The Sitaram Rao Livelihoods Asia Case Study Competition 2015

Skilling Asia- Equipping youth for Employment- Theme for 2015

Asia, with a population of over 4 billion, accounts for approximately 56% of the world’s population. With an average age of 29 years, about 64% of the total population comprises the working age group in the continent (United Nations, 2001).  South Asia, especially as defined by World Bank, will add 1 to 1.2 m new entrants to the labour force every year for the next 20 years, and be a source of about 40% of the new entrants to the world’s working age population. 

The Asian region is swiftly evolving and in turn producing multiple challenges for skills development . Asia is home to numerous transitioning economies which are shifting from agriculture to industry and services, from centrally planned to market economies and new technologies are getting introduced into the market place. In the recent past there has been a growing concern regarding the rising rate of unemployment and a skills and employability mismatch that skews and exacerbates the problem. This has been fuelled by the rapid fluctuation in available jobs and demand for skills given the changes in industries and technology and demands of the “new economy”. Appropriately the need of the hour is not only for producing appropriately skilled human resources but also for skills development to address the challenge of inclusive growth. The focus must be on improving the quality and relevance of skills while also strengthening the inclusiveness of skills training so as to advance economic and social growth on an equal platform.  The cultural, ethnic, historical and environmental diversity across Asian regions provides a range of opportunities and experiences  in skilling reforms and development, with different countries tackling the issue in their own unique way.  

Although the role of governments is extremely important in setting up policies and environment for skills development, it is essential to include public–private partnerships in Technical and Vocational Education and Training development and delivery.

The Sitaram Rao Livelihoods Asia Case Study Competition 2015 invites cases that have demonstrated breakthroughs in adopting new strategies, new models and forging new partnerships towards providing gainful employment to a large number of youth in countries in the Asian region. The competition seeks cases on skills programs that have adapted to the needs of the excluded, taking into account exclusion patterns and contributing factors. The case study should comprehensively describe the skill development initiative, covering the following:

- Socio-economic conditions and needs of the focus groups within which the programme was initiated and implemented;
- Nature of skill development intervention, and strategies of the skill development agency;
- Innovation adopted if any
- Impact of the initiative;
- Factors that contributed to the success of the programme;
- Number of gainful employment provided
- Critical challenges faced; and
- Issues and challenges in achieving scale and sustainability and efforts made through the initiative to address them

Eligible institutions
 
- NGOs
- Private Sector
- Government Institutions
- Public Sector Institutions

How to apply?

All participants are requested to send an abstract of maximum 800 words of their case studies by August 17th, 2015 to livelihoodsasia@accessdev.org.
 
Abstracts will be reviewed and a shortlist will be announced on August 24th, 2015.
 
The shortlisted candidates will be requested to send the full case study, not exceeding 5000 words, by October 12th, 2015.
 
Once the final cases come in, they will be reviewed and 10 best cases would be selected.
 
The authors of the 10 best cases will be invited for a presentation before an eminent Jury where the top 3 cases will be selected (tentatively in the first week of November)
 
The top 3 case study authors will receive cash prizes and a compendium of the 10 best cases will be released during the Livelihoods Asia Summit 2015.
 
Please go through the details of the competition on our website http://www.accessdev.org/lh-li-case-study.php before sending in your registrations. For any clarifications, please contact us at ila@accessdev.org