Youth Entrepreneurship Development - Wau VTC

The Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) accords high priority to designing a “cohesive” approach to poverty alleviation, through comprehensive national policies and programmes on employment, growth with equity, rehabilitation and sustainable human resource development for productive employment.

In line with an Industrial Agenda for Poverty Relief and Transition to Sustainable Development and the Component Strategy to develop vocational training skills for technology acquisition and entrepreneurship development at MSE level, the project supports the rehabilitation of technical training centres, i.e. the Wau VTC, for its communities, and to alleviate poverty in a post–conflict environment, as experienced in Southern Sudan as a whole.  

This project acts to develop sustainable livelihoods and create productive employment opportunities through MSEs for young persons, including women, through the provision  of:

  • Vocational and technical skills training for apprenticeship programmes,
  • Skills training/upgrading courses,and
  • Trade testing activities.

within the context of the Wau Centre to be rehabilitated. The project creates a productive and private sector culture through vocational and technical training, which is market demand-driven to support youth entrepreneurship development (YED). 

With reference to the:

  • Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 1, 3, and 8,  focusing on targets
    • 16 (Productive Work for Youth), and
    • 18 (Private Sector Development),
  • Sudan Integrated Programme Development Strategy,
  • Sudan Integrated Programme Development Contingency Plan.

the project intends to improve the overall socio-economic standards of living of young persons, in particular those young displaced persons due to the consequences of war, through technology acquisition for small enterprise development.

Value is added by providing market demand-oriented skills for developing priority sub-sectors. However, as requested by the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), the initial focus of this project will be  on the immediate rehabilitation of the May VTC in Wau, and  on the provision of basic and advanced skills training in four areas of vocations

  • Mechanical and electrical engineering including auto repair,
  • Metal work and welding,
  • Lathing, and
  • Tailoring.

Technical vocational training provided combined with entrepreneurship development for job creation for at least 2,000 beneficiaries is presented with micro and small business (MSE) opportunities, in an integrated manner within the VTC programme. These skills will be essential for product and services development, expanding local economics and sustainable job creation for youngsters in the State of Wet Bahr El Ghazal, in dire need of recovery after a post- war era.