2006
Participatory Rural Labor Market Analysis
IIECL staff member, Diane Mull, working under contract with the Academy for Educational Development, has developed tools for use in Ethiopia to conduct a labor market analysis using participatory rural appraisal methods. The PRLMA tools are designed to be transferable across multiple countries and to enable local staff to adapt the tools for local context and use. The tools will be field tested and applied in the June 2006.
Functional Vocational Literacy Material Development
IIECL staff member, Diane Mull, working under contract with the Academy for Educational Development (AED), is training and working with Ethiopia Ministry of Education, non-formal education curriculum development specialists to develop functional vocational literacy syllabi, primers, supplemental educational materials and facilitator guides for four vocational topics that were identified from the PRLMA conducted in target areas. The FVL syllabi, primer, materials and guides will be used by teachers in accelerated basic education centers in rural Ethiopia being operated by the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
Child Labor Research / Program Evaluation Activity: Liberia and Sierra Leone
IIECL staff, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), conducted a needs and resource assessment in Sierra Leone and Liberia during the months of January and February. This included the development of quantitative and qualitative tools to be used by local CYCLE staff who was serving as field researchers. IIECL staff conducted training for the IRC CYCLE on the steps in conducting an assessment of this kind, training on the field instruments and methods for interviewing and field testing the instruments. IIECL staff and the CYCLE Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, working collaboratively, oversaw the research activities in the field, as well as assisted with data collection and data entry. Following the completion of data entry and tabulation, IIECL staff developed the two country reports summarizing the results of the two country studies.
Technical Assistance and Training on Child Labor – PAVE
Further assistance to the CYCLE project was provided by IIECL’s staff member, Diane Mull. This included designing, developing and training CYCLE and their NGO partner staff on a child-centered, case management methodology for children formerly engaged in the worst forms of child labor and those at-risk of engaging into the worst forms of child labor. The forms and methods of approach were customized for the CYCLE project and for Liberia and Sierra Leone. The approach, called PAVE, “Pathways Advancing Viable Education,” includes components involving outreach, intake and assessment, educational development planning, follow-up and monitoring for continuous improvement. This approach allows for and encourages the child and, where appropriate, their parent/guardian to have input into the design of the strategy for achieving their immediate educational goals that lead to the child’s ultimate vocational goal. This approach augments the education of children and their parents about how to plan for achieving educational goals, for themselves and their children in the future. In this way, the seeds are planted for sustainability so that education, for this child and other children, can continue long after the CYCLE program has ended.
The training consisted of one week of intensive training, including application of the methods in the field with target beneficiaries. By the close of the workshop, the CYCLE program had completed its first intakes of beneficiaries for services. As part of the planned strategy for implementation of PAVE, periodic monitoring of beneficiary files and sight visits with follow-up training will be provided throughout the course of CYCLE’s four-year project.