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Technical Cooperation in Human Resources Development and Training - Germany
Sources: World Bank and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit ( GTZ)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)
The GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) is a government-owned corporation for international cooperation with worldwide operations. It was set up on the initiative of the German government and works primarily for the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ). Four ministries are represented on its board of directors (the BMZ, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry for Economic Affairs). The BMZ is the majority shareholder.
It has been in operation since 1975 and aims to improve living conditions and sustain the natural resources of its partner countries. It employs over 1000 staff in Germany (with headquarters at Eschorn, near Frankfort) and over 10 000 abroad, 8000 of whom are locally recruited. It is present in over 120 countries, 70 of which have a GTZ office.
In the wake of the relative recession experienced by Germany for some years, the BMZ reduced its financial support in 1999. GTZ was able to compensate for this by entering into Public/Private Partnerships (PPP) with other public contractors such as the World Bank, as well as with private contractors including German firms or professional associations. Its turnover rose by 2.3% in 2000 (DM 1.804 billion, or around FF 5.4 billion French francs) compared to 1999.
This increase has encouraged GTZ to pursue the idea of a new market for development. The involvement of firms in development programmes is possible in middleincome countries but also, contrary to popular belief, in the poorest countries which account for 50% of projects with the German private sector. After two years in existence, the partnership programme with German businesses and professional associations has led 148 firms to cooperate with GTZ in 50 different countries.
It is as a result of budgetary restrictions also that GTZ has decided to concentrate its bilateral support primarily on 70 countries in 11 priority areas. In each priority country, no more than three such areas will be covered. Eventually, GTZ hopes not only to achieve savings in resources but to boost its effectiveness and efficiency. Furthermore, country-based schemes will be included in sectoral and regional programmes in order to lower administrative costs.
With its relatively short colonial history, Germany has not cultivated an exclusive association with any particular geographical region and is ready to assist all countries requiring technical, human or financial support.
Three horizontal themes run through all the projects, namely the fight against poverty with a view to halving the number of the poorest people in the partner countries by 2015, the equality of men and women, and protection of the environment and resources.
The action of GTZ may be summed up in terms of the following four criteria:
concern that objectives and/or project results should be sustainable, whether in terms of resources or concepts. This requires that a project should be flexible so that it can be geared to local needs and the way they change with time;
target group participation. German cooperation has pioneered the development of ‘investigation coupled with action’ as a working principle. The search for a consensus prevents projects from drifting in an authoritarian fashion towards actions whose ‘targets’ become simple agents in the implementation of ideas that are not their own;
minimalist intervention. The firm desire to take over from local initiative as little as possible is a natural outcome of the consensus principle;
optimal use of internal (or German) resources and those of the partner countries. The former is illustrated in reliance on the private sector in financing some development with the support of GTZ know-how. From the external angle, GTZ readily supports the most dynamic elements in its target group, besides exploiting local expertise as fully as possible.
GTZ thus has at its disposal the human and financial resources for it to be innovative and open to the private sector and communication, and flexible in its working concepts. It provides its expatriates with a measure of autonomy in that they achieve aims established with the partners. However, because of the care it invests in determining the aims of its own projects, it sometimes displays a certain lack of flexibility in the field when ensuring their consistency with the objectives of schemes financed by other bilateral or multilateral cooperation ventures.
Aims of GTZ in the area of vocational education
Assist in determining the prime obligations of countries in the South and the basic preconditions for vocational education in the formal and non-formal sectors.
Determine the mechanisms for co-operation between these countries and their economies.
The scale of the action is different: GTZ seeks to act at macro and meso levels. Germany analyses the role of vocational education from the political and economic standpoint in the same way. However, in its sectoral policy, its priority is to support the government of a particular country which can thereby improve the basic conditions for its economy to benefit from effective vocational education.
German co-operation acts as an intermediary between the partner country and its formal and non- formal economic environment.
Global Vision of Vocational Education
In the 55 countries in which GTZ is active in the area of vocational education, 42 projects relate to continuing education in modern firms, the non- formal sector or centres (management and training of trainers), 30 projects provide support to reforms of initial vocational education, at either ministerial or regional level, and 16 projects establish or consolidate dual system training apprenticeships.
GTZ activity is open and adjusted to the organizational patterns of the particular country concerned. A single country may combine the three types of vocational education.
One of the first tactics of GTZ in a partner country is to bring together all those with a stake in vocational education, seeking a consensus among the various players involved in its project. Often active in national reforms of vocational education, GTZ begins by establishing direct contact between those with an interest in such education who may not have regular opportunities to discuss it together (government, the private sector, international donors operating in the field of vocational education) and to seek a consensus. Discussion is the starting point for the action it will take vis-à-vis ongoing reform in a country.
GTZ does not distinguish between formal and non- formal vocational education, with the latter taken fully into account in its deliberations.
In terms of content, the operational focus of courses is clearly prescribed: vocational education has to satisfy economic needs and be responsive to the labour market, which is why the private sector is sometimes supported in encouraging a policy for vocational education within the human resources departments of businesses in modern sectors.
An essential feature of GTZ strategy in the area of vocational education is its analysis of the labour market and economic requirements. The private sector is involved at all levels of decision- making in the reform of a system of vocational education.
GTZ advises its partners on ways to improve the quality, efficiency and relevance of their basic education systems. It helps design programmes and methods and (within the scope of systems consultancy) systems and structures of the basic education system, and it helps form appropriate institutions. It advocates decentralizing the education system and giving parents and communities an active part in shaping school life. To make education more relevant, education measures should be integrated into sectoral or multi-sectoral development programmes, thus strengthening the approaches adopted there, particularly in the fields of health and environmental protection.
The broad spectrum of GTZ activities in the field of basic education includes the following major approaches:
The spectrum of GTZ promotion in the field of basic education covers the following services, which can be conducted as a sequence, a package or as individual measures:
Enhancing the quality of schools and teaching including
Institution-building including consultancy and collaboration on:
Systems consultancy with consultancy and collaboration on:
Vocational training measures encounter similar obstacles in all partner countries, but since conditions can vary enormously, strategic approaches and concepts for the further development or reform of vocational training must be devised for each individual country. Following this problem analysis, the consolidation or expansion of advanced training structures then considered appropriate should:
GTZ measures aim to upgrade specialists to meet the demands of industry and to prepare them for self-employment in future-oriented branches. The target group includes, on the one hand, young people and young adults from socially and educationally deprived backgrounds, and, on the other hand, small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. GTZ's service package is primarily geared to:
Vocational training policy and planning
This field of consultancy looks at possible ways of structuring core state tasks and prevailing conditions as they affect vocational training, including cooperation between the state and industry. Typical tasks within this field include:
Institutes of further and advanced training
In an effort to enhance practical vocational training, vocational training centres for manufacturing trades or the service sector are planned, realized and offered consulting. The range of training can be further developed and expanded to cover initial training, further training and retraining of industrial skilled workers, specialists, executives and teachers. We provide advice on the expansion of existing institutions to ensure greater effectiveness and efficiency.
Typical tasks include:
GTZ offers services in the fields of:
of vocational training and upgrading projects and programmes - also in conjunction with trade promotion activities.
Universities, Scientific and Technological Institutions
The effort to promote education and research comprises three main elements at various levels:
Universities and scientific and technological institutions must respond better to the labour market and the demands of the economy. To this end the concrete needs for development of priority sectors should be considered more carefully and structural diversification measures implemented.
Operational areas include:
GTZ promotion includes the following services, available as specially designed packages or individual measures:
Development of education and research systems and pertinent structures:
Consultancy and collaboration on:
Development of institutions:
Consultancy and collaboration on:
Conducting programmes and introducing ways of making education more relevant and boosting performance:
Consultancy and collaboration on:
Promoting cooperation in the fields of training and research:
Consultancy and collaboration on:
The goal of children and youth promotion in development cooperation is to sustainedly improve the living conditions and future prospects of girls and boys in developing countries. Thereby drawing on their potential for self-help and self-organisation. Young people are encouraged to actively contribute to changing their situation and demanding their rights. The keywords are empowerment and participation. Girls and boys are not just seen as victims of poverty and disadvantage, but moreover, as important social protagonists and bearers of social development.
The target groups are girls and boys from the age of 10 to 24 years, with the focal point placed on 12 to 18 year olds. This is also in accordance with the UN's classification. Particular importance is attached to the fact that the target group 'youth' are very heterogeneous with regard to age, sex, socio-cultural and socio-economic living situations as well as membership of ethnic groups.
Rethinking: Youth as Social ProtagonistsFor a long time German development cooperation did not acknowledge 'youth' as a specific target group. One presumed that the improvement of children and youth's lives would be achieved through the promotion of families and women. On the one hand the difficulties of young people in their local, ethnic and gender-specific living contexts was little appreciated, and on the other hand, so
was their existing competence and potential were neglected in solving problems. In the meantime, a fundamental rethinking has taken place, and youth have become a target group in their own right.There are valid reasons for this:
The way in which youth in our partner countries are regarded is still often characterised by a west European concept of adolescence. Adolescence is looked upon as a time of a psycho-social moratorium on the way to adulthood. Transferring this concept to our partner countries often leads to a stigmatised point of view, whereby girls and boys are essentially defined by their deficiencies ('don't yet have', 'are not yet') and from which then intensive relief and deficiency-oriented project approaches are derived. Children and youth in our partner countries are exclusively seen as objects requiring protection and not as independent and active subjects. The absoluteness of the west European picture of youth, which is pushed to its limits with regard to our culture, must therefore be critically examined.
Youth covers a temporal phase of human development, but at the same time represents a social category. Living conditions and age are important yardsticks. Living conditions themselves are strongly linked to life skills, which are again characterised by:
Some of the factors which determine the living conditions of girls and boys are described in the following.
A Tendency towards the Breakdown of Traditional Social Structures
Due to structural poverty, population grow, migration and the severe consequences of war and AIDS, a breakdown of traditional family and social structures is becoming apparent. The traditional extended family, but also the unclear modern family, as forms of social and old age security are stepping into the background. Children and youth are growing up in familiar surroundings which, instead of imparting orientation, impart fear and insecurity with regard to their future. Alterations in the social structure combined with a change in the age pyramid has also produced a new relationship between young and old, which again has consequences for the system of social security.
Economic Exploitation
It is estimated that 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working worldwide under conditions which damage their health and development; around 120 million of these children work full-time. According to ILO and UNICEF, the many forms of economic exploitation can essentially be grouped into the following types: child domestic labour (especially girls), forced labour and slave labour, commercial sexual exploitation (especially girls), child labour in industries and agriculture, work on the streets and excessive work within the family. A distinction is made between necessary everyday help and the exploitative forms of child labour. The forms and conditions of child and youth labour in the urban informal and industrial, domestic and agricultural areas, have been criticised by child protection organisations and the Federal Government, mostly in connection with the broader disregard of children's and youth rights.
Learning and Survival in the Urban Informal Sector
Survival in the city demands that youth from poor areas adopt specific strategies. Since the majority of them are excluded from the formal education system and therefore from regular employment in the so called formal sector, they have to resort to searching in the informal sector. Worldwide there are between 100 and 200 million children and youth living and working on the streets, some temporarily, others permanently. Entirely reliant on themselves and extensively without rights, they develop their own survival strategies and organisational structures. Promotion strategies for girls and boys living and working on the streets must bring participation to the centre and draw on the creativity and self-help potential of these children and youth.
Rural Youth and Migration
Youth in rural areas mostly find themselves at an economic and social disadvantage. Work, income and available free-time is even more restricted than in the case of urban youth. Therefore, the migration of young people from rural areas to the city due to poverty and also increasingly to civil war needs to be viewed from a new political angle.
Health Risks
Girls and boys from low-income brackets are especially exposed to situations of risk. These are, among others, the danger HIV/AIDS-infection, teenage pregnancy, violent behaviour, or drug addiction. They lack access to information, clarification and first aid posts. In principle there is also a lack of legitimate forms of youth recreation which could be seen as preventing social risk behaviours.
(Civil) War
In militant conflicts, around 90% of the affected population are civilians, mostly women, children and youth. Children and youth become victims in many respects, but also become perpetrators (with the consequence of psychological traumatisation). In almost 30 countries around the world there are more than 300,000 mostly male children and youth, fighting in war and armed conflict. Seven year olds are already enlisted as bearers or spies. Girls and young women are often sexually abused. The loss of speech, traumatisation, the loss of close friends and relatives are only a few of the far-reaching consequences.
The Lack of Government Responsibility
In many of our partner countries, the policy of open markets, privatisation as well as the government's withdrawal from social welfare responsibilities leads to the curtailment of public welfare and educational funds. This affects, above all, children and youth from poor sections of the population whose chances are already very low in acquiring adequate food, medical care, a general education, qualification, work and a home. The widening of the cleft between the growing population and available resources hits this group the hardest.
Approaches
The methodical approach can be split into two essential areas: trans-sectoral-oriented and youth-specific promotion on four levels.
The trans-sectoral-oriented entails the general consideration of youth's problems and their potential in different sectors and programmes. Up to now, nine Enfoque to the promotion of socially disadvantaged youth regarding different sectors have been well-established.
Within youth-specific promotion, a row of transferable promotion models have proved themselves to be sustainable.
They often fall into youth-specific programmes as components in an integrated approach. The respective approaches are pedagogically-oriented and come into the gender principle according to gender-specific circumstances and behaviour. In this way, the view to working with girls and boys is intensified.
Youth Policy and Youth Rights
Technical advice on youth-legislation and differentiated youth policy should achieve in turning the attention paid by governmental institutions (Ministry responsible for Children and Youth, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Labour, Social Security Office, Offices of Justice, etc.) to the specific situation of disadvantaged youth. Public representatives should be encouraged to cooperate across different sectors in the area of youth - in the sense of a horizontal target group-oriented approach and not a vertical sector-oriented one. The implementation of youth policies in a decentralised structure contributes to their wider propagation at national level as well as their transferability and sustainability.
Policy consultation aims at developing a framework of guidelines and at improving networking with governmental and non-governmental organisations, as well as wit youth groups. The rights of children and youth and the implementation of these rights, for instance incorporation of the Convention on the rights of the Child in national legalisation, are important topics. In addition to this, come the work of advocacy and lobbying at governmental level, the sensitisation of political authorities to the need for youth participation in the making of social decisions, as well as strengthening dialogues with civil organisations.
Life SkillsThere are still more than 880 million illiterate people in the world and a large proportion of them are youth. Present forms of education do not reach enough children and youth from low-income brackets. Therefore, educational concepts must be developed and implemented which accommodate the needs and life worlds of these girls and boys in-school as well as out-of-school. This concerns, for example, imparting life skills, gender-differentiated provisions in education and further education for school dropouts, afternoon and evening courses for working children and youth, and moreover, the recognition of modular community-based courses and curricula outside the formal school. These curricula should consist of few years only and, at the same time, be pervious to the formal education system.
During the World Forum for Education in Dakar in the year 2000, it was recognised that the goals set at the world conference. 'Education for all' in Jomtien had only been partly achieved. In order to reach the set goals, structural changes in the education sector have to be undertaken. In the area of formal basic education, the primary school is still one of the most important institutions, however, it needs to be adapted more to the children's actual needs and potentials, reach out to them at their actual life worlds.
The Dakar World Forum was additionally concerned with the revision of the UNESCO Delores Report ('Learning capacity: Our hidden wealth'): Basic education, as a way to fully developing the human potential, embraces four dimensions accordingly: learning to learn; learning to act; learning to live together; learning for life. The most important feasabilities for attaining basic education are:
Promotion of employment in the informal sector
Employment-oriented education of youth must be improved and adapted to their real life situations. Present forms of vocational training often do not take into consideration the fact that youth from lower income brackets have very little basic education, that they must also earn a living while attending vocational courses, and are more likely to be entirely reliant on short and practical forms of training. Vocational training in our partner countries aims to reach increasingly wider sections of the population. In order to accomplish this they need to better consider the living contexts of the groups targe with regard to their provisions in education and this is exactly what the informal sector is concerned with.
Hence, the following measures belong to employment promotion: An agreement with private firms and NGOs which offer vocational training or employment to youth; provision for qualification; credit conferred to youth for provision of income-generation in the informal sector; the imparting of knowledge on the questions of establishing a livelihood, organisation and management. The direct improvement of girls' and boys' access to income-generating opportunities, also in the informal sector, is closely linked to the alteration of institutional frame conditions in the area of vocational training and employment promotion. At the same time, however, youth need to be increasing qualified in social competence in order to facilitate their entrance into the world of work. A study is currently being undertaken in cooperation with the two sectoral programmes, 'New integrated and appropriate project approaches in vocational training cooperation' (the component of concern here is called: 'The effectiveness of vocational training in employment in the informal sector') and 'Children and youth as a target group in development cooperation', which carries the interim title 'The advancement of youth through community supported competence development and promotion leading to employment'.
Youth health
The promotion of girls' and boys' health is closely linked to the topics of sexual awareness, the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and sexual transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS infection. The prevention of addiction, misuse of dangerous substances and violence are also integrated parts of health promotion. Measures such as the education of youth promoters, sport and cultural activities, frontline youth work, family life education and lifeskills at school (in healthy schools) bring the following to the forefront: a healthy life style, self-confidence, special forms of advice and early prevention, especially in cases of young people at risk. In addition to preventive measures, adequate feasibilities for treatment and counselling must be promoted.
Normally it is not sufficient, or it is not even possible to work directly with young people on these leading topics. The sensitisation and inclusion of the respective community, parents and local authorities are equally important. The promotion of youth's healthy social and economic development forms the foundation for wider trans-sectoral coordination.
Demobilisation and re-integration (of child soldiers)
The demobilisation of youth who participated in armed conflict and their re-integration into society is increasingly becoming a field of work in itself within youth promotion in development cooperation. These children could be former child soldiers as in Ruanda, or also former members of youth gangs and groups of killer-commandos, as for example, in Columbia.
Social integration and preventive youth work
Drug consumption, violence and high-risk sexual behaviour are often the results of a lack in prospects for the future and are thereby linked to life skills. Girls and boys drop out of society because it offers them no way of access. A minimal amount of youth social work at urban or village level already opens up new prospects for young people which they keenly snatch up. Preventive youth work protects against risk behaviours and comprises: information and awareness raising on critical topics, the collective search for possible solutions, the promotion of youth organisations, and the support of youth in developing their own small projects and plans for the future, as well as handing over responsibility to young people who, up to now, have been ostracised or not taken seriously.
Protection of resources and the environment
Youth who are the long-term victims of the destruction of the environment, but also perpetrators of this process, often show much more interest in environmental problems than adults. Within the framework of in-country development programmes youth are increasingly becoming involved as partners in urban district clean-up projects or in measures for the protection of the environment and resources. This often takes place in connection with education where girls and boys are given further education concerning environmental issues or are trained as environment promoters.
Social participation and community work
The support of girls and boys as participators in political decisions is an important aspect of youth promotion in development cooperation and a contribution to the process of democratisation. This concerns the promotion of independent youth groups who express interest as a part of civil society, as well as the initiation and establishment of youth participation in political panels and parliament. At community level this is of particular interest since communication between the political decision-makers and the target group is more immediate than at national level.
Rural youth
Although children and youth actively participate in agricultural activities (including livestock), they are often neglected by agricultural development programmes as a separate target group within the broader target group of 'farmers'. This means that their specific needs, as well as their potentials, are not taken into consideration in the planning and implementation of projects. Through the rethinking process over recent years, project components in rural development have increasingly been tailored to rural youth. Since also in the country, the sustainability of development measures is critically dependent on whether the next generation can identify and continue with them. Moreover, the consideration of rural youth is of special significance as they have the direct potential to change things effectively, however, they often migrate due to the lack of employment and recreational activities.
Levels of promotion
In recent years, thanks to the setting of priorities within BMZ as well as in our partner countries, a row of transferable models of sustainable integrated youth projects have emerged (around 25 new projects within the last 5 years). These apply strategically on four levels.Consultation with Governments and Promotion Representatives
Consultation on the development of effective policies and programmes to improve the living situation of children and youth from low-income brackets, and their implementation at national and community level. This is undertaken also in connection with the increasing effort towards decentralisation in our partner countries. Practical experience of consistent child and youth policies is only available in a few of our partner countries. In the face of increasing violence, crime and youth unemployment, interest in new concepts is growing.
Capacity Building
Strengthening mediator organisations and the in-service training of educationalists and social workers to improve work with children and youth, especially at community and local level. Moreover, almost all governmental as well as private organisations require further training courses regarding the establishment and promotion of independent youth organisations and the implementation of participatory pedagogical concepts. The direct potential of youth is also being strengthener through training or further training as youth promoters.
Networking Institutions
Consultation with governmental and non-governmental organisations on the networking of programmes within the field of youth. This concerns, above all, the instigation of a 'bottom up' process through the cooperation of government, civil society, the private sector and the community including the target group. Local networks sharpen the visual angle on solution strategies to youth-specific problems in-country and, at the same time, instigate specialist exchanges between the relevant protagonists in government and civil society (refer to publication: "Junge Menschen stark machen - Verknüpfung von Staat und Zivilgesellschaft"). The support and promotion of children and youth movements through their networking with each other and to corresponding organisations is also a core concern within the larger network.
The Promotion of Innovative and Practical Measures
Emphasis is placed on preventive work. Social pedagogical prevention and psychologic consultation, as well as community work and enlightenment, form the main fields of activities. Preventive measures are aimed at reducing violence, drug consumption, unprotected sex with its possible negative consequences including unwanted teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS-infection, and other risky behaviours. At the same time young people are encouraged to device and implement their own projects at local level (such as establishing green areas in town districts, action for rubbish collection, sport and cultural activities, etc.). Youth promoters are being trained, who then convey information on a particular issue to their peers. The role as peer educator crucially contributes to increasing the self-confidence of these girls and boys. The aim is to bring together the work of separate sectors such as community work, and formal, non-formal, and vocational education, in order to use this synergy and learn from different approaches in the sense of strategy development.
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