Chad

Provide good vocational training to improve living conditions and promote development

Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world. The population is very young; unemployment and underemployment are widespread. This project supports young people who have no access to schooling. On completion of their vocational training, they will be accompanied when they go out into the working world. Further to that, the project aims to improve the training quality and bring it more into line with the actual job market situation.

Country / Region / Place
Chad, Moyen-Chari, Mandoul and Logone-Orientale

Target Group
6 000 adolescents and young adults (incl. 2 400 girls or young women)

Funding Requirement
2'195'069 Swiss francs

Project Duration
01.05.2019 to 31.07.2023

Project Number
P190027

Project Objectives
Junge Frauen und Männer verbessern ihre Lebensbedingungen und tragen mit den in der Berufsbildung gewonnenen technischen und unternehmerischen Kompetenzen in ihren Gemeinschaften zur sozioökonomischen Entwicklung und Ernährungssicherheit bei

Background Information

Chad is the largest inland country on the African continent. The 2018 Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) ranked the country 186th out of 189 countries: it is thus one of the poorest in the world. The scarcely diversified economy depends heavily on the oil industry, but the great majority of the population is active in agriculture. The central location in the Sahel Belt makes Chad structurally vulnerable to food insecurity and water shortages. At the same time, many migrants are fleeing from insecure neighbouring countries to the relative safety of Chad. Two thirds of the population of Chad can neither read nor write, and only half of the population has access to clean drinking water. There is also gender inequality. Women are strongly discriminated against.

Children and adolescents are particularly hard hit by these poor conditions. Under-18s represent half of the population (49.3%), but this proportion is continuing to increase due to the very high fertility rate and a significant drop in child mortality. The strong population growth and the troubled economy have an impact on the education of young people and their integration into the job market. Three quarters of young Chadians enter the job market today without having completed primary education. The limited state social benefits, the poor quality of school education and the scarcely existent opportunities on the job market paint a bleak picture. The job market, which is strongly shaped by the informal sector, is unable to absorb an increasing number of young people with inadequate education. Today, for them, the problem of unemployment and underemployment is particularly acute. The strong population growth will further increase the number of young people who will have to be trained and integrated into the job market.

A state vocational training system (SVTS) is in place, but it suffers from very unequal access and inadequate quality of training. In practice, the system is proving to be too inefficient because it does not adequately address the needs of either the local or national economy. In addition, the SVTS is struggling with a low level of ‘ownership recognition’ by local authorities and an unclear vision of the various public and private actors concerning VT in general. Finally, the state also lacks the financial resources, mechanisms and instruments to successfully design the SVTS.

Caritas Switzerland has been active in Chad for many years. In the 1980s, after operating primarily in the humanitarian field in the 1970s, it became increasingly involved in development cooperation work. The interventions of Caritas Switzerland in rural areas are all based on two central approaches: the promotion of sustainable use of natural resources, and of local economic development.

What are we doing?

The project is being implemented under the mandate entitled “Formation et Insertion des jeunes au Tchad” (FORMI) for the Directorate for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs and is in four phases to be implemented over a period of twelve years. The completed implementation phase (2017-2019) is seamlessly followed by the first implementation phase (2019 - 2023).

Caritas Switzerland is implementing this project within a consortium, jointly with Swisscontact. The latter has many years of experience in the area of training and professional integration of young people and adults. Caritas Switzerland will contribute its expertise in the field of food security and markets, since the project focus is on vocational training in the area of agricultural and small-scale industry.
The aim of the project is to improve the access of adolescents and young adults to fair and diversified training courses, at the same time improving the training quality. The educational offerings are to be focussed more on the job market (relevance), and public and private actors should be strengthened in their work with the young people. Finally, it is also important to create access to vocational guidance and financial and non-financial services to support the integration of the young people into the job market.
In the planning phase, studies were carried out to determine the relevant actors, the locally important occupational fields and their potential for the development of training modules, as well as a study of the training courses that are currently in demand in actual practice. In addition, an in-depth inventory was compiled of the Chad training system, professional integration, and the economy, both at national level and in the regions of Moyen-Chari, Mandoul and Logone-Orientale; also, the first basic training and further training courses were launched. There is also a platform under construction for those active in the training sphere. The experience gained flows into the implementation of the further phases.

The first implementation phase provides for the development of job-specific training programmes, as well as measures for an accompanied entry into the job market for young men and women. This includes, for example, the introduction of an agricultural training system. Existing programmes are being extended and developed to incorporate further project areas, whereby the integration of various actors into the state vocational training system is supported. Regarding the job search by young adults, structural improvements through counselling, strong efforts are being made to achieve an intensified exchange between employers and employees and an improved course programme. In addition to private actors, public institutions also offer training programmes. The programmes are tailored to the demands of the economy, reinforce independence and reduce poverty among the young population.

The project also benefits from synergies with other Caritas Switzerland projects, which are also being implemented in Chad and, in some cases, even in the same provinces. One of these projects is the SDC mandate "Soutien au développement des filières karité et arachide au Tchad" (short: SODEFIKA; 2015 - 2027) on food security and markets; and another project, funded by the European Union, aims at a sustainable improvement of the living conditions of the indigenous population and of displaced persons (2018 – 2021). All of Caritas Switzerland's projects in Chad are implemented in close cooperation with the Government, various local partner organizations (some of which associations have already lasted many years), and actors from the private sector.

This project is supported by: