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| Livelihoods,
Education and Development |
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Basic Facts
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Unemployment together with disguised and under employment continues to be among the biggest challenges in India
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Acute need for enhancing and expanding scarce resource base to meet market demand
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Over dependence on limited agricultural activities - need for exploring and providing alternative and additional income
Beliefs and Principles
Experience
- AeA has gained enough experience in providing employability training to the unemployed youth from Urban, Semi urban and rural backgrounds.
- AeA has been addressing livelihood issues directly or indirectly in almost all its projects
- AeA has also been able to provide more intensive inputs for livelihood issues through its co-financed projects like AID, ASSEFA, RASS etc
- Experience has shown that livelihoods is at the top of communities' priority in almost all of the project areas
- It is essential to help communities address their livelihood problems for promoting any meaningful education program
Scope
- Livelihood education has been integrated in all AeA's projects
- AeA will focus on all important sub-sectors of livelihoods i.e.
- Employability training in off-farm and service sectors
- Entrepreneurship training in farm and non farm based sectors
- Value addition to farm-based practices and products
Strategy
- AeA through its employability skills training program i LEAD trains youth to enhance livelihood of familities who are marginalized and are under poverty
- iLEAD is present at 37 locations across the region and is implemented with support of Government departments, corporates and mainstreamed at the existing project areas. Besides AeA would also start iLEAD in other potential cities andparts of the country directly and in partnership with local NGOs
- Partnerships are also being built with agencies having technical expertise in employability skills training. Major tie-ups with government and other likeminded development agencies have also been envisaged and many of them are already in the pipeline
- AeA would also explore possibilities and finalize its strategy for farm and off-farm livelihoods in 2007-2008
- Some localities have been identified where studies will be conducted to identify livelihood needs and proposals would be formulated to mobilize resources and support from other agencies
Research and Advocacy
- AeA will work in close collaboration with government agencies for providing employability skills training
- Collaborations would be worked out with various government departments concerned with policy and implementation of livelihoods programs. These departments include - technical education, DRDAs, municipalities etc
- Main focus for policy advocacy initiatives would be on market orientation of vocational training, looking beyond the traditional vocational courses, promotion of entrepreneurship and self-employment etc
- Besides, AeA is also plugging in various networks and groups of agencies addressing livelihoods issues. AeA would play an active role in appropriate networks and may even lead and initiate a few of them
Disability
- Enrolling candidates with disability along with others has been tried out with the existing centers by way of providing guidance to the faculty members upon training them
- AeA would enter into collaborations with government and other agencies working for disabled especially on livelihood issues. Maximum efforts would be made to leverage resources from government to work on the issue
- Besides, special courses will be designed and disabled would be given preference for suitable courses under i LEAD
Gender Equality
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Women would be given preference for all livelihood initiatives of AeA. At least 50% of candidates for employability training under i LEAD would be women
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Similarly the proposed farm and off-farm livelihood activities for pilot testing would be done through Women’s Self Help Groups in various projects
Emergencies
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