Global Projects

EDC is developing a web-based course on pandemic preparedness and response for communities. The primary audience is local decision-makers and practitioners, with additional modules for specific audiences.

Working with various partners in the Caribbean, EDC will develop a framework to monitor and evaluate the response to HIV and AIDS within the Caribbean’s education sector. The framework will be research-based and developed with extensive input from stakeholders so that it customized, user-friendly, and effective. EDC will also develop a tool to equip those in the education sector with the specific knowledge and skills to maximize the utility of the framework.

The Shaqodoon program was created to provide Somali youth with greater access to training, internships, work and self-employment opportunities in order to productively engage youth and add to the stability and development of the region. Shaqodoon is Somali for “jobseekers”.

The Rwanda Youth Opportunity Network (RYON), an EQUIP3 Associate Award, aims to develop a thriving youth livelihood support system in Rwanda to increase the prosperity of not only youth, but also the public and private institutions that support and benefit from youths’ productive engagement in Rwandan society. To achieve this goal, RYON will provide youth in Kigali with market-relevant life and work readiness training and support, hands-on training opportunities, and links into the employment and self-employment job market.

Designed to respond to Garissan youths’ needs and assets, the Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth Project) aims to empower youth to make sound career and life decisions as they transition from high school to the next phase of their lives. The project is also building the capacity of local institutions and networks to sustain the much-needed services that G-Youth will provide.

Preparing Youth for Work (PAS), an EQUIP3 Associate Award, is a workforce preparation program that assists minimally educated youth (ages 16–30) from East Timor’s most rural areas in gaining the skills and expertise needed to find job opportunities and promising futures. These young men and women will benefit from the program’s 8-month combination of off-the-job classroom instruction, on-the-job training, and livelihood accompaniment.

In an effort to fight cancer, EDC is working with the American Cancer Society’s corporate partners to develop assessments and training materials that will benefit employees and their families. The messages and services they will receive, such as tobacco cessation and nutrition counseling, aim to help them manage or prevent chronic or terminal diseases like cancer.

EDC HHD Asia was selected by Hewlett Packard as a Center of Excellence in Asia Pacific for Micro-Enterprise Development Programs in April 2008. As a Center of Excellence, EDC will be managing and supporting 58 Microenterprise Development Centers (MEDCs) in countries such as China, India, New Zealand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam, amongst many others. EDC will manage the Web portal posting information on new developments in regional economies, providing access to training curriculum and forums for MEDCs to share their best practices to support the growth of Micro Enterprises.

Through this program 10,000 students in 12 schools in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa are receiving health education, health services, and computer education. A mobile van is traveling around to communities in the areas providing these services. EDC developed the health education curriculum, trained health educators, and is assisting in the planning and evaluation of this project for Mpilonhle, a South African NGO.

EDC HHD Asia together with adidas and the Foreign Capital Project Management Center State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (FCPMC), designed a Migrant Worker Capacity Building and Better Factory Pilot Project based on the results of a needs assessment conducted in 8 supplier factories in Shanghai and Guangdong areas in early 2008. We have successfully engaged Asia Foundation, Oxfam, GTZ, Right to Play to participate in the two-year pilot project.