Khartoum  State has seen rapid urbanisation since the 1970s, largely as the result of a mass rural-to-urban migration of a young population, caused by the combined impact of the civil war with the South, desertification and drought. Furthermore, poverty in a post-conflict environment has manifested itself in difficulty of access to basic needs, notably to food, water, shelter, clothing, health, education, training and productive jobs. One of the root causes of persistent poverty and unrest consists in already high and further growing unemployment and underemployment rates, particularly among the young population. In addition, an estimated two million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), almost 28% of the State’s population, currently reside within the State, many without productive jobs and skills training.

It is in this context that the Governor of Khartoum State approached UNIDO for technical assistance to build capacities for YED. However, the existing VTCs are in a dilapidated state, requiring rehabilitation and refurbishment. Therefore, implementation should address renovation and rehabilitation of existing VTCs in Khartoum State in parallel with MSE/PSD development. A systematic link between skills training and market demands for entrepreneurship development is required in order to generate employment, increase productivity, and create an entrepreneurial culture. The State Government of Khartoum is committed to address this development challenge by improving urban poor livelihoods through supporting vocational training, YED and enterprise set up. This project is proposed to assist the State of Khartoum in these endeavours.

The European Commission (EC/Sudan) has proposed to fund this project. It has requested UNIDO to implement this project through existing VTCs to be rehabilitated, in order to develop sustainable livelihoods and create productive employment opportunities for young persons in Khartoum State, including women and IDPs.

This proposal for Khartoum State should be considered as an extension of UNIDO’s assistance and current support provided to Sudan, i.e. Wau and Malakal VTC, to effectively rehabilitate and revitalise its VTCs for job creation through YED. The proposed project for Khartoum  State will be implemented by UNIDO because of its technical and managerial expertise in setting up capacity building programmes for YED in various technical sectors, in line with the requirements for MSE development and job creation. Reference should be made to the ongoing UNIDO technical assistance and experiences gained in Malakal to include YED in the VTC. This is unique in Southern Sudan. UNIDO’s comparative advantage is based on its current assistance to Malakal in the Upper Nile State to rehabilitate and build capacities at its VTC. This has resulted in maintaining a good network of national and international expertise for training, public-private linkages for job creation, strategy formulation and technology transfer for vocational and technical training, curriculum development and support programmes for YED, which would also be used for the implementation in Khartoum State.

The strategy of this project is to develop sustainable livelihoods and create productive employment opportunities for IDPs and youngsters, including women, through the rehabilitation of vocational and technical skills training, apprenticeship programmes, and skills upgrading courses, as well as trade testing activities to be combined with YED/business development. The project will assist in building up a pool of innovative professional skills and establish competitive thinking among entrepreneurs to facilitate the production and marketing. This project will link skills training to employment following a strategy with two core components:

     1. Capacity Building in seven Vocational Training Centres in Khartoum State, and

     2. Vocational Training in IDP areas to promote entrepreneurial and business development activities.

The project will focus on institutional strengthening of NGOs/CBOs and capacity building of partners that will continue to provide subsequent business support services including training after completion of the project (after assistance period).

With reference to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) #1, #3, and #8 with a focus on target #16 (Productive Work for Youth) and target #18 (Private Sector Development), the Sudan Integrated Programme Development Strategy and its 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 enterprise development. Value addition will be brought about by providing market demand-oriented skills for developing priority sub-sectors to be identified by the project.

The implementation period of the proposed project is twenty-one (21) months. Implementation is planned to start in April 2007. The project is part of a larger EC assistance framework for Sudan, which holds until the end of 2008.