Women and youth living in diaspora settings—including refugee camps and marginalized host communities—often face significant economic exclusion. Displacement disrupts livelihoods, weakens social safety nets, and limits access to formal employment opportunities. Many women and young people possess talents, informal skills, and entrepreneurial aspirations, yet they lack structured training, financial literacy, and cooperative management knowledge necessary to build sustainable income sources. In many cases, beneficiaries experience:

•High unemployment and underemployment rates

•Limited access to entrepreneurship training programs

•Insufficient knowledge of business planning and financial management

•Lack of cooperative structures to pool resources and reduce risk

•Economic dependency on humanitarian assistance or informal labor

•Reduced participation in decision-making processes

Women, in particular, may face additional barriers such as limited mobility, cultural constraints, and restricted access to capital. Youth often struggle with frustration due to limited economic prospects, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation or negative coping mechanisms.

Without targeted skills empowerment initiatives, communities risk prolonged poverty, dependency, and social fragmentation. The absence of cooperative management skills further limits the potential for collective economic resilience.

Purpose of the Project

The Women & Youth Skills Empowerment Training project aims to strengthen economic self-reliance by equipping women and youth with entrepreneurship knowledge and cooperative management skills. The initiative seeks to promote income generation, collective enterprise development, and sustainable economic participation within diaspora communities.

Key Project Activities

To achieve its objectives, the project will implement the following activities:

•Entrepreneurship and small business development workshops

•Training on business planning, budgeting, and financial literacy

•Cooperative management and governance skills training

•Formation and strengthening of women- and youth-led cooperatives

•Market research and product development sessions

•Leadership and decision-making skills development

•Mentorship programs linking participants with experienced entrepreneurs

•Support in developing savings groups and revolving fund models

•Monitoring and evaluation of business performance and cooperative sustainability

These activities will combine individual enterprise development with collective economic organization.

Project Outcomes & Beneficiary Impact

Through this initiative, beneficiaries will experience:

•Improved entrepreneurship and business management skills

•Increased formation of sustainable cooperatives

•Enhanced financial literacy and resource management

•Greater income generation opportunities

•Strengthened leadership and decision-making capacity

•Reduced economic dependency

•Improved household financial stability

•Increased community cohesion through collective enterprise models

Ultimately, the Women & Youth Skills Empowerment Training project will foster economic independence and resilience. By integrating entrepreneurship training with cooperative management skills, the program will empower women and youth to become active economic contributors, strengthen household livelihoods, and promote sustainable community development within diaspora settings.

 “Invest in women and youth today, and unlock generational progress.”