan.

The Bank is working with partners including the Nike Foundation and the governments of the following countries:  Afghanistan, Australia, Denmark, Jordan, Liberia, Nepal, Norway, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the United Kingdom, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Sweden.  The World Bank is also establishing partnerships with other interested public and private sector organizations.  Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)