Education for Self-Reliance

The manual, a capacity building tool, is a byproduct of the Life Vanguards (LIVA) integrated youth development project in Nigeria. From project conception, LIVA recognises the high correlation between poverty and poor reproductive health outcome. There is evidence that when adolescents and young adults are skilled, productively engaged, and/or earning incomes, they tend to be less pre-disposed to activities and situations that are inimical to their reproductive health and overall well-being. The implication is that efforts to advance youth reproductive health need to go beyond health-related interventions by incorporating strategies that address some of the broader economic and life skills factors which hinder young Nigerians from protecting their reproductive health. It is the conviction of LIVA that through entrepreneurial education, young people can be trained to be self employed and to reduce their involvement in risky sexual behaviour, thereby helping to reduce the burden of poverty and disease in their communities. The manual was therefore developed to assist youths to acquire necessary skills, which will help them start, own, and run businesses of their choice successfully. The manual has five modules.

Module 1: Life Survival Skills: Goal, Self-esteem, decisionmaking, values and value clarification, assertiveness, negotiations, and communication.

Module 2: Sexual and Reproductive health education: human reproduction, adolescent sexuality, gender issues, teenage pregnancy and responsible parenthood, and STIs/HIV/AIDS.

Module 3: Business survival skills: Data collection about self, problem solving, leadership and influencing ability, power of imagination, risk taking behavior, and achievement motivation.

Module 4: Getting started: Idea generation, processing, selection, and development; market survey/demand, business plan; business financing; and company formation.

Module 5: Running a business: production and processing, managing a business, office management, group formation and cooperative society, and record keeping.

The manual was produced with support from the Ford Foundation and World Bank.

For more information, please contact Life Vanguards at the contact address below.