The "One Million by 2021 Initiative" was launched in April 2019 to catalyze action for youth development in Africa. The African Union Commission does this by facilitating connections between AU Member States, corporate sponsors and development partners to inspire investment in African youth. It aims to create 1 million new opportunities for Young Africans in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and engagement across the continent and in the diaspora.
The Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA) is an initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Union Development Agency (AUDANEPAD) supported by the German Government and the European Union. SIFA promotes the occupational prospects of young Africans through the support of innovative skills development programmes and close cooperation with the private sector as an integral key stakeholder in the creation of jobs. The initiative consists of two components, a Finance Facility and a Technical Component.
The project works with private-sector partners in the garment industry, logistics, ICT, optometry tourism and construction to make training better oriented to employment, to align on-the-job training experience with industry demands and to further increase private sector participation in technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
‘Partnerships for development oriented labour migration’ (PAM) aims to implement developmentoriented migration models for training and employment. Strong partnerships between state, private sector, and civil society actors are intended to create added value for the countries of origin of trainees and skilled workers. The structures in the vocational training sector in the partner countries are to be strengthened and the recognition of migrants' qualifications and skills promoted.
IFAD launched the ‘Remittance Community Task Force’ with public and private stakeholders to come up with immediate measures to address the impact of COVID on remittances and in response to the call by the UN Secretary-General for global solidarity within the COVID-19 pandemic. This task force contributed to the discussion within the Financing for Development Process recently launched by the Prime Ministers of Canada and of Jamaica.
MeNTOR (Mediterranean Network for Training Orientation to Regular Migration) is a project that promotes legal migration paths through co-development cooperation projects. In its first phase (2017-2018), MenTOR aimed to improve temporary and circular migration schemes for young people between Italy, Morocco and Tunisia.
Germany – ‘Kosovo Skills Partnership for Mobility’ a BMZ-funded Migration & Diaspora Programme (PMD) strengthens international cooperation and the standards of selected vocations in Kosovo. Through vocational training based on German standards carried out in Kosovo and Germany, young professionals have better employment possibilities in both countries and on return can support the “brain-gain” of Kosovo, making an enhanced use of migration pathways.
Belgium and Tunisia have implemented a skills mobility partnership: Paving the way for future labour migration. This initiative is a multidimensional cooperation framework between different stakeholders from both countries (e.g., immigration office, public employment services, employers’ associations) aimed at assessing labour market needs, streamlining procedures, selecting candidates.
‘Safer Migration’ (SaMI) project (Helvetas Nepal, funded by Switzerland) is a joint skill-upgrade initiative to ensure decent work in countries of destination. It provides skill training, including life skills and health, and certification for prospective migrant workers (9000 have benefitted from this programme between 2011 and 2018 of which 22% of women). Collaboration between CSOs, private institutions, the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and Foreign employment board (FEB)
The STARTwien Das Jugend Youth College operates in two locations in Vienna by nine partner networks offers around 200 places to young asylum seekers within the age group of 15- 21. It is a fast-track skills training programme that is delivered within a span of nine months, around 20 hours per week of education and mentoring focusing on German and vocational subjects. The prospective candidates are selected and enrolled after their evaluation of language skills and basic competencies in mathematics, English and IT.