SNV Rwanda partners with MYICT to boost youth employment

SNV Rwanda signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Rwanda’s Ministry of Youth and ICT (MYICT) on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 aiming to improve the livelihoods of out-of-school youth by creating employment and self-employment opportunities in the Renewable Energy sector.

This programme is under The "Opportunities for Youth Employment" (OYE) project, implemented by SNV in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation. The OYE project is a regional programme that is targeting to improve skills training in Agribusiness and Renewable Energy for 20,500 disadvantaged young people in Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania; where at least 80 percent of those young people will be employed or will start their own business in high-growth agriculture and Renewable Energy sectors over 5 years (2014-2018).

In Rwanda MYICT and SNV partnership will join forces to support the project with the aim to improve the livelihoods of out-of-school youth by creating employment and self-employment opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

“We are excited to work with The Ministry of Youth and ICT, contributing to the economic development and poverty reduction by equipping young people to take charge of their own development through promising careers in sustainable Renewable Energy sector where employment opportunities are emerging!” - Mrs Phomolo Maphosa, SNV Rwanda Country Director

The outreach target is estimated at 4000 young people (trained and employable), of which at least 2,500 young men and women will be placed in employment with 70 new youth-led Renewable Energy established enterprises over the next 4 years. For Rwanda, employment focus will be mainly within Biogas, Improved Cooking Stoves (ICS) and related sectors such as briquette production and biogas slurry, pico- hydro and the solar sector.

“We have geared up efforts to tackle youth unemployment by working with various partners; this MoU will be assisting us to do several activities at a go primarily to protect our environment and creating jobs for youth - which are both important pillars of Rwanda's sustainable development strategy.” - Hon. Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Rwanda’s Minister of Youth and ICT

SNV and MYICT partnership will also cover a capacity building support of 40 Youth in ICT application in the coffee sector including promotion of specially designed mobile application and smart phones for collecting and uploading the voices of 10,000 smallholder coffee farmers and will provide relevant skills in beekeeping to support 500 farmers including 50% youth and women in starting beekeeping group enterprises.

The employment projections are based on the expected growth of Renewable Energy and Agriculture sectors and associated labour requirements as per the development plans of the Government of Rwanda.