VSO Nigeria Strategy

VSO Nigeria Strategy 2012–15Key outcomesOur overarching goal is to reduce poverty and the vulnerabilityof youth in Nigeria.Outcome oneImproved capacity of civil society, government and privatesector stakeholders to enhance security of livelihoods andemployment opportunities for young men and women.We support youth-led or youth-serving partners to promoteyouth employment, and to promote young people’s entrancealong market value chains. Attention is given to identifyingbarriers and developing strategies to enable young women’sparticipation in business, especially at higher levels. Wesupport vocational skills training/apprenticeships especially foruneducated youth – equally important, we equip these youthwith accompanying life skills around sexual and reproductivehealth and HIV and AIDS prevention in a youth-friendly way.To stimulate pro-poor market chains, VSO Nigeria supportsproduct and other market-related research, encourages sociallyresponsible entrepreneurship to address social problems,provides technical assistance to formalise informal micro/smallindustries and facilitates access to micro-finance and othersupport services.Outcome twoImproved capacity of civil society and government educationpartners and stakeholders to deliver and make accessiblequality, inclusive education for children and youth.Outcome threeImproved capacity for knowledge and skills in advocacy andpolicy engagement to support social change, strengthenedorganisational development and gender-responsivenessof partners to deliver results.We promote opportunities for young people to expresstheir needs, demand their rights, and hold governmentaccountable (especially with respect to youth employmentand quality education). We seek opportunities to link withyouth-led or youth-serving advocacy organisations in raisingthe importance of these issues and promote and advocateon peace and reconciliation.In our targeted geographic clusters, we play a key role instrengthening networks and coalitions around issues of sharedconcern to civil society organisations, local government andother international non-governmental organisations (NGOs).Through the development of a gender equality strategy andaction plan, VSO Nigeria strengthens gender analysis to informour programming focus and that of our partner organisations.Overall, we seek to strengthen the organisational developmentof partners to practice transparency and accountability,which in turn leads to better promotion of the needs of thecommunities they represent.We also work with government and state institutions tofoster a receptive environment for issues brought forwardby civil society.Youth employability is linked to early education of childrenand appropriate vocational training – the capacity of teachersto teach effectively can, however, constrain quality education.Through international volunteers, we address some humanresources gaps in the education sector and build the capacityof tutors and students in institutions responsible for preserviceand in-service teacher training, inclusive of Islamyiaschools. We seek to strengthen oversight and supervision, andevidenced-based planning support through data collection.We also build the capacity of teachers to be more effective,including national volunteers.We work with civil society organisational partners and respondto their needs. We promote behavioural change throughcommunication and the dissemination of information topromote inclusive education, with particular emphasis on girls’education. We support vocational skills training for educatedyouth and offer accompanying life skills. Our InternationalCitizen Service (ICS) youth volunteers work with studentsto help lobby local government and relevant authorities forincreased teacher support, and more accessible education.6