Submitted by sep_admin on Fri, 2017-02-17 23:46
The Assessment has identified the technical basis for substantial Bank intervention for both ECCD and Youth-related programs, and there is a vast area of unfilled needs and good potential resources. Conditions of many mothers and young children are unacceptable; as families are poor, unemployment is high and health facilities are hard to reach. But a major gap consists in lack of information and training on how: 1) to take care effectively of pre-school children, even with just the modest means available to needy families, cash-poor rural communities, or residents dispersed along the territory, far away from urban centers; and, 2) to set-up self-help mechanisms (e.g. mother-tended kindergartens, transport pooling and escort for public buses), or, wide-reach communication techniques (e.g. periodic meetings with an itinerant pediatric, or education expert, video-viewing, Questions and Answers sessions on TV, or Web site). The action suggested by the Assessment in respect to ECCD would: reach 1,000 of the 1,600 Macedonian communities (administrative units). The inputs would vary greatly from place to place, given they would build on existing facilities and practices. Inputs should be kept to the minimum, sufficient to spur local participation in a self-sustaining perspective; supply the 35 regional centers with resources for training, backstopping, and feedback of the community centers; establish a national center to draw guidelines, produce training materials, ECCD Web page editing. Less linear are the Assessment findings and recommendations concerning Youth. A critical need for young people after secondary schools is to find employment. Cyber space is essential: it has a wide reach and is egalitarian, non-sectarian, accessible, and interactive. It is a powerful way of entering into the wider world as young people inevitably aspire.