a project being;
Empowering Disadvantaged Youth (10? 24years) through Climate Smart Climate
Smart Approaches for Reintegration and Social Inclusion.Liberia is youthful with 63% of the youth under 25 years and 79% under 36 years. This youthful age structure is marked by very high poverty leading to a high youth dependency ratio estimated at 77.6. This population cohort is continuously suffering beyond the bottom of the poverty line due to long term socio-economic and development neglect and deprivation. The disadvantaged youth in the context of this project include youth and young people that are drugs and substance abusers who have mental health issues because their involvement in risky behaviors to themselves and others, youth and young people that live in slum communities and suffered acute psychosocial issues. These groups are a combination of a) ex-combatants who are unskilled and unemployed/under-employed; b) young people living and working on the streets; c) those who have

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left their homes because of substance use; abandonment by parents, or trafficked by guardians or themselves are parents of children that are replicating the behaviors of their parent.

The civil war in Liberia ended approximately 20 years ago, but the scars of conflict and their associated defects continue to affect underprivileged youth, some of whom were child soldiers. One of the most pressing problems in Liberia is youth unemployment. At present, of the estimated 79 percent of the population aged 15-36, as high as about 85 percent are unemployed. Youth poverty and exclusion, which was already widespread and increasing, has been exacerbated by the negative impact of the COVID-19 on daily livelihood and economic activities; thereby reinforcing other pre-existing vulnerabilities. With more than 85% unemployed, hunger and unrest could potentially build up in many slum communities that have been locked down in the absence of social safety nets to protect the poor and vulnerable groups from the economic fall out of the COVID-19. The heightened economic hardships coupled with the closure of existing youth employment programs have the potential to threaten the gains made in maintaining peace and stability in Liberia including the inability of state actors to protect the citizenry from the threat to lives and property that may arise as a result of the huge number of youths on drugs, theft and arm robbery. The project will learn and build on existing projects to engage disadvantaged youth in building and sustaining peace within their communities and ensuring social inclusion through behavioral change communication and awareness and economic livelihood skills training to facilitate reintegration.

The Empowering Disadvantaged Youth (10?24years) through Climate Smart Approaches for Reintegration and Social Inclusion aims to use community-led approaches to transform the lives of disadvantaged/at-risk youth who at the fringes of society as a result of drugs abuse or substance use. The Project will blend psychosocial support, agriculture and health services with economic livelihood skills (including energy efficient way to preserve fish and cultivation of the organization`s land for vegetable crops for sale on the market,) and peace-building training as empowering tools for social reintegration and social inclusion of disadvantaged youth into their communities and families. The interventions will use a three-phase approach to achieve the overall objectives. The three phases include:
1. Psychosocial and rehabilitation Phase
2. Economic Livelihood Skills training
3. Social reintegration into communities/community co-existence.
A total of 20 disadvantaged youth will be targeted for the first phase. It is expected that all 20 will complete the training.

The 20 disadvantaged youth from two of many Ghettos in Paynesville (Parker paint, Goba-Chop Market and Mount Barclay) will be targeted by the Project. The rehabilitation and empowerment of the disadvantaged youth is aligned with the GEF/SGP Country Programme Strategy in that it will enable them engage in more productive activity, contribute to a change in community perception about them and facilitate their reintegration and socio-inclusion into families, communities and the society at large.

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