Fragile states are commonly described asincapable of assuring security, maintaining rule of law and justice, orproviding basic services and economic opportunities for their citizens. In recognition of theempirical and normative shortcomings of the term ‘fragile states’, developmentagencies are now increasingly favouring the much broader terminology of‘fragility’, ‘situations of fragility’ or ‘fragile context’. These terms arealso seen to better capture the fact that fragility is not exclusivelydetermined by the nature and boundaries of states – there is a need to lookbeyond, into the state of society in both assessing and addressing fragility.
Careful analysis of the situation
Like for any project a careful analysis of thesituation is a mandatory first step. In addition to stakeholder, labour market,and TVET system analysis a thorough analysis of conflict and security aspectsis decisive in order to avoid instrumentalization by conflict parties ordiscrimination of specific groups. Partner institutions should be selected based oncareful analysis and be able and willing to consistently promote gender equity,social inclusion and human rights. These are important elements that underpinthe relationship between state and citizen, and form part of long-termstrategies to prevent fragility. It is important to followthe principles of “do no harm” to avoid the creation of societal divisions andworsening corruption and abuse.
Holistic approaches
The target population of VSD projects in fragilecontexts may include but is not limited to refugees, ethnic minorities, demobilisedsoldiers, unemployed young people in urban environments exposed to crime and/ordrugs, or displaced and homeless people. What they all have in common is theneed to find decent wage or self-employment and to generate income. However, besidesthe lack of appropriate technical skills, most of these target groups needassistance to be able to enter the labour market. Holistic approaches including elements such as: counselling, jobplacement assistance, social skills and basic education elements are thereforeoften needed to facilitate their sustainable labour market integration andsocial inclusion.
Integrated approaches
Sincejobs are rare in fragile contexts, and in particular for target groups likethose mentioned above, integrated approachesare needed that cover the following two dimensions: First of allthey must be designed as programs, which bring together different projects.Particular helpful is combining VSD projects with private sector developmentprojects, and/or employment promotion or local infrastructure projects. Tofoster self-employment of training graduates an institutionalised collaborationwith micro credit projects is crucial. Accompanying social reintegrationmeasures and/or trauma work can also be very useful when working with theabove-mentioned target groups. Secondly, integrated approaches should take intoconsideration and built upon skills the participants have already acquired atprevious occasions, be it through informal learning or training in traditionalstructures like informal apprenticeships. This allows participants of formal ornon-formal training to draw on their individual skills portfolio and helps to maketraining measures more efficient.
Adaption to reality
In order to meet the expectations of their targetgroups and to facilitate their access VSD measures have to be adapted to thereality of their potential participants. This refers, amongst other things, totiming, duration, location, requested entry levels, and costs. It is thereforemeaningful to apply a participatory approach when designing training measures andto get both, participants/target groups and potential employers, involved asearly and as far as possible.
