The European Union, represented by the European Commission had sent a delegation to the Kingdom of Eswatini for a scoping mission in various sectors including the TVET in the kingdom.  The EU delegation has met the administration at Eswatini College of Technology (ECOT), Gwamile VOCTIM, Taiwan Technical Mission’s Technical Vocational Certification Enhancement Project and the Directorate of Industrial and Vocational Training.  The delegation is interested in knowing the current work, collaborations with other donor agencies, past and present achievements and challenges faced by the TVET sector. The EU intends not to duplicate work currently done by other international organization but to cooperate to achieve more for the targeted areas.

The Chief of Taiwan Technical Mission Mr. Ching Chang Yeh gave an introduction about the support given by Taiwan NGOs like Taiwan Medical Mission, the other projects housed at the Taiwan Technical Mission namely Fruit Tree Production and Marketing Project, Maternal and Infant Care Project, Pig Industry Enhancement Project, Capacity Building Project for Micro-Finance Focussing on Grassroot Women and Aquaculture Project. The ECOT administration, DIVT and Project had presented to the delegation all the information they had requested.

The Project and DIVT then arranged a one-day tour visit for the EU delegation to various TVET institutions where the Project have donated equipment in workshops and also other government TVET institutions like Nhlangano Agricultural Skills Training Centre (NASTIC) and the Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Services Centre (VTRS). The EU had once donated equipment to NASTIC some time long ago. The EU is not a new partner in supporting TVET sector as there are  footprint  of their equipment at ECOT and Gwamile VOCTIM.

The EU intends to have a full understanding of the current partnerships, challenges and discover areas of cooperation with the major players in the TVET sector to avoid duplication or overlapping of services. The main way of cooperation between the European Union and the Kingdom of Eswatini is bilateral. As the Kingdom of Eswatini is not eligible for budget support, the EU bilateral cooperation is mainly implemented through a programme approach.

To support the Kingdom of Eswatini’s efforts towards an inclusive and sustainable growth, the 11th European Development Fund (2014-2020) focused on two key areas: agriculture was defined crucial to eradicate food insecurity and hunger and has considerable potential to contribute to the country’s economic development; for social protection the EU assistance was provided to develop a comprehensive social protection system, to fight poverty and ensure no one is left behind in the development process

The EU also supports civil society actions in Eswatini through thematic budget lines focusing mainly on extending social services such as health, education, water and sanitation and cross-cutting issues like gender equality and women empowerment, human rights, rights of people living with disabilities and other minorities. Support over the years has also been extended to local authorities with the aim of enhancing participatory development processes and addressing the peri-urban poverty and under development.

Since the Kingdom of Eswatini is both part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), it benefits from the EU regional indicative programme for Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean (EA-SA-IO), both as concerns the envelopes dedicated to SADC and COMESA (2014- 2020). Eswatini is also part of the EU-SADC economic partnership agreement (EPA) since 2016. These regional cooperation schemes promote capacity building, peacebuilding and democracy, industrialisation and investment, cross-border trade, private sector engagement, market access, and overall regional integration.At the beginning of 2020 through to early 2022, the EU Delegation to the Kingdom of Eswatini, in collaboration with the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini began working on the post 2020 programming. A consultative process, involving the Government of Eswatini, EU Member States in Pretoria and Maputo, Development Partners and other European cluster members as well as civil society and private sector was launched with the aim of identifying potential areas of support for the EU covering the period 2021-2027.

The Priority Area identified for EU support is Human Development and Social Inclusion which reflects the Eswatini national priorities as well as the EU interests and overarching priorities. Within this Priority Area there will be two sub-sectors:

• Market driven Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and
• Empowerment of disadvantaged youth and women in vulnerable situations.

 This Multi-annual Indicative Programme (MIP) 2021-2027 prioritises bringing EU support as close as possible to the people in the most vulnerable situation in Eswatini, to support progress towards the SDGs. Concretely, the MIP focuses on empowering the disadvantaged youth and women via skills, income generation and employment through a series of interventions to improve access to formal and non-formal education and the quality and relevance of the TVET system in close partnership with the private sector and CSOs. Whenever possible, the EU will ensure an overall conflict sensitive engagement and will seek the integration and complementarity of actions. Projects will be designed to support durable peace and long-term stability across the country in support of Eswatini’s but also the EU’s overall priorities.

Under the TVET sector, EU support will aim to support TVET institutions and complement existing private sector development and EPA implementation support with targeted actions to address the shortage of skilled labour and the underlying mismatch between skills taught at school and qualifications demanded by the private sector. The actions planned on empowerment of vulnerable youth aim to support those among unemployed youths who are lacking the basic conditions to enter the formal TVET system and facilitate their participation in the labour market through basic training, informal learning and economic empowerment. The objective is to strengthen national vocational education and training systems in line with labour market demands and skill needs of those sectors of the economy, that have the highest potential for job creation and contribution to the country’s transition to an export-based economy as selected and supported under ongoing private sector development programmes. The interventions will include a particular focus on improving digital skills with a focus on women and youth, as well as the development of new skills needed for the integration of green and circular economy objectives into companies’ business models and practices.

The empowerment of disadvantaged and vulnerable youth and women in vulnerable situations sector will complement the actions in the TVET sector with targeted measures to address the barriers that vulnerable and disadvantaged segments of the population face in acquiring skills and entering the formal labour market. The objective is to create the conditions for them to benefit from education and training opportunities supported under the TVET component of the MIP, and finally to be able to improve their livelihoods through productive work and employment. Activities will focus on providing targeted and specific social services to youth, women and girls who are the most affected by the social ills of poverty and lack of basic services. The EU will provide support to vulnerable youth and women by enhancing and strengthening mechanism for psychosocial support at community level; improving access to education by fostering reintegration to formal schooling; empowering them with life skills to participate in income generation activities to improve their livelihoods and resilience, as well as with skills and experiential learning that will help them become social innovators and entrepreneurs.

Under these sectors, gender equality and empowerment of girls and women will be pursued as a horizontal priority in line with the objectives of the EU’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) III. Moreover, with market-driven TVET as a main sector of intervention, this MIP is aligned with the objective set by Commissioner for international partnerships to dedicate at least 10% of the funding of programmes under the Commissioner’s responsibility to education during the 2021-2027 period. In addition, the MIP will contribute to the implementation of the proposed Youth Action Plan in EU external action (2022-2027) that focuses on youth participation and empowerment.

The global objective of the EU support is to contribute towards human capital development and social inclusion by strengthening vocational education and training in line with labour market demands and skill needs, with a particular focus on the economic empowerment and inclusion of youth, women and other disadvantaged groups.