The youth network committee members in Ethiopia

Meaningful youth engagement

The Youth Network Committee in Ethiopia ensure youth-responsive implementation of PROSPECTS activities

The committee met for their third quarterly review meeting, visited an urban refugee settlement and learned about monitoring and evaluation techniques to support Advancing Meaningful Youth Engagement initiative of the ILO PROSPECTS programme.

24 November 2023

Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA (ILO News)- The Youth Network Committee (YNC) was formed in Ethiopia in 2022 to serve as a formal advisory group representing refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and host communities. Strengthening its voice in programme planning, implementation and monitoring of the PROSPECTS initiative, “Advancing young people’s engagement and meaningful participation in forced displacement contexts”, jointly implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the committee convened its third quarterly review meeting on 30 and 31 October 2023 in Addis Ababa.

At this meeting, representatives from the three UN agencies provided the committee with an update on the status of their activities, with a special emphasis on youth engagement. The YNC’s inputs have significantly influenced the design and implementation of their interventions over the past year. YNC members provided valuable recommendations for PROSPECTS’ upcoming initiatives such as working with the government authorities to address the Identification (ID) Card challenges of refugees. From the meeting with the urban refugees, the committee members advised the ILO to implement livelihood programs for urban refugees.

The youth network committee members discussing with urban refugees in Addis Ababa

The YNC – organized into sub-committees focusing on Communication and Advocacy; Gender and Disability; and Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation – shared their respective reports detailing progress, challenges faced and lessons learned since the last quarterly review meeting. They also outlined the financial and technical support needed for future activities. The committee engaged in comprehensive discussions to address the challenges identified and devised a strategy to overcome them. The committee recognized the challenges of urban refugees and pointed out the UN agencies and other partners to work in collaboration to address the challenges of urban refugees.

An integral part of this meeting was a visit to the Urban Refugee Centre of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) office. YNC members and the delegation of UN and JRS officials observed and discussed the challenges and opportunities faced by young urban refugees in accessing education, decent work, financial services and protection.

Jean-Yves Barba, Chief Technical Advisor for ILO PROSPECTS in Ethiopia, emphasized the importance of site visits for committee members to gain first-hand insights through direct engagement with refugees and host communities.

“The field visits enhance YNC members' knowledge and understanding of the situation of refugees, IDPs and hosts. With an improved understanding of forcibly displaced context, they are able to provide insightful recommendations and participate in the implementation and monitoring processes”, said Jean-Yves Barba.

He underlined the responsibility of the committee members to critically review the activities of PROPECTS Partnership to make sure the challenges urban and camp refugees face are incorporated.

Marta Mamuye, a member of the YNC from Addis Ababa, said "Our visit to the center revealed that the majority of the refugees are young adults," she stated. "We were impressed by the services provided to urban refugees at the center, which assist them in starting their own businesses or finding employment opportunities, gaining access to financial resources, and receiving training opportunities."

Additionally, the committee members underwent training in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) concepts, methods and tools.

The training facilitated by ILO PROSPECTS’ Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Louis-Pierre Michaud, enhanced committee members' understanding of the principals of Results Based Management (RBM), its tools and their application in monitoring and reviewing programme results.

The youth network committee members participating in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) training

Marta Tsehay, National Programme Officer for ILO PROSPECTS in Ethiopia, highlighted the importance of this training in empowering the YNC for effective monitoring and evaluation of PROSPECTS activities: “This M&E training will contribute to the meaningful engagement of YNC members to monitor and evaluate PROSPECTS activities effectively. Most importantly, the training will help the sub-committee on reporting, monitoring and evaluation to execute their roles and responsibilities successfully.

Abdifatah Ismail, a YNC member expressed his appreciation to the organizers for providing the training, which he believes will enable them to effectively fulfill their duties both within the YNC and in their community.

“We need similar training to be incorporated into future meetings to further empower us and foster our active participation”, said Abdifatah.

With the generous support of the Government of the Netherlands, with the leadership of the ILO, UNICEF and UNHCR joined hands to establish and launch the Youth Network Committee on 10 October 2022 under the PROSPECTS initiative “Advancing young people’s engagement and meaningful participation in forced displacement contexts.” This formal coordination mechanism has been serving as a platform to ensure meaningful engagement of young people in program planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The platform has been serving as a tool to unleash the leadership potential of young people by providing designed capacity budling and technical assistance to young emerging leaders of the Youth Network Committee.