Background and introduction
This Regional technical meeting will support expanding training and employment opportunities in rural communities through the improved use of the ILO’s methodology Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (TREE). TREE is a development approach that ensures that poor women and men gain a resource they will never lose: skills and knowledge they can apply to improving their incomes and taking a more active role in shaping their communities. The approach differs from conventional vocational training programmes in three main ways: by identifying potential income generating activities and related training needs before designing the contents of specific training programmes; by involving the local community and social partners directly in each phase of the identification, design and delivery process; and by facilitating the necessary post-training support, including guidance in the use of production technologies, facilitating access to credit, and providing assistance in group formation to ensure that individuals or groups can initiate and sustain income generating activities. TREE programmes have been successfully completed in a wide range of developing countries including, Bangladesh, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Niger, Burkina Faso and Madagascar.
The number of training experts and other technical specialists familiar with the TREE programme has diminished over the years and there is a need to develop a more extensive network of individuals conversant with the main elements of programme implementation. A first step in this process will be a technical meeting with TREE implementers and would-be implementers and the sharing of information, lessons learned and good practices by specialists on TREE in the Asia Pacific Region. In the process, there will be more technical specialists who are able to understand and implement TREE within the context of their work and the projects they support. At the same time, Project staff are able to learn from others and are able to mainstream or implement TREE within the context of their project objectives, strategies and outputs.
An electronic knowledge-sharing platform will be developed on TREE through the EMP/SKILLS website and linked to the Community of Practice (CoP) of SKILLS-AP. These will be used by the above network of individuals and others to share additional tools and experiences to support rural skills development. These may include the wide range of vocational education curricula developed by projects for sharing across countries. It will also be a useful means to evaluate, monitor and share project experiences in rural skills development. The generic TREE Manual was developed in 2009 and provides a wealth of tools developed during project implementation over the past decades. Most of the Projects were in Asia and the Pacific region. The electronic knowledge-sharing platform will contribute to updating and improving the existing Manual. Maintenance of the electronic platform will require considerable and sustained staff time to review materials submitted for inclusion and active dissemination of experiences to support technical interventions in the field. A synthesis report of lessons learned through project implementation will be prepared at the end of the biennium.
Objectives:
By the end of the seminar, the participants are expected to:
- gain better and more extensive knowledge and information about the TREE programme
- learn and understand in detail the TREE modules, processes and tools and how to adapt them
- share TREE country experiences, good practices and lessons learned in different national contexts
- mainstream TREE in national development policies, strategies and programmes
- integrate the TREE programme as a component of broader technical cooperation projects like youth employment and local development strategies
Expected outputs
- Tools adapted under TREE
- Good practices for documentation by TREE implementers
- Synthesis report of lessons learned on TREE in Asia and the Pacific
- Network of TREE Specialists
More information, please contact
Ms Carmela Torres
Senior Skills and Employability Specialist
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