Capacity building and job creation for youth and women in the textile sector in migration prone areas of the FDR of Ethiopia.
AID: 11112
Duration: 36 months (Multibilateral component and AICS-managed funds)
Total budget: € 3.500.000 of which:
€ 2.500.000 granted to UNIDO (multibilateral component)
€ 1.000.000 AICS-managed funds partly entrusted to Civil Society Organizations and partly used to cover expenditures linked to AICS Addis Ababa project monitoring and evaluation mission.
Beneficiary country: Ethiopia
Intervention areas: Tigray Region and Addis Ababa
Intervention sector: OCSE-DAC 32163 – Textiles, leather and substitutes
Objective: Supporting the Government of the FDR of Ethiopia in the creation of decent and productive job opportunities for young women and men through the development of strategic sectors such as the textile and garment industry
Description: The three-year project, “Capacity building and job creation for youth and women in the textile sector in migration prone areas of the FDR of Ethiopia” implemented by UNIDO is based on a Public-Private Partnership approach in order to increase the employability of the project beneficiaries in the Textile and Garment (T&G) sector. Considering the rapid T&G sector growth, several needs assessments will be conducted to identify technical and soft skills gaps in the target region. In order to face the identified gaps, the Mekelle Garment College – Centre of Excellence will be set up to provide specific technical and soft skills trainings to increase the employability for basic operators and middle level managers of T&G sector. The Centre is expected to improve the capacity of the system to create autonomously a sufficient amount of skilled workers to be rapidly hired by local companies. Capacity building and institutional support will be provided to Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and to the Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (ETIDI) as main National Institutions working on the T&G industry.
Furthermore, through the funds managed by AICS Addis Ababa, two different projects implemented by the Italian NGOs VIS and CVM were funded.
State of the art: During the first year of UNIDO’s project implementation, 486 basic sewing operators have been trained both in soft and technical skills and 400 of them have been hired by a local company upon the end of the training period. The procurement of the technical machineries has been completed and it is supposed that, starting from September 2019, the Mekelle Garment College – Centre of Excellence will be able to train up to 200 beneficiaries monthly, to be consequently hired by local companies. Technical and specific training have been performed for Trainers from the Centre of Excellence and from the T&G partners companies. The institutional and managerial skills of the Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (ETIDI) have been strengthened to improve coordination among the stakeholders and to enhance international competitiveness for the Ethiopian T&G industry. Some high level managers from ETIDI and MoTI participated to several international T&G sector fairs and attended a training focused on sustainable leadership. Finally, technical and soft skills manuals for basic sewing operators have been developed through the public and private partnership approach.
Added value: The projects aims to promote synergies between the emergency and development migration related initiatives of the Italian Cooperation and SINCE – Stemming Irregular Migration in Northern and Central Ethiopia, a EU programme delegated to Italy to which AICS is providing technical assistance.