Colombia - Youth Development Project

Report No. PID6476 Project Name Colombia -Youth Development Project Region Latin America and the Caribbean Sector Social Protection Project ID COPA50576 Borrower Republic of Colombia Implementing Agency Vice Ministerio de la Juventud Ministerio de Educacion Nacional Sante Fe de Bogota Colombia Tel: 571-3157399 Fax: 571-3157366 Appraisal Date March 1, 1998 Board Date July 1, 1998 1. Main Issues The lives of youths in Colombia are a reflection of the tremendous social and economic upheaval of past decades, characterized by massive rural-to-urban migration, high rates of unemployment, a disintegration of traditional forms of social cohesion and a rise in violence. Against this difficult setting there are four main interrelated issues which warrant highlighting: - High levels of school drop out. For younger adolescents (10-14) the main policy concern is preventing premature entry into the labor force. While Colombia has made important strides in expanding educational coverage, the goal of universal coverage (9 years) remains to be realized. The secondary enrollment rate is only 50 percent, which represents over 2.5 million children who are not attending school. As women increasingly work outside the home and as single parent families become the norm in Colombia's slums, youths are forced to fill adult roles and supplement family incomes. Early entry into the labor force is an important factor that tends to adversely affect school attendance and human capital formation. An empirical analysis carried out as part of project preparation illustrated the importance of lack of community and social capital on school drop out. The analysis showed that neighborhood conflict and drug problems, lack of access to reading materials and abuse and drug problems (proxies for social capital) are among the most important factors associated with school drop out. The results suggest that increased investment in human capital (education, health) is critical but not sufficient. Failure to address the community and social effects on individual attainment will limit the benefits of the investments, underscoring the importance of complementary interventions to strengthen social capital and promote conviviencia. - Lack of employment opportunities. For older adolescents (15-19) the inability to find employment presents a major problem. In 1992, the unemployment rate for youth under twenty was 25 percent while that for twenty to twenty-nine year olds was 15 percent, with the female unemployment rate nearly double that of their male counterparts. Of particular concern is the sizable proportion of youth (one quarter of 12 to 24 year-olds) who do not work or attend school, representing a measure of idleness.  - Rising levels of violence, teenage pregnancy, and drug addiction. The morbidity and mortality pattern in adolescence is characterized by the predominance of violence related homicides (which represent about 76 percent of all deaths among youth), accidents and traumas for males and by reproductive health problems for females (i.e. teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases). With the rise in drug trafficking during recent decades, some youth have become easy prey for gang leaders and drug lords who offer alternative role models and easy opportunities for quick rewards. These gangs have emerged in slums where residents are condemned to the world of informality with the rights and obligations of citizenship often lacking. Drawing on results from household surveys, the social capital paper analyzed the importance of these issues. In Bogota, for example, violence (e.g. gang activities, robberies) was reported by families of 29 percent of children aged 7 to 17 years, ranging from 14 to 43 percent across alcaldias. Considering urban areas as a whole, the proportion of children aged 7 to 17 years whose families reported neighborhood problems with gangs was close to 40 percent. For teenage girls, adolescent parenthood has staggering personal costs, even though it is often regarded as a way of raising their status in society. With the rise in teenage pregnancy from 21 percent in 1976 to 32 percent in 1986 this is an issue which warrants attention. Drug addiction also requires attention as it represents not only an immediate health danger but involves long-run damage. - Fragmentation, limited capacity, and poor access to existing youth programs. Youth serving programs are delivered both through the government (e.g. Presidency, ICBF, Ministries of Health and Education) and non- governmental organizations (NGOs such as Fundacion FES, Fundacion Sociale, Fundacion Servicio Juvenil), which have a long standing tradition of working with Colombian youth. Key activities/programs include: (i) curriculum reform, to integrate sex education and drug and crime prevention themes; (ii) employment generation; (iii) health service delivery to deal with teen pregnancy, STDs and AIDS; and (iv) democratization and citizenship building initiatives, to build self esteem and facilitate the integration of marginalized youth into society. As found in other countries, youth-serving programs in Colombia tend to suffer from: (i) a heavy focus on single themes rather than integrated actions; (ii) limited implementation capabilities and scope of activities, reaching small numbers of youth; (iii) variable quality; and (iv) a bias in favor of curative care rather than prevention (i.e. most programs focus on children already suffering from teen pregnancy, sexual abuse, violence, and drug abuse rather than preventing these problems in the first place). The successful programs include the following features: strong private sector participation (NGOs, businesses), flexible entry and exit points, and youth participation in the design, implementation and evaluation of the programs. 2. Project Development Objective The project development objective is to test and evaluate alternative multi-sectorial and participatory approaches to developing and delivering services and providing activities for low-income youth. 3. Project Description National Component: Institutional Strengthening This component would support the establishment of a national institutional framework to: (i) deliver -2 -  technical assistance for the design and evaluation of local multi-sectorial programs for low-income youth through the Vice Ministry of Youth and its collaborators (NGOs, research organizations, foundations); (ii) operate a learning network to disseminate best practices; and (iii) support the establishment of a national evaluation system, including design of instruments, protocols and indicators, provision of technical assistance to municipal teams, and design and introduction of strategies to feed the results from the evaluation system into the learning network. This component would fund: (a) technical assistance and training to design and operate the evaluation system and the learning network, and to assist municipalities with various aspects of program design, implementation and evaluation; (b) seminars, publications, and communication strategies to disseminate results from the evaluation and learning activities; and (c) goods, equipment, supplies, materials, and logistical support for carrying out studies and surveys and establishing the learning network. Municipal Component This component supports the design and implementation of the service integration schemes at the local level. The municipal component consists of the following two sub-components: Network Establishment: The Network Establishment Sub-Component would support the establishment of Consejos Municipales (Municipal Councils), which will be responsible for developing an implementation plan for service integration, formalizing terms of agreement among local service providers and overseeing the monitoring, evaluation and learning activities. Project financing would be used for: (i) workshops and focus group discussions for the activities of the municipal councils; (ii) technical assistance and training for the preparation of the implementation plans and for the evaluation and learning activities; and (iii) seminars, publications, communication strategies and logistical support for disseminating best practices. Municipal councils would include representatives of local agencies working on youth issues (e.g. schools, health facilities, social services), business and private sector leaders, and civil society (e.g. NGOs, youth, parents). The specific composition of the councils would be driven by the types of service integration schemes to be designed in each municipality. Service Provision & Youth Activities: This sub-component would support the execution of the implementation plan for improved and/or new services and activities for low-income youth. Integrated services would be implemented using the following types of service delivery strategies: (i) providing multiple services in a pre-existing location using a one-stop shopping approach; (ii) co-locating services in multiple sites; or (iii) establishing a linked network of youth services through joint referral and programming activities and a co-sponsored transportation system for getting youth from one service provider to the next. The services to be funded would not replace or substitute services that are already provided by traditional service sectors (e.g. education, health, employment). The municipal sub-projects, to be carried out through contractual agreements with local public and private service providers, would include the following types of interventions as part of the service integration schemes: (a) School Retention and Educational Support for Out-of-School Youth or Youth at Risk of Dropping out of the Formal Education System: -Systems for identifying youth who may be at increased risk for school drop- out. -Alternative diploma systems that allow out-of-school youth to receive high school equivalency degrees and/or remedial education instead of returning to - 3-  the formal school system. -Tutoring and counseling for youth to assist them to stay in school. -Student government and other means for youth to feel more connected to the public education system and their school. (b) Employment Promotion: -Information on vocational training options, and job opportunities in their local community. -Job orientation provided as part of the secondary school curriculum. -Vocational counseling and orientation for out-of-school youth. -Agreements with the local private sector to provide on-the-job training, job shadowing and other avenues for low-income youth to become familiar with the formal workplace. (c) Health Prevention and Promotion: -Life skills training to learn problem solving and assertiveness. -Health outreach services. -School-based services. -Peer mentoring for disseminating health messages in settings most frequented by youth. (d) Civic Participation, Community Service and Youth Participation: -Youth involvement in the community, including holding local fora for youth on community needs. -Opportunities for youth to plan and carry out their own projects in community service. -Activities in which parents, families and youth participate jointly, such as local cultural events. 4. Project Financing The total project cost is estimated at US$7.8 million, of which the Bank loan would consist of US$5.0. Out of the total local costs, the central Government would contribute 20 percent and the participating municipalities roughly 16 percent. 5. Project Implementation The executing agency is the Vice Ministry of Youth Affairs of the Ministry of Education. 6. Project Sustainability Attention has been given to ensuring that the project design is consistent with the technical, financial, and institutional capabilities of the implementing agencies, and thus sustainable beyond the life of the project. Sustainability of the project depends on several factors: (i) participating municipalities buying into the project and having the political will to invest their own funds in continuing project activities; (ii) NGOs and local governmental agencies being able to generate sufficient resources through government and private sector channels to sustain the project; and (iii) municipalities and the Vice Ministry of Youth acquiring the ability to promote and sustain intersectoral collaboration at the national and municipal level and service integration at the local level. The project was designed to maximize the probability that these conditions would materialize. By enlisting the support of youth and community members from the initial stage of project design through the implementation phase this should facilitate sustainability of the project. Likewise, by avoiding infrastructure construction and investing in the long-term institutional capabilities of -4 -  local youth-serving actors --NGOs, schools, public agencies working in health and vocational training-- the project increases the chance of being sustainable in the long-run. Ultimately, the chances for sustainability will rest on the willingness of local actors to collaborate, and to institutionalize that process. 7. Lessons Learned - Project design reflects lessons learned through the design and implementation of similar youth-serving programs in international settings. Key ingredients of success include: - Promoting community-wide multi-agency collaborative arrangements, which tap resources available within communities to take advantage of potential economies of scale and multiplier effects. Project proposes to use this strategic approach, supporting community-based interventions, which tend to be more flexible, responsive and accessible. - Fostering strong ties to private sector, both to generate higher placement rates and to raise additional funding. - Ensuring early involvement of youth and their families/communities at design and planning stage has been shown to be critical to enlisting their support and facilitating sustainability. - Promoting use of peers as role models and mentors, which has been instrumental in increasing acceptability of program messages in other settings. - Using a one-stop shopping approach, which provides access to services through one site but not necessarily under the same roof. As discussed above, the approach being used is to operate programs out of existing community facilities (e.g. after-school hours where feasible; community centers, where available, etc) with referral mechanisms to other service providers. - Supporting interventions which strengthen family and community social capital, with a view to reducing the probability of school dropout and reaping the maximum benefits of schooling as well as building trust amongst stakeholders. - Setting realistic goals, which can be attained in the medium-term. International experience with youth-serving programs has shown that the types of organizational and behavioral changes which are required for service integrated schemes require up to 3 years to get up and running and to ensure broad based acceptability of the new ways of doing business. - Having a dynamic central coordinating unit, which maintains political support for project, raises funds, and sets minimum criteria for local sites. Valuable lessons have also been generated through the implementation of the Bank's social sector portfolio (i.e. 6 education and 5 health/nutrition operations). Key lessons include: (i) incorporating monitoring and evaluation components in project design, (ii) locating project facilities in poor neighborhoods to facilitate access and acceptability, (iii) ensuring simplicity in design; and (iv) minimizing complex inter-institutional arrangements. The project design addresses the first two lessons by incorporating a first rate evaluation system and by operating at the community level with high levels of participation. On the latter issues, the intrinsic nature of the service integration approach involves complex inter- institutional arrangements, which are viewed as high risk/high reward. - 5 -  8. Environmental Aspects No adverse environmental impact is expected, as project is unlikely to involve civil works. 9. Program Objective Categories: The primary category is institutional building. Contact Point: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone No. (202)458 5454 Fax No. (202) 522 1500 Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain activities and/or components may not be included in the final project. Processed by the InfoShop week ending June 5, 1998. - 6 -