Insika Yelikusasa Lensha Eswatini Project - ENYC

The current state of the Youth of Eswatini reflects levels of unemployment and poverty at a startling rate of 58%. This dilemma necessitated the development of a Youth Empowerment Programme to ensure sustainable livelihoods and resilient socio-economic solutions that would build capacity of young people and guarantee their participation and contribution to redefining the economy of Eswatini.

Responding to the Sustainable Development Goal (8) in creating inclusive economic growth and decent work and in line with the Eswatini National Development Plan (NDP) and complementing the National Youth Policy (NYP), the NDP is a comprehensive plan that outlines the country’s development goals and strategies which includes a section on Youth Development that aims to create an enabling environment for young people to actively participate and contribute to the transformation and socio-economic development and good governance processes that shape the present and future destiny of the communities in which they live. The Insika Yelikusasa Lensha YeSwatini project was developed as a response tool towards addressing the youth issues enshrined at the outcome level in the NDP which include addressing youth unemployment, under-employment and employability challenges. The crux of the project was to reduce youth vulnerability at all levels by ensuring economic activity and creating revenue streams for livelihood purposes. This guaranteed financial independence by providing the youth with practical approaches not limited to the inculcation of a positive mindset, supporting technical and vocational skilled youth and provision of grant funding to accelerate already existing and or new promising business ideas.

In essence, the project had three components, mainly, the mindset change pathway, the T-VET pathway and the Accelerator pathway. These pathways were aimed at creating productive, fulfilling and sustainable livelihoods for the youth. The mindset change pathway targeted 400 young people. This pathway was crucial for building the capacity of the mind to distinguish between perceptions and reality. The liberation of the mind is critical for diversity of thought and embracing new and emerging patterns of creating sustainable livelihoods. The TVET pathway targeted purely youth that is passionate with the technical and vocational sector, reaching a total number of 90 youth. This pathway has helped create employment opportunities by providing the much-needed tools to undertake opportunities related to this sector.

The project was funded to the tune of USD300 000.00 by the Republic of China on Taiwan Government through the Ministry of Sports Culture and Youth Affairs and implemented by the Eswatini National Youth Council.

Project Outputs/Objectives

This project was categorized under the Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) component and seek to create a cadre of youth that;

Has improved self-awareness, self-confidence and is emotionally intelligent through the mindset change program

Youth that possesses highly resilient attitudes towards socio-economic challenges by acquiring practical skills of running a business through entrepreneurial training and startup Grants support program

Youth that creates livelihood opportunities and self-employment through commercialized vocational skills