Edito

Supporting young people,
means investing in the future

The social and professional integration of young people is not simply a matter of teaching them a trade or helping them find a job. It also involves creating the conditions that will enable them to take their place in society, become more independent and build a sustainable life plan. This issue is all the more important given that, globally, around one in five young people are neither in employment, education nor training, and that access to stable work remains particularly difficult for the most vulnerable young people.

At Louvain Coopération, we have chosen to provide comprehensive support. It all begins with listening: understanding the young person’s background, their aspirations and skills, but also their vulnerabilities, and then weighing these up against the realities of the local labour market. This is followed by career guidance, psychosocial support, vocational training, the development of soft skills, entrepreneurship and digital skills. Where self-employment is the most realistic option, access to facilities, coaching and post-training support becomes essential.

Our experiences in Kinshasa and Bukavu show that sustainable integration is built over time and involves a whole ecosystem: young people, families, psychologists, educators, master craftspeople, businesses, local authorities and partners. Our ‘Springboard to Decent Work’ and ‘Elenge na Mosala’ projects illustrate this approach: they have enabled young people in highly vulnerable situations to develop skills, gain access to income-generating activities and regain confidence in their ability to shape their own futures.

Our added value lies precisely in this integrated and personalised approach: not merely imparting skills, but helping each young person to turn their skills into real opportunities. Supporting social and professional integration means enabling young people, who are often faced with exclusion, to become fully-fledged economic, social and civic actors.

Elie NSANA MUTAPAYI,
Entrepreneurship expert
for Louvain Coopération in Kinshasa

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Women's economic leadership: an unfinished emancipation

In the past, figures such as Olympe de Gouges, with her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791, laid the foundations for modern feminist demands for civil and economic equality. Centuries later, the acquisition and respect of women's fundamental rights to economic independence remain an unfinished battle throughout the world. At Louvain Coopération, our commitment to women's economic leadership stems from this observation: true equality cannot be achieved without dismantling the stereotypes and domestic barriers that hinder women's emancipation, and without transforming support structures and the division of labour to make them more equitable.

In the DRC, with the Observatoire de recherche sur l’Entrepreneuriat Féminin Durable Pour Elles (Research Observatory on Sustainable Female Entrepreneurship for Women), we are working to identify and overcome the socio-cultural barriers limiting female entrepreneurship. Our programmes to improve the financial independence of women fishermen in Madagascar and female entrepreneurship in South Kivu aim to empower those who are marginalised by traditional economic structures. When we support the socio-professional inclusion of single mothers in Haiti, we take into account the fact that behind women's access to leadership roles lies an often overlooked reality: the double burden that many women face, combining paid employment with domestic work, which is a major obstacle to their economic empowerment.

In Belgium too, how can we reconcile women's personal and professional fulfilment without trapping them in a spiral of exhaustion? Here, as elsewhere, is our job not simply to contribute to a reassessment of the place of human beings in our economies in order to rebuild our social contract? These are, in any case, central questions at Louvain Coopération, which drive our work and our thinking. And we are happy to share them with you in the following pages.

Sandrine Laroche
Project Monitoring Officer

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You cannot create a different world with indifferent people.

We are delighted to share with you this summary of our actions and projects.

The history of Louvain Coopération spans decades and four continents. Through political, social, economic and technological changes, we have transformed our practices, projects and methodologies to ensure that our actions continue to match our ambitions, while remaining close to the populations of the South.

Today, the NGO sector is positioning itself more and more precisely: the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, monitoring and evaluating progress, adapting to national situations, the Istanbul Principles, with a view to jointly creating knowledge and strengthening civil societies around the world.

It is in this spirit and with your support that we want to look at the present and play a role vis-à-vis the political and economic actors and future citizens who are being trained here at UCL. If we can contribute to a better world, it is in particular by encouraging students to imagine their civic and professional paths within a framework of solidarity and responsibility.

Once again this year, many of you have actively supported all these projects. You, our donors, our partners, public and private funders, and all those who place their trust in us. We would like to express our sincere gratitude on behalf of the entire Louvain Coopération team!

Félix Vanderstricht

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Academic for the future

As the first executive to retire, I have been given the privilege of writing this editorial, which I am dedicating to the opportunity represented by our NGO's academic roots.

During my few years with this organisation, I have observed and contributed to a number of initiatives that have convinced me of the added value of being a university-based NGO. In my opinion, the most interesting and relevant interactions with UCLouvain are those that involve and strengthen organisations and universities in the South. As sustainable development is primarily a matter for the local citizens concerned, our partnership with UCLouvain must rise to the challenge of strengthening the local capacities of the Global South to formulate and implement its own development policies: moving from dependence on ideas from the Global North to interdependence with ideas from the Global South.

I therefore encourage the team to support the research and innovation capacities of our partners in the Global South. This is the best guarantee of ownership of their development and adaptation of appropriate strategies to their context. In the North, many university researchers participate in the multi-stakeholder processes that guide our own societal transitions. Why not contribute to this capacity building in the South? The challenge for Louvain Coopération would then be to develop more and more collaborations involving NGOs, students and university researchers from the South.

In this way, we can move towards increasingly equal partnerships and improve our social anchoring within the academic community.

The processes of transformation in agricultural production presented in this issue of Devlop' are at the heart of this issue of ownership.

Patrick Vanderhulst
Expert in mutual health insurance

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Social entrepreneurs

Improving access for vulnerable populations to food and other basic needs such as healthcare, education and housing requires, in particular, the promotion of entrepreneurship.

In this area, we pay particular attention to the economic initiative of young people, but also of women, as we have observed that they devote a larger portion of their income to the basic needs of their families, particularly their children, but also to supporting their communities.

In the spirit of Louvain Coopération, entrepreneurship is not limited to the economic sphere but also, and above all, covers the social sphere. As such, we support our partners' initiatives that aim to have a social impact on society. And these initiatives are often led by women, as evidenced by Palmira, Fessoribe and Euphrasie, directors of our local partners Esperanza in Bolivia, UCMECS in Togo and CUFORE in Burundi.

Finally, Louvain Coopération also promotes social intrapreneurship (entrepreneurship within existing structures)! And there are some strong examples of initiatives led by women, both within our teams and in our collaborations with UCLouvain.

We would like to thank these female entrepreneurs who maximise the usefulness of the resources we are able to mobilise for projects that have a social and economic impact on their families, communities and societies across four continents. Their revolution is underway, and Louvain Coopération supports it. Support it with us!

Vincent Henin
Project monitor