USAID Advancing Youth Project

Challenge

A decade removed from political conflict, Liberians are optimistic that peace and prosperity lie ahead. But the country’s two civil wars have left a gap in the education sector, resulting in a “lost generation” of youth with limited education and employable skills.

EDC helped to rebuild Liberia’s educational and economic infrastructure through the USAID Advancing Youth Project. Advancing Youth was a holistic program that provided increased access to quality alternative basic education (ABE), social and leadership development, and livelihood training for out-of-school youth ages 13–35 with no or marginal literacy and numeracy skills. The project also offered work-based learning opportunities, with an emphasis on youth clubs and local cross-sectoral alliances to enhance youths’ experiences.

Key Activities

Advancing Youth activities included the following:

Worked closely with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and community-based organizations to build their capacity for program management
Trained facilitators to deliver ABE
Provided youth with work-based learning, skills, and entrepreneurship training
Developed public-private partnerships, youth clubs, and local alliances to support economic opportunity
Developed three levels of curriculum in literacy, numeracy, life skills, and work readiness mapped to the academic content of grades 1–6 in the formal education sector but adapted for the context and needs of older out-of-school youth
Delivered educational programming via radio during the Ebola crisis in 2015

Learn more about Advancing Youth:

Watch "We Will Rise: Michelle Obama's Mission to Educate Girls Around the World," and "Let Girls Learn," which feature learners from Advancing Youth
Read "Education on the Rise in Liberia"

Impact

Trained 1,026 MoE teachers and administrators, as well as developed and delivered the first national, credit-bearing introductory course for ABE facilitators and administrators with a recognized Liberian Teacher Training institution
Enrolled 22,250 learners, of which 69 percent were women, in 150 communities across six counties for ABE classes
Enrolled over 3,200 youth enrolled in agriculture-related training
Worked with three private sector partners to implement on-the-job literacy and work readiness training for employees
Integrated livelihoods interventions (such as village savings and loans associations and short-term skills training) provided to learners through a variety of partners
Provided additional training on HIV/AIDS prevention and family planning to 70 communities as a part of a partnership with Population Services International (PSI), reaching 3,300 learners and community members