Background
In 2002, NRC began developing a programme targeting youth in post-conflict zones. These Youth Education Packs (YEP) were intended to respond not just to employment needs but also to teach young people, who had grown up in often challenging and unstable situations, literacy and life skills. After implementation in several countries around the world (Liberia; Burundi; Sierra Leone and more), beginning in 2010, NRC implemented this YEP project in Afghanistan, specifically in Herat, Faryab and Nangarhar provinces.
Purpose of the Evaluation
The evaluation had 3 specific objectives:
- To provide an independent assessment of NRC’s Youth Education Pack (YEP) evaluating how efficiently NRC addressed the needs of beneficiaries and local communities and implemented the project.
- To draw lessons learned and propose recommendations based on the evaluation for effective future planning and programming, and to provide NRC with tools to implement these recommendations effectively.
- To analyse the gaps and best practices to tackle the challenge of access to employment and livelihood for displaced youth in a fragile context like Afghanistan.
Findings
There are few youth focused projects in Afghanistan and YEP is a clearly having a positive social and economic impact on youth, especially on women.
Recommendations
Redefining how it identifies, selects and verifies beneficiaries, create stronger partnerships, further market analysis, sustainability is unlikely to be achieved unless the project starts planning with a longer term perspective and strengthening planning (clearer strategic orientation) monitoring and evaluation