US aid agency winds up $15m project on income generating skills for marginalised youths

The US Agency for International Development’s mission in Nepal (USAID/Nepal) organised a special event to commemorate the successful completion of its five-year (2008-2012) youth-focused Education for Income Generation (EIG) programme on Wednesday.

EIG’s impacts have been transformative for 74,000 of the most disadvantaged youth – dalits, janajatis, women, and conflict affected— leading to higher sustainable incomes and improved food security in all 15 districts of the country’s mid-western region, the US Embassy claimed in a press statement.

The youth were trained in entrepreneurial literacy, vocational skills, and agricultural productivity and enterprises benefiting more than 400,000 of their family members through increased income and improved food security through the programme, said the Embassy statement.

The US$15 million EIG programme was designed to address the exclusion of disadvantaged youth from education, training and employment, and create a more productive workforce through an integrated entrepreneurial package tied to income generation, primarily in agriculture and vocational skills.

About 54,000 graduates are currently benefitting through agriculture alone, with beneficiaries seeing their income increase by 250 percent, said the Embassy adding that the programme has also established and strengthened markets systems and trained private extension agents to provide continued services, inputs and advice to farmers even after the programme ends.

EIG was implemented by Winrock International in collaboration with more than 32 organisations, including the government. nepalnews.com