Komor Initiative – Project to Strengthen the Guidance-Training-Integration Continuum for Youth in the Union of the Comoros

The Union of the Comoros is faced with major challenges for its development, in particular due to the low level of economic diversification and an increased vulnerability to external shocks. To address these issues, the Government has expressed its strong determination to develop skilled expertise. This should lead to substantial and effective investments in overhauling the vocational training and integration system. The Government has set the following priorities:

• Promote formal training and assist young people in the integration process
• Develop women’s entrepreneurship (support for the creation/modernisation of companies) 
• Facilitate access to the labour market for vulnerable groups.

The objective is to give Comorian people the means to look towards their future by strengthening the qualification of young people, and particularly women. It also aims to develop professionalisation and entrepreneurship through existing systems, whose provision and quality will be strengthened.

France and the Union of the Comoros signed a Framework Partnership Agreement on 22 July 2019 in Paris. It is accompanied by a France-Comoros Development Plan (FCDP) for €150 million, committed by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for 2019-2021.

In accordance with the implementation methods of the FCDP programmes, Agence Française de Développement has entrusted Expertise France with the outsourced direct contracting authority and the implementation of the Komor Initiative (KI) project, which will last 54 months (2020-2024) and has a total amount of €8.5 million.

The main objective of the Komor Initiative project is to stimulate access to employment for young Comorians, by building their capacities and skills through the modernisation of the socio-professional training system and structuring of integration and employment support mechanisms.

The programme will support a continuum of guidance-training-integration-employment support activities by:

1. Helping public and private stakeholders in training and integration position themselves in the system.
2. Strengthening links between technical and vocational training, integration and the world of work.

In line with the investments that will be implemented under the FCDP, the priority sectors targeted are as follows: agriculture, the craft industry, construction, civil engineering, tourism, energy, transport, ICT.

Diagnostic and feasibility studies were conducted in 2019. In this context, meetings to share and hold discussions were organised with the authorities and public and private stakeholders.

The opportunity study provided an exhaustive vision of the organisation of the training and integration system and its coordination with the main employment-rich sectors.

The feasibility study has defined the objectives, the implementation conditions of the Komor Initiative project and the necessary resources, with a strong involvement of all the relevant stakeholders in order to address the needs and opportunities identified. Emerging projects and structuring activities to build the capacities of the sector have also been identified at the level of both the public and private operators and at the institutional level.

Component 1: Support emerging initiatives and pilot operators in the guidance-training-integration continuum

• Direct support to two or three ongoing projects which have produced initial concrete results in one of the project’s priority sectors: guidance, training and employment support
• Launch of one or two calls for projects open to any public organisation (UCCIA, craft centres, municipalities...) or private organisation (NGOs, private training centres, companies, cooperatives, etc.), except for the organisations which will receive direct operational and financial support from the project.

Component 2: Support national structuring activities

• Opportunity studies on the diversification of service provision in relation to training: identification of “green” economic opportunities (or “new occupations”) in relation to existing vocational training; feasibility studies on the creation of new services for the operationalisation of two training centres and the design of a pre-training system
• Strengthen existing training provision: capacity building for public training centres; development of innovative teaching approaches (field school, mobile training, modular training, etc.); promotion of training engineering in the workplace; diversification of public service provision
• Strengthen traditional training with a view to qualifications for young people  
• Implement mechanisms to support young people towards sustained occupational integration: definition of business repositories for pedagogical integration advisors (PIA) and deployment of the first PIA trained; implementation of post-training support mechanisms for young people
• Experimentation of learning pathways and support at the regional level (inter-municipal).

Component 3: Support national structuring activities

• Strengthen the governance of training and occupational integration: at the regulatory level (approvals of training centres and qualifications for young workers) and at the interministerial, partnership and operational levels (capacity building for institutions responsible for guidance-training-integration)
• Strengthen management and monitoring mechanisms for integration: strengthen the Employment Observatory at the Employment Centre (MDE) and operationalise the information and training-employment management system (SIGFE).