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1. BACKGROUND

Youth and Cultural Development Foundation (YCDF) is a vibrant youth focused Non-Government Organization dedicated in developing innovative youth development strategies for involvement and participation of Youth in Ethiopia.  It is founded in 2013 by youth development passionate leaders and social entrepreneurs seeking to expand opportunities for young people to acquire the values, knowledge and skills that will enable them to actively participate in the country’s social, economic and cultural development of their communities and to contribute positively in creating sustainable future.

 

   2. OUR MISSION

YCDF exists to work with youth by assisting them gain social, entrepreneurial and developmental skills through trainings, sharing and exchange programs and provide them with community engagement capacity through community outreaches as well youth initiatives schemes.

 

  3. OUR VISION

To see empowered, progressive and well-equipped youth who are change agents in the development of their communities.

 

  4. OUR MOTTO

“To Educate, Inspire and Innovate” is reflecting YCDF’s vital and exclusive role of Ethiopian youth are the key promotors to the Ethiopian Renaissance, remain as key players of social transformation and development in many spheres.

 

  5. OUR VALUES

• Honesty and Accountability

• Equity and Equality

• Inclusiveness

• Innovativeness and Creativity

• Professionalism, Teamwork, and Excellence

 

  6. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

YCDF has three levels of organizational hierarchies. The highest hierarchy in the organizational structure is the General Assembly which is the highest decision-making organ. Board of Directors is the next hierarchy in the organization level Chaired by Mr. Abera Urga consists of six members.

The third level is the Secretariat led by the Executive Director, Mr Zenayeneh Girma. who is responsible for the day to day activities of the organization. Currently, the organization has a total number of 8 staff and 33 youth volunteers, which comprises management, program, and supporting staff.

 

  7. Key Achievements and Learning Lessons 2013-2016

During the past three years YCDF has focused on providing capacity building support to targeted youth in particular and the entire community in general. Indeed, YCDF’s programs emphasized on related areas (Education, Sustainable Livelihood, Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Sustainable Environment and Active Citizenship) in its focal intervention area focusing on youth and the entire community. Its program implementation approach is need-focused with active and full community participation throughout the process. The organization works in close collaboration with local government institutions, NGOs, and community members. YCDF enjoys an all-round support of the communities and it works with international donors, which are the main partners in its development endeavor. Reflecting on achievements and challenges in delivering against our previous Strategic Plan 2013-16 has provided important learning to guide the development of our priorities and plans for the next three years.

 

In the last strategic period, YCDF has been implementing a number of projects and has recorded significant results to improve the livelihood situation of youth and other communities in the targeted areas. Certainly, advancements and learning in five key areas are particularly significant.

 

  7.1. Key Learning Lessons

    I.  Focusing on outcomes

YCDF’s youth development initiatives has been defined in terms of the support services members provide to hard-to reach and under-served young people. However, in line with greater diversity in member delivery models, and a more rigorous analysis of the impact we want to achieve, we have learnt how to shift our measurement processes to focus more on achieving shared outcomes rather than inputs. This will be the basis of our sustainability and accountability.

 

    II. Strengthening Our Network, Partnership and Collaboration

YCDF has so far demonstrated its capability to deliver various programmes consistent with its mission and vision since its establishment. Developments in designing new products and services for our members, increasing sharing across members, and delivering multi-member resourcing partnerships have demonstrated in practice ways to maximize the value of network and partnership have provided important insights into the respective delivery roles of our members and network team.

Defining and realizing our network and partnership underpins effective delivery of our services over the next three years. YCDF will intensively work with the business community to foster its programme and enrich the Hard –To- Reach community.

 

    III. Expanding and Diversifying Our Membership

Through YCDF’s increasingly rigorous approach to expanding into new programmes/projects, we have learnt more about diverse and innovative in-country delivery models that are best adapted to supporting young people at national scale, including approaches such as creating enterprise opportunities across value chains. Whilst innovating and strengthening our network cohesiveness and impact, growing the YCDF membership will define our next three years.

 

    IV. Convening the Social Enterprise Sector

We have developed significant insights about how to build multiyear, multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborative sector initiatives, leveraging the collective insight and experience from across our membership and helping develop shareable solutions for resourcing, programme and practice. Working in shared value partnerships will remain central to achieving our impact. Establishing and strengthening Youth-led Social Enterprise to ensure sustainable youth development will become a priority agenda.

 

    V. Unleashing the Power of Communities

Access to strategic resources such as irrigation and land by youth and poor women is very challenging. So, interventions that can enhance special capital and adoption new technologies are more vital to these segments of the community. Indeed, unlashing social capital within the existing communities while intervention to ensure environmental sustainability is must.

 

     8.   Projects

         8.1. School Community Support Fund to Strengthen Girls Education

In collaboration with Initiative Africa (IA), using financial support from Sida Sweden Empowering Young Girls- Building Communities Education Program, YCDF has implemented a project entitled, in 30 Secondary and Preparatory Schools found in SNNPRs, Oromiya and Addis Ababa City Administration of Ethiopia. The general objective of the project has been to contribute to the improvements of high school girls’ STEM education by making it easy for the public to support school girls in need thereby to create lifetime opportunities for girls in scientific experience, engagement & careers.

 

Deliverables to the beneficiaries includes; professional development training for 554 (male 377 & female 176) science teachers and 1572 Students (female 921 & male 651) students’ grade 9-12 for a Better STEM education for girls through alternative learning methodologies i.e. Inquiry- Based Science Education professional development workshop and Inspiring Hands-on- Leaning. Allocating a budget of $ 100,000.00 for couple of years (2015 - 2016), until mid-2017, in most of the physical (83 %) and financial (93.3), greater performance has been achieved than planned.

 

      8.1.1. Key Results Achieved

The major key results achieved can be summarized as: (i) Improved school management through professional development, (ii) Established a separate 30 SCHOOL COMMUNITY SPORTFUND TO STRENGTHEN GIRLS EDUCATION in continuation of the program in the future, (iii) Build-up capacity of 30 schools for proper execution & management to ensure Girls success in science education (iv) 30 schools systems strengthened to provide training & support for improvedhands onexperimental activities in science education,(v) Establishment of 30 Science Clubs for improvement of girls education practices /Inspired on Hands – on- Learning and (vi) in general Appropriate levels of learning resources provided to meet curriculum needs. 

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      8.2. Promoting Youth-Led Initiatives for Environmental Sustainability through Leadership and Learning for Action

The project “Promoting Youth-Led Initiatives for Environmental Sustainability through Leadership and Learning for Action (ESLLA)” a Youth-Led Sustainable Development Campaign has been implemented in Woliso-Oromia in partnership with Oromia/ Youth and Sport Office, Initiative Africa and the British Council of Ethiopia. It was funded by European Union -Horn of Africa Leadership and Learning for Action - HoLLA Project from August 2015 to December 2017, with a total allocated Budget which of course includes local community and YCDF’s matching fund Contribution: ET Birr 998,160.00 (€41,590.27). The overall purpose of the project is to build and increase the leadership capacity of youth to initiate and implement Social Action Projects that contribute to the sustainable development of local communities. It benefits totally 224 young people (male 87 and137 female) with interests in social /environmental Entrepreneurship with an approaches of community dialogues, organizing events and rendering volunteer services.

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     8.2.1. Major Achievements

        8.2.1.1Summary of Major Results

HOLLA aimed to contribute to the promotion of peace and development by promoting the involvement of young women and men in the Horn of Africa. The ESLLA project contributes to this goal by focusing on improving local capacity for sustainability. Assessment to date show that ESLLA has achieved its overall objective as evidenced from the achievement of the four major results areas and subsequent outcomes. Towards this, the following results were planned to be achieved by YCDF: partnership, capacity building, youth-led SAP, supporting platforms.

 

Result 1:  Partnership established with national Youth Leaders (YLs) to deliver the planned youth-led initiatives. The partnership was established in the early stage of the project. The national YLs trained and mentored the PEs (Peer Educators). This result was also important determinant of the achievement of the other results (particularly Result2 and Result3, described below). In addition to partnership with national YLs, the PEs also established strong partnership with local organizations such as Woliso Youth Development Association (WYDA), a local NGO as well as pertinent government offices and local groups (especially youth cooperatives).

 

Result 2: 39 young people (22 females and 17 males) become skilled and equipped with social leadership to better contribute to community development, and to become role models for youth in their communities.

 

During the process of the partnership development, even at the outset YCDF engaged Local partners such as WYDA and Youth and Sport Office in selecting potential PEs based on list of criteria. Subsequently, six PEs were trained and mentored by national YLs and successfully implemented activities planned under ESLLA.

 

Result 3: Two Youth-Led Social Action Projects (SAPs) and One local awareness raising activities delivered. This are Community Facilitators that contribute to localized promotion of community development and which showcase positive youth participation both in rural and urban areas. In quantitative terms, this result was overachieved as one extra SAP is implemented. While only one SAP was initially planned, the nature of the composition of the Community Educators (CEs) as well as interest of the local partners necessitated to implement two SAPs. The CEs were selected both from Woliso town and a nearby rural Kebele, namely Tombe Anchebi. Furthermore, while Woliso Town decided a youth center to be used for SAP in town, favorable platform of environmental protection activities was underway in Tombe Anchebi. The PEs and CEs made dialogues with pertinent communities and accomplished two SAPs. Interestingly, although they shared leadership and facilitation roles to some extent all PEs and CEs were involved in each SAP.   

 

Result 4: Support platforms (dialogue and community conversation sessions) for the sharing of experience. Overall, the ESLLA project contributed to a key outcome area of HOLLA that key lessons from implementing the project are harvested and inform future programming and approaches for youth engagement. Three levels of sharing and learning were realized. Firstly, as highly interdependent and integral part of result 3 above implementation of SAP gave opportunity to undertake experience sharing, dialogues and community conversations. Secondly, YCDF’s experiences were shared at national level during the process of national network establishment. Thirdly, the participation in the Art and Development Challenge under Raik Shino Platform involved five youth who submitted their creative ideas (in 300 words) online. Three of the five Peer Educators and two potential Community Educators participated, being mentored by the responsible Youth Mentor under the ESLLA project. Out of four ideas two projects were shortlisted and proceeded for further competition stage by submitting a one-minute video describing the project. The ideas were read, videos watched and voted by large number of people from Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and other parts of the world. Along the way, the pear educators demonstrated that they are Locally Engaged and Globally Connected through their community development ideas. Finally, one of the ideas by a PE won the grant whose implementation is just begun. 

Fig.2. Pictorial presentation visits to Godana Micro-Watershed & Partial View of Upper Catchment of Kerfef Hill area and Youth Center in Woliso Town – June 2016

 

 

Note from the CEs and PEs: “We began working with the community with the skills we learned and the desires aroused by the opportunity we got from YCDF. In the process of HOLLA, the momentum of self-confidence and empowerment came from within and again YCDF helped us to keep the momentum towards SAPs in our entire community”.   

 

    8.3. Ethiopian Initiative for Girls Science Teaching   and Achievement 

The Ethiopian (EIGSTA) is a partnership among 10 secondary and preparatory Schools which are found in two regional states; Addis Ababa City Administration and SNNPRs of Ethiopia to build a capacity to provide sustained, intensive science teaching professional development to increase girls’ science performance. The goal of EIGSTA is to improve science teaching and student learning of science throughout Ethiopia. This proposed initiative is based on the statistically significant improvement in science instruction of three teacher’s professional development workshops in inquiry science; ii, integrating ICT in science education; iii, Addressing the STEM Gender Gap by Designing and Implementing Gender Sensitive Science Instruction) programs provided by YCDF and its partners since 2015. It is an Australian aid project, funded by the Australian Government since January 2017 with allocated budget of USD 79,650.00 including school community contribution. This particular project directly benefits more than 250 science teachers in teaching inquiry-based science education in their respective schools.

 

    8.3.1. Key achievements

   I) Inquiry based Instruction -Teachers Professional Development Training Workshop: as per plan for this period of time on the action plan, the schools have launched its basic professional development program for the levels grade 9-12. Based on the advice of the Education Office, the schools screened 15-20 science teachers from Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math department. Despite disruptions caused by holidays and examination the program is being implemented starting end of May 2017 and Beginning of June 2017. Presently, the first and second round training has been completed and third and fourth round will be launched in the second week of September/October 2017.

   II) Recruitment and Establishment of Science Fair Club at Each School: in all selected schools except two, Science fair club established with the objective in short run to prepare science fair exhibition and on its long run to stimulate students toward STEM subjects and also initiate and facilitates scientific innovation.  At the initial phase of the period selection of science fair club members from teachers (total 250) and students (total 320) were selected from all target schools. Student project work is the major component of the science fair program.  For this program to thrive and be sustainable it has to be carefully crafted and be integrated with the other school annual work plan. Certainly, some schools have already acquired very useful support materials which would be adopted to develop its own science fair guide. At this stage the schools are conducting a series of brain storming sessions to prepare detailed work plan for the program in consultation with YCDF.

 

   III) Preparation of Science Fair Guideline and Teachers Training Manuals: training manuals and guidelines on Science Laboratory kits utilization is prepared and distributed to six schools and trainees (teachers) to be utilized as guidelines on practical learning-teaching processes and on science fair exhibition innovative idea development and preparation.

 

   IV) Assessments of Student Grade Results: grade result assessments were also the most important component with all added inputs. However, in all targeted secondary schools this was not happened. As a result, measuring teaching and achievements in science with specific focus of girls’ education result in target schools become inevitable.  Certainly, in the completion of the project which would be major indicator for the success of the project. Once all the intended three professional development workshops are done in all schools this activity should be demonstrated.

 

    V) School Grant Support for Specific Educational Needs: school support project which ensure girls success in science education through EIGSTA shows some extremely effective.  It facilitates in school creative works for students and teachers.