Empowering women and youth through income generating skills for sustainable livelihoods

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The main partner of this project is the Department of Consumer Sciences of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA).The project will be carried out in four regions of Swaziland: Hhohho, Manzini, Shiselweni and Lubombo. The total number of inhabitants in Swaziland is approximately 1 020 000, and the population in the 4 regions altogether aproximately 800 000.The project aims at empowering already existing women's and youth groups (an average of 6 productive groups in each region, amounting to 24 groups altogether), whose members live in vulnerable situations, direct beneficiaries being altogether 400-500 persons. By the end of the project cycle their production quality is higher and marketing opprtunities better, leading to higher income. The project also aims at enabling the target group to make better use of local food stuffs leading to better nutrition of their families.The immediate objective is to increase the target group's economic situation and physical well-being through increased knolwledge of good nutrition and increased marketing and quality mangement capacities leading to better income.These goals will be reached thorugh a training program where university staff (home economics and apparel design) further trains Home Economics extention officers and they in turn train and monitor the work of the women and youth groups.Main activities will be: production of training materials, training of trainers, training of women and youth groups (general module of nutrition and women's rights in society, and substance specific modules on production and marketing, depending on the production area of each gourp), and collectiong information for final seminar and evaluation.The project takes into account all cross-cutting objectives of Finnish development cooperation: It increases gender equality and empowers women by organising training of women's rights and enabling them to raise their level of livelihood. It combats inequality by choosing women, youth and disabled persons as beneficiary groups. It is a climate proofed project aiming at better livelihoods for vulnerable groups that have, due to climate change, increasing difficulties in finding their income from traditional agriculture, by increasing the quality of their production activities and making their marketing processes more effective. Good nutrition is especially important to family members living with AIDS, leading to a better quality of life.