Plan Worldwide Annual Review and Combined Financial ...

Plan’s global spend in 2012
€39 million
Indonesia
Preparing young people for
good jobs
Paraguay
Children learn to manage financial and
natural resources
€
Togo
Village savings groups offer health
insurance
ECONOMIC SECURITY
In Indonesia, eight million young people under the age
of 24 – nearly 20 per cent of Indonesia’s young people
– are unemployed and unequipped for work. This makes
them vulnerable to poverty, hazardous lifestyles and
exploitation – especially girls. Plan works at the highest
levels and in local communities to provide unemployed
young people with the vocational and life-skills training,
job opportunities or financial services they need to get
a job or start viable businesses.
As a result of our advocacy, Indonesia adopted our
Youth Economic Empowerment approach (YEE) in
its National Action Plan for Youth Employment and
integrated it into its Development Plan for 2010-2014.
The World Bank also recommended YEE as a model for
international organisations.
Meanwhile, a public-private partnership between YEE,
Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency and
other government agencies is enabling 12,000 young
people – 90 per cent of them female – to find good
jobs through integrated skills training, competency
certification and job placement. Sari Pujiastuti, a
21-year-old woman, said: “I really liked the YEE lifeskills
training. It taught me to speak out in public
and ask questions. So, in my current work, if I’m not
clear about something, I’m not shy to ask.” Sari now
works as a sewing operator in a garment factory.
In Guairá state, children are discovering that the right
to economic security and the responsibility to preserve
natural resources go hand in hand.
Working with the state Ministry of Education and Culture
and local NGOs, Plan is providing social and financial
education to empower children to take action in their
communities, manage resources wisely and develop
skills that will make them economically independent.
We have delivered training in social and financial
education to 150 teachers in 29 schools. As a result,
1,200 children aged six to 14 are learning about issues
including personal development, their rights, how to care
for the environment, and how to plan for the future.
“Our goal is to work with Plan in every community
within our state,” says the Secretary for the
Environment in Guairá. “We are looking for people to
become interested in natural resources. Changing
attitudes is easier if we educate children. They show
great enthusiasm and encourage adults to maintain a
healthy environment.”
The Ministry of Education and Culture has established
a technical team to incorporate social and financial
education into the state curriculum and will share results
with other states, with a view to incorporating the
programme in the national curriculum.
In Togo, children are often denied their rights, including
the right to healthcare, because of poverty. To enable
households to save for urgent needs, invest in incomegenerating
activities and pay for healthcare, education,
water and sanitation, Plan established 1,070 village
savings and loan associations in 151 communities.
Of the 27,000 members, 82 per cent are women.
Even with their improved finances, few of the members
could afford health insurance. So we introduced
community health insurance for association members
in two districts, working in partnership with international
NGO Louvain Développement, local NGOs RADAR and
ADESCO and the Togolese Government. The scheme
was so successful that we have now extended it to three
more districts.
Tchilalo Atche Simtaro, 25, joined an association in 2009.
She took a loan to sell beer and charcoal and began using
the profits to pay for health insurance. When she was
pregnant with her youngest child, Maurice, she needed
a caesarean. The insurance covered the entire cost, plus
setting the baby’s broken bone.
“I could have died, and my baby too. Our lives are
changing, and we are happy,” says Tchilalo. “My baby
is healthy, I am healthy too.” Her husband Akparo
agrees, adding: “Today we’re not afraid to go to
the hospital.”
‹ Members receiving loans at a village savings and loan association meeting in Burkina Faso
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