PAF, USAID-EIG join hands

Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF-Nepal) and USAID Nepal’s Education for Income Generation (EIG) Programme signed an agreement to work collaboratively targeting the unemployed disadvantaged youth of the Mid Western Development region of Nepal.
Raj Babu Shrestha, ED of the PAF and Darrell Deppert, Chief of Party of the USAID Nepal’s Education for Income Generation (EIG) Programme today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of their respective organisations.
"This strategic partnership between the two programmes of PAF and USAID will ensure increased opportunity for disadvantaged youth including poor farmers of the region," Shretha said, adding that the increased capacity of the youth and direct links with the revolving fund of the community organisations would ensure a sustained approach in tackling unemployment and creating new jobs.
"The programme implements four basic activities like a nine-month entrepreneurial literacy course; demand-driven vocational education and job placement; high-value agricultural training linked to markets; and scholarships for low caste or dalits for professional certificates that will lead to employment," he added.
Building on the core competencies of each programme, they will collaborate in assessing the need for job creation, developing and imparting applicable training for eligible youths and extending support for enterprise development and job creation through a collaborative programme.
"Under the arrangement, the youth of under-served region of the country will receive trainings in literacy, life skills, vocational education and agriculture trades including Non Timber Forest Product (NTFPs) production and sustainable harvesting, commercial farming and marketing of vegetables, and enterprise training along the agricultural value chains," Deppert said, adding that the targeted youth and poor farmers will be linked in a demand driven fashion to markets and trained in appropriate technologies related to the farming and marketing of vegetables and the processing of NTFPs including medicinal and aromatic plants.
The programme is designed to address key issues like poverty and is helping create a better future for Nepal by helping Nepali youth take the first step to secure a livelihood.
The PAF -- a national level development organisation working 'to help the poor find their way on a sustained path out of poverty' with a special focus in the economic development and poverty alleviation in the underserved districts of Nepal -- is a targeted, demand-driven and community based programme for the poor, and seeks to enable the poor, women and vulnerable groups to gain access to resources for their productive self-employment and encourage them to undertake income-generating activities for poverty alleviation and improved quality of life.
Till mid July, it has been able to organise 400,818 poor households in the form of 14,828 community organisations to pursue different income generation and infrastructure related projects in its 40 programme districts.
Similarly, USAID Nepal’s EIG Programme enables marginalised -- low caste, ethnic minority, conflict affected and/or female -- youth to earn income by building their skills and knowledge, and by linking them to employment opportunities. It works with over 70,000 individuals between the ages of 16-30 in all fifteen districts of the Mid-Western Region of Nepal.