The four-year Haiti Youth Reconstruction Academy project, with a total estimated cost of US$9.3 million, will be carried out by the Haitian NGO IDEJEN.

WASHINGTON, United States, Wednesday January 19, 2011 - The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)announced a US$4 million grant for a project to provide job training to 9,000 unemployed and out-of-school young Haitians.

The four-year Haiti Youth Reconstruction Academy project, with a total estimated cost of US$9.3 million, will be carried out by the Haitian NGO IDEJEN. The MasterCard Foundation, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Education Development Center, and Catholic Relief Services are also partners in  the project.

The project will offer young men and women ages 15 to 24 six months of intensive job training, mentoring, life skills development and literacy and numeracy courses. YouthBuild International, a U.S. non-profit with a long track record in training unemployed young adults in applied work skills, will support the project’s design and implementation.

Trainees will receive stipends for participating in community construction projects such as rebuilding houses, schools or sanitary blocks. To promote financial responsibility and management skills, the project will match every dollar saved by the trainees with two dollars in a savings account which they will be able to access upon graduation.

The project will establish partnerships with local governments, businesses and organizations to recruit mentors for its trainees as well as to find internship and employment opportunities for graduates. IDEJEN will follow up on its alumni for six months after their graduation, providing guidance as they pursue jobs, further education or vocational training, or start their own businesses.

In addition, the project will finance the improvement of the facilities, equipment and operations of the 12 community-based centers where the training will take place. The teaching manuals and monitoring and evaluation tools developed by the project will be provided to the Haitian Ministry of Education’s National Institute of Vocational Training.

MIF, part of the Inter-American Development Bank group, promotes economic growth and poverty reduction through private sector development, focusing on microenterprises and small and medium-size businesses. Since the 2010 earthquake it has approved more than US$16 million in grants to support projects in Haiti, with an emphasis on jobs and income generation.